Rose and the captain were dragged outside, where they were led to a group of horses.
When they passed Mr. Cavanaugh’s body, both the captain and Rose tried to go to him, but they were held back.
Where was Steven? Alana? Anyone? She caught a movement out of the corners of her eyes. It was one of Neill’s men moving toward Mr. Cavanaugh’s cottage with a torch in his hand.
Suddenly, Rose realized what was happening.
No! No! Not Neill! It couldn’t be! Neill couldn’t be the monster! “What are you doing?” she screamed, going pale. “What have you done?”
The captain must have also seen the man with the torch and took off running. Neill chased him. He picked up a stick on the way and smashed it over the captain’s head.
William went down. Rose screamed again, and then someone knocked her out as well.
She woke a little while later to the smell of smoke burning her nostrils. She was on her belly on a horse. Across a man’s thighs. All at once, she came completely awake. Her arms hung over her head and reached toward the ground. Her blood pumped through her veins, hard and fast. She felt lightheaded and ill. Fire. No. No. No!
They weren’t so far away. She realized that if she looked back, she could see the dark smoke of Callanach Castle and whatever else Neill and his men had burned rising to the clouds. She wanted to scream, to rant, and to rave. But it would do no good. Mary, Steven, all of them. She couldn’t keep her tears from falling to the ground as they rode away. He killed them all. Neill. Neill had to be the one who…no! Why? Oh, why would he? She remembered the captain and her heart felt as if it had no more strength to beat. If Neill had killed William…she couldn’t finish the thought without feeling like sobbing.
She wanted to push off the horse and lean up into whoever’s eyes were staring back at her and spit in his face. But if it was Neill would he set her on fire?
She had to know for certain that it had not been Neill who burned down her house when she was a child. He’d been there. He had the scars to prove it. Did he…did he kill her mother? Had she been hiding from him since she was fourteen?
Her father had used the gates to keep him out! Isn’t that what Neill had told her? She felt ill. More tears fell. What was she to do, remain tossed over someone’s lap with her arms uselessly flapping on either side of her?
Her gaze returned to the distant smoke-filled sky…and a long, sheathed dagger dangling from her host’s hip. Could she grab the hilt and—no. There were too many other horses around her.
“How long will you pretend to be asleep, Rose?”
It was Neill’s voice! His legs she’d been tossed over! She thought about continuing to pretend, but she couldn’t. “What would you have me say thrown over your lap, facing the ground?”
“You are prideful.” His soft laughter twisted her belly into a knot.
“And you are a monster,” she replied.
“How so?”
She didn’t want to speak to him, but she had much to say and she wouldn’t do this in her position.
With new determination, she pushed up and sat sideways in the saddle and looked him straight in the eyes. “You burned down the captain’s house with his wife in it—”
“Just a moment,” he protested. “I was told that everyone had left. Was I not?”
Rose stopped. He had, indeed, been told that. “Neill,” she wept. “The captain’s wife was in their home. He will never forgive you for this.”
“What can I say?” he went on, sounding only slightly penitent.
“Tell me you had nothing to do with burning down my house when I was eight.”
He couldn’t maintain eye contact with her and finally gave up and shook his head. “I cannot tell you that.”
“What do you mean you cannot tell me that?” she asked, grabbing his arm and growing hysterical. “Neill, why would you? I…I almost died!”
He shook his head. “No! I saved you, Rose. Not your Father. ’Twas I who ran inside and saved you.”
What? No. Her father saved her. “I do not believe you!”
“I set the fire. I was there first. I heard you screaming long before he did.”
Rose’s head was spinning. He set the fire. He set the fire.
“Why did you never tell me the truth?”
“It did not matter to me, as long as you were safe.”
He loved her then. She didn’t care. She only cared about one thing. “Did you kill my mother?”
He exhaled, looking into her eyes and shifted uncomfortably in his saddle. Rose watched and waited for him to answer, utterly horrified by his reluctance.
He’d killed her mother.
A sob burst through her lips and shook her whole body.
He moved and tried to comfort her, but she drew back her arm then let her hand fly. It cracked him across the face and turned his head fast enough to pop his neck.
The men around her gaped at her and then drew blades. Neill’s hand in the air stopped them.
“Did you set her on fire while she lived?” Rose shouted at him.
“No,” he said and took hold of her wrists.
“You are a monster!” she screamed at him, trying to break free of his grip.
She heard the captain moan somewhere close by. She looked around and quickly saw him sprawled across the lap of one of Neill’s men. He was waking up. She looked behind them at the black, billowing smoke rising to the sky from where their homes had been.
Where his wife had been. Rose wanted to weep for him.
“No!” his voice rang out. Heart wrenching and anguished from someplace only a few knew.
“Mary! My wife! Let me go! I will kill—”
A low thump sounded and then silence. They hit him again.
Rose cried out for him, but he was quiet.
“Rose,”
