Page 10 of Promised to the Forbidden Laird

She stopped. The men behind her stopped as well.

For one stunned moment, the only sound was the sea hammering the rocks below and the hard, uneven breath of those who had climbed back from the cliff path.

Donaldina’s hand tightened upon Roy’s sleeve. He glanced down at it but said nothing.

“What is this?” she whispered.

No one answered. Then a figure stepped onto the walkway above the gates.

Cormac.

He fled from the cliff like a beaten traitor and returned to Dun Ard quickly enough to dress himself as its savior.

Donaldina released Roy and stepped forward. “Open the gates.”

Cormac rested one hand upon the stone parapet. “I cannae dae that.”

The answer was so calm that disbelief struck her before anger had time to form.

“Ye cannae?”

“Mistress—” one of the older councilors began behind her.

Donaldina lifted a hand, silencing him without looking away from the walls.

“Cormac Gunn,” she said, each word sharpened by the cold, “ye have barred me from me own home.”

“I have secured the stronghold.”

“Against whom?”

Cormac’s gaze moved deliberately to Roy. The men upon the wall followed it.

“Against the man who has come tae steal it.”

A murmur stirred beyond the gate. The courtyard was crowded. Donaldina could see MacNicol clansmen gathered below the battlements, some armed, others merely drawn there by alarm. Cormac had not merely closed the gates. He had assembled an audience.

Roy stepped forward until he stood beside her, something few men would do. Certainly not Cormac. It was a distinction she noticed despite herself.

Cormac raised his voice.

“Roy MacIver comes beneath the pretense of the King’s marriage agreement. He speaks of honor while bringing armed men tae our walls. He would take Lady Donaldina, take Dun Ard and place a MacIver upon the seat Lachlan MacNicol has scarcely left cold.”

Angry voices answered him from within. Donaldina felt the blood drain from her face. Lachlan’s body had not yet reached the cairn. Before her brother was even laid to rest, Cormac leveraged his death, transforming sorrow into a weapon, the only thing everyone within those walls shared equally.

“He speaks falsely,” she called.

Several faces turned toward her. “Does he? The King promises ye tae him. Yer brother dies beside his army. Now he arrives before the burial and expects the clan tae place its lands in his hands.”

“I arrived because the war ended,” Roy corrected. His voice possessed a rough steadiness that rendered Cormac’s performance all the more fervent. “The Crown released me from service. I returned tae fulfil the accord Lachlan himself signed.”

“Until the council has determined whether the agreement remains lawful, I claim temporary authority over Dun Ard and its defenses.”

A silence followed. Donaldina looked at him. He spoke as if authority could be gained simply by standing above others and being the first to declare it. “Ye claim authority,” she repeated.

Cormac nodded. “For the protection of the clan.”

“Ye held a blade against me throat less than an hour ago.”