“You’ll come with me, Sheena?” Niall asked, his eyes pleading.
“Aye, if you’ll promise no’ to leave William alone with Father after I’m gone. Father will send me from the room when they discuss what to do, but I must know what William suggests. So you must stay.”
“I’ll stay if they let me.”
Dugald Fergusson was more upset than Sheena had expected. William’s eyes were drawn to her the moment she walked into the hall. There was a smug look about him that boded ill. Niall was standing before their father.
“’Tis true then, you were down to the dungeon?” Dugald demanded.
“Aye.”
“You know you had no business there?”
“Aye.”
“Is it true what you told your sister? Have we James MacKinnion himself down there?”
Niall hesitated a moment too long before answering, and Dugald backhanded him. Sheena gasped and moved to Niall’s side, her eyes furious.
“You didna have to hit him!” she shouted at her father. “He’s done naught that was so terrible.”
“He knew we had James MacKinnion but he didna tell me so.”
“He would have.”
“When? After I’d ransomed a man I thought only a crofter? Sweet Mary!” Dugald blustered. “I’ve a son who keeps secrets from me and a daughter who defends him!”
“What secret?” Sheena snapped. “If you’d gone down and talked to the man yourself, you’d have found out easily enough who he was.”
Dugald glared at her, but the truth of that was plain. And he was wasting time bickering. The fact that he had James MacKinnion in his dungeon turned his blood cold. For all he knew, the MacKinnions were planning an attack on the tower at that very moment.
“I’ve got to let him go,” Dugald said wearily. He sounded defeated.
“Dinna be hasty, now,” William warned. “The man’s been injured by us and shamed. He’ll no’ take kindly to that. He’s probably even now plotting the revenge he’ll have as soon as you release him.”
“But I canna keep him in the dungeon.”
“Aye, you can. A few days will no’ hurt, until you devise a means to protect yourself.”
“You have something in mind?”
“Aye, a way to end the feud for good.”
Sheena stiffened. “Dinna listen to him, Father!Just let the man go. For his release, make him give his word to end the feud.”
“The word of a MacKinnion is worthless,” William said flatly.
“You dinna know that!” Sheena turned on him hotly, eyes flashing.
“Enough blathering,” Dugald interjected angrily. “This doesna concern you, Sheena, so get you gone.”
“But—”
“Go! Your betrothed comes this night to plan the wedding, so prepare yourself.” He waited until she had stalked from the hall before he looked at his son. “Off with you, too, Niall. And so there’ll be no mistake, if you go near the prisoner again, ’tis the English court for you!”
Sheena waited on the stairs for Niall, but the distance was too great for her to hear what William was telling her father. But she knew.
“God help me, Niall, I dinna know what I’ll do if I’m given to The MacKinnion.”
