“As I said, it could have been so much worse,” he began. His voice was ragged and he cleared his throat.
“Ye dinna have to tell me anything ye dinna care to. Ye are here, and ‘tis all that matters to me.”
His embrace tightened, drawing her ever closer.
Never close enough.
“But ye must know,” he told her. “If no’ for ye, then for me. For me to pour my adversities and agony from my mind and release it so it does no’ shadow our marriage like a scourge. I would have us enter our marriage free of any binds, even those that no longer hold us, hold me, captive.”
Adaira nodded against his chest and waited for him to continue speaking.
His heart slammed inside his weakened chest as his lips formed the words he had to speak, like confession to cleanse the soul.
“’Twas no’ my choice to miss our wedding. Our original wedding. I rode to the loch south of Keppoch House, ye ken the one?”
She turned her head so she could smile up at him, a sly, knowing smile. “Aye, I know the one.”
Sawny patted her shoulder. “I rather hoped ye would. I’d be fair disappointed otherwise. Two MacIntoshes came upon me. As I was alone, I was at a disadvantage, but I’d no’ let that stop me. I’d fought off two MacIntoshes before, sorry lot of men they are. But one caught me in the side with the tip of his sword while the other cracked me over the head. I awoke in a dungeon.”
“A dungeon? Where?”
“I did no’ know, no’ right away. My side ached and ‘twas a few days before Kelso had me dragged before him. He was searching for information.”
“About the letter,” Adaira stated flatly.
Everything was about the letter.
“Aye. He thought, given my relationship to ye and Glen Coe, I might have knowledge of where the letter was or what it said. And he was somehow related to a MacIntosh lad I encouraged to leave Keppoch MacDonald lands, and he longed for a bit of retribution.”
Her fingertips brushed his side again.
“’Tis why he branded ye?”
Sawny shook his head. “Nay. The sword wound was unclean and he sought to stop the bleeding. Once I awoke from the cautery torture, ‘twas inflamed and full of pus. ‘Twas another fortnight until I was healed from that, and then he let me waste away in his dungeon for even longer. I dinna know for certain what his intentions were or why he let me rot for so long, unless the lack of food and water was part of his torture. I –”
He bit off his next words. She could see his starvation – it was stamped all over his body. She did not need to know about his desperate attempts for food that drove him hunt spiders and vermin.
When she did not inquire, thankfully, he continued. “I dinna know how long I was down there. A young man who delivered my food was friendly enough, and we took to each other. He was the one who helped me escape.”
“How? Will he be punished for it?”
Och, his Adaira! Worrying for a poor lad’s consequences, a lad she did not even know!
“I dinna believe so. ‘Tis where the events get interesting.”
“I already thought them terribly interesting,” she commented under her breath.
He chuckled lightly at her response.
“Aye. Kelso finally brought me to him again, with his chamber of torture devices. He started with a few slaps, naught significant, but he was called away. Evidently, Slippery John or one of his soldiers was to make a visit or the like.”
She grimaced at the name.
“But ‘twas no' Breadalbane or his soldier. ‘Twas another man. One with the letter.”
Adaira popped up, her eyes wide. “The letter?Theletter?”
Sawny nodded. “Aye. Evidently.”
