The Highlander Who Stole Christmas - Eliza Knight Page 0,11
she started, but he interrupted her.
“How dare ye say her name?” He stabbed his spoon into the nearly melted butter.
“She was my friend.” Sarah boldly met his gaze. “My brother, Jon, loved her.”
Pain flickered in Thane’s eyes, and doubt. He likely didn’t know whether or not he could believe her, and she understood why.
Sarah swirled the golden, dissolving lump of butter around her porridge. “I loved her, too. She brought life to our clan. Added light where there was darkness. Jon had been so disparaged by what was happening in Scotland—we all were—but she gave him hope.”
She put down her spoon, suddenly unable to take a bite. Instead, she took a sip of bitter ale.
Thane did the same, gulping the entire contents of his cup and then refilling it. “What happened?”
The fact that he asked her that showed he expected to hear the truth from her, and she was more than willing to give it.
“I might be a traitor to Edward and Ellyson for telling ye this, Thane, but I dinna believe that I’d be betraying Jon, or Thea or our clan for that matter. After we lost Jon at the Battle of Culloden, my brothers…they decided to rule the clan together. One in charge of the common people and one in charge of our soldiers.” Here she paused. “But it started even before then. They were always arguing with Jon over edicts he’d implemented or new ways of doing things. They hated that Thea was beloved by the clan, that a lot of the changes happening had started with her. She was brilliant, but ye know that. Edward and Ellyson were jealous, really.”
This was the part that Sarah didn’t want to talk about, but she knew she had to tell him. He needed to understand that what happened to Thea was not on the entire clans’ heads.
“They were increasingly hard on her after Jon died. Worried, I think, that she might be with child and that child would eventually take the place they’d claimed. So, when Thea was taken by the dragoons while gathering various herbs and roots just outside the castle walls, they declined to pay the ransom. They thought it better to be rid of her.” Sarah shook her head. “I pleaded with them, but they refused. I dinna think they believed she’d be killed, just taken away and married off to some English general.”
“But she was killed.” Thane’s voice was low and fueled by anger and pain.
She reached for his hand then but pulled back at the way he curled his fingers into the wood of the table. Comfort from her could come in the form of truth, but not yet from touch. That was the more appropriate form, anyhow.
“Aye. Right in front of us as we stood on the battlements.” Sarah choked on a sob, bringing her hands to her mouth. “She didna deserve it. There was no retaliation. And I waited every day for ye to come and avenge her. I would have given ye the keys to the castle if ye’d asked.”
Thane’s anger shifted to suffering. “And that is why ye came so willingly? Because ye think ye deserve to bear the brunt of whatever revenge I’ve got planned?”
Sarah shook her head, shifted forward in her chair and then locked her gaze on his. “I told ye they were selling me off to the highest bidder.”
“And ye think ye might have suffered Thea’s fate.”
She shrugged. “I could have.”
He was quiet a long time, staring into his porridge as he slowly spun his cup of ale on the table. Time ticked silently for so long she worried that he wasn’t going to speak again. Sarah sat on the edge of her seat, willing him to speak, to at least look up. He had to believe her.
When he finally did, his voice was tight with emotion. “I dinna place blame on ye, Sarah. But knowing what ye’ve told me, it would be impossible for me no’ to bring war to your clan.”
This she knew, but she was desperate to find a way out of it. To protect her people, even if her brothers wouldn’t. “If I could beg ye no’ to…If there were some way to punish Edward and Ellyson for what they’ve done without bringing pain to the people. They loved Thea, and she loved them.”
Thane’s eyes were hard, the line of his mouth unbending. “I canna see a way out of it.”
Chapter Five
Thane was torn.
He’d known already that his sister had suffered. The