Page 93 of Bride of Mist
She’d told Dougal there was more, and there was. The incident did indeed feel like the perpetration of a false banner. But one detail of the story was beginning to trouble her. Whoever had cast the blame on the mac Giric clan had specifically targeted Morgan Mor at Creagor when there was a much more likely candidate for the crime. There had to be a reason for that.
She feared an uncomfortable truth awaited Dougal at Castle Darragh.
A truth that might be hard to bear.
A truth that would put them in even more peril.
“Let me ask you something,” she said when they’d gone several miles in silence. “Doesn’t what happened feel just a bit too convenient?”
“What happened?” he echoed. His quick perusal of her from head to toe told her all she needed to know about the bent of his thoughts. “Ye mean…”
She flushed, averting her eyes, and muttered, “Nay. What happened at Kirkoswald.”
“Ah.”
She cleared her throat and straightened her back. “Think about it. Your brother’s men just happened to escape a fire that destroyed a whole village. They conveniently didn’t see the ones who started it. But one of the attackers just happened to drop his clan badge. And they just happened to find it. That’s too much happenstance.”
He nodded. “Ye said there was more.”
She took a deep breath. He was getting close to the crux of the matter. She would need to tread carefully. “I could be wrong, but…”
“What?”
“I’ve been assuming the reason for burning the village was personal. To destroy evidence. Cover up a crime. Eliminate a witness.”
“Aye?”
“For that, any false banner would do. They could have blamed vagabonds. Miscreants. Outlaws. Heretics. Anyone available and believable.” She shook her head. “But to accuse mac Giric… Why blame an old and honorable clan? And why Creagor? ’Tis a world away.”
“So what are ye sayin’?”
“What if there was another reason? What if burning Kirkoswald was an attack on mac Darragh? You said ’twill harm the clan, aye?”
“Aye. ’Twill drain the clan’s wealth. Deplete our resources.”
“And weaken your defenses?”
He nodded.
“What if ’twas done to incite a clan battle?”
“With the mac Girics?”
“’Tis what you’d expect, aye?”
“Aye.”
“But that’s the strange thing. You said your clan has no history with the mac Girics.”
“Right.”
“No trade? No conflict? No contact whatsoever?”
He shook his head.
“Then who recognized the mac Giric clan badge?”
Chapter 24
