Makenna gave him a challenging smile. “My Colin is not dead.”
Leon’s face turned a blotchy red. “No, but he soon will be. As we speak, my best men are advancing on him. They will wait until he is vulnerable, and then they will strike. No matter how long it takes, I will see you free to fulfill your true destiny.”
Makenna narrowed her eyes. “And just what do you see my destiny to be?” she asked through gritted teeth.
Leon advanced until she was just inside his arm’s reach. “Why, to become my wife,” he announced. Before she could back away, his hand sneaked out, gripped her chin, and held it still while he brutally pressed his mouth against her lips.
Colin’s heart felt as though it were being ripped from his chest. All he could think of was getting to Makenna. He clutched his sword and was about to attack regardless of the dangers when two MacCuaig guards dragged a dead body through the inner gatehouse and into the courtyard. Leon wrenched free and turned away from the sight.
Makenna wiped her mouth off with her sleeve and stared at the dead young baker. The boy had made her laugh with his smile and quick wit. He would never do so again. He had been badly beaten before someone had sliced his throat. Something inside her went cold. “What’s wrong, Leon? The sight of Benny’s blood bother you? Or was it his mangled body that made you blanch like an old woman?”
Leon swung around and came within inches of her face, but spoke loud enough to be heard by everyone in the courtyard. “He deserved it! The fool actually tried to stop me from coming after you.”
“He was just a boy!” Makenna screamed.
“A boy who was fool enough to defend you!”
“Is that why you brought him here? So I can see what you will do to anyone loyal enough to protect me?”
“I thought he might prove the lengths I will go to have you. Several people in the great hall will suffer the same fate as your Benny if you or your people continue to fight me.”
Makenna stood wide-eyed realizing MacCuaig was insane. With anyone else, that would be an empty threat, but MacCuaig was ready to act on his promise. She looked about her. The keep was vacant. The only people in sight were MacCuaig and a dozen of his soldiers. She pushed one out of the way so that she could see the doors of the great hall. Several more men were blocking both the main and kitchen exits.
“What did you do?” she asked, her voice hollow at the promised horror of his answer.
“What any self-respecting laird would do. I am not a fool like McTiernay thinking that I can change the hearts of men loyal to another.”
“Loyal to Colin.”
“Not just to him. It seems my pretty little Scottish bride has done what many thought impossible. You learned to run a keep and gained the devotion of all who serve you.”
“What are you going to do with them?”
“That is up to you, my sweet. You see, they are loyal to you. If you agree to renounce your husband and join me, there is a good chance they will follow your lead, and I will let them live.”
Makenna glared at him. What she would give for any kind of weapon. She would die, but so would he. Hope suddenly invaded her thoughts. She did have a weapon. She just needed to get to it.
Makenna eyed him cautiously. For her plan to work, she needed to lead without being obvious. “What about my loyalty? Just how do you expect to gain my allegiance, Leon?”
“Mayhap by oppression at first, but I had your heart once before and I will have it again.”
Makenna gaped at MacCuaig incredulously. “Do you truly believe I will reject my love for Colin and accept yours?”
“You are many things, Makenna Dunstan, but you are not obtuse. Your Highlander has left, retaining the one thing I admired about the man—his pride. And while his army is considerably bigger than I was led to believe, he would not be foolish enough to attack my considerably larger forces, especially not for a clan who betrayed him.”
Makenna arched her brows in disbelief. Leon’s eyes glinted like black beetles as his mouth crinkled into a smile. “I can see the surprise and doubt in your eyes. Over two thousand of my men are converging on your stronghold as we speak.”
The blood drained out of Makenna’s face. “But there is no one here but women, old men, and children!”
Leon clucked his tongue. “Left to defend themselves by your Highlander. Would you like to renounce him now? The man you agreed to marry has left you and your clan vulnerable. I assure you, I protect what I value.”
Makenna took a deep breath. Leon MacCuaig was filled with hate and greed, but he was not unintelligent. She would not have multiple chances to make her move. “Colin does as well. I would never renounce him, not even if you forced me in the very bed we share.”
Colin felt Dunlop lurch at her words and grabbed the angry commander pulling him back. Dunlop look confused at his laird’s unnatural calmness. “Why, Colin? Why would Makenna—”
Colin motioned for him to be quiet. He knew his wife was loyal to him. Makenna must have a reason to goad MacCuaig to their solar. Something was there. Something that would give her an advantage.
“You will renounce him, and in that very room. Do you think the Highlander will come back for you? A wild Lowlander so incredibly different from his beloved first wife?”
At the mention of her sister, Makenna recoiled. Leon pounced. “Ah, forgot about her, did you? Do you honestly think that a man who would love Deirdre, could love you? She was everything you are not. Meek, fair, mild, and soft-spoken. I ask you. Do you believe him when he says he loves you? The man was devoted to her. Never left her side, but with you it seems he leaps at the chance. He is gone for weeks at a time, leaving you to deal alone with your troublesome clan. And now, he vanishes for the Highlands without you. How could he promise his heart to you when he had already given it away?”
MacCuaig was speaking the questions aloud she had so often asked to herself. She forced herself to ignore his sharp barbs. Colin did love her.
Leon saw the pain swim in Makenna’s eyes and knew that he had guessed correctly. “I have always loved you, and yet you spurned my requests for your hand. I have decided to forgive you for marrying McTiernay. I am here now, and you will never have to see him again. You will be with me. You will be my wife.”
Makenna jutted her chin into the air and looked at him with mute defiance.
Her silence infuriated him. “I will have you, Makenna,” he whispered, yanking her to his side, gripping her so that his fingers bit into her flesh. “I will have you, and you will beg for my forgiveness before this night is over.” He thrust her away from him. Makenna stumbled again but remained upright and silent praying that God would grant her last wish. “Lock her in the solar. Search it first. I will be there soon to collect what she will give me.”
As she was being dragged away, Makenna finally found her voice and cried out, “And what is that?”
MacCuaig turned back and smirked, “Why, legitimacy, my sweet.”
Outside the town wall, Conor moved his men forward as Crawford and Donovan flanked the enemy from opposite sides. They had met and ended the majority of MacCuaig’s army by the loch and now moved toward Lochlen. MacCuaig’s men watched in horror as the coming army grew in size. The Highlander had not left as MacCuaig had promised. And he brought allies.
Screaming they moved to barricade the town wall gate and block the broken sections of the wall. Their only hope was to keep McTiernay’s army outside the town walls until support arrived. Runners had been sent to find other MacCuaig soldiers, but most of the men had scattered throughout the town or were looting within Lochlen’s outer walls.
Dunstan clansmen and women recognized the fear on the MacCuaig soldiers’ faces and began anew in their fight. Their laird had returned.