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‘I am not soft.’
‘Aye, looks to me like you are, you’ve filled out a good deal since last we met,’ he said poking her in the side with his finger and enjoying her look of indignation at her vanity being pricked. ‘I mean to compliment you, for you have a woman’s body now, instead of a girl’s.’
‘And you have taken on the look of a brute,’ she retorted.
‘I was always a brute, but you are right, I have collected a few scars along the way, the signs of living a full life.’
‘I’m sure you have been indulging in life fully William O’Neill.’
‘Aye, in all sorts of wicked ways, far beyond your experience, tucked away in Beharra. I told you, I have taken the name of Bain now.’
Morna looked down at her hands. ‘How did you come to be here?’
‘I shall save that for another day. If I tell you, it might give you nightmares.’
They locked eyes and Morna held his gaze unflinchingly until he smiled at her, and then she turned away.
‘The fire is dying. Please, I don’t want to be left in the dark,’ she said quietly.
Will rose and put several big logs on it and came back to sit on the bed, closer this time.
‘It will take you some time to recover from your ordeal. How long were you in that crate?’
‘A day and a night, I think, but it seemed longer. I had no water or food, and I thought I would die there. It was so cold, and the aching in my bones was torture. I begged and pounded on the crate, but they just laughed, I could hear them. When those men put me on the ship, and I realised they must be going out to sea, I thought they would throw me overboard to drown.’
‘Try not to think on it now. That horror is behind you.’
‘It will never be behind me,’ she said, clutching the blankets in white-knuckled fists. Without thinking, Will gently reached over and put his hands over hers.
‘When I tell you that you are safe, I mean it. You can trust me, Morna.’
‘I can trust no one,’ she said coldly, looking down at his mutilated hand and recoiling a little. She did not remark on it, which stung his pride as he would have liked her to show some sympathy after what he had done for her. Will quickly withdrew his hand.
‘We are old friends, are we not?’ he continued.
‘We are little better than strangers, William Bain. One night of acquaintance years ago with me as a prisoner does not make us friends.’
‘Nor does it make us enemies, and I am obliged to you Morna, for saving my life back then. I will discharge that debt by helping you now.’
‘Then you will send word to my brothers, to come and fetch me?’
‘Of course,’ he replied smoothly. ‘I will despatch a messenger at first light depending on the weather. The sea crossing is not too long, but we have to have favourable winds and calm seas.’
Morna let out a breath and relaxed a little.
‘Tell me why Ranulph Gowan took you, Morna?’
‘He did not take me. As I said, I was sold to him by Ramsay Seward.’
‘Ranulph could have refused and kept the peace, built on it even, by sending you back to your family. Seems to me that the old feud lingers still, and Ranulph meant to wound your brothers.’
‘He sent men after Ramsay to kill him so that no one would find out where I had gone.’
‘So, the wretch did not strike out in the open, which means he either fears your brothers, which makes him a coward, or he is clever enough to stay his hand. Perhaps he does not have the strength to take them on at present. But you can be assured he wants to and he will be emboldened by his action here.’
‘You don’t know that.’
‘I make it my business to know men of power and how they think. Besides, us Bains have long had our own feuds to protect against. If I were to strike at my enemies, I would undermine them first, weaken them before I go in for the kill.’
