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Blair frowned, remembering her first time meeting the laird. He had stared at her with such adoration and familiarity. There was something in his eyes she recognized. Those eyes had softened staring back at her in her own reflection. He had told her he knew her mother once. He had asked her about her Mamó.
What laird would do such a thing?
Her heart leaped into her throat, and she shook her head. He had been a kind man. That was the only thing she could ever allow herself to believe. There had been nothing more than kindness, at least that’s what she always told herself. If she allowed herself to dig deeper, to truly think about the laird’s actions, it only hurt. For it meant that he was so much more to her than a laird. It meant that he had left her. He had left her mother to their fates.
“Come on, lass, speak up. Ye must know the truth.”
Blair sniffed as tears streamed down her face. “I know nothing,” she whimpered while shaking her head, not wanting to think anything more about the laird and his kindness. “What ye say is true. I am foolish, and I am innocent. I know nothing of what ye speak.”
Alisa scoffed, and she snapped her fingers. Blair struggled in her bonds as the guard stalked towards her, grabbing the armrest and spinning her around. The chair screeched with the movement. She bit back a whimper as she stared at the stone wall before her with chains and cuffs hanging from its ceilings., making Blair whimper. Hot breath nauseated her nose, and she clenched her jaw to keep from sobbing as she felt the soldier leer at her from her side.
Did they mean to put her in there? Were they going to torture her?
“I know ye know,” Alisa whispered into her ear. “Tell me.”
“I know nothing,” Blair insisted while shaking her head. “Laird MacBean was a kind man.”
The soldier chuckled in her other ear, making her shudder. “Tell her,” he whispered. “Ye know the truth. Ye must know it.”
Blair clamped her eyes closed while shaking her head. “Laird MacBean was a kind man,” she said once more, her voice insistent.
“Laird MacBean was a cruel man!” Alisa shouted. “He made my sister cry every night and day. It did not matter to him that he broke her heart. It did not matter to him that she died while he whored himself out to the village women.” Alisa grabbed Blair’s shoulders, squeezing them tight as she leaned forward. “For she had kept him from loving another,” she whispered in Blair’s ear with a dark chuckle.
Blair shook her head as more tears left her closed eyes. She didn’t want to open them. She didn’t want to look at the cruel people surrounding her. A soft sob escaped her lips while she tried to imagine her Mamó in a field of primroses.
“Do ye know the woman he loved most of all?”
“Nae,” Blair sobbed.
“Yer mother.”
Blair ground her teeth to keep from sobbing. Memories of the laird flashed before her eyes. She recalled the way he stared at her. The way he stared at her with those eyes that were just like her own.
“Yer lying,” Blair whimpered, yet deep down, she suspected she knew the truth all along. She just did not want to believe it.
“Believe me or not, that’s yer last right in this life.” Alisa chuckled bitterly. “If ye had only married my son, he would be able to claim the lairdship from Aindreas, and ye would have lived. I suppose I must find another way now. With ye being dead, that shan’t be too hard.”
Blair gasped, her eyes snapping open as she felt the chair tipping over, her hands slamming against the cold stone of the floor. She clenched her jaw to keep from crying out. Her hands wriggled, trying to break the binds holding them together, but the rope was tied too tight. She tried to ignore Alisa’s words, tried to focus on saving herself, but she couldn’t stop the words from taking hold of her.
She was the laird’s daughter.
The laird was her father.
And now he was gone.
Blair cried quietly as a tartan was thrown over her body. She felt her body being picked up, wishing for time to reverse so she may spend more time with the man who had taken her in. But now, with death approaching her, she knew it didn’t matter. She didn’t matter. Alisa would kill her while Aindreas was with another woman.
That was to be Blair’s end.
“Dump her in the loch,” she heard Alisa’s dark words. “For that is where she truly belongs.”
