Page 70 of Healing the Highland Sinner
Rosalind had made a point of not looking at him, keeping her eyes fixed to the road ahead. In those rare moments when their eyes did happen to meet, her cheeks flushed but a look of sheer disdain crossed her face before she turned away. Every time she did it, Ellair felt pain lance his heart.
They dismounted outside the manor house and gave their horses over to one of Laird Gunn’s men. Another pair of armed men wearing leathers stood beside the front door, eyeing them warily as they approached. Ellair pulled the hood of his cloak down, revealing his face. The man to the right of the door recognized him with a nod.
“Nay blades inside,” he said.
They quickly disarmed themselves, stacking their weapons on a barrel that stood beside the door. Once they were free of blades, the man nodded again and opened the door for them.
“Thank ye,” Ellair said. “Keep yer eyes out. Sinclair’s got bleedin’ eyes and ears everywhere.”
“Aye,” the man replied uneasily as they stepped inside.
Oil lanterns hung on hooks around the main room of the house, casting it in a golden light. Laird Gunn and two of his advisors stood behind a table in the center of the room. The lamplight flickered in their cold, suspicious eyes, making them look as if they glowed menacingly from within. He felt Rosalind and Ciar tense beside him, that sense of fight or flight growing ever stronger from them. Ellair turned to them.
“Easy. Just take it easy. All we’re here tae dae is talk,” Ellair said calmingly. “And that goes fer everybody in this bleedin’ room. Just settle down now.”
Nobody seemed to relax, but nobody seemed to be on the verge of shedding blood either, so Ellair let out a breath. He stepped to the table, then motioned for Rosalind and Ciar to join him. They did so, moving slowly and cautiously. Once he had them all at the table, glaring tensely at each other from opposite sides, Ellair moved to the head, standing between them, and cleared his throat.
“Laird Torrin Gunn, this is Rosalind and her man Ciar,” Ellair said.
“Laird Gunn,” Rosalind said with a slight but respectful bow of her head.
“Lady Rosalind,” Gunn said with a measured and respectful incline of his head.
“Rosalind is fine,” she replied. “I’m nay lady.”
The corner of Gunn’s mouth twitched upward with the faint ghost of a smile, but it was gone as soon as it appeared and his face tightened again. He turned to Ellair.
“So?” he started. “Ye called this meetin’. What is our business here?”
“We wanted this meetin’ tae get us all on the same page.”
“And how can we ever be on the same page after the lady Rosa—apologies—after Rosalind has been weakenin’ our position in the Highlands by doin’ Sinclair’s biddin’?” he asked.
“’Tis nae as if I had much choice,” Rosalind grumbled.
Gunn opened his mouth to respond, his lips curled back in a sneer that told Ellair what he was about to say was going to be derisive and combative.
“’Tis true,” Ellair said before Gunn could say a word. “As I told ye, Sinclair is holdin’ her braither’s life in his hands, forcin’ her tae dae his biddin’.”
“’Tis a choice,” Gunn said. “By workin’ with Sinclair, she’s makin’ a choice.”
“Aye. ‘Tis true,” Ellair said. “But with respect, Laird Gunn, can ye say truly that if the situation was reversed, and Sinclair was holdin’ the life of somebody ye love in his hand, that ye’d nae make the same choice?”
Torrin lowered his gaze and seemed to think about what Ellair had just said. His lips curled downward in a frown and he cut a glance at his advisors, neither of whom seemed to know the answer to his unspoken question. Torrin cleared his throat and looked at Rosalind long and hard, before shifting his gaze to Ellair.
“Nay. I suppose I cannae say I would make a different choice were it one of me kin bein’ held by that bastard,” laird Gunn said, his voice a low rumble.
“Good. ‘Tis good,” Ellair said. “So, we can start these talks from common ground.”
“And what is it we’re here tae talk about?” Torrin said.
“About all of us comin’ taegether and realizin’ we’ve got a common enemy,” Ellair said. “We need tae talk about bandin’ taegether tae fight Sinclair.”
Torrin exchanged looks with his men. None of them seemed overly enthusiastic about the idea of joining together with a woman who had wreaked so much havoc in their lands and weakened their position in the Highlands overall. Ellair was starting to get a sense that Laird Gunn, or at least his men, would opt against working together, that this little summit would prove fruitless, unless he intervened and changed the tide.
“Laird Gunn, Sinclair ordered Rosalind tae seize the last shipment that was headed tae yer lands. She didnae. And she defied Sinclair’s orders kennin’ it could cost her her braither’s his life,” Ellair said, then added. “If ye’d step back and look at this all logically, I think ye’d see that everybody in this room has a lot more in common than what separates us. Nae the least of which, is that we all hate Hugh Sinclair and want tae see his downfall. If we all band taegether, we may be able tae make that happen. But if we stand apart, alone, we dinnae have thestrength tae stop him. The stakes have never been higher fer any of us and we dinnae stand taegether, we’re all goin’ tae fall.”
Torrin Gunn looked around, a thousand thoughts moving across his face. He finally nodded, then turned to Rosalind.
