Highland Wolf (Highland Brides, #10)(8)

Pausing her petting of the bunny, she turned her head to the right where Payton and Hamish were side by side, and told them, “That was very brave o’ her. Me uncle is free with his fists when angry and would have been most irate to discover her riflin’ through his personal papers.”

“I see,” Payton murmured, and Conall thought he spotted concern for the cousin crossing the man’s face.

Apparently satisfied that he understood that her cousin’s efforts were no small thing, Claray turned her attention back down to her bunny and continued, “Fortunately, Mairin found the messages he’d received quite quickly and managed to read them all, return them to where they belonged and slip out o’ me uncle’s room without bein’ discovered.”

“The messages were from MacNaughton?” Payton asked, although it wasn’t really a question. They all knew they must be.

“Aye.” The word came out on a long gust of air, and Conall saw her shake her head. “That man is evil,” she informed them solemnly. “He had heard o’ me aunt’s passin’, and ’twas he who suggested me uncle have Mairin invite me to help her in their time o’ travail. He kenned I’d no’ refuse.”

“How did he ken that?” Payton asked with a frown. “Do ye know the man?”

Claray nodded with displeasure. “He’s our neighbor, and used to be considered a friend of sorts. He kens the whole family.”

“Oh,” Payton murmured with a frown.

“Anyway,” Claray continued, “once I reached Kerr, me uncle was to send fer him and he would come, bringin’ his own priest. They would force me to marry him, and then the MacNaughton would see me whole family dead and me uncle could inherit MacFarlane and double his riches.”

“What?”

Conall actually felt Claray give a start when all four of them bellowed that shocked word as one. She recovered quickly, however, and nodded to assure them what she said was true.

“Kill yer whole family?” Payton asked with dismay. “And yer uncle agreed to this?”

“O’ course he did. He’s a greedy fool,” she said with irritation. “And stupid enough to believe MacNaughton would let him have MacFarlane.”

“Ye do no’ think he would?” Conall asked quietly. He was quite positive that would not have been the case had their plans not been disrupted by his stealing Claray away before MacNaughton could marry her, but was curious to hear her opinions on the matter.

“Oh, do be logical,” she said, sounding exasperated. “I am no’ some ravin’ beauty a man would kill to gain.”

Conall frowned at her words, not liking them, though he wasn’t sure why. He’d thought the same thing on first seeing her. Before he could consider why her thinking so upset him though, she continued.

“Besides, once he’d forced the wedding, murderin’ me family would ha’e been unnecessary if havin’ me to wife was all he wanted,” she pointed out, and then assured them, “MacNaughton wants MacFarlane fer himself and were the rest o’ me family dead, I would certainly inherit, no’ me uncle. He’s no’ a MacFarlane. He’s only a relation through marriage to me aunt, who was me mother’s sister and a Buchanan like her.”

“But,” Payton said, “as yer husband, MacNaughton could sign it over to yer uncle to keep him silent about—”

“About forcin’ me to marry him and killin’ me family, which would no’ be necessary to gain me to wife if the forced wedding were already over?” she suggested dryly, cutting Payton off. “A forced wedding that me uncle helped to engineer so could hardly go cryin’ to the king about?”

“Oh,” Payton said with realization.

“Aye. Oh,” Claray said unhappily, and shook her head. “MacNaughton does no’ truly want me at all. ’Tis MacFarlane he wants, and had I thrown meself out o’ the window o’ the room they locked me in for three days, or simply refused to marry him, he would have forced one o’ me sisters to marry him and killed the rest o’ us anyway to get MacFarlane.”

Conall was frowning over her words. He was wondering if she’d actually considered self-killing to avoid marriage to the MacNaughton when Hamish asked, “Why does he want MacFarlane so badly?”

“MacNaughton land is bordered by Loch Awe on one side, MacFarlane land on the other and Campbell land both above and below,” she pointed out. “’Tis no doubt verra uncomfortable havin’ the Campbells above and below like that. I suspect MacNaughton fears they may one day just wipe out MacNaughton altogether to make it one grand sweep o’ Campbell land. No doubt he hopes that gainin’ MacFarlane’s land, soldiers and wealth would prevent that ever happening.”

Conall bit back a smile at her words. She’d spoken his own thoughts aloud, and he was oddly proud of her for seeing the strategy in MacNaughton’s plan. It was actually quite a good one.

“So ye think he planned to marry ye, kill yer father and siblings—and what? Just leave yer uncle to fester in his outrage at no’ getting’ MacFarlane as promised?” Payton asked, and then pointed out, “Surely he’d have to give MacFarlane to yer uncle to keep him from tellin’ one and all that MacNaughton had killed yer family.”

“No’ if he killed him too,” she pointed out, and told them, “Part o’ the plan was fer me uncle to take me back to me father once the wedding was consummated, and tell him it was done and I was married to MacNaughton. Apparently, me uncle was then supposed to claim that the MacNaughton wished to come to some sort of conciliatory agreement for me sake. Once he’d eased me da’s temper and got him to agree to see MacNaughton, Maldouen would come in and kill him and my siblings.” She shrugged. “But I suspect he would have killed me uncle too. Or mayhap he would ha’e let me uncle have MacFarlane for a short while, and then kill me and me uncle later and force Mairin to marry him. That way he would add both MacFarlane and Kerr to his holdings, makin’ him even stronger.”