Laird Grahame scowled. “He is no son of mine. Not anymore.”
“That’s not true, Father,” Brendan spoke up. He had seen Freya, hemusthave seen her, but never once glanced her way.
He’s trying to protect me,Freya realized with a sickening jolt.If his father suspects there is anything at all between us, he’ll use us against each other.
Brendan slowly rose, the soldiers eyeing him anxiously. They made no move to push him back to his knees, and Laird Grahame’s face turned red with anger.
“I am yer only son, yer only child,” Brendan continued, his voice calm and even, carrying easily across the silent courtyard. “Ye must have an heir, and so ye cannot put me aside. I have come back because I heard of the way our people are suffering. Och, aye, Father, I’ve heard it all. I know about the taxes ye have levied on the common people, who can scarcely afford to live as it is. I know how the people of the Keep live in fear. I know about the murdered advisors and countless servants who have gone missing. I know how the soldiers of yer personal guard roam the countryside, doing as they please. I know that ye brought this woman, yer bride, here by force. I know she fled from ye, and ye dragged her back. I know that ye care nothing for others. I know that ye’ve failed yer clan, Father.”
There was a brief, stunned silence after this. Freya glanced around the crowd, and saw that everybody had their eyes fixed on Brendan, mesmerized. She saw something else spark in their eyes that almost certainly hadn’t been there for a long time.
Hope.
Laird Grahame bit out a curse.
“How dare ye?” he hissed, coming within inches of his son’s face. “I gave ye life. I raised ye.”
“Aye, and I tried my best to love ye for it,” Brendan responded, never blinking. “I can’t ignore this anymore, Father.”
“Ye are a coward. Ye ran when the people needed ye most.”
This sparked a ripple of murmuring in the crowd, people glancing at each other and shrugging. This was true, it seemed, and could not be argued with.
Brendan clenched his jaw, lifting his chin.
“Aye. It’s true. I’ll not argue with it, and nor will I deny my faults. I fled because I was afraid. Afraid ofye,like everybody else here. But I’m back now, and this won’t go on. I won’t let it.”
Laird Grahame let out a sharp, mirthless laugh. “Won’tletit? Och, lad, things have changed. Ye see her?”
Abruptly, he rushed across the courtyard, coming towards Freya like some sort of rabid animal. She tried to pull back, but the matron kept her in place. Laird Grahame seized her face in a painful grip, sharp fingernails digging into her cheeks.
“Ye see this woman?” Laird Grahame repeated, forcing Freya to look at Brendan. “I’ll wed her, and get a child in her even if it kills her. I’ll have another boy. Maybe several, and then I’ll have heirs a-plenty. And that means that ye,my son, are no longer as important as ye think ye are. I’ll spit yer head on a spike, if I so desire, and it will make no difference at all. What do ye say to that, boy?”
Brendan met Freya’s eyes, and she saw fear there.
What does he see in my eyes?
“I can’t let ye do that, Father,” Brendan said, his voice quiet. The crowd all leaned forward to hear better.
Laird Grahame sneered. “Och, aye? And why not? Because ye are afraid of being replaced?”
Brendan gave a small, wry smile. “Because I love her.”
A shivering gasp rolled through the crowd. Laird Grahame’s face went slack with shock, his hand dropping from Freya’s face as if he had been burned.
The matron’s hand tightened even more on Freya’s arm.
“Ye wee whore,” she hissed, only loud enough for Freya to hear. She ignored it.
Laird Grahame shot Freya one disgusted look, then strode away from her, towards his son.
“That’s a pity, lad,” he ground out, “because she is to be my bride, and that means that yerloveis treason. I’ll keep her—for now, at least—but ye must be punished, my son. This will be easier than I thought.”
He drew his sword, the grating metal setting Freya’s teeth on edge. Panic clawed up from her chest, bile stinging her chest.
He’s going to cut him down where he stands,she thought, fear tightening around her.I’m going to lose him.
I can’t lose him.
