“Even to save yerself ?”
Her eyes blinked open. “You wouldn’t kil me. I thought you loved me,” she whispered.
“Love, Aileanna? Nay, yer mistaken. I spoke of lust and desire. And only that because you reminded me of Bri anna. But you canna’ hold a candle to her.” His laughter was cruel, his words intended to wound her as deeply as she wounded him.
Her head jerked as though he’d slapped her. Color leached from her face. “What . . . what are you going to do with me?”
He saw the fear in her eyes along with the pain his words caused, but he hardened his heart against it and low ered his face to hers. “Mayhap I should take what you so readily offered that first night I was too weak to accept.”
Before she could turn her head he captured her mouth with his, forcing his tongue past her lips, ravaging her, devour ing her. She twisted beneath him and he ground his cock into her. She bit his tongue. He wrenched his lips from hers. The metal ic taste of blood fil ed his mouth.
“If you take me now, Rory MacLeod, it wil be rape,”
she panted, her face flushed, her eyes the same shade of violet as her gown. Her words penetrated his lust- addled brain, past the anger and the pain, and stopped him cold. He flung himself away from her and strode to the door. He ripped it open, nearly tearing it from the hinges. “Byron and Cedric!” He bel owed for his men-at-arms. Rory leaned against the doorframe for support, watching as Aidan, Fergus, and Iain pounded up the staircase after the men.
“What’s the matter, Rory?” his brother asked, moving Byron and Cedric aside. Rory stepped back, al owing his brother a clear view of Aileanna, her knees tucked to her chin as she sat huddled at the head of the bed. Iain grabbed his arm. “Sweet Jesu’, what have you done to her? If you’ve harmed her, I swear to God—”
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Rory slammed him against the wal , fisting his hand in Iain’s tunic. “’Tis no’ I. She’s a spy . . . a thief. I caught her attempting to steal the fairy flag.”
His brother’s eyes shot to Aileanna and he shook Rory off to make his way to her side. “Why, Aileanna?”
Slowly she lifted her head from her knees. Holding his brother’s gaze, she shook her head. Rory almost felt sorry for Iain, for the hurt he saw in his eyes. “What wil you do with her?” his brother asked, dragging his gaze from hers.
“Put her under guard in the tower until she talks.”
Iain helped her from the bed, and Rory noted the change in her. She no longer looked haunted, beaten down. She held her head high and walked by him with a haughty grace that caused him to add, “She’l have no food or drink until she does.”
She held his gaze, her mouth swol en from his kiss. He jerked his head and the guards took hold of her. Mrs. Mac, Connor, Fergus, and Iain watched her being led away. They al wore the same expression of betrayal. Her attempt to steal the clan’s treasure was nothing compared to what she’d done to their hearts.
“Byron, Cedric, hold. I have one question mayhap you
She raised her eyes to his.
“Who betrayed the clan? How did you ken where the fairy flag was?”
“No one betrayed you,” she said wearily. “I’ve been looking for the flag since the night I arrived. Your room was the last one I had to check, and I’d been searching it for days. The boards sounded hol ow when I tapped on them. That’s the only way I knew where it was.”
Rory heard a feminine gasp at his back. “I told ye, Rory, I told ye. I knew she was a spy.” Moira clapped her hands gleeful y. When she reached his side, she placed a 184
proprietary hand on his arm. “Ye wil na’ be so high and mighty when ye feel the lash open the skin on yer back,”
she taunted Aileanna.
“Moira, that wil be enough,” Rory ordered. His stom
ach roiled at the image of Aileanna’s porcelain white skin flayed to a bloody pulp. He watched as the men led her toward the tower, back straight, head held high.
“Rory . . . Rory.” Moira plucked at his sleeve. “Cyril tel s me ye have no’ signed the papers as yet. Shal we retire to the study and do so now?”
“Nay, I have much to deal with, Moira. Mayhap ’twould be best if you and yer kin left until I have had sufficient time to deal with the matter at hand. Aidan wil see you to Duart. I’l send a messenger when I’m of a mind to sign the papers.” Rory knew he should just sign the agreement and get it over with instead of leaving it to hang over his head, but at the moment he had no desire to deal with it, or the MacLeans. Moira’s comments to Aileanna chil ed him to the marrow. No matter her guilt, it was not some
thing one would expect a woman to say to another. Rory had known Moira for a long time, but he was beginning to question if he truly knew her at al .
Ali smoothed her finger over the dagger Cal um had in
sisted she wear strapped to her thigh on the morning Moira MacLean had turned the clan against her. She wedged the blade between the iron bar of the window and the spot right below it where the stone had weakened. It was boring, tedious work. She had to be quiet and make sure she swept the stone dust under the narrow cot.
