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‘We have ancestors in common on my mother’s side, so I am acquainted with them. I bribed Gregor Moncur to snatch Conall. It was risky, but the man was ruined, desperate for money, even prepared to sell his own daughter to a rank, old lecher and go up against Clan Campbell. He was supposed to kill him outright, but then the old man must have got greedy, started toying with the idea of a ransom, so he kept him alive, well, at the edge of death at least, all to make you sweat, to up his price. If she hadn’t helped him….’
‘That’s a pretty tale, Meyrick, but it’s not entirely true, is it? You and Gregor Moncur didn’t come up with this plan by yourselves. Who put you up to it?’
‘No one. It was my idea. I hated Conall and wanted him gone.’
‘Because of your claim to be of Conall’s bloodline, to share a great grandfather?’
‘No, as it happens, my father confessed on his death bed that it was all a lie, that my grandfather was not old Hugh Campbell but could have been one of several men. My grandmother was a bit free with her favours, as it turns out. No doubt Hugh availed himself of her services along with several others, so no, I didn’t hate Conall for that reason. I just hated him, always have.’
‘There’s plenty of wood around here, Meyrick. It would be an easy thing for me to watch you burn as you would have watched Kenna burn. I’ve done far worse to others. And mark me, I shall burn you slowly, make you suffer, make you really feel it if you don’t tell me what I want to know.’
The look on Murray’s face must have left Meyrick in no doubt that he meant what he’d said, for he stooped and picked up the sword.
‘Who was it, Meyrick? Tell me that, and your death will clean and so quick you will barely feel it.’
‘I…I need time. I don’t want to die.’’
‘You were dead the moment you stood up in that court and condemned Kenna. These are your last minutes on this earth, so spare your soul and confess.’ Murray raised his sword and took a step closer.
‘Alright. Stop. It was the Grants. It was Clan Grant. You took their Laird and his heir on Mallach Moor, and they wanted an eye for an eye, to kill Duncan’s son, to break him. They don’t want Clan Campbell strong again, and they’ll do anything to stop Duncan getting favour with the King.’
His voice was shaking, and Murray could see he was bargaining for his life with every bit of information he had. The Grants he would have to deal with later, along with Ross Moncur, but now his task was to end Meyrick. Killing a man in cold blood was something Murray had put well behind him, but he did not falter. This man had torn his family apart. He had condemned Kenna to a horrifying end, all because he could not have her, and he would always be a threat if he continued to draw breath.
‘Do you have any last words Meyrick? If so speak them now, to God or to me, I care not which. But, either way, you will not leave this forest alive.’
Meyrick swallowed hard, and tears filled his eyes. ‘I loved her. In my way, I truly loved her.’
‘You condemned Kenna to an awful death. Would you have been there as she screamed, as the smoke choked her lungs and flesh melted from her bones?’
‘Aye, I would. I’d have been there at her end, and when she was ashes, I would have put a knife in my heart so that we were together, forever.’
‘And you think that is love?’
‘It is.’
‘That is not love. That is something twisted and evil.’
‘No. I loved Kenna, utterly and completely. I would have made her my wife, given her everything, my heart, my soul, but he corrupted her, turned her head with his wealth and station in life. The bastard wouldn’t die. Even when I sent him into hell, he came out of it with an angel by his side. Kenna didn’t give me a second thought when Conall called. So if I couldn’t have her, then why should he, for he is no more deserving of that woman than I am? I couldn’t see her suffer him.’
‘So instead, you would see her burn.’
‘It would have been a pure death, and then she would have been at peace, we both would have. It was the kindest thing. And she was a witch. She did something to me the day she came to Dunslair. She brought me so low. I had to end her life to end my suffering.’
‘As I have to end you, Meyrick,’ said Murray.
***
The river usually held onto the hapless creatures who died in its murky grasp. Their bodies snagged on fallen branches or foundered in shallow pools, stuck there to swell and rot in the sun. But that day, it was angry with rainwater, so, impatiently, it roared onwards, and with it, Meyrick’s body, sliding over boulders and twisting and bumping against grassy banks, all the way on until it hit the sea. There, the dark, swirling waves sucked it down, to be consumed by whatever lurked in the fathomless depths.
And so, even though he wasn’t one of them, the Moncur curse claimed another victim.
Epilogue
‘I feel strange, Conall, my legs are unsteady, and my head is spinning.’
‘Aye, you must find your feet now you are on dry land. Will you miss it?’
‘The ocean - never. I am so glad to get off that stinking tub.’
