Magnus blanched. "But—but if the warrior is loyal, why must he be killed?"
"There are times a chieftain cannot risk even the most loyal men knowing his secrets. Friends can become enemies in a heartbeat, then take revenge by telling all the world what you would have no man know." Conn staggered to the arrow slit, glaring out into the countryside beyond. "It is time you learned to rule. Do not return to me without blood on your hands."
Chapter 13
It was more than a week later when Fiona stormed into the neat little garden, a fresh-carved spear in one hand, her brow drawn in its perpetual glower. Caitlin glanced up and wondered if the girl's face would freeze that way one day. She stifled a sigh and struggled to muster a smile for Niall's sister.
"I have finally unraveled what all this—this madness is about." Fiona waved the spear in the air. "My brother cannot fool me with all these acts of concern. The vile knave is trying to poison me!"
Caitlin could not help but laugh as she brushed the dirt from her hands. "Fiona, I am certain that he is not."
"And to make doubly certain he is plagued by me no longer, he has devised another plan in case the poison fails. An unfortunate hunting accident when he is teaching me to throw this woman-sized spear!" She cast the beautifully formed weapon into the pile of half-wilted weeds Caitlin had spent the morning uprooting.
Caitlin touched the fallen spear with an odd twinge, knowing it was as close as she would ever get to touching her father. "Fiona, Niall would never hurt you. Whatever could have given you such a crazed idea?"
"This is the third morning in a row I have come down to find a basket full of berries sitting at my place at the table. I have pondered it long and hard, and there can be only one reason Niall put them there. He has doubtless poured some potion over them to drug me insensible so he can bend me to his will!"
Caitlin laughed, shaking out the skirts of her leineas she stood. "For the love of the saints, Fiona—"
"And as if that is not villainous enough, there is the despicable way he is behaving toward our mother!" Fiona shuddered in pure outrage. "Do you have any idea what he has done to her?"
"I cannot begin to imagine."
"He has taken her to gather flowers!"
"An innocent enough pastime, I would think"
"He intends to place them upon our father's grave!" If the girl had accused Niall of tossing babies about on spear points, she could have seemed no more horrified.
A surge of sympathy squeezed Caitlin's chest—sympathy for this confused, angry girl, her bewildered mother, and the man who was taking his first steps across the chasm of hurt and betrayal that had kept him separated from them for so long.
"Perhaps it is time they both mourned," Caitlin suggested.
"Mourn? Niall hates our father. He has made no secret of it. This is just a trick to put us off our guard. Niall is Conn's son now! I should have guessed that it was only a matter of time before he resorted to the chieftain's ways. Aye, lure your enemy in with a show of false kindness when he is most desperate, offer forgiveness like some sweet goblet of silver when he is dying of thirst, then the instant he starts to take a drink, yank the snare tight about his throat until he cannot breathe!"
Caitlin stared at her. "Do you truly believe Niall is capable of such treachery toward anyone?He is the most honorable man I have ever known."
"He is the only man you have ever known!" Fiona scoffed. "Growing up in an abbey did not furnish you with many examples, I would imagine. I have seen what men can do! The best—men like our old servant Keefe, who gave his hand, would have given his life to protect us. Aye, and my father, with his courage and honor. And I have seen the worst in the men who raided Daire." Fiona paced across a cluster of tiny parsnip shoots, so distraught she trampled several of her precious new plants. She caught sight of the bedraggled little stems and cursed under her breath.
Wheeling, she glared at Caitlin in blatant accusation. "I knew how to treat Niall before. But now—" Something vulnerable stole into her eyes for a heartbeat before she shuttered it away.
"Now you are afraid?" Caitlin suggested. "For it would hurt you too terribly if the change in him was not real?"
Fiona bristled with denial. "I am not afraid! Niall is nothing to me anymore."
"If that is true, I am sorry for you both. I know you mean a great deal to him."
"Bah!" Fiona spat on the ground. "You are mad."
"The day I wandered off gathering plants, he—"
"Doubtless raged at you for daring to defy him."
"A little, at first," Caitlin admitted, surprised at the tender throb she felt in her breast at the memory. "He had been searching for me a long time, had feared for me. He takes too much responsibility upon himself."
"Tell me nothing about my brother's sense of responsibility, Caitlin! We have all but starved on it here at Daire."
The hard accusation was true, Caitlin knew, and yet it was far too simple to lay blame at Niall's feet. What had happened between Fiona and Niall and the land that was their birthright was far more complex than either of them could admit. The web of torn loyalties and betrayal and reluctant love was spun between them in a tangle that Caitlin had puzzled over through restless nights. A tangle that still left her bewildered and aching for them all.
