A Very Highland Holiday - Kathryn Le Veque Page 0,166

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 vague and unemotional missive that he’d received after her death from the new lairds of Campbell had been terse and to the point. Over the months, his mind had embellished what had happened, creating the torment in his mind that was his beloved sister’s demise.

But even his own imaginings hadn’t culled that she might have been with child. That those two devils had been jealous enough of a potential bairn that they’d given away her life. He flexed his fists, wishing he had those two bastards in front of him right then and there.

Oh, how he would murder them…

Sarah might not have understood what would have been Thea’s fate, but Edward and Ellyson would have been very aware. There wasn’t a clan in Scotland that had been untouched by the ravages of the dragoons and the Duke of Cumberland’s orders to show no mercy. Men, women, children. It mattered not; they all suffered.

He did not place blame on Sarah. In fact, she’d been trying to escape her brothers as well, and he’d provided the perfect avenue. As it turned out, his mission to abduct her for revenge had turned into a rescue mission. Some of his guilt assuaged, for he’d not truly intended on harming her. A scare perhaps in being abducted, but never would he have put her through what happened to Thea.

Damn.

He thought back to the lad in the stables at Campbell Castle, so grateful for a little kindness. To the wee lass who said she wanted her mistress back, that her mother needed her, how Thea had meant so much to them.