Tempest Heart - Paula Quinn Page 0,87
and Jones, “’tis over here. I have business with the governor and then we will leave—if we all agree?”
Harper nodded as did Jones.
“You kept the truth from me, also,” Rose let her uncle know while Tristan paid him.
“For your sake, Rose. I did not want his name and ours to be soiled by letting you know of his atrocities when you could do nothing to change any of it. I sent MacPherson and got you out of the way. My hope was to give you back your life here in Hamilton. I ask your forgiveness but if you do not give it, I understand.”
She nodded. “I give it,” she said soft softly. “I love my father, but my mother deserves justice. ’Tis overdue.”
“Daughter, I’m disappointed in you.” The earl’s voice filled the large hall.
Every eye turned to the unguarded doors and the earl entering the manor house with Neill and Mary, the captain’s wife held by a man Tristan had seen practicing at Callanach Castle the day Neill attacked.
He held Mary with his knife pointing at her heart.
“Sadly,” the earl announced, looking around at everyone, “only one of you will be leaving here tonight, and it will not be her.”
There was no time to think. In the time it took for her captor to move his hand and stab her hard enough to reach her heart, Tristan plucked a dagger from his belt and hurled it at Mary’s captor. The blade went through the man’s shoulder, separating muscles and tendons. He screamed and wailed in agony and dropped the blade from his useless fingers.
Tristan motioned for Mary to go to Rose, then said, “Captain, he is one of yer men?”
“Aye,” Harper said through clenched teeth. “Watley.”
Tristan nodded. “He is yers to bring before the—”
“I will bring him before no one,” Harper promised on a deadly growl, and wasted no time killing him.
“Who is next?” Tristan called out to Neill and the earl. He held his blade ready and motioned for them to come to him.
“I am!” Neill shouted back.
Chapter Twenty-Three
The earl stepped forward, stopping any fighting for the moment.
“As eager as I am to see you dead, MacPherson, I will give you a few more moments to live if you tell me what you just handed to my brother.”
“’Tis money I paid him to kill you,” the governor admitted boldly.
“I see,” drawled the earl. He stepped around a few dead bodies to get closer to his brother.
Rose watched him, unsure of whom she was looking at. Could this be the man who raised her? He’d been caring and protective, patient and sometimes…a bit…controlling. She couldn’t—she didn’t want to believe that he was behind it all. It was too much. It made her feel as if she were going mad.
“You sent this mongrel,” he said, pointing at Tristan.
Rose stepped forward and slapped his hand out of the way. “You and your pet monster have no place passing such judgment when you killed my mother and an innocent fifteen-year-old girl.”
Her father gave her an angry look mingled with disgust. “’Tis time you were brought to your place with that venomous tongue of yours. I have spoiled you long enough. Things will change when your lowborn Highland husband is dead, and you are free to live with Neill and me. I will find us a new place to live with bigger, stronger gates and—”
“Bigger, stronger gates?” Rose laughed hysterically. “Live with the both of you? Oh, Father,” she said, growing serious, indeed, somber, “you truly are mad.”
“Who told you about me?” Neill asked, stepping in front of her father and glaring at the governor as if he wanted to vow out loud that he would to kill him.
“It makes sense to me, Neill,” Rose told him, pulling his attention to her and soothing the fury in his eyes. “I used to love you.”
“And you love me no more?”
Boldly, she shook her head. “Not while you stand with him. Who knows who he will command you to kill next?” She shook her shoulders as if discarding a cloak and held up her head. “Put down your sword and let there be no more enmity between us.”
“I have no enmity toward you, Rose.” When he said her name, he smiled over her shoulder at Tristan.
Rose turned to look at her husband. Tristan didn’t smile back.
“Neill,” she snapped at him, “if you do not cease acting this way, I will no longer speak to you. Not ever.”
He looked worried for a moment and then he smiled.