Page 10 of Highland Steel

“Kill him . . . and get . . . the sword back. Take it . . . to England. Tell the king I stole it . . . and forced you and your siblings . . . to come with me. You can talk him . . . into a pardon.”

“You stole the king’s sword?” she spat. “Nay. You told me he gave it to you.”

Her father tried to laugh but ended up wincing. “That sword is too valuable. The king would never . . . give it away. He killed Scots . . . to get it.”

“By the rood, I cannot believe this!” she said through gritted teeth. “Now it makes sense why you wanted us all to come with you. If we’d stayed in England, we would have been condemned for your crime. And that’s why you even had Blaine and Newell traveling in disguise. I can’t believe you did this, Father.”

“Rhoswen, listen,” he said, but she kept on going.

“Our plan was to use that sword in trade to get Lockie,” she said, speaking of her six-month-old nephew. “You never said anything about killing the Highlander!”

“Listen to me,” he said again, trying to wet his lips with his tongue. His eyes slowly closed and then reopened. “Drummond . . . killed your sister.”

“Nay,” she said, not wanting to believe it. She spoke softly so the others wouldn’t hear their conversation. “Ailsa was married to Ranulph as part of an alliance and you know it. He wouldn’t have killed her. She died birthing his son.”

“Not true,” he ground out. “She died when . . . Drummond discovered . . . it wasn’t his . . . baby.”

“What are you saying, Father? Ailsa was a virgin when she left England to live in the Highlands.”

“What’s the matter?” asked Logan walking up behind her. “What is yer faither sayin’? Is there a problem?”

“Nay,” she answered. “I just need a moment of privacy, please,” she told him, holding back the tears and trying to maintain her composure. Logan nodded and instructed everyone to step into the next room.

Once they were gone, her father continued.

“Your sister was . . . not a virgin. Your mother and I . . . knew it.”

“Nay, that’s not true. My older sister was an angel.”

“When she left . . . England. . . she was already pregnant. With the stableboy’s seed.”

“The stableboy?” gasped Rhoswen, not able to believe what she’d just heard. “Didn’t our stableboy die right after Ailsa went to Scotland?”

“I . . . killed him for what . . . he did.”

“Nay!” She stood upright and took a step backward. Suddenly, she felt like she didn’t even know her father. “What about Mother?” she asked with a stiff upper lip. “Did she really take her own life mourning Ailsa’s death? Or was it because of you that she did it? Or did you mayhap kill her, too?”

“Nay,” he said and moaned in pain. It was using all of his energy to speak. “I loved your mother. She took her own life . . . because I betrothed Ailsa . . . to a Highlander. And Ailsa was murdered.”

“Papa, I cannot believe what I’m hearing!”

“I betrothed her to . . . save face. So our . . . family’s name wasn’t sullied.”

“You disgust me! How could you do such a thing to your own daughter? You are not the man I thought you to be. You purposely sent her far away and endangered her by marrying her off to a Highlander in a fake alliance, knowing she was already pregnant. It is your fault that Drummond killed her. You sent her to her death!” Rhoswen’s lip trembled and her knees quaked. Her fists clenched at her sides. How could her father have done these horrible things? And how could she have been so gullible that she hadn’t even known about it?

“I was . . . wrong,” he admitted, struggling to breathe now. “I was angry with Ailsa . . . but I loved her.”

“Well, you have a twisted way of showing it,” snapped Rhoswen. “Ailsa is gone and all we have to remember her by is her child. I thought that is why we’d planned this mission – to get Lockie. God’s teeth! I still cannot believe you stole the king’s sword to trade it for Ailsa’s child!”

“Forget the boy,” said her father. “He’s only . . . a bastard.”

Rhoswen’s eyes opened wide and her jaw dropped to hear her father say this. “That little boy might not have a true father, but he is of our flesh and blood and don’t you forget it. I will never just leave him to the Scots as you suggest. Why did I ever let you talk us into coming with you? You never cared about anyone other than yourself. You never wanted that sword to trade for Lockie, did you? You only wanted it because the legend is that whoever uses it is undefeated. God’s eyes, you wanted the sword all along for revenge – just to kill Drummond, didn’t you?”

“Rhoswen, I’m dying. Listen . . . to me. You need to . . . kill Drummond for me.”

“Don’t ask me to do your dirty work after what you’ve just told me.”

“Then do it . . . for your mother. And . . . your sister.”