Page 79 of Bride of Mist
He’d noticed a useful thing about Feiyan. She was quite forthcoming when she’d been drinking. Which was convenient for him. Less convenient for a lass sworn to secrecy.
She gave him a cautious nod.
“How well do ye know the mac Girics?”
She straightened with pride. “Well enough. I know they didn’t burn Kirkoswald.”
“But how do yeknowthat?”
“The laird is a decent man. Well, mostly decent.” Her brow crumpled. “Hedidhold my cousin Jenefer for ransom. And his right hand man Colban seduced my cousin Hallie. And they’re Highlanders, of course.” She lifted her eyebrows as if he would understand what that meant, as if he were not a Highlander himself. “But on the whole, they’re good men.”
Dougal arched a dubious brow. The world of the borders must be very different from his, if she considered hostage-takers and seducers “good men.”
“So tell me about the Colban fellow.” Unless there was open clan warfare, it was unlikely the laird himself would perpetrate such a blatant act of terrorism. But he might leave it to his second in command.
“Colban an Curaidh,” she said on a sigh of admiration. “That means the Champion, you know.”
He stifled a smile. Hedidknow. Gaelic was his mother tongue, after all.
She continued. “He’s the one who brought Hallie back to life after you killed her.”
He felt a twinge of guilt. But surely the woman’s death had been an exaggeration if she’d been so readily brought back to life.
Feiyan lowered her voice to a whisper. “He wasn’t born a mac Giric. He’s a bastard and an orphan. The laird took him in as a lad, against the wishes of some in the clan. Hallie said his back still bears the scars of the whipping he got as a child. Can you imagine? Whipping a child? Yet he persisted and earned his honor.”
This Colban fellow sounded like a candidate for sainthood, not an outlaw who would burn down a church.
Then she inclined forward, beckoning him close with a wave of her fingers. When he leaned down, he could see the gentle slope between her breasts, creamy and inviting, where her leine gapped open.
“And just between you and me,” she murmured, “that nonsense about seducing my cousin Hallie? Hallie was always like a block of ice. Colban only warmed her up a bit.”
He would have grinned at her revelation, but his own body was warming up a bit. Instead, he straightened to a safe position and continued his interrogation.
“What about the Laird o’ mac Giric?” he asked. “What’s he like?”
“Morgan? Oh, he’s a man of honor, to be sure.”
“I thought ye said he held ye for ransom.”
“Well…aye…but ’twas for good reason.” She explained. “You see, he figured Creagor was his by rights. But my cousin Jenefer thought it should belong to her. And when she feigned to be a spirit to frighten him off, he wasn’t frightened at all. Instead, he took her captive. He tookallof us captive. You know, in order to ransom us for Creagor. Only he couldn’t do that until the Laird of Rivenloch returned from court. Meanwhile, I slipped past the guard and set off for home. But on the way, I spied English troops. So I mustered our knights,” she said, finishing with a triumphant smile, “and we returned to do battle and save the keep.”
Dougal’s head was spinning. He understood almost none of what she was saying. Her enthusiasm, however, was adorable.
“So…” he guessed. “Morgan is a good man?”
“That’s what I’m saying,” she gushed. “He fought side by side with the army of Rivenloch.”
“Shh.” Considering who resided in the adjoining chamber, he thought it best not to mention Rivenloch by name. But he should have realized it was a mistake to muzzle a warrior lass.
“What do you mean, shh?”
“Naught. Go on.”
It might have been his imagination, but it seemed her voice grew louder as she spoke.
“He was even decent when he took us captive,” she said. “He kept us in Creagor’s finest bedchamber. He confiscated all my weapons, of course, just as you have.” Then she frowned. “You’re going to give them back to me, aye? After you’re done using me as a hostage?”
He flinched. He hoped no one next door heard that.
