A Laird and a Gentleman (All the King's Men #4) - Gerri Russell Page 0,35

in the insanity the king has set into motion. Besides compensating your people for their loss, what else will you do about the situation?”

Cameron frowned as he settled his hands at his side. “I will not go to war against a man I have sworn to protect.”

“I am not asking you to, only that you find some way to dissuade the king from allowing my father to find fault in people who are guilty of nothing.”

“You believe if your father were not involved in the witch trials there would be far fewer convictions?”

She nodded, unable to find the words to adequately convey the terror that shivered through her. The king was the one who gave her father the power over all his subjects to decide who was guilty or innocent. From her own experience and from her father’s record so far in the Berwick witch trials, no one was safe. The king had given her father full authority to extract confessions of guilt from anyone who came before him. Only one person had escaped being put to death so far. “You only see the best in people. My father deserves no such consideration.”

“I am no friend of your father’s. Give me a reason to dispense my own form of justice here at Ravenscraig, Mariam. Give me one reason not to send word to the king and I will take care of this here and now.”

Mariam wrapped her arms around her waist, trying to keep herself from trembling. Cameron was asking her to decide her father’s fate. If she told Cameron even one-tenth of what her father had done to her over the years, the laird would put the witch pricker to death, she had no doubt. Then his death would be on her—she would have caused it—confirming she was every bit as evil as her father.

Cameron watched her with gentle understanding. “Give me a reason to end this here and now. Or, if you cannot, then I must proceed with my own plans for your father.”

She straightened, knowing what choice she had to make in order to keep from becoming like the man she feared. “Do what you must, for I cannot judge my father as he judges everyone else. I will not become like him.”

Cameron came forward and pried her hands away from her waist, taking them in his own. “You are nothing like your father, and you will never be. The course of your life is not predetermined no matter what the note in your shell said. You make your own destiny, just as I make mine. The choice is ours.” He looked deeply into her eyes. “I have seen evil. I have fought evil. But when I look at you, I see only goodness. I wish you could see what I see, but you will have to discover that truth for yourself.”

She heard not just his words but also the emotion behind them. “Why do you care so much about what happens to me?”

“You are my ward, and I . . . we are friends.” Raising her hand, Cameron placed a kiss on her fingers.

His lips lingered upon her skin, sending warm ripples of sensation up her limb.

“Cameron—”

Thea and Mistress MacInnes entered the great hall just then. Cameron dropped her fingers, leaving a chill at his absence. However, his dark eyes did not waver from her own. “Promise to consider what I said.”

“I promise.”

He nodded then shifted his gaze to the women who were starting preparations for the evening meal. “I must leave you for a time. I must first check on your father, then write to the king.”

Suddenly her body ached and her head drummed with a vengeance at the mention of the man who had sired her. “I should go see my father.”

“You have no obligation to do so.”

If her father was released and she did not go to see him and at least see to his comfort, he would take her neglect out on her in the most physical of ways. “My father will see that differently.”

Cameron reluctantly nodded. “I will leave that to you, but ask that you do not go alone. When you are ready, bring either myself or my guardsman Ian with you.”

She shouldn’t need a chaperone to see her own father, and yet she knew it would be for the best if she did. There was too much past between them—so much pain and too many memories. She had hoped by coming here she would leave all of that behind