Page 50 of The Burden of a Scottish Chieftain
They moved on and made it to the chapel a short time later, where they dismounted and left their horses hidden. Logan nodded toward the church. “You wish to do the honors, Grant? She’s your granddaughter. You have rights.”
“I do,” Connor said, moving to the rear entry of the main kirk, and nodding when he saw the outer buildings. Returning to the front he added, “Knock on the front door, Logan. Alasdair and I will go around back to catch him running.”
Connor stood a horse length away from the door, his hand on the hilt of his sword. A few moments later, the door burst open and a man in robes flew out, looking over his shoulder at Logan behind him. He ran right into Alasdair.
“Going somewhere, Father?” Alasdair asked, holding the priest by the arm.
“Leave me be. I’m going to say my nightly prayers. How dare you stop a priest!”
“You aren’t going anywhere, Father, until you tell me where the pirate is.” Connor held his sword in front of him now, moving his arms to warm up his shoulders in case he had to defend himself. “Though I have my doubts that you are a real priest.”
“The pirate?”
Logan came up behind him. “Look, you lying piece of shite. You are not a priest, you take coin for selling bairns, and unless you wish me to hang you on that tree by the bollocks, you’ll tell us where the pirate is. The man with the patch over one eye who locked a group of bairns in that outbuilding over there. Shall I see how dirty it is? See any evidence of wee ones inside? They probably pished in a bucket that you haven’t emptied yet. You do recall how you took innocent ones captive? We could lock you inside while we’re looking.”
“Nay, please, nay. He forces me. If I don’t keep them for a night, he says he’ll kill me and our cook. He has no respect for the collar at all. I don’t want to do it. It’s why I kept that lass to be nicer to the bairns, but they ran away. Herbert never returned, but Ellis said he’d be back.”
“Does Ellis wear a patch over his eye?”
He nodded. “I don’t know where he is.”
The cook came out the back door and said, “I’ll tell you where he is. He lives on the other side of the village, a small hut at the end of a lane by the blacksmith’s shop.”
Logan grabbed the man by the neck. “If not for that collar, I’d hang you on that tree for lying. These are bairns, you sick, twisted bastard.”
He shoved him back, and the priest tripped over his own feet, landing face-first in the mud.
An hour later, the group located Ellis, but he claimed he knew nothing about what they spoke of. Connor tied him to his horse and made him run to see what had happened to his friend.
It wasn’t long before they came upon the body behind the trees. Ellis shook his head. “Nay. I don’t wish to see him again.”
“You knew he was dead because you followed him. See how he looks now. Surely you recall your friend, Herbert?” Connor asked, shoving him forward toward the decaying body. “I think you should bury your friend.”
“He’s not my friend. I only knew him for one night.”
“I don’t believe you, but I’m not going to mince words. Do you recall the girl with the white hair that you held against her will? She’s my granddaughter and I have two score men an hour away who are bored and would love to play hang and quarter with you.”
Connor got off his horse and strode toward him. Ellis turned to escape but ran right into Alasdair’s chest. Connor picked him up and tossed him over Alasdair’s head, and he landed in a heap with a groan. Connor set his boot on Ellis’s chest, the tip of his sword at his throat.
Ellis moaned, a wet stain appearing on his trews. “I didn’t know. I swear. I thought they were orphans. We were going to give them a home.”
“The chest or the throat? Make your choice because the next lie you tell will be your last. I promise you that.”
“I didn’t know. I didn’t know. They don’t tell us anything.”
Connor grinned. “What do you recommend, Logan?”
“He only gets one chance. And if he doesn’t tell us what we wish to know, I’ll push your sword straight into his mouth until it comes out of the back of the fool’s head. One chance, arsehole.If you tell us who else is involved, we’ll not kill you and take you to the sheriff instead.”
“I don’t know.”
“Sure, you do. You know who gives you the coin,” Connor said. He placed his sword against the man’s belly and cut through his tunic. “Talk.”
“I don’t know.”
Connor pressed, thinking of poor Tora and Magni and Lia and Rowan. “Last chance.” He pierced Ellis’s belly enough to make him bleed but not enough to do much damage.
“Egan! His name is Egan, and he was at Loch Aline, but then he moved to Drimnin.”
