Black Richard's Heart (The MacCulloughs #1) - Suzan Tisdale Page 0,161

haunting sight, what with his dark purple face, protruding tongue, and bulging eyes. As far as Richard was concerned, the fool hadn’t suffered nearly enough.

Angus and Duncan had done the honors, playing hangmen. This time, however, they didn’t don the black hoods, nor had they covered his head with one. Nay, they wanted the bloody bastard to see what was going to happen.

The two men stepped down from the platform, looking rather pleased with themselves.

“Have our men deliver his body back to whoever remains at his encampment,” Richard gave the order to Lachlan.

Angus chuckled, that familiar, deep voice of his echoing throughout the courtyard. “Ye will find that encampment empty.”

Furrowing his brow, Richard asked what he meant. “And how in the bloody hell did ye ken I needed help?”

“Aeschene,” Lachlan answered. “Ye were supposed to go to the McDunnah’s for a meetin’, remember?”

Aeschene. He hadn’t decided just yet if he was grateful for her interference or bloody angry with her for taking the risks she had taken. He was definitely going to give her a piece of his mind. Just as soon as he finished loving her.

“She sent a missive pleading for help,” Duncan added. “We arrived at the same time her missive did. And ye ken Caelen.”

Aye, his old friend Caelen. He’d never met a fight or battle he didn’t like. “I thought marriage had softened him,” Richard said.

“Och!” Angus said, his smile fading. “Have ye met that wife of his?”

“Nay, I have nae had the pleasure,” Richard said.

Angus let loose with a low whistle. “A bonny thing she is. Believe it or nae, she is just as blood thirsty as Caelen.”

“And good with knives,” Duncan quickly added. “Ye will be meetin’ her soon enough. My advice is nae to anger her.”

Confused, Richard said, “Caelen brought his wife to a battle?”

The two men had a good laugh at his expense. “Nay,” Duncan said with a shake of his head. “She took the battle at the encampment. Caelen went with Rowan Graham to the Chisolm keep.”

Richard’s eyes came close to popping out of their sockets. “What?” He was incredulous. “Are ye sayin’ she led the battle?”

“Aye, ’tis what I am sayin’,” Angus said with a nod.

His confusion was growing more intense the longer he spoke with his two friends. “But why did Caelen and Rowan go to the Chisolm keep?”

Angus looked as though Richard had just sprouted a third arm. “To take it. Why else would they go?”

“They took Chisolm’s keep?” Richard couldn’t believe his ears. He shook his head in the hopes it would bring him some clarity.

Angus’s expression said he thought Richard had gone soft in the head. “What did ye expect them to do? The Chisolm was a thorn in all of our sides, for years now.”

“Aye,” Duncan agreed. “We decided ’twas time to take action.”

“Ye do realize he is a distant cousin to David,” Richard reminded them.

Angus and Duncan exchanged befuddled glances with each other. “And what is yer point?”

’Twas all too much, far too much for one day. He was bone weary, filthy, hungry, and wanted very much to find his wife.

As if he could read Richard’s mind, Angus looked first to Rory then to Richard. “Yer man looks close to keeling’ over.”

‘Twasn’t an understatement.

“Our men will help yers sort through this mess,” Angus said as he gave a nod toward the heaps of bodies. “I think ye should both bathe and seek out yer beds.”

“Nay,” Richard and Rory said in unison.

“I need to seek out my wife,” Richard said.

“And I need to seek out someone else,” Rory said.

Lachlan hadn’t said a word as yet. He’d been patiently waiting for Richard to order him hanged for allowing his wife to be put in danger. Hopefully, he was too relieved and happy to be free that he would forget his role in this ordeal.

“Lachlan, would ye please fetch Rory and I clean clothes and soap and meet me at the loch?” Richard asked as he began to walk away.

“Aye,” he replied with a slight inclination of his head.

“And Lachlan?” Richard called out over his shoulder. “I will eventually kill ye. I just haven’t decided yet how I shall do it.”

The nooning meal and come and gone, and there was still no word from the keep. Worry was etched in Aeschene’s brow as she sat on an old felled log. Marisse was right beside her, offering her words of encouragement.

They were a few miles from the keep, in their own temporary encampment. A few tents had been