“Then, what do you want?” Fergus asked him and the others. “We let the laird go and then just wait? I’m sick of waiting. Me bairns are screaming for their mother.”
“He’s right about that,” Enos said. “I’ve heard his brood crying myself.”
Braden hoped he was getting through to them. “Look, I was trying to work out a truce with Maggie.”
Enos spat on the ground. “I say burn that witch.”
“Aye,” the men shouted in unison. “Burn the witch. Burn the witch.”
“Burn the witch and her ugly shoes, too!” Enos shouted.
Braden frowned at him.
“Well, they are ugly,” Enos said defensively.
Braden growled deep in his throat before he raised his voice again to the gathered imbeciles. “Would all of you stop! First you want to kill my brother, and now you’re after Maggie. And her shoes. Is there anything short of bloodshed that would bring this matter to a conclusion?”
The pack of idiots actually paused to think. And from their faces Braden could see just how much effort they were having to give it.
“I swear by the eternal saints,” Braden muttered under his breath. “If it’s the last thing I do, I’m going to get Maggie for doing this to all of us.”
Now what was he to do? He’d come here to bicker a settlement with Lochlan, not the entire clan.
“Well,” Fergus said to him at last. “What do you think we should do?”
Braden had absolutely no idea, but since one of the men still held a sword a little too close to Lochlan’s throat, he didn’t think this was the time to say that aloud.
“I’ll go back and talk to Maggie.”
Which would be like arguing with the wall.
Or these men.
And of course he had no idea what to say to her since he already knew just where she stood on the matter.
Braden ground his teeth in frustration. How on earth would he ever get this settled?
At this point, he was tired of walking back and forth to the castle and the kirk. Enough was enough.
Sighing disgustedly, he started back through the men.
“You better not tup our sister!” Duncan snarled at him from his chair. “Or you’ll be having us to deal with, Braden MacAllister!”
Braden paused mid stride, turned back around, and looked at Maggie’s brothers drolly. “Could I please just deal with one threat of death at a time?”
Duncan pursed his lips as he strained against the ropes holding him down. But luckily, the boy held his tongue.
Braden paused as he regarded the five of them by the hearth. He couldn’t walk off and leave them tied up like that.
He turned to face Fergus. “Let them go and I’ll?—”
“We’ll be doing no such thing,” Fergus interrupted him. “How do we know you’re really going to talk to that she-witch and bring them out?”
“You have my word on it.”
Fergus snorted. “If it didn’t involve a woman, I might accept that. But as it is, we’ll be keeping your brother tied where he is until you return with the women behind you.”
Now why didn’t that thought comfort him in the least?
