Sin stood there in silence. In his mind, he could see the way Morna had held onto Dermot. The way Dermot had looked when Sin had first sat him down in that chair.
In the span of the last few minutes, the boy had just become a man.
“Go clean up.”
Dermot nodded and left.
Sin followed behind and paused as he caught sight of a servant taking Aster’s body upstairs for burial preparation. His wife stood in the foyer, leaning against Lochlan. But as soon as she saw him, she ran to him for comfort.
He held tight to her and felt her shaking in his arms. She didn’t speak, but he knew her thoughts. In one night, over one act of foolishness, she’d lost her brother and her uncle. He only prayed she didn’t lose her clan as well.
“Braden,” he said softly to his brother, “I need to get a message to Henry. Will you dress in some of my clothes and deliver it?”
“Aye.”
Sin inclined his head in thanks. Callie lifted her head and it was the look in her eyes that scorched him. She was terrified and grief-stricken.
“You’re going to give Dermot to them.” It was a whispered statement.
“Henry will demand someone be given to him. He can’t let such actions go without punishment. This was an attempt on his life and many men were killed over it. If he does nothing, he will be seen as weak and ineffectual. Two things a king who is fighting for his throne can’t afford.”
“I know.” She trembled even more, but her tears were gone. “I need to go speak to Dermot.”
Reluctantly, Sin watched her go, then went to write his missive to Henry while Braden dressed as an English knight.
With every word he wrote to Henry, Sin knew in his heart he was going to lose his wife. She might say she understood, but she was choosing between brother and husband. A husband she barely knew and a brother she had loved for almost a score of years. True not all loved their siblings, but she and Dermot did. Much like he and his own brothers. Even though distance and time had separated them, they had always cared for each other.
Nay. In time, she would grow to hate him for this.
Growling, he tore up his note and quickly wrote another. In his heart, he knew what needed to be done. It was the only way to see her happy.
Sixteen
It amazed Callie that Sin didn’t send her brother straight to the king.
But in the morning, she knew why. Henry, his guard, and all the Englishmen who had inhabited Oxley came to rest outside her castle. Her people gathered in the bailey, terrified of what the English army wanted.
Sin had ordered the gates closed and manned, and had left her to go don his armor. Her heart hammering, she did her best to keep everyone calm.
But inside, she was shaking and terrified.
She stood on the stoop of the castle, with Braden, Lochlan and Ewan by her side. Simon, looking a bit pale and weak, joined them. “Henry is out there, eh?”
Callie nodded. “Aye and wanting MacNeely blood.” Her gaze went to Dermot who stood proud beside her. Still, she saw the fear in his eyes as he held tight to Jamie’s hand.
The door to the castle opened and everyone present fell silent. Callie turned to see what had them transfixed.
Her heart stopped.
Standing in the doorway was her husband. And he was dressed in her father’s dark blue, green and yellow plaid.
The magnitude of that gesture tore through her. I will not be owned. How many times had he said that to her?
Tears welled in her eyes at the sight. In that instant, Sin had declared his allegiance to her in a way that shook her soul deep. The man who wanted nothing to claim him, and nothing to own, wore her colors.
She’d never loved him more.
Their gazes locked, but it was the emptiness of his that scared her even more than the fact Henry was waiting outside to kill her brother.
