Where Mac failed to match his brother’s with a bow, he was well capable of holding his own with a sword, even a makeshift one. The boy’s crowing of landing the first strike echoed through the forest.
Gordon snickered as one exuberant hit shattered Mac’s stick.
Undeterred, Mac tossed aside the remains of his weapon and launched himself at Bruce to wrestle his poor eldest brother to the ground. Ethan dared to valiantly attempt coming to Bruce’s rescue and was dragged into the heap.
“Do you remember when Dad used to bring us out here?” Gordon asked.
“Aye.” That had been back when they were all young and idealistic, when the idea of disobeying their mother’s will was akin to heresy. When all four of them had lived under one roof. He lifted his gaze to the yew branches. “Caitlyn used to scurry up this tree like a cat.”
His brother chuckled. “And Dad would always send Nora up to fetch her because she was the lightest.” His wide grin almost split his beard in two. “But Nora always got stuck.”
Hamish’s chest bubbled with the laughter of a memory that’d grown soft around the edges with time. How he missed the innocence, stolen from him once his mother knew he’d never willingly find a wife.
His gaze slid back to the children. Ethan was still battling to free his elder brother’s arm from Mac’s grasp. “Do you ever wonder what’ll happen to Ethan once Mum finds out?” How many years did the boy have before she set her poisonous sights on him?
Sighing, Gordon folded his arms. “Aye and I’ve been hoping it willnae matter when the time comes. But all this business with you and Darshan…?” He shook his head. “I dinnae ken what we can do. There’s naewhere we can take him that she wouldnae hunt him down. Talking to her is useless. She’s convinced her way is the only one.”
“I’ve been thinking—”
“Thought I smelt burning.”
He dealt his brother a hearty punch to the shoulder. He should’ve expected such a response. “About the sinking of The Princess’ Fortune. What if it wasnae an accident? What if Mum—?”
“Our brother-in-law’s ship sank in a storm. You cannae just have one form out of nothing. The Goddess was responsible there, nae our mum.”
“Has it never struck you as odd that Calder, a man who was born to ride the waves, wasnae capable of steering his ship to a safe harbour?” There were a lot of things that could bring down even the most seaworthy vessel, but those who had been in the storm that had taken his sister’s husband claimed the trade ship shouldn’t have gone under as swiftly as it did.
Gordon frowned.
“Plenty of people survived. They talk, you ken.”
“Sailors always talk,” his brother grumbled. “They’ve enough time at sea to make up all sorts of stories.”
“Similar ones about the same ship? The Princess’ Fortune left Mullhind upright and hearty, yet people used to speak of it listing on the return voyage and I always wondered…” His voice dropped to a whisper. “Mum only cared she’d lost a grandchild. She wept over nae one else.” Not Calder. Not even Gordon’s wife.
His brother grunted, conceding the point. “Well, she never got on with Calder.”
“I do remember the rows Mum had with him.” The roar of a queen used to her words being law clashing against the bellow of a captain who hadd shouted over the sea herself. “Calder had a massive influence over Nora. He was the reason she saw more of our kingdom than just the royal clan lands.”
“You’re suggesting she gave the order to have her son-in-law killed? Wilfully? Dad would’ve stopped her if it were true.”
“How? He hasnae the authority to overturn her orders.” If he had been a king, then yes, but their mother was where the royal clan line came from. That was why she was the queen and not princess consort. “Mum already controls everything we do, where we go… who we marry. She cannae stand us choosing a path she hasnae paved.” How much of a leap was it for her to decide how and when those who defied her died? She had already ordered the death of the men he had rutted with, why not Calder? “She was the same with your wife.”
“Mum just didnae like how Muireall preferred to travel with just a couple of guards whenever she visited her old clan. And maybe she should’ve heeded Mum’s wish to send a small contingent of guards with her. Maybe then she’d still be alive.”
Perhaps. He doubted the presence of more guards would’ve stopped Muireall from attempting to slay the man-killer bear terrorising the village she had stopped at on her way through. “Have you forgotten that Mum made a pregnant woman compete in your union contest? That should nae have happened.” Muireall confessed she couldn’t have been more than four months along, but the thought of watching her duel still made him queasy. “Mum’s even organising Sorcha’s marriage. That’s your daughter’s life. The lass is barely thirteen. If anyone is to have a say in what happens to her, it should nae be Mum.”
“You think I dinnae ken that?” Gordon growled. ”What am I supposed to do there? Tell Mum she cannae have anything to do with her granddaughter and future queen?”
Hamish shook his head. “I thought you and Muireall were in agreement on an acceptable age for marriage? Didnae you want to wait until your girls were in their twenties?”
“Maybe I was wrong. Me eldest was old enough by tradition. She could’ve been home, preparing for a wedding instead of dying in some forest far from home. She should nae have been there and that is on me. I should’ve made her stay.”
“Or have me in her place.” Would it have mattered? Perhaps in their mother being less paranoid that something would happen to her grandchildren if they weren’t kept
