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‘But you don’t know what happened.’
‘I think the worst.’
‘You think him dead?’
‘I fear it, but I do not feel it. If he were dead, I think I would know it in my heart.’
‘You love Conall, don’t you?’
‘Aye, like my own son. I have watched that lad grow since he was a bairn and a fine young man he is too. But there is wildness in his soul, which leads him to behave like a fool sometimes. I tried to tear it out of him, but it’s too deeply rooted. It is in his blood. If we hunt, he pushes himself too hard, goes too fast like he has a death wish or at least no fear of death. He is young. He thinks he is indestructible, that he can push his way through life and overcome any obstacle. Perhaps he picked a fight with the wrong man or got caught with someone’s wife, and they took their revenge. I don’t know, but if Conall is alive, I must find him, or I will never be able to look his father in the eye again.’
‘Nothing good will come of you going tonight, I know it,’ she said softly.
Rory turned from her quickly and rode out.
Chapter Nine
Kenna was coming with food. He could see the light from her candle brighten the stairs. Conall found himself longing for her company since they had brought him back up to his dungeon, which, in contrast to the oubliette, was sheer luxury. How your world shrinks when all is taken from you, he thought bitterly.
It was three days since they had dragged him back up into the light, after what Kenna told him was close to a month in the shivering darkness. She said many men would have broken in half that time. Since then, his guards had begun to remark on his strength and fortitude when they came to throw him scraps of food, not fit for pigs. Little did they know that Kenna came at night with better fare and lots of it. Conall had taken to pretending to be cast down and starving. He did not approach the bars. He skulked in the shadows so that they could not see him properly, and no one lingered long enough to care. But she did.
After gulping down the cheese, bread and apples she brought him, he smiled at Kenna. Conall had begun to draw her out as he wanted to know more about her life and why she was helping him. If this girl was a trap, he no longer cared, for he liked her. It was as simple as that.
‘Are you not afraid to come down here in the dark, Kenna?’
‘As you have discovered, I have more to fear up above than down here.’
‘And I am sorry for it.’ She was silent and looked away.
‘No more blackberries?’ he said.
‘Someone found my hedgerow and picked all the good ones, and they long ago succumbed to the winter frost anyway.’
‘I’ve lost all track of time.’
‘You cannot see down here Conall, but bad snows came, the land was covered with it for weeks, and it was impassable. It’s all gone now, but people are starving hereabouts. Forgive me for not coming sooner, but I have to be careful I am not seen. I’m hardly allowed out these last days. My brothers keep me close to the castle. Something is not right, but I can’t put my finger on what it is. Usually, they let me do as I please, go where I please.’
‘Your brothers are nothing like you. They certainly don’t have your looks, ugly bastards both of them.’
‘Half-brothers. We have different mothers. Ross was not so bad before he fell off his horse and broke his teeth. Now my brother Bruce is the pretty one, and Ross’s jealousy has made him spiteful, which is why he had you beaten when he first brought you here. He is jealous of you being so handsome.’
‘Not so handsome now, am I?’ said Conall, fingering the scraggly beard along his jaw.
‘You are a bit hairy, it’s true, but at least they haven’t beaten you for a while. The swelling has gone from your face.’
‘Kenna, in the hall, before I was put in the oubliette, why does your father treat you like that? Is it because you are a daughter and not a son?’
She took a deep breath and wrapped her arms around her. ‘My father’s first wife was for breeding. He had no love for her, but she served her purpose, gave him an alliance with a wealthier clan and two sons, Ross and Bruce, before a fever took her. His second was beautiful, a love match, I think, and I was the product of that union and the reason it was cut short. As he said, I killed my mother on the way out of her. Now he is upon his third wife, and she is a drab who leaps to fulfil his every whim.’
‘You don’t like her.’
‘I despise Edme’s weakness and how she fawns over my father and grovels.’
‘So she is no mother to you.’
‘No, nor can she ever be. She is frightened of his fists, so she cowers when he beats me and does nothing to stop it. I think she is just glad he takes his rage out on someone other than her, and I’m not her flesh and blood, so why should she care.’
‘You sound bitter when you talk like that. I’m sorry about your mother.’
