The rest of the fleet was bobbing in the waves around them, and Molly could make out figures moving on their decks. She rubbed her eyes, wondering what had happened and why she was suddenly free. They were anchored just off a huge stack rising out of the sea. Angul’s Finger! She had passed this stack on her way north with Conall. Other than the stack, there was nothing else in sight but the vast, endless expanse of the sea.
She stood up slowly, feeling dizzy and disoriented, and made her way over to where Earl Sinclair was standing by the rail, looking out to sea.
“What’s going on?” she asked, her voice hoarse.
Earl Sinclair looked at her with a mix of suspicion and contempt. “We’ve arrived at our destination,” he said shortly.
“Our destination? But there’s nothing here.”
“There will be. Now, we wait.”
She glared at him. “Why have you untied me?”
“Would ye rather we left ye tied up?”
“Well, no, of course not. But I thought—”
“It wasnae my intent to bring ye at all. If that stupid, head-strong son of mine had just stayed where I put him, ye wouldnae be here.”
There was an odd note to Earl Sinclair’s voice that she’d not heard before. It sounded almost like...regret. She refused to be taken in by it. She’d fallen for Lady Adaira’s sob story and look where it had gotten her. She wouldn’t be such an idiot again.
“What did you expect Conall to do?” she snapped. “Just sit there while you committed treason? While you betrayed your own people?”
Earl Sinclair’s eyes flashed dangerously. “Careful, lass,” he warned. “Ye try my patience.”
She didn’t care. She was suddenly furious. With Earl Sinclair. With Alice Brewer. With the whole stinking lot of them. “What’s wrong, my lord?” she said, her voice dripping with sarcasm. “Don’t you like hearing the raw truth?”
He crossed his arms and glared at her. She could see where Conall got his intimidating gaze from but this time she would not be intimidated. She was far too angry for that.
“And what truth would that be?” he growled.
She waved her hands. “That Conall was right about you! You’re everything he said you were! It’s my fault, you know, that I’m stuck here now with you instead of riding for the Order. Conall would have left the moment we found those weapons in your warehouse but I convinced him otherwise. I convinced him that we might be wrong, that there might be another explanation for what you were doing, convinced him to go and speak to you to see if you couldn’t find a way to make it up somehow.” She took a step towards him. “That’s what he was doing, you know, when he saw you with Alice. He was coming to try and make it up, see if he couldn’t build some bridges, even after all that happened between you.”
A look passed across Earl Sinclair’s face, a flicker of something that might have been guilt. But it was quickly replaced by a cold, hard expression.
“Ye know naught, woman,” he spat. “Ye think ye understand the workings of the world, but ye are just a naive little thing playing at being an adventurer.”
“Oh, is that right?”
“It is. There are forces far beyond yer comprehension at play here,” he said. “Forces that neither ye nor that foolish son of mine could possibly understand.”
Molly clenched her teeth, feeling a surge of frustration and anger. She was tired of being talked down to, of being treated like an idiot.
“Then why don’t you explain?” she demanded, taking another step forward. “What exactly are you doing out here? If you have something to say, then say it!”
Earl Sinclair barked out a laugh. “Ye are a stubborn one, I’ll give ye that. But ye are also foolish. Ye have no idea what ye are up against.”
“Oh, I think I know exactly what I’m up against. I’m up against a traitor to his people, a man who is willing to sell out his country for his own gain. And I won’t let you get away with it!”
Earl Sinclair’s expression hardened. “Ye presume to judge me? Ye know naught of what I’ve done to protect this land and what it’s cost me! Ye have no idea what I’mstilldoing to protect this land!”
Molly squared up to him. “Then why don’t you tell me?”
He stared down at her, and for an instant, the expression on his face changed. The anger melted away and for the briefest instant he looked like an old man, weary and heartsick. Then it was gone.
He snorted. “Ye are a fool, woman. A stubborn, foolish wench who has no idea what she’s gotten herself into.”
“Maybe I am,” Molly said, her voice low and steady. “But at least I have the courage to stand up for what’s right. And that’s something that you’ll never understand.”
