his attention back to Ilysa, the lass was weaving on her feet.
"Sit down before ye faint on me," Lachlan said and sat with her on the steps.
"I don't faint," she said, and he didn't bother arguing with her.
Sorely came out of the keep then. When he saw them, he put his hands on his hips and looked them up and down. Lachlan had made an enemy when he knocked Sorely on his arse and took his sword in front of all the men. He suspected Sorely's sour attitude toward him was the reason Connor had not trusted him enough to take him on his night forays.
"You'd better have a damned good explanation for why we couldn't find ye last night," Sorely said in a tone that made Lachlan want to plant his fist in his face.
"Go to hell," Lachlan said. "You're not my keeper."
"We'll see about that," Sorely said.
Sorely was expecting to be named captain of Connor's guard, but it hadn't happened yet. Still, Lachlan should try harder to tolerate the man. He did not need to give anyone a reason to watch his movements too closely.
"Where were ye last night?" Ilysa asked after Sorely had huffed off.
Lachlan ignored her, hoping she would let it go, though he already knew her well enough to recognize that as a useless hope.
"Tell me ye had nothing to do with what happened," she said.
"I would never bring the MacLeods down on us," he said. "Never."
"I know you're a good man," Ilysa said, touching his arm, "and that you're contemplating doing something that troubles ye gravely."
Lachlan was not accustomed to having anyone read him so well. When he glanced sideways and met her honest brown eyes, he reminded himself that Ilysa was a bigger threat to him than Sorely. Ilysa had the chieftain's trust, and somehow she could see into the blackness of Lachlan's soul.
"Listen to your conscience," she said, "and don't do this."
Lasses liked to take him to bed, but having one fret over his conscience was new to him.
"Whatever it is, you must give it up and help Connor," she said. "He is the hope of our clan, the only man who stands between us and having Hugh as our chieftain."
"I'm here, aren't I?" he said. "Though I can't see where it makes much difference which of them is chieftain."
It was a mistake to admit that - Ilysa gripped his arm with surprising strength for such a tiny thing. By the saints, the lass was persistent.
"It makes all the difference," she said. "I was at Dunscaith when Hugh took it and proclaimed himself chieftain. Hugh did nothing while the MacKinnons attacked Knock Castle and the MacLeods took Trotternish from us."
"It wasn't Hugh's fault our former chieftain took our warriors off to fight the English and left us vulnerable to our enemies."
"I was there," she said in an insistent tone, enunciating each word. "Knock Castle is only five miles from Dunscaith. Yet, when our men came from there begging for help, Hugh sat with two lasses on his lap laughing and drinking. We could see the flames and still he did nothing."
The bastard. Lachlan was shaken by her words. And yet, from what he had seen of Hugh, they rang true. "I doubt our former chieftain would have done any better," he said.
"Connor's father had his faults, but he would never have sat behind his castle walls feasting while our enemies took our lands," Ilysa said. "And neither would Connor."
Lachlan had been raised on his father's hatred of their former chieftain. Revenge was the reason for the constant training from the time he could walk. Lachlan tried to dismiss Ilysa's words, but he had never once heard a story of the former chieftain's cowardice, and no lands had been taken from them while he lived. The same could not be said of Hugh.
As for Connor, he risked his life every night he left the castle.
"Hugh brought his foul, clanless pirates into Dunscaith Castle," Ilysa said, "and no woman or child was safe."
"Did they hurt ye?" The thought of someone harming her made Lachlan feel ill. For some damned reason, he'd grown fond of Ilysa. Probably because her stubbornness reminded him of his sister.
"I made certain they heard I was learning the Old Ways," she said with a small smile. "They feared I would curse them."
"If Hugh and his men were so foul, why were you there at all?"
"To spy on Hugh, of course," she said. "I knew that the four of them -