He slid off his horse, boots striking ash-covered gravel, and stared. For a moment he couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe. The world seemed to narrow into a single thought.
How will I feed them now?
Islay’s winter was never forgiving. They had already been rationing carefully after the earlier attacks on their grain shipments. Those barns had held what little surplus they had left. Now it was gone. All of it.
A man stumbled towards him—he recognized Torrin, Jamie’s foreman here in Ingeld. The man’s normally ruddy face was blackened with soot.
“My laird,” he rasped. “We tried—Lord knows we tried—those devils came from nowhere—”
“Did ye get a look at them? Who were they?”
Torrin shook his head. “Strangers. Hard eyed. Not from the Isles. They set the torches and fled before we could stop them.”
Jamie felt cold despite the heat of the blaze. His jaw tightened so hard it ached. He walked closer, stopping just shy of the smoking threshold. The barn doors sagged inward, glowing embers devouring what had once been sacks stacked to the rafters. Villagers kept throwing water, but it was hopeless. The grain was already lost.
Urgent hoofbeats sounded behind him, and he turned to see Phillip MacClelland thundering down the hill towards him. They pulled their horses up sharply, and Phillip jumped to the ground. His eyes were wide with horror as he took in the burning barns.
“No,” he whispered. “Holy God, please no.” His voice was choked with the same shock that twisted Jamie’s guts.
Suddenly a roof beam collapsed in a fountain of sparks. The villagers recoiled, shielding their faces. That grain had been meant for them. For their children. For the winter that stretched long and bitter ahead.
“Those bastards,” Phillip breathed. “We have to stop them. If we dinna, this will be the end of us.”
Jamie closed his eyes. Aye, it would. He felt the noose tightening around his neck. He was being driven into a corner. And there was no way out.
He forced himself to breathe. He had made difficult decisions before. Sacrificed sleep, safety, and blood for Islay. But this—
This was surrender. But what choice was left? If he wanted to save his people, there was only one option left open to him.
Elise’s face flashed in front of his eyes. Memories of the kiss they’d shared on the beach filled his head. How could he do this? To her? To himself?
Because he must. Because he could not break the pirates’ stranglehold without help. And there was only one way to get that help.
The fight bled out of him like warmth into winter wind, and with it went the last of Jamie’s hope.
“Send for the king’s envoy,” he said to Phillip, the words tasting like ash on his tongue. “Tell him I’m ready to agree to the marriage contract.”
Phillip blinked in surprise. “Are ye sure? I thought ye said—”
“Do as I say, damn it!”
Phillip studied him for a moment longer before bowing. “As ye command, my laird.” He mounted his horse and turned back for the keep.
Jamie stared at the burning barns and felt a pain lance right through his gut. He had failed. No matter how he looked at it, he had failed his people. He had failed himself. But worst of all, he had failed Elise MacFinnan.
It was towards midnight when he and his men finally returned to Dun Arach. The fires at Ingeld had finally been doused, and he and his men had spent several hours scouring the area around the village, making sure that the pirates weren’t still in the vicinity. As always, he found no trace of them.
Exhaustion dragged at his limbs as the keep came into view. It blazed with light from torches ringing the battlements, and he knew that nobody would have retired to bed yet, eager for news of what had transpired at Ingeld. Jamie wasn’t sure he could face it. He wasn’t sure he could deliver yet another round of bad news to his people.
But worse was the thought of what he would have to tell Elise.
He found her waiting for him. As he and his men rode through the gates, he saw her standing at the top of the steps, pacing up and down as though she couldn’t keep still. As soon as they rode in, she came hurrying towards him.
“What happened?” she asked anxiously. “Are you all right?”
He swung down from Tempest’s saddle and allowed Bryn to lead the big stallion away.
“Elise,” he began. “There’s something I have to tell ye—”
