This time Reginald looked not to Aingeal, but to Seamus. “You take the best men out before dawn and hide them beyond the marsh road.”
Seamus’s eyes narrowed. “You want me out of the castle while Mael Ruadh walks into her hall?”
“No. I want him to believe I am all that stands between him and the gate.” Reginald continued, “He hates what I am. He hates more that I beat him. He will strike where he thinks pride sits. Let him think pride is me.”
Aingeal understood. “You would make yourself bait.”
“I already am.”
Seamus shook his head. “I dislike plans where he is correct.”
“So do I,” Aingeal agreed.
Reginald looked at her. “You do not have to trust me to use me.”
That hurt because once she would have taken it as shield or challenge. Now she heard only the truth beneath it. He was offering his usefulness stripped of claim. Aingeal turned to Seamus. “Can you hold men concealed beyond the marsh road?”
“I can.”
“Will you?”
His jaw flexed. He looked at Reginald, then back at her. “For you, yes.”
“For the castle,” she said.
“For the castle,” he answered.
Tomas bent over his tablet. “And if Mael Ruadh refuses parley?”
“Then we still move men before dawn,” Aingeal said. “And we send word to the holdings that anyone tempted by his claim may come here and hear Father Cillian answer it.”
The priest nodded once. “Gladly.”
Seamus’s eyes gleamed. “Let me write the invitation.”
“No,” Aingeal said at once.
Seamus looked offended.
“You may write the part that makes him angry,” Aingeal amended.
“I accept.”
For the first time in days, a brief sound moved through the room that was nearly laughter.
They spent the next hour over maps and messages. Seamus argued with Reginald over the marsh road until both men were nearly snarling, and then, to Aingeal’s surprise, Seamus stabbed one finger into the map and said, “Fine. There. That hollow will hide six horses if the reeds are high enough.”
Reginald studied the mark. “Eight if the men dismount.”
“Do not improve my ambush.”
“I would not dare.”
Aingeal did not like using Reginald as bait. She felt uneasy and worried putting his life in danger. But she knew she must.
By sunset, the invitations had gone out.
By midnight, Seamus had chosen his men.
