A Gentle Feuding (4 page)

J
amie shielded his eyes against the sudden light. And then, just as abruptly, a large bundle was pushed through the trapdoor. Bedding? Even a pillow? Jamie frowned. Why would he be getting special treatment? The light disappeared and then returned as a rope ladder slid through the opening. A man started climbing down the ladder. He had two hefty sacks tied to a rope strung behind his neck. He set them down as soon as he reached the floor and turned to face Jamie.

“Your dinner,” he said, indicating the sacks. “There’s wine, and a candle, and some other things.”

Jamie kept his face blank. “You treat all your prisoners so lavishly?”

“I’ll no’ be mincing words with you, lad. I know who you are. We’ve no’ met ’afore face-to-face, but I’m Dugald Fergusson.”

Jamie got to his feet. It was only common courtesy.

“And who is it I’m supposed to be?” he asked.

Dugald raised a reddish brow. “You deny you’re James MacKinnion?”

Jamie sighed. “Nay, I’ll no’ deny it. So where does that leave us, Fergusson?”

“I dinna like it that you’re here any more than you do. But as it is, I have you, and I would be a fool no’ to benefit from it.”

“Naturally.” Jamie sighed. “Have you contacted my clan then?”

“Nay,” Dugald replied with a slight hesitancy. “I’ll no’ deal with them, but with you.”

“With me? And how is that?”

“It has been suggested to me that you should marry one of my daughters.”

Jamie tensed, trying not to look shocked. It was the last thing he’d expected to hear. “And who hates your daughters so, to make such a suggestion?”

Dugald frowned. He hadn’t thought of that. William had suggested Sheena in particular, not just one of his daughters. Did William, in fact, hate Sheena? It bewildered him to think that. He had been aghast at William’s suggesting Sheena, but not at the idea itself, for it was something he had long considered. William’s thinking was sound.

“I dinna like your tone, MacKinnion.”

“And I dinna like your suggestion!” Jamie snapped. “If I ever marry again, and I have no inten
tion of doing so, it certainly wouldna be a Fergusson.”

“Dinna think I like giving you one of my daughters!” Dugald replied sharply.

“Then why are we discussing this?”

“I want peace, lad.”

“Do you?” Jamie said dryly. “You should have thought about that ’afore you began the feud again.”

Dugald was stunned. “
I
didna break the peace! You did!”

Jamie might have laughed if it weren’t so pathetic. He had been right about Dugald Fergusson. The man was insane, and no mistake. He would get nowhere arguing with a man addled in his wits.

He sighed. “If ’tis peace you really want, I’ll give it to you. You have my word on it.”

“Och, lad, I wish I could accept your word, truly. But I’d be a fool to trust you.”

“That leaves you nowhere, then.”

“Nay, it leaves you here, permanently, unless you accept one of my daughters and agree to trouble us no more.”

“Old man.” An iciness crept into Jamie’s tone. “You keep me here at great risk, you know.”

“I’m no’ so sure. I dinna think we’ll be attacked if attack would put your life in danger.”

Jamie nearly exploded. “You threaten my life, and my men will tear your tower down stone by stone.”

“Then you’ll die!” Dugald shouted, just as angry.
This was not going the way William had said it would. Yet he was committed to this plan, this way of getting a treaty.

“You’ll change your mind when you’re here long enough,” Dugald said, not all that confidently, however.

The words made Jamie seethe. The man would not tell his clan that he was here. He tried a different tactic.

“Very well, Fergusson. I’ll marry one of your daughters, if you’ll agree to my terms.”

Dugald was surprised, and leery. “You’re no’ in a position to demand terms.”

“Then we’ve no more to talk about.”

Dugald glared at him. “What terms? I’ll hear them. I am a reasonable man.”

“I was married once ’afore.”

“Aye, there’s no’ many dinna know that.”

Jamie shrugged. The tragedy of his marriage was well known, but few knew the truth.

“I didna know my wife, nor she me, ’afore the wedding,” Jamie continued coldly. “I’ll no’ go into more of it, for ’tis something I never talk about. Enough to say…the marriage was a mistake.”

“What has that to do with my daughter?”

“If I had tried the girl I married ’afore the wedding, I’d have known she was so frightened of men she couldna bear a man’s touch. I swore I’d never marry again without trying the girl first. Are you willing for me to try all four of your daughters ’afore I choose one?”

Dugald had turned bright red even before Jamie was finished. “There will be no trying of my daughters—nor handfasting, either!” he growled. “And ’tis only three daughters I’m letting you choose from, no’ four!”

Jamie’s humor returned and he couldn’t resist baiting Fergusson. “You’ve four daughters, Fergusson, and no’ one wed yet? What is wrong with the one you’re no’ offering me?”

“She’s betrothed.”

“You surprise me, old man. You think I dinna know what goes on here? That I’m no’ aware of the three matches you’ve made in the last months, and with which clans? If ’tis your youngest you’re no’ offering, why no’ say so?”

“You can have my youngest, though if you’ve any decency, you’ll no’ choose her. She’s too young to wed,” Dugald retorted. “’Tis my oldest you canna have.”

“Why? Has she a love match?”

“Nay, she’s the only one who doesna want to marry yet, and if we have peace, she’ll no’ have to.”

“Ahhh…now I ken. She’s your favorite, eh? Too good for the savage MacKinnion?”

Dugald wouldn’t answer. “When you’re tired of this hole, lad, I’ll let you see my daughters and make a choice.” Jamie’s humor was gone, and his voice was coldly final. “I wasna jesting when I said I must try my wife ’afore marrying her.”

“You’ll change your mind after a while in here.”

Soon Jamie was alone again and doubly furious.
To think he had been fretting about facing the jesting of his kin! There had never been the slightest notion that he wouldn’t be released.

There would be no cause for worry, even now, if only his clan knew he was there. Old Dugald had just been bluffing about that. Faced with an actual attack, he would have no choice but to let Jamie go. But who was to tell his clan he was there?

For hours he contemplated revenge, and soon the empty wine flask lay in his lap. But his anger kept him sober. He devised countless ways to make an unwanted wife suffer. And—sweetest revenge—he would not kill Dugald Fergusson, but take him prisoner and daily report to him the abuse of his daughter. Too bad it could not be the favorite daughter.

Jamie’s anger buzzed around him. He could not remember ever feeling so frustrated. Even when his first marriage was arranged for him, he had not really felt trapped. He had not wanted the Mackintosh girl. She had been a bonny lass, but a stranger. His father had wanted the match, and so it was done. He would not even have considered disobeying his father’s wish. Afterward, both father and son greatly regretted the marriage. Instead of an alliance, they made fresh enemies, for the Mackintosh laird blamed them for his daughter’s death.

The creaking of the trapdoor signaled that Jamie was to have more company. He was too incensed to speak to the laird again. “If that’s you, Fergusson, I’ll thank you to leave me be. I’m no’ finished yet
devising all the ways I’ll be making your daughter suffer when she’s my wife.”

Jamie heard a gasp and leaned forward to try to see into the opening. “If that’s no’ you, old man, then who?”

“’Tis me.”

“Who is me?” Jamie growled.

“Niall Fergusson.”

“Is it now?” Jamie sneered, leaning back against the hard wall. “The very lad who keeps his word for but a few hours? Come to gloat, have you, over your fooling The MacKinnion into believing there was honor in your oath?”

“I didna mean to betray you,” Niall said in a weak, frightened voice.

“Now you insult me with lies. There is no half measure in a betrayal.”

“But I told only my sister,” Niall protested. “She would have kept the secret.”

“Then the bitch—”

“Dinna call her that!” Niall cut him off with such fury that he surprised both of them. After a moment, with more control, he said, “She told no one. ’Twas another sister who overheard me in the telling and ran to my father. I couldna stop her. But I dinna disclaim the responsibility. The fault was mine. ’Tis why I risked coming here again—to tell you how sorry I am.”

“You canna be as sorry as I, lad,” Jamie said bitterly. “And I swear if I had my hands around your
neck at this moment, you’d see how I repay those who betray me.”

Niall’s breath came with difficulty, as if those very hands were indeed about his neck. “What did my father say to make you so angry?”

“Dinna jabber now and pretend you’ve no idea!” Jamie hissed.

“But he didna tell me. He’s no’ happy that I kept your identity from him.”

“Then let me have the honor of telling you we’ll be brothers-in-law ’afore long,” Jamie said with heavy sarcasm.

“I dinna believe you!” Niall replied raggedly. “He wouldna give her to you. She’s his favorite.”

Jamie’s brows narrowed thoughtfully. “You dinna like the idea of my marrying your sister?”

“Why should you?”

“Because your father willna let me out of this hole until I do.”

Niall sucked in his breath. “But your clan will come.”

“He intends to hold them off by threatening my life. He has it all planned. Your father has made certain I will marry your sister.”

“But she’d rather die than marry you,” Niall groaned.

Jamie laughed. It was obvious that the father’s favorite was also the son’s. Let him think his beloved sister was the one Jamie was to marry. He deserved to suffer, if only for a short while.

“She will indeed wish for death once she is
mine…but I’ll make sure she lives,” Jamie said ominously.

“You wouldna really hurt her, would you?”

“Aye, I would. For ’tis forced I am to marry her, and I dinna like being forced.”

“But ’tis no’
her
fault,” Niall insisted. “She has no say in this, either!”

“Your father is no’ considering that, so I willna, either,” Jamie said darkly.

Such vindictiveness was beyond Niall, and he was getting more and more frightened. “You have no’ seen my sister, MacKinnion. She is a rare beauty. Truly, you would be pleased to have her for your wife.”

“Lad, you dinna ken,” Jamie replied coldly. “It doesna matter if she is the most bonny lass in all of Scotland; she’s her father’s daughter, and I’ll make her suffer for being that. After I wed her and take her home with me, she’ll never leave my castle. She’ll be locked in a tower forever. I’ll visit her twice a day, once to beat her and once to rape her. That is the life she will live.”

There was only silence, and after a while Jamie said, “You’ve naught to say, Niall Fergusson?”

“If I thought you’d really treat my sister so, I’d have to kill you.”

Jamie laughed. “You’re welcome to try, if you like. But you ken you’ll be cutting your own throat and your sister’s and even your whole family’s. You won’t kill The MacKinnion and live long enough to tell about it.”

The trapdoor slammed shut. Jamie’s mouth tightened in a snarl. Taunting the boy had not relieved his smoldering rage.

Before an hour had passed, the trapdoor opened again, and Niall poked his head over the opening. Jamie shrugged. He had known the boy wouldn’t keep the story to himself. He was too frightened.

“So you’ve confronted your father, have you?”

“Nay. ’Twill do no good to try to change his mind. And I told you, he’s no’ happy with me right now. He’d no’ listen to me one way or the other.”

Jamie relaxed. The boy had not come back to call him a liar. He still didn’t know the sister he feared for was safe from Jamie.

“So what has brought you here again, lad?” he asked.

“I canna face my sister tomorrow, knowing what I know,” Niall said miserably. “I canna bear it that she’ll be suffering. You’ve confirmed what she already believed about you. ’Tis why she’d rather die than go to you.”

“You think I’ll let another wife of mine kill herself?” Jamie snapped. “She’ll no’ die. I’ll see to that!”

“I wonder which is better,” Niall responded brokenly.

“You’ve a lot to learn, lad,” Jamie sneered. “Where there’s life, there’s hope.”

“You dinna give
me
much hope,” Niall said, but plunged ahead anyway. “I’ve come to plead with
you no’ to hurt my sister for what was none of her doing. Please.”

Jamie was touched. The boy had courage. And he loved his sister.

“You listen to me, lad, and listen well. I’ve no sympathy for this sister of yours. ’Tis your father you’ll have to plead with. I’ve no choice in this matter, not really.”

“You’re wrong. You could treat her fairly if you wanted to.”

“But I don’t want to. Why should I? I’m naught but a savage, remember?”

“Then I canna let you wed her.”

“If you’ve a way to stop it, lad, you have my gratitude.” Jamie gave the promise lightly, for he was past hope, and he couldn’t take the boy very seriously.

“I’ll let you go,” Niall stated after a pause.

“What’s that?”

“I’ll let you go,” Niall said firmly. “’Tis the only way. You’ll be gone, and she’ll be safe from you.”

Jamie jumped up. He could hardly contain his sudden excitement. “Are you serious, lad?”

“Did I no’ say it?”

“When?”

“Now, while the tower sleeps.”

Without further ado, the ladder came sliding through the opening. But it stopped just short of Jamie’s outstretched hand, then snapped back several feet.

Jamie was beside himself with disappointment. “’Tis a cruel game you’re playing, lad?”

“Nay,” Niall assured him. “But I’m remembering what you said about getting your hands around my neck. You’ll no’ kill me when you’re free, will you?”

Jamie laughed. “You’re no’ to fear, lad. If you get me out of this tower, you’ll have my friendship for life.”