Chapter 26

Chapter Twenty-Six

A small whimper echoed out through the empty dark halls of the keep. The lanterns and candles had all been stilled, allowing the light from the war room to seep out into the darkness. Two guards stood outside, both stiff and still, guarding with fear as their fellow guardsman sat inside with the Laird's son, Bram.

"Tell me again, Callum, why did it take so long fer you to return to us?" Bram asked, walking around Callum.

The guard was on his knees, blood trickling from his nose, his shirt covered in it. Tears streamed down his dirt-covered cheeks. "Ye have nothin' left to take from me. Ye've killed my wife. Ye've taken my children. What are ye to threaten me with now?"

Bram chuckled, his dagger in his hand, slowly circling the guard. "If ye think death is the next step, you'd be wrong. I can do many things to a man without killin' him. Many things that will make that man wish fer death."

Callum gritted his teeth as Bram grabbed his hair and yanked his head back, slicing his dagger down Callum's cheek. Callum hissed as warm blood dripped down from the cut. Bram grinned. "Now, I know ye're not afraid of my torture, but how do ye think yer daughters will feel? Hmm? When I strip them down and tell them their father caused all of this? How will ye feel listening to their screams?"

Callum struggled but his hands and ankles were tied. "Leave them alone."

"I will…IF ye tell me what I want to know."

Callum shut his eyes and sighed. "When we arrived at the McFerguson castle, me and the others took care of the carriages and horses. Durin' that time we heard the staff there talkin' about the return of the other McFerguson son. We didn't think much of it until they said his name was James."

"James bein' my father's guard?"

Callum nodded best he could. "He was the McFerguson son that left when his father died. He challenged his brother to a duel. We stayed as we weren't sure what we were supposed to do."

"And James won I am guessing?" Bram asked, lifting his brows.

"Aye," Callum replied. "To much happiness from the people of the clan."

Bram sighed, wiping sweat from his forehead, still holding Callum's head back. "And how does my cousin come into this?"

Callum swallowed hard. "James married her. They were friends and he not only fought fer the clan, but he fought fer her."

Bram's teeth clenched in anger. "Thank you Callum, ye've done yer duty honorably."

He threw Callum down on the ground and sheathed his knife, throwing open the war room doors. He waved his hand at the guards. "Take him to the dungeons. He can be burned with his daughters."

Callum yelled out in anguish as Bram raced through the keep toward the study where his father was finishing up clan business fer the day. When he reached the room he flung open the doors. His father looked up at him, raising a brow. "What is it, Bram? I have much to do."

Bram stomped up to his father. "Your dear guard, James is a traitor."

Bram's father set his paper down and looked up at Bram. "Where did ye hear this?"

"From one of the other guards that delivered my cousin to the McFerguson Clan. James was the younger McFerguson son, the one who ran when his father died."

The Laird stood slowly from his chair, thinking through the moments that James had first come to them. He shook his head. "No. That's not possible."

"He challenged Angus McFerguson to a duel and won the lairdship," Bram stated angrily. "Not only that, but he has been plotting with my cousin and married her before the guards returned. They were sneaking around this whole time, plotting."

The Laird walked over to the fireplace and sighed. "She was no longer ours. We traded her to the clan. He can do what he wants with her."

"No," Bram shouted, enraged. "That little bitch does not get to have a happily ever after. She does not get to have a clan under her, not after what her father did. She must suffer like the rest of them. She may have been traded to them, but she was meant to suffer under Angus."

The Laird turned to Bram. "What would ye like to do, son. If you were Laird, what would ye choose to do about this betrayal?"

Bram gritted his teeth. "We need to crush them. We need to go to war and crush the McFerguson clan, burn their village and people to the ground. No one betrays us."

The door to the study opened and one of the staff quietly entered. "I'm sorry Sirs, but I've received a letter fer ye."

Bram waved his hand. "Throw it on the table, we'll get to it later."

"I beg yer pardon, sir, but this has the McFerguson seal on it."

Bram raced over and snatched it from the girl, sending her out. He broke the seal and read the letter, his eyes going wide. "That bitch."

His father looked up at him curiously. "Is it from Blair?"

Bram crumpled the letter and gripped it tightly in his shaking fists. "Aye. Lady McFerguson feels she can write to us and require us to release her sisters to go live at the McFerguson castle. She thinks she can speak to us as if she were on our level. She thinks she can demand anything from us."

With raging anger, Bram stomped over to the fire and tossed the letter inside. He stared at the wild flames, his heart growing darker and darker by the second.

"Blair will never have her sisters back. She'll have to kill me first. But that will never happen either because if it's the last thing I do, I will crush Blair and her little Laird husband, and she'll watch everything she loves burn to the ground in front of her."