Page 15 of Laird of Wrath

“Do ye think I daenae ken that?” Callum roared, his face reddening with rage. “In case ye have forgotten, there was nay time for producin’ an heir. I was forced to leave the castle at dawn after me weddin’. I went towar, and ye stayed here to protect the clan, me wife, and me sister. And ye couldnae even do that.”

Silence fell over the room.

Callum shook his head to himself, disappointed that the very men who had been chosen by him and his father to serve as the protectors of the clan had been so quick to try and replace him.

Six months. I didnae send word for six months, and they all but buried me.

He was surprised there wasn’t an empty grave with his name on it.

“Well, ye’re here now,” Grier said. “And as far as we ken, Laird Barclay is gone.”

“Aye, he is,” Callum grunted. He would not have tolerated the man’s presence for a single moment longer. “But that doesnae mean that everythin’ is fine. How can I trust ye, any of ye, whenye allowed that man to come here with such arrogance and demand me sister’s hand?”

Once more, no one spoke, though Callum didn’t expect them to. He only needed to make it known that all of them had disappointed him, infuriated him—betrayedhim. He only needed to make it known that from then on, they would have to gain his trust once more if they wanted to remain on the council.

“Ye gave Laird Barclay an open door to our clan,” he added, looking every councilman in the eye. “Daenae be surprised if he tries to come back.”

“Ach, me Laird, he wouldnae—” Grier began.

“Wouldnae he?” Callum shouted, interrupting him. “If ye were him, wouldnae ye try to take this clan? He thinks me weak. He thinksusweak. And he thinks us weak because ofye. Because ye were ready to sell me sister to him.”

The silence that followed was suffocating, weighed down by his fury. He had half a mind to send them all away, to replace them with a different set of twelve men from the clan’s ranks, but many of them were too experienced, too valuable to dismiss.

“I want ye all to consider yer positions in this clan,” Callum said harshly, walking to the door. “And decide whether ye wish to keep them.”

With that, he was gone. He had nothing else to say to them, nor did he want to give them any chance to express their concerns.

He had been gone for a long time; that much was true. He had been silent for much of that time as well, but not because he didn’t want to send word.

His councilmen hadn’t been there on the battlefield. They hadn’t experienced the war he had. They hadn’t witnessed the brutality of it, the pain, the death. They hadn’t been cut off from the rest of the world like he had and plunged straight into a nightmare.

Damn them. Damn them all. To sit there and tell me it was me fault because I was gone. The nerve of them!

As he stalked down the corridor, he heard the sound of familiar laughter—his sister, laughing with her whole heart. He raised an eyebrow, his interest piqued.

He rounded the corner to the eastern wing of the castle to see Sienna there, along with Rhea and that maid who seemed to follow her everywhere—Lara.

“Daenae kill it!” Lara was shouting, waving her hands in the air frantically as she put herself between Rhea and?—

The wall?

“If I daenae kill it, it will sting someone!” Rhea argued, her shoe held threateningly in her hand. “It’s trapped! It’s afraid! I cannae just leave it!”

“It’s a sign of wealth, me Lady!” Lara cried. “Of prosperity! Ye cannae kill a sign!”

“Lara, it’s a bee,” Rhea said, and promptly sidestepped the maid to whack her shoe against the wall. It was an instant kill.

She seems quite skilled with… the shoe.

Callum certainly did not want to be its next target.

Lara cried out, a heartbroken sound escaping her as she bent down to scoop the bee in her palms.

“There goes the wealth,” she bemoaned. “And we certainly needed it, me Lady.”

Callum came to stand behind her. Sienna was the first to notice him, as she was the only one facing his way, and she gave him a barely restrained smile. Rhea was next, hiding the shoe behind her back as if she expected him to berate her for it—and as if he couldn’t see that her foot was bare, save for her stocking.

Lara was the last one to notice him, and she turned to look at him with wide, fearful eyes, as she often did.