“His cousin claims William is behind this,” she interrupted.“That he’s in agreement with the accusation and ‘tis why he hasn’t returned.”
“Returned?Where is he?”Seocan demanded to know.“I’ll retrieve him myself.”
Ailith shook her head.“Nay.I canna look him in the face if there is even a trace of truth to that.”
“I’ll no’ leave ye.”He glanced at Daniel.“We will no’ leave ye.But we will await him or the messenger here and send another missive anywhere it needs to go.If naught else, William should know what is happening and what others are saying about him.About ye.”
Ailith didn’t mention William’s whereabouts.He was still at the meeting with the Morays, as far as she knew.It would take hours to go from Drumoak to the Morays to the Grants.She sat back into the pit.
“Nay.Eoghan said William is in agreement with the Grants.That he has decided my ...peculiar nature is too much for him.”
Daniel snorted as Seocan shook his head and spoke.“Ailith, William has loved ye for most of his life.He is more accepting of any perceived peculiar nature than ye are of yourself.He’d no betray ye this way.If I know anything of William, I know this.These accusations spring from jealousy of ye and the MacDougals, and fear over the state of the Highlands in general.I’ll no’ let ye be a pawn in this, nor will any Gordon or MacDougal kin.”His tone grew more stern, and he shifted around as he spoke.“Let me see if I can get ye out of there.”
He and Daniel went to work, trying to pry up the grate, but it was well set and secured with a large brass lock.
“Lass, the grate –” Seocan seemed to stumble over his words.
“I can stay the night here, brother.”
His pasty expression through the grate blazed with absolute fury.She had seen that look before when he discussed the Morays and mad King Donald, and anyone else who saw it would cower in fear.And she could not bring herself to even look at Daniel.If Seocan was her brother, Daniel stood in the stead of a father.If Seocan’s expression was one to fear, she knew Daniel’s promised death.
Nay, they were not pleased with her predicament and would fight to the death to get her out.That one thought was enough to warm her and keep her going.
“Daniel and I will bed down with the horses next to this pit.We will no’ leave ye alone this night.And here, ‘tis a much-needed gift from Mairi.”
A gift from Mairi?Her sister-in-law who had a heavy hand in Ailith’s present occupation of the pit?What gift might she send?Poison to match her words?A snake?
Instead, Seocan threaded a dark cloth through the grate’s opening.A heavy, wool cape.
In the thin light that barely permeated the darkness, she made out the outline of the cape and its hefty thickness.Her hands brushed against a hood at one end with a finely etched wooden button to hold it all closed.
It was more than a plaid.
Mairi’s cape?Her fancy one, the one she wore for special events, like Ailith’s own wedding?What did this gift of her cape mean?Had Seocan taken it in haste?Or, more impossibly, had Mairi truly given it to him for her?
She turned her face up to her brother.Seocan gave her a flat, remorseful smile.
“’Tis from Mairi herself.She worried that ye might be in a cold dungeon and wanted ye to have something ye might use to keep warm so ye dinna fall ill.”
“Mairi sent this?”Ailith asked, not fully believing.
Mairi was the reason she was here, in thisfeckingpit, and now she sent a gift to warm her?Why would she do that, unless ...
Unless she, too, was as sorry for this situation as Seocan appeared to be, and the cape was an apology.
Was such a thing possible?
Mayhap Mairi’s involvement in these witchcraft accusations wasn’t as earnest as Eoghan had led her to believe.
Hope bloomed as a fragile bubble in her chest.
She wrapped herself in the thick wool, tucking it in tight so she did not feel any cold muck against her skin, popped the hood over her head, and burrowed in like a mole in his hole.
“She is repentant for any actions her words might have caused,” Seocan explained from above.“I can tell ye her mind, but only she can give her apologies, and only ye can forgive if ye decide to do so.But she offered her finest cloak to show ye the depth of her remorse.”
Mairi regretted her words?Sorry that something she had said led to this?Maybe Ailith had misjudged her sister-in-law a bit.Even if, right now, she didn’t particularly care what Mairi felt.
A tomorrow problem, she told herself.
