Page 94 of Outlaw Ever After

“But it’s signed with a C, ” MacGregor said. “Like the outlaw’s name. Caleb Comyn.” Well hell. When he’d written that missive, he’d been wrestling with Peigi’s request to be honest with her. He’d given an inch, desperate for her to hear and know his real name, who he really was. “Ye should thrust Alexander’s arse in the dungeon.”

Seamus tapped the missive on the desk. “I have to verify this suspicion first.”

Alex’s eyes narrowed at the unexpected response. Verify? What was to verify? Their guts were telling them the truth about who he really was.

MacGregor scoffed. “This old argument again? Seamus Grant, too fair to act boldly? It’s how the outlaw got away in the first place. Ye, too worried to upset yer fragile mither who was begging ye for leniency, and Peigi’s strange supplications that ye free the cretin.”

Peigi had once begged Seamus to free him? Even as a wee lass of nine years she’d stood up to him?

“Believe me, I’m furious,” Seamus growled defensively. “But we can nay act in haste only to discover Alexander is the victim of uncanny coincidence.”

“After seeing his back this morn, there’s no way it’s coincidence.” MacGregor sliced his hand.

“What of his back?”

“Those lashings didna put themselves there. I did, when ye failed to hang him upon arresting him.”

Alex’s mind reeled. It hadn’t been Seamus? He’d been so terrified then, so weak compared to the bigger, stronger lads exacting their anger in their slain sires’ steads. The granary had been dark. He’d thought it had been Seamus who’d struck that lash over, and over , leaving him in the dirt face down, only to be roused later by a wee lass…

Be damned, he wanted to hate Seamus, and yet, Joslyn’s words came back to him, about Seamus’s mother gentling him. The nearly affectionate way she’d spoken of Seamus’s grief. And the odd distrust he felt wafting off of Seamus.

“All I ever wanted was for the outlaw to be brought in for questioning,” Seamus said darkly. “And when I found out that cottage was in fact owned—by another clan, mind ye—I realized yer sire and my aunt had been wrong to try and take it.”

What?

“If we act now and apprehend him ye can have yer wish,” MacGregor said, pounding his fist into his palm.

Still, Seamus stood in eerie composure, staring at MacGregor as if lost in some other thought. “Peigi has begged me to stand down.”

“Peigi kens nay the devil she allowed into her heart. Ye must act in her best interest, man. Ye should have married her to me at Lughnasadh.”

“My sister begged nay.”

MacGregor’s jaw ticked at that.

“She was adamant she did nay wish to marry yet,” Seamus clarified, but Alex knew: she’d been waiting to elope with a man who didn’t come in time. “Jitters.”

“Why did she change her mind about this tournament?”

“Circumstances changed.” Peigi had found out she was with child. At what point had she miscarried and needed the care of the nunnery? All alone, shouldering the shame, his quiet songbird. Guilt gnawed. “She wrote to me that she would agree.”

“Why nay write to me and simply betroth her? Why this fanfare?”

Seamus cleared his throat. “She, eh, wasna sure ye’d be interested, considering how she rejected ye.”

A diplomatic lie if Alex had ever heard one. Peigi didn’t want MacGregor. That much was growing clear.

“Never ye worry.” MacGregor seemed to recover. “With Bale working for Arran, I dare say in light of this discovery about Scotland’s deputy comptroller, it behooves ye to have my royal connection. If ye help me win it, we can send for reinforcements from Arran, reveal to him the outlaw the archbishop has employed, and then finally have our justice.”

“Are ye suggesting I throw this tourney in yer favor?”

“What others nay ken will nay hurt them.” MacGregor shrugged. “All these opportunistic men salivating over the prize when what they really want is this strategic estate.”

“Careful I nay accuse ye of the same thing, man.” Seamus jested, but Alex could hear an undercurrent of strain, see a tick to Seamus’s thick jaw.

“Except I’ve kenned Peigi since she was a babe. I’ve waited all these years. I’ve been there for her on her darkest day when the outlaw now vying for her, orphaned her.”

“I need irrefutable evidence that it’s him. Mayhap hear Bale’s witness statement again.”