Highlander Enchanted(42)

“Can we no offer t’pay him more to let the MacDonald’s stay?” Niall asked, pacing nearby.

“Yea, if we had coin of any kind. We gave him every last copper just to house our kin for the year,” Cade said with sarcasm. “We canna turn out women and children and,” he waved to Laird MacDonald, “the near-dead to be kilt by their enemies, but I doona ken what else to do.”

Niall was rubbing the back of his head, staring hard at the wall. Cade sensed what was going through his cousin’s head.

“We turn them out, and we have a home for several more fortnights,” Brian mused. “But that’d mean yer wedding is off.”

Thank Isabel’s god for that, Cade answered silently.

“I doona wanna say it, but it’s our clan or theirs,” Brian said.

“Ye canna be serious!” Niall objected. “D’we not have some honor?”

“I’d rather we had a home.”

“We must leave before winter! We doona have a real home now!”

“Cease arguing,” Cade growled at them.

They obeyed, glaring at one another.

“Or, ye marry her and claim her land. Then we go to war with Laird Duncan,” said Niall.

Cade alone heard his reluctance to utter such words. If Niall was willing to give up his lover, he was as worried as Cade.

At least he’s thinking of his clan not himself.

“Yea, except we have no warriors!” Brian retorted.

“This is a laird’s decision,” Cade said firmly. “I willna make it without great thought.”

“He requires yer answer tonight,” Father Adam added.

“Then I will think quickly.”

“Niall is wise for once,” Brian said. “None of us can e’er forget war or what it does to those who doona deserve it.”

Cade leaned back, unwilling to let his mind bring up the images of all they had seen and experienced in the Crusades. By the looks on his cousins’ faces, they, too, were trying to suppress the memories.

“We canna turn out the MacDonald’s,” Brian said. “We canna turn out our own clan, either, by supporting them. Either we join them, or we are all lost.”

Niall’s jaw was clenched so hard, the muscles in both cheeks ticked. Cade gazed at him for a moment, pitying his cousin yet also angry with him for his secret.

“D’ye love her?” Cade asked.

Brian blinked, surprised, while Niall froze.

“Does who love … who?” Brian asked with a frown.

“Niall love the lass I’m supposed t’hand-fast,” Cade said.

Niall wore the expression of a deer about to flee. He shook it off and glanced quickly at Brian, his face growing pink.

“I couldna wed a girl my brother loved,” Cade said. “But I could a lass ye were rutting.”

“Yer what?” Brian demanded, turning on the eldest of the three of them. “Ye covet yer kin’s betrothed?”

Niall made a sound of frustration. “It wasna planned! I promised her before the Crusades we’d hand-fast upon my return and then … we had nowhere t’live when we returned, so I told her I couldna wed the daughter of a chieftain if I had no gold and not when our clan needed us. Cousin, if I- ”

“Be at peace, Niall,” Cade said, amused to see his battle hardened kin panicking over a woman when he had never once backed down in a confrontation.

“At peace?” Brian demanded. “He didna tell me either! How can ye keep a secret from us? We are closer than brothers or did ye forget the years we spent fighting Saracens and the months in their dungeon?”

“Brian!” Niall exclaimed. “I didna plan for this to happen! But when I saw her again …”

“Ye betrayed yer kin.”

Cade laughed, surprising himself with the sound. Brian was sensitive, Niall brutish, and he too tired to contain his emotion.

“How do ye not have a sword at his throat?” Brian demanded, turning on him.

“Yea. Why am I still standing?” Niall seconded.

Cade’s laughter died, and he considered. By all rights, his cousin should be begging for mercy at his feet with a knife to his throat. Was he so tired that he did not care one hair on his head about Niall sleeping with the woman he was supposed to wed?

“I canna wed her if ye love her,” he said.

Niall and Brian exchanged a look. “’ave ye gone mad?” Brian asked.

“Or soft? Are we never to war again?” Niall pressed.

“Neither. I doona wish t’wed her. I ne’er have,” Cade said. “I doona wish for war either, but I feel it will come to us, whether or not we wish it.”

“’Tis already here,” Father Adam said, lifting the missive. “We must choose a side by tonight.”

A somber quiet descended. Cade rose, restless. “I had hoped to leave war far from our clan.”

“We canna turn them out,” Father Adam said.

“No, we canna,” he agreed. “We already chose.”

Brian nodded. “We need a plan before ye send back your response. We are not completely without defenses. The forest will protect us, and we have magic in place of warriors.”

“Yea,” Cade said.

“You … you are not angry?” Niall asked.