9. The Price of Freedom

9

THE PRICE OF FREEDOM

T aryn willed her hands to stay steady, her muscles to stay strong. She couldn’t waste this moment—she knew she wasn’t going to get another one. Everything inside of her revolted against the thought of having to fight James, but she could see no other way out of this.

“What is yer plan here, Taryn?” James asked, all too calm to be standing on the wrong end of the sword.

She could see how much the situation angered him. It was clear from the way his green eyes shone through thin slits. She might have considered that a victory if she wasn’t still trying to figure out what she was going to do next. Escape was her ultimate goal, but first that meant tying James up, stealing his horse—again—and then trying to find her way back to Kincaid Castle.

These were all things she knew she could do, things she had done before. In fact, she had gotten herself out of much harder situations than this time and time again. Of course, she always had Aila and Sorcha by her side, but she felt just as capable now. Yet, she made no effort to move.

“Too scared to follow through with yer plans?” James taunted haughtily, despite his current position.

Staying silent, Taryn earnestly contemplated his question. It wasn’t fear that held her back, but something else she couldn’t quite place. She craved freedom from James. She wanted to be as far away from him as possible. At least, she tried to convince herself that was the case. But the longer she stood there, staring at him, his sword pointed at the veins in his neck, Taryn knew there was something more that she wanted.

Answers. Taryn wanted answers. She wanted to know just why, after all these years, James had tracked her down and stolen her like a thief in the night. She wanted to know why he was being so secretive, so cold. She would get her answers, and then she would be on her way.

With her mind made up, Taryn started to circle around James, pacing back and forth. She kept the borrowed sword trained on him the entire time she moved, if only to make it clear that she was still very much the one in control. All the while, her mind raced with just what question to ask first.

“I dinnae ken why I did nae see it sooner,” he all but spat. “Ye have always been a snake, a tricky, sly creature.”

She sighed, having long since grown tired of his insults.

“What are ye talking about, James?”

“Ye ken exactly what I am talking about. That whole show ye put on last night, the shivering in the cold and the crying in yer sleep.” His eyes narrowed even more, his mouth pinching as he spoke. “It was all a show, an act to make me pity ye.”

Internally, she winced. He had caught onto her plan much sooner than she had expected him to.

“Ye tricked me just so that I would get close. Well done, Taryn. That is the last time I will ever make the mistake of trusting ye again.”

He seethed. With the cold of the morning, every breath of his left a puff of smoke in the air, making him look almost like a dragon, stewing and stoking his flame of fury.

It took a great deal of self-control not to answer James’ baited taunts. It took even more effort not to show him just how much it wounded her to know that he no longer trusted her, if he ever had in the first place.

The reality of it was, she knew she deserved his barbs. She had tricked him. She had pretended to be cold, shivering with chattering teeth. But her reasons were not what he suspected. It wasn’t merely a ploy to get him close enough so that she could steal his dagger. She had wanted to test him, to see what kind of man he truly was.

He had made it clear from the first moment she had awoken in his presence that he was stealing her away from her home, from her family. And though he tried to put on a show to make it seem as though he was this impossibly cruel and unfeeling man, she suspected that was all just a facade. So she had faked her cold to see what he would do.

The James she had known, the man she had grown up with, wouldn’t have hesitated to cover her with a blanket or cloak of some sort. He would have fed the fire and laid close so she could be warm. And though it had taken James a moment to do those things last night, he had done them.

Despite everything he was pretending to be, despite everything he wanted her to believe he was, she knew that James was still a man with principles and honor. He was still a good man. After all, what kind of bounty hunter cares if his captive is cold? None that she knew of, and she had met plenty in the past three years. He was concerned for her, even if he didn’t want to be.

“Tell me why.”

Her demand came out simple but stern. She wasn’t going to budge this time, nor was she going to try to sneakily get it out of him. A straightforward approach was all she had time for now.

“What?” James scoffed.

“I want to ken why ye have done this, James,” she all but shouted, positioning herself to stand right in front of him again.

She wanted him to look her in the eyes when he told her why he stole her away, why he was planning on handing her over to a man who would surely kill her. She wasn’t going to give him the easy way out this time.

“I want to ken why ye tracked me down and knocked me out. I wish to ken why ye insist on bringing me to that man. Ye have heard the rumors. Ye ken how horrible he is. And yet, ye are adamant that I go to him anyways. I deserve to ken why.”

As soon as Taryn finished her rant, James let out a dry, humorless laugh. It was nothing like the warm, inviting sound he had so often made when they were younger. Chills threatened to break out over her skin, but Taryn clenched her teeth and held her ground. She wanted to know the truth. She had asked for it. And was determined to get it, regardless of whatever he might say next.

“Ye deserve nothing less than what is happening to ye,” he told her, full of venom. “But ye want to ken why? Fine .”

When he took too long of a pause, Taryn stepped forward just a hair, bringing the sharp tip of the weapon closer to his skin.

“Have ye ever stopped to think about what happened after ye left home? I suppose that is a wasted question. Ye were always too selfish to consider anyone else before yerself.”

She wanted to scoff and argue the point, but she knew if she did, she would never hear the full story. So she bit her tongue and let the coppery, metallic taste fill her mouth instead of her arguments.

“Ye abandoned yer duties. Ye had a responsibility to our clan, to our people. Everyone adored ye, ye ken. Every time ye would waltz down to the village, it was all anyone could talk about for days. On and on they went about how bonny ye are, how kind and considerate they thought ye. If ye smiled at anyone, they would tell the entire town as if it were a great boon. And when yer engagement was announced,” he hesitated. “Well, the whole village threw a feast.”

She swallowed hard, not liking the coldness in his tone.

“They were all convinced that it was ye and yer bonny face that would save us. They thought that yer marriage to such a powerful, nae to mention wealthy, Baron would finally ease our suffering.” He scoffed. “None of us kent just how wrong we were. Perhaps it would have been different had ye followed through on yer betrothal, had ye kept yer word. But we will never ken that now, will we?”

“What happened?” she asked, her voice barely a whisper.

James shook his head, his eyes on the ground as he searched for the words. He had wanted to torment her with the truth. He wanted her to know just how much everyone had suffered because of her. Yet, now given the opportunity to do just that, he found himself at a loss for words. It had a bone chilling effect on Taryn all the same.

“The Baron is a man easily angered. And when he found out that ye had left, escaped only to get out of marrying him, he was furious. He felt that the McGregor Clan owed him.”

“I thought that Laird McGregor would have more than enough to pay whatever the Baron felt he was owed,” Taryn admitted, her brows furrowed in confusion.

Again, James shook his head. The anger that had seemed to take up a permanent residence in his eyes gave way to a deep sadness she had not seen before. It was as if, by telling her the story, he was reliving it all over again.

“Baron Dudley did nae want our coin. Ye did nae cheat him out of much financial gain. He felt as though ye robbed him of the chance to expand his land and his power. Ye wounded his pride. So he did the same to our people.”

“What do ye mean?”

“He started by taking our livestock. At first, it was just a few raiders here and there. A ram, a couple of sheep, a steer. And then the attacks became more frequent. More common. Eventually, it seemed as though someone was getting robbed every night. It did nae take us too long to realize that he was the one behind this. When there was hardly enough to sustain the clan, Laird McGregor sent a message, pleading for mercy, asking to come to some kind of arrangement.”

Taryn’s heart thudded slowly against her chest. It ached to know how her people had suffered. She had never imagined that Baron Dudley would be such a cruel man, though she supposed that she should have guessed he would do something like this, considering what he had done to the Kincaids.

“He demanded land. The most fruitful plots. And he demanded anyone living on them be removed. We could nae afford to withstand any more raids, so Laird McGregor agreed.”

A gasp let out from Taryn’s mouth.

“But some of those families have been there for generations. Hundreds of years, those same people have worked those lands. That is part of what made them all so prosperous.”

“Ye really think the Baron cared about any of that?”

The venom was back in James’ tone. Taryn didn’t try to hide her wince.

“Even with the Laird agreeing to all the Baron’s terms, even with the entire clan forced into poverty, it was nae enough. We were too weak to put up a fight, too poor to try to pay the man off. So all Laird McGregor could do was keep giving in as the Baron took and took and took.”

With every word, James grew more angry, more indignant. All the while, Taryn grew more heartbroken, more unsure of her path forward.

She had known when she left that fateful night that there would be consequences. She knew she would never be able to go back home to see her friends or family. She knew that the Laird would have to find a new heir. She knew that her parents would be furious. She hadn’t expected to still be a highly sought after prize for bounty hunters three years later, but she had grown used to it well enough. But in her mind, nothing for the clan had really changed. She had never truly stopped to think about how her broken engagement would affect them.

Perhaps I am as selfish as James says.

“He would nae be satisfied until he discovered how ye escaped. He kent that someone had helped ye, and he was determined to find out who and make sure that they paid for their crimes against him.”

Taryn gasped in horror.

“He took Laura. He put all the blame for yer escape on her. He said that since she cheated him out of a new woman in his household, that she would have to replace ye somehow. She has been trapped in his estate, working as a scullery maid ever since.”

All the breath fled Taryn’s lungs. She had never known such terror. Her fear of the Baron had been enough to prompt Taryn to leave the only home she had ever known. To flee from her responsibilities, her family, her entire life. Knowing that Laura was now in that man’s hands was enough to make Taryn’s knees shake and her stomach turn.

“Ye have nay idea how this has broken our clan. Beyond that,” James continued, not seeing or not caring just how distraught Taryn was. “Laura being taken has destroyed my family. With people barely surviving, they dinnae have any spare money for new clothes or a tailor to do all the work. Because of Laura’s hand in yer escape, the Laird has shunned my parents’ business. They had to sell everything and try their best to grow their own food. They are outcasts now. Everyone in the village blames them for this.”

“But they had nothing to do with it! They could nae have kent what Laura was planning. I certainly did nae.”

“Ye think they care about that? All these people can think about is their empty bellies and their barren harvest. They say that my parents should have had better control of Laura, that they should never have allowed the two of ye to become friends. I have to say, I agree.”

Taryn’s hands shook. It was too much. It was all too much.

James glanced down at her, as if he was truly noticing her presence for the first time since he started this awful tale. He nearly smirked when he saw her weakened stance. She supposed that this was his form of retribution, and it had its desired effect, there could be no doubt about it. Taryn swallowed hard and tried to steady herself, but all she could think about, all she kept seeing, was Laura having to face the Baron on her own.

She had thought that what she needed was the truth. She thought that if she could only understand why James was acting so strangely, that she could convince him to change his ways. Now, it was clear to Taryn that there would be no changing James’ mind. She wouldn’t even try.

“Ye wanted answers and now ye have them,” he bit out. “Allow me to make one more thing clear.”

James stepped forward, closing the gap between the end of the sword and his neck. He didn’t bother to flinch as the tip cut into the thin skin, leaving a trail of bright red blood dripping from it. It was a gruesome sight that shook Taryn to her core. She never thought that she would be one to draw blood from him, yet there she stood, unmoving.

“Ye must kill me and kill me now, Taryn,” James ordered. “Because if ye dinnae, I will never stop coming after ye. I will follow ye, track ye down, nay matter where in the world ye may go. There will never be anywhere far enough away from me to stop me from coming after ye. I will find ye and I will take ye back to the Baron if that is the last thing I do. I will see my sister free, even if I have to fight ye every step of the way.”

With every word he spoke, her heart shattered all the more. Her best friend was imprisoned in a house of horrors; the man she had once thought she loved was giving her an ultimatum between his death or her own, and her entire clan was in ruin because of her own selfishness.

“I will keep coming for ye as long as I live. So escape if ye must, but trust that I will find ye again.”

Tears started to blur Taryn’s vision. The weight of her choices sat so heavily upon her shoulders that she wasn’t sure how she was still standing.

“I will see to it that ye pay for all ye have done to my clan and my family.”

Slowly and then all at once, the tears fell from her eyes. She did nothing to stop them, her desperation for things to be different too consuming to even try. She had been right; James was still a good man. It was only a good man who would go to such lengths to save his sister, to protect his family. She understood him now completely, just as she understood exactly what she needed to do.

Unfurling her fingers, Taryn stumbled back a step or two and let the sword tumble to the ground. The snow dampened the sound of the metal hitting the earth, but from the startled look on James’ face, it might as well have been a canon going off.

“What are ye?—”

“I will nae run, James,” she told him softly, the tears still streaming down her face. “I will nae fight ye. I will nae make ye chase after me. I will nae make anyone else suffer for my mistakes any longer. I am done running.”

Three years of exile, three years of always looking over her shoulder, wondering who was out to get her came to an end right then and there. Taryn was resigned to her future. She knew that death was all that awaited her, she only hoped that she would be able to make it right for her clan, for Laura. She hoped that Sorcha and Aila and the children would one day understand. But even if they didn’t, she was done running.

“I will go with ye willingly. I will give myself over to Baron Dudley. I will do whatever it takes to save Laura.”