Page 135 of The Laird's Masked Passion

“By wine.”

“It was French.”

Margaret leaned toward Elspeth. “They have told this story for ten years. Each time, Domhnall comes nearer tae death.”

“In another decade,” Elspeth replied, “he will have been buried and miraculously restored.”

Domhnall pointed at her. “At last, a reasonable woman.”

“Dinnae become attached,” Colin said. “She is rarely reasonable.”

Elspeth looked at him over the rim of her cup. “And yet ye appear remarkably attached.”

Silence claimed the upper table for one dangerous heartbeat. Niall lowered his gaze to hide a smile. Domhnall did not bother. Colin reached for his wine.

“Eat,” he ordered.

“How fortunate,” Elspeth said to Margaret. “I feared marriage might deprive me of instruction.”

Margaret laughed. The lighter mood travelled down the tables. It did not erase the empty places left for the dead, nor the guards standing at every entrance, but laughter returned in cautious measures. Men spoke of roads and hunting. Margaret asked Elspeth about the castle, while Niall informed Murdoch that the northern whisky required urgent rescue from MacKenzie ownership.

For a little while, the hall remembered how to live.

Then Murdoch spoke. “Robert willnae stop until blood answers blood.”

Conversation thinned around them. Murdoch sat below the dais with Breac and the senior councilmen. Firelight caught the scar at his jaw as he leaned forward.

“He has lost men at the cathedral, the feast, and the passage,” he continued. “Each failure will make him bolder. Men such as Munro mistake restraint fer weakness.”

“Then we remove the mistake,” Domhnall said.

One of the older councilmen shifted in his seat. “There is another concern.”

Colin looked at him. “Speak.”

The man glanced toward Elspeth, then away. That alone was warning enough.

“Munro’s attacks worsened after the marriage. First the cathedral, then the feast. Three guards have now died within days of Lady Elspeth entering these lands.”

The hall grew very still. Elspeth’s hand stopped beside her plate.

The councilman continued, encouraged perhaps by the fact that Colin had not yet killed him.

“I mean nay disrespect. But the lady’s presence may have brought too much danger too quickly. Perhaps until this matter is settled, she should be sent somewhere safer… or returned tae her family.”

Colin set down his cup. The small sound carried farther than shouting would have done.

“Nay.”

The councilman swallowed. “Me laird?—”

“Robert attacked the cathedral before Elspeth understood she was being married. He sent men against unarmed families because he chose murder. He killed guards because they stood between him and these walls.”

Colin’s voice remained low. Still, every person in the hall listened.

“Me wife didnae bring violence here. Robert did.”

The councilman lowered his gaze. “I only meant?—”