stricken.
“It pains me to say this, Father,” she cried.
He looked around at the faces aglow in firelight. “Something he told you?” he asked, pointing to Neill.
She nodded, watching him go pale. “Uncle Richard has been behind it all.”
Chapter Twenty
Lord Thomas Callanach found a place to sit again around the fire and covered his mouth with his hands, and then he covered his eyes.
The captain and Jones swore into the night. Tristan stood by the fire, looking into it. Rose wondered what he was thinking, but she couldn’t go to him now, no matter how badly she wanted to.
She went to her father. She should have waited to tell him. She was behaving rashly and making foolish decisions. She was so tightly wound up. She felt as if she would spring at any moment. Too much had happened in too short a span of time. She blushed thinking of how wanton she’d been with Tristan earlier. It was so unlike her.
“Father,” she said, rushing to him and wiping her eyes, “forgive me for having to tell you such terrible news. I was stunned and shocked when he told me.”
“What else did he tell you? Did he tell you why my brother would—” He stopped to let a sob escape him.
She should have waited until they were alone. She vowed to herself that if she ever had the chance to kill her uncle for breaking her father to pieces, she would take it.
“He said Uncle Richard loved mother before you—that they were betrothed. Her father owed Uncle Richard a large debt of money and your brother accepted her as payment.”
Her father shook his head. His gaze was fastened to Neill. “He did not love her. I did.”
“Of course, he did not love her,” Rose soothed. “He had her killed. That is not love.”
“Why? Why have her killed? Did he say why?”
She nodded instead and almost shook with emotion. She thought she might go mad with it. Her father didn’t need to know more gossip about his wife. “Your brother hates you, Father.”
“He is likely the governor who paid me to kill ye, Lord,” Tristan pointed out.
Her father agreed.
Rose had just almost killed a man. She was glad now that Tristan had stopped her, but it wouldn’t change the monster’s outcome.
“We need to tie him up and keep him alive for now,” she told them. “He will verify to you what I have said and give us any other information we want—and then, one of you who have killed before, please do so again and kill him. Do not make me have to do it, for I will if I must. He…” she paused and began to cry again. She held up her hands to ward off Tristan and her father when they moved to go to her. “He believes he…cares for me. He will never leave me alone. He believes he is helping me by getting me away from you, Father.”
Her father’s face contorted with pain and then he nodded his head. “I will see to his death. The captain will do it.”
“Nae,” Tristan told him. “I will kill him in that case, fer all he has taken from Rose.” No one argued with him. “As her husband,” he continued and set his searing green gaze on her. When she smiled at him and nodded, he exhaled and continued, “’Tis my right.”
“Her husband?” her father croaked out.
“With yer blessin’ of course, Lord,” Tristan repaired quickly.
Rose’s father turned to her. “This is what you want?”
“Aye, ’tis,” she told him with no hesitation.
Her father stared into her eyes and swallowed. “Forgive me for allowing myself to be so fooled by my brother that I let you suffer for it.”
“Father, I—”
“He fooled us all,” Jones interrupted her and said with disgust.
Rose smiled with affection behind her hand and then kissed her father’s cheek. “’Tis not your fault.”
He smiled at her and then turned again to Tristan. “Then, of…of course you have my blessing. See that you guard and treasure her or—”
“I vow it,” Tristan told him and came near. He was smiling at her and held out his hand.
She let go of her father’s hand and took Tristan’s. He turned to her and touched his free fingers to her face. “In Highland tradition, we can do this right now.”
Her eyes opened wide. “Do what right now?”
He smiled and closed his eyes for a moment. “I take ye as my wife, Rose.”
Rose’s heart thumped like a war drum. Was this truly happening? Was she taking Tristan