She was in my bed before that.
“He ought to marry a woman his own age,” he said aloud. “What concern of that is mine?”
Noah took a step closer. “Maybe I’ve not been clear. He’s going mad, Brendan. Perhaps gone mad already. It’s treason to speak of it, of course, but we all know it. Only last week, he stabbed one of his advisors to death at a council meeting. I don’t even know what the man said, only that the laird didn’t like it. Nobody dared raise a finger to stop him.”
“Ye aren’t tempting me to go back, Noah.”
Noah groaned, rubbing his eyes with the heels of his hands. “Are ye not listening? We can’t do anything about the Laird if we’ve got no one to replace him with. Ye have to come backand show yer face, and then we can remove Laird Grahame and replace him withye, the rightful heir.”
Brendan was silent for a moment, thinking.
“And do I have any choice in this?” he asked at last. “Ye say ye have kept my secret, Noah, and protected me from my father, and yet ye bring all these men here. Do ye truly think that none of them would gossip about this, or let the wrong piece of information at the wrong time slip? News of thiswillreach my father’s ears. Did ye simply want to make a point, or do ye intend to drag me back by force?”
Noah said nothing, and Brendan realized with an unpleasant jolt that his old frienddidintend for the news to creep out. He would never force Brendan back to the Keep—he owed Brendan his life and more besides—but he would certainly maneuver things to put him in an uncomfortable position. To force Brendan to come back of his own accord.
Brendan glanced up at the circle of riders, all sitting motionless in their saddles, stone-faced.
Not my men anymore,he thought, heart sinking.Once I was so secure of the loyalties of the army. They weremyarmy.
I wonder if they are Noah’s now. He’s not the worst man to lead them.
“I won’t do yer dirty work for ye,” he found himself saying. “Unseat the man yerself. Can’t ye do it?”
Noah gritted his teeth. “Tell me, Brendan, what happens if a clan laird is unseated with no one to take his place? What happens to the clan?”
Brendan said nothing. He knew the answer, of course. Noah continued anyway.
“It’s carnage. Bloody, vicious carnage. All the clans converge. With luck, somebody else takes the laird’s seat before too much blood is spilled. If we’re unlucky, the clan will be torn apart like a piece of meat and divided between other clans. Can ye imaginehow they would react, knowing that the infamous Grahame Clan is headless? They’d crush us to pieces. Ye, too, would have to die. They couldn’t have the lost heir turning up out of nowhere.”
There was a short silence after this. The men on horseback exchanged meaningful looks with each other, and Brendan guessed that they’d discussed this inevitable outcome more than once.
I know what it’s like to live with fear like that.
“Ye could save us, Brendan,” Noah said quietly. “I know why ye ran, but if ye come back now, ye can stop the bloodshed. I’ll help ye. We can stand up against yer father together, ye and me. We were never strong enough before, but now?” He gave a small, wry smile. “Now, it’s different.”
Brendan closed his eyes.
“Perhaps ye are right.”
He sensed excitement building inside Noah.
“I’ve thought it over,” Noah pressed. “I’ve thought of it every which way. This is what we have to do, lad. Will ye come with us?”
Brendan breathed out, opening his eyes and fixing Noah with a stare.
“Not yet. I need a moment to take care of things here. There’s work for me to do.”
Noah seemed a little more uncertain now. “Ye want me to wait?”
“No, go on back to the Keep. I’ll come to ye soon, but in my own time. Ye are asking me to give up my life, so a few days is not too much to ask, aye?”
Noah shifted from foot to foot, glancing over his shoulder back at his men. “We came all this way.”
“I know, lad, I know. But let me take care of things, as I said, and then I’ll come. Can’t say fairer than that, can ye?”
The other man pursed his lips, as if he thought the exact opposite. Brendan waited carefully, forcing himself to stay quiet. He wanted to keep talking, to fill the silence, to justtalk, but that would do more harm than good.
Patience is what’s needed now. Hold yer nerve.
