Once everyone knew our plan of action, we all dispersed into our positions. Mary quickly attended to dinner and then escorted my mother and Edana up to the castle’s top tower. It was difficult to get to and was certainly the safest place for them to stay.
Arran left to ensure that men would be waiting outside every door of the dining hall, ready for entry into battle if it came to that.
I sat nervously in our bedchamber, waiting for Eoin to come back from his talk with Ramsay. He’d left shortly after making plans to invite Ramsay to dinner. I glanced up as Eoin made his way into the room.
“What did he say?”
“Well, I doona think he believes I suspect him. He only said I was a fool to worry over my stomach at a time such as this, but if I wanted to spend the last moments eating before Laird MacLyrron’s men arrived, then he’d no stop me.”
“So he’s coming?”
“Aye. It’s of no concern to him when Laird MacLyrron’s men should be arriving, since it is he who shall start the bloodshed.”
I walked over and leaned gently into his side. “When is it starting?”
He took my hand and made for door. “Now, lass. I’m eager to end this; I doona like waiting for the unknown. And the sooner ye are truly safe, the better.”
Chapter 44
Tension laced every inch of the dining hall as Ramsay made his way to seat himself on Eoin’s right hand side. I sat on his left, and as we positioned ourselves at the table, I could see in Ramsay’s eyes that perhaps he was more suspicious of this impromptu and poorly timed meal than Eoin had thought.
Ramsay’s dark, blood-shot eyes, consistently glazed from too much drink, made my skin crawl as he glared at me across the table. I’d angered him earlier, and he was not one to forget someone crossing him.
I met his gaze head on, determined not to flinch from his sight. Finally, he tore his eyes away from my own and turned to speak to Eoin.
“I see no much has changed under Conall Castle’s new laird. Ye have yet to learn that meals should be shared in the company of men.”
Eoin’s face was hard, no longer concerned with placating him for the sake of maintaining him as an ally. “It is ye, Ramsay, that have yet to learn that the company of women makes everything more pleasant.”
He reached over to squeeze my hand, and it immediately released some of my tension, if only momentarily.
“Aye? If that be the case, why doona ye have my daughter join us as well?” Ramsay gestured with his hand at the other empty chairs at the table.
I could see by the way he glanced around the room that Ramsay knew something was off. His hand rested uneasily to his side, giving himself quick access to some sort of weapon concealed from my sight.
“She wasn’t feeling well. I had Mary take food to her bedchamber.”
Ramsay ignored me, offended that a woman dare speak in his presence. “Yer wife speaks verra strange, Eoin. I dinna notice it before when ye came to visit me.”
Eoin was finished putting off the confrontation; I could tell by the way he shifted in his seat, leaning forward so that he could leap into action at a moment’s notice. “Ramsay, before I tell ye what I have to say, I’d like to remind ye that our two clans have been allies for generations long before us. We have both come to the other’s aide, and I know my father considered ye a friend. It would be a shame for that alliance to come to an end, aye?”
Ramsay had an unsettling ability that made the words coming out of his mouth drip with sincerity while his eyes oozed poison. “Aye, lad, that it would. Good thing we have come together to fight our shared enemy.”
“I doona know if that is so, Ramsay. I have reason to believe that it is ye who plan to attack us—that perhaps Laird MacLyrron is no on his way here at all.”
Ramsay stood quite suddenly, throwing his fist violently down on the table. I could hear shuffling outside the dining hall doors, and I knew the action had been his signal to his men. Outside these doors, the sound of battle was already ensuing.
“Do ye now? And why would I do that?”
Each door to the dining hall swung open as both our own men collided with Ramsay’s in a horrific dance of death. Metal clashed around us as I stood watching the interaction between Ramsay and Eoin, neither of whom had yet to draw a sword.
“I doona know, Ramsay. Perhaps, ye could explain it to me. Surely there’s no reason for bloodshed.”
“Ye are wrong, Eoin. There is a need for bloodshed, and there will be plenty of it this night. Ye are a damned fool, just like yer father. He knew that it was expected that ye wed Edana. Instead, he married ye to this ignorant whore! Our clans would have been made stronger by such an arrangement. Without it, I’ve no desire to stay allies. Instead, I shall claim the Conall clan and castle as me own.”
Eoin didn’t have a chance to respond as I screamed at the sight of a sword swinging in his direction. Eoin unsheathed his own just in time and, as he sliced the man across the middle, there was no doubt that battle had begun.