Margaret Mallory - The Sinner

Alex tried to find Glynis as soon as he had untangled himself from Catherine. Why he felt the need to explain himself to Glynis, he did not know. But for some reason, it was important to him that she not think he was even worse than he actually was.

He still hadn’t seen Glynis when he and Duncan entered the hall for supper. He scanned the room for her. He didn’t have much time left—he was leaving for Edinburgh in the morning.

“Who are ye looking for?” Duncan asked.

“No one,” Alex said.

“Hmmph,” Duncan grunted, but he let it pass. “These rebels are up to something. Donald Gallda and the other chieftains met this afternoon without any of their men present.”

Donald Gallda MacDonald of Lachalsh was the latest MacDonald to take up the leadership of the rebellion. The king had taken him to be raised in the Lowlands after his father’s rebellion, which was the reason Highlanders called him Donald Gallda , the Stranger.

“Let’s split up and see what we can find out,” Alex said.

“I’ll see if that drunken lot knows anything,” Duncan said with a nod toward a table of Maclean warriors. “I assume you’ll talk with the MacNeils.”

Before Alex could ask Duncan what he meant by that remark, Duncan was gone.

Alex found the MacNeil chieftain near the hearth. Judging from his hearty greeting, the man had forgiven Alex for that kiss on the beach.

“I have a warning for ye,” the MacNeil said below the noise of the hall. “No one but the chieftains is to know ahead of time, but we’re attacking Mingary Castle tomorrow.”

“That’s poking a stick in the hornet’s nest.” Mingary was held by the MacIains, who were close allies of the Crown. The Crown would be up in arms over this, which made it all the more important for Alex to get to Edinburgh to reassure the regent.

“If ye don’t want to be part of it, be gone by morning.” The MacNeil glanced about to be sure no one was listening. “They intend to give you and Duncan the choice to fight with us or be the first to die in the battle.”

If Connor’s close cousin and the captain of his guard participated in the attack, the Crown’s allies would hear of it, and their clan would be committed to the rebellion.

“The sly dogs.” Alex should have expected it.

“I don’t agree with forcing a chieftain’s hand like that,” the MacNeil said. “But after the others saw ye fight, they were determined to see ye on the right side or dead.”

“I appreciate the warning.” They would all have to leave tonight, he to Edinburgh, and Duncan and the rest of their men to Skye.

“Being Highlanders, these other chieftains will be all the more impressed if ye succeed in sneaking out of here under their noses,” the MacNeil said, and they both laughed.

“They’ll never hear us leave,” Alex said with a wink. He was anxious to talk with Duncan, but that would have to wait until after the meal. “Shall we find your daughter and sit down?”

“She’s sitting at the high table tonight.”

Alex turned and saw Glynis was indeed at the high table, sitting next to the weasel with the weedy beard. “Who is that?”

“Shaggy’s second son, Alain.” The MacNeil elbowed him. “He would be a good match for my Glynis.”

“ Him? ” Alex stared at the pair at the head table for a long moment, trying to decide if the MacNeil chieftain was having a joke on him.

“Aye,” the MacNeil said, nodding. “Alain is a chieftain’s son from a strong clan that supports the rebellion, and she’s known him all her life.”

“He’s not a man I would trust,” Alex said.

For a brief moment, Glynis met his eyes. But when Alex smiled and nodded, she turned her head.

“And you are?” MacNeil asked him.

“Are what?” Alex asked, with his gaze still on Glynis.

“A man to be trusted.”

That got his attention. Alex knew exactly what the MacNeil chieftain was asking him. He heard his mother’s voice in his head, as if she were standing right next to him. Ye will be just like your father!

And Alex had turned out to be like his father. He enjoyed women, though never the same one for long. But in one regard, Alex was determined to be different from his father. He would not make the mistake of marrying a good woman and causing her to hate him.

“Your daughter would have her dirk in me in no time,” Alex said. “And I’d deserve it.”

“Alain will do,” the MacNeil chieftain said. “Of course, I’d prefer that she and Magnus Clanranald patched up their differences.”

Alex spun around to stare at him. “Ye can’t mean it,” he said, struggling to keep his voice low. “Magnus is a vile man—and he’s a danger to her.”

“Ach,” MacNeil said, dismissing this with a wave of his hand. “They got off to a bad start. A little time is all they need—and a babe, of course. A babe would solve the problem. Ye can’t blame Magnus for wanting an heir. Every man does.”

He’d send her back to Magnus? Alex wanted to pound the MacNeil’s thick head on the table, but knocking sense into the man was clearly a hopeless task.

Alex drank down his ale, wishing to God that Shaggy served whiskey instead.

* * *

The bar across the door creaked as Glynis slid it back. Over the pounding in her ears, she heard one of the women on the bed behind her sigh. Her hands shook as she waited for the woman to call out to her.

There was a rustle of bedclothes, and she held her breath, waiting. Silence settled over the room again. Moving as quickly as she dared in the blackness, Glynis picked up the cloth bag she had left beside the door, lifted her cloak from the peg, and slipped out.

Panic surged through her limbs as a large hand covered her mouth.

CHAPTER 9

Don’t scream. It’s me.” Alex didn’t release his hand from Glynis’s mouth until she nodded.

“I asked ye to meet me outside the kitchens,” she whispered.

“Quiet. We can’t talk here.” He put his arm around her and swept her down the stairs before someone in one of the bedchambers heard them and came out to investigate.

When they reached the main floor, he continued down into the undercroft. With so many guests in the castle, they could find servants sleeping or still working in the kitchens, so he grabbed a lit torch off the wall and shoved her into a storeroom.

“What were ye thinking asking me to meet ye at this hour?” he said, as he rammed the torch into the sconce on the wall.

Alex had been on the galley sorting out the supplies he needed to take with him to Edinburgh when a young boy appeared and told him that a lady wanted him to meet her at midnight outside the kitchens. This was not the first time he’d had that sort of request. He was about to send the lad away, but something made him ask the lad to describe the lady first.

“I’m glad ye came,” Glynis said.

“Ye gave me no choice,” he said. “I couldn’t have ye wandering around a castle full of warriors—half of them drunk— looking for me in the dark.”

He took a deep breath. He had wanted to say good-bye to her—and to explain about what she’d seen when she walked in on him and Catherine—but he didn’t have a lot of time. He was meeting Duncan soon, and then they were all leaving.

“Why did ye want to see me?” he asked.

“When I talked with your friend Duncan this afternoon, he told me you’re going to Edinburgh.”

How had she gotten closemouthed Duncan to share their business with her?

“I want ye to take me with ye,” she said.

Alex could not have been more stunned if she’d sprouted fairy wings and flown over the pots and bags of grain in the storeroom. Just what was Glynis suggesting? His heart gave a big lurch as he considered the possibility that she might actually want to run off with him. Apparently, she liked what she saw of him earlier today.