“Something is no right. I should have left ye with them. It wasna right of us to leave them alone.”
Eoghanan put a hand up to hush the men behind him. “We dinna leave them alone. There are many guards in place outside the castle.”
“Aye, but Niall knows the castle too well. He could get inside if he wished it.” If only the beating in his ears would cease; each thump drove him further into panic.
“Do ye think it possible? Do ye have reason to believe that he is no longer at Cameron Castle?”
“I doona know, but there is trouble at home. I canna tell ye how I know, but I do. As surely as I know me own name, I know it.”
“What do ye want me to do? Just tell me. I’ll do it.”
A scream in the distance in front of them prevented Baodan from answering his brother’s question. A rider approached quickly, a woman. Griogair’s widow.
“Baodan!” She screamed his name through the trees. The panic in her voice only heightened his fear.
“Go! Ride back home. For God’s sake keep her safe. I canna lose her, Eoghanan. I’ll follow ye shortly.”
Eoghanan turned and nudged his horse until he galloped into the distance. By the time Baodan could no longer see him, Wynda was by his side.
“Did ye ride here alone? Ye shouldna have done so.”
“Aye, I verra well should have. Doona move any further toward Cameron Castle. Niall isna there. None would join him to stand against ye, and he fled four days ago.”
“Four days?” Baodan’s ears rang with shock. He gripped tight on the reins to hold himself upright. It took only three days to reach Cameron Castle.
“Aye, and he headed here. I left as soon as I could, but he is a faster rider than I.”
Baodan turned to his cousins who stood ready for his orders behind him. “Eoin, Arran, we must return to McMillan Castle at once. I shall ride ahead. See to Wynda’s safety.”
His entire world lay inside the walls of his castle. To think that Niall stood within reach of Mitsy filled him with enough rage to blind him. He wished to kill his monster of a brother. And kill him he would.
*
McMillan Castle
“Nairne. Nairne.” I tried to say her name, but it came out as a breathless scratch; the very embodiment of nightmares, when the dreamer tries to scream and cannot. “Nairne!” Finally her name found its way past my trembling lips. When not a muscle within her twitched, I knew that she sat dead.
Everyone behind me still chatted busily, nibbling away at the meek meal. Slowly I moved to grip her arm. Warm to the touch, she’d not been dead long. At first glance, I thought perhaps her heart failed or a stroke killed her, but across her brown dress a patch of red spread, seeping its way through the thick fabric as it crawled across her torso.
Shaking, I took a step backward and tumbled, scrambling to get away from her in horror as I noticed the point of a blade protruding through her stomach.
A deep laugh started from behind the chair as I fell and, as everyone in the room hushed, Niall emerged from behind Nairne’s lifeless body.
Chapter 42
No one screamed as Niall stepped from behind the chair, all of us too frozen with fear to move. His normally smooth and cocky appearance was gone. He looked utterly mad with his curly dark hair sticking up in every direction, his sick smile spread wide.
Every tooth in his head showed as he cackled uncontrollably. Slowly, I reined in my terror. Fear would hinder me. I’d stopped him once before. I would do so again.
We outnumbered him easily, and it was a room filled with intelligent, spitfire women. He was fool to approach us while we were grouped together.
“Ach, ye are one ugly bastard. Ye have no place here, and if ye so much as touch one red hair on Mitsy’s head, I shall charge ye and sit on yer head until it bursts.”
I glanced back at Mary in utter shock. Brunette or not, that old broad was a red-head at heart. She gave me a run for my money in the sass department.
“Hush, Mary.” Bri reached to latch on to the old woman’s hand, warning in her voice.
Niall laughed even more loudly before thrusting the sword out into the air in Mary’s direction. “Ye best shut yer mouth, or I shall run this through it. I mean none of ye any harm. Me business is with this one.”
He jerked his head toward me, and I stood for the first time since tripping.
“No harm? Son, ye killed her. Yer own aunt, and ye laugh at the sight of it. Have ye no caused enough pain? ’Tis over, ye have to know that.” Kenna sobbed, her entire body shaking at the shock of her murderous child.