“Her wha’?”
Grimly, Farlan said, “She’d lost her man in the fighting and acted out o’ grief.”
“Aye well, no harm in it, then. Mayhap they’ll use her again when they decide I’m better dead and out o’ their way. But nay, they’ll want to make sure o’ the job and send a warrior the next time.” Leith glared at his friend. “Mayhap they’ll send ye.” Or Rhian. They could bid Rhian to slit his throat while he lay beside her, all trusting.
“How could ye think, man, I’d raise a blade against ye? You are my friend.”
Leith sneered. “Ye raise a blade against me each time ye accompany your new chief into battle, d’ye no’?”
“That is different.”
“It is no’. Tell yer chief, yer woman,” Leith said scathingly, “I will no’ turn on Rory or on my clan, as ye ha’ done.”
Farlan’s gaze narrowed on Leith’s face. “I thought ye understood. My feelings for Moira—”
“Love, aye? Or lust? A wee bit o’ both?”
“Leith, man, think carefully. We, the MacBeiths and the MacLeods, do no’ need to go on killing one another. There’s room for all o’ us in Glen Bronach.”
“Aye, but a man’s heart can hold only one loyalty. I suppose,” Leith said, “that is why you are here, on this side o’ the loch.”
“I suppose it is. That does no’ mean I wish to see MacLeod brought low or Rory dead.”
“I would like to believe that. I stood up for ye back at MacLeod, before ye defected.”
“Aye, so ye did.”
“But now I wonder.”
“That ye could doubt me, Leith—’tis a wound I take. D’ye truly wish to see MacBeith destroyed? For ye ken if Rory lives, he will no’ stop until it is so. I see the way ye look at Mistress Rhian—”
“What way?”
“Wi’ a softness. I thought—”
“She is a beautiful woman.”
“Aye, inside and out.”
“I like to admire beautiful women.”
“That is all, is it?”
“Wha’ more should there be? D’ye think I’m likely to fall under some—some spell she might weave?”
“Aye,” Farlan said softly.
“As ye did?”
Farlan drew a breath that expanded his chest. “I would no’ wish what has befallen me on anyone, least o’ all one o’ my dearest friends.”
“Leave her, then. Come back to MacLeod wi’ me.”
“I canna.”
“I know Rory would tak’ ye back.”IfRory yet lived. “He will be angry for a bit, but ye ken his anger never lasts.”
“I will no’ leave Moira. Not till I die.”
