“I agree,” Jamie added.
“Ye two agreein’ on thin’s doesnae sit right with me,” Jack said as he sheathed his sword and started walking toward the Castle. “I prefer it when ye disagree.”
Jack caught a smile on Jamie’s lips, but his cousin seemed more interested in talking about the council still.
He saw Isla turn and walk into the Castle once she spotted him drawing closer to the building. Jack went into his study and sat with his brother, Jamie, and his cousin.
“How many councilmen proposed to have me unseated?”
“More than half,” his brother answered. “Thank goodness ye recovered. It would be a horrible fate of mine to seat as Laird,” Elliot said and shuddered. “I dread that seat. I am much happier as yer brother only.”
Jack smiled. “Ye have heard Elliot,” he said to Aideen and Jamie. “Do well to let the councilmen ken he doesnae wish to be Laird over anyone so they are stuck with me.”
Everyone laughed, then the moment turned serious as Jack asked for updates on the prisoners they had taken in from Onich.
“Has any of them confessed anything?” he asked Aideen.
“Nay,” Aideen replied. “They are best killed, My Laird. Punish them for treason as they are men loyal to only themselves. If they attacked the village then it is for their own benefit.”
“Someone could have paid them to attack,” Jamie pointed out. “I suggest we keep interrogatin’ them until they confess, My Laird.”
“There it is,” Jack said with a chuckle. “Opposin’ ideas as usual.”
Elliot smiled and Jack shook his head. “I’m afraid I agree with Aideen this time. Ye must send a message to anyone who dares challenge our Clan. We are nay longer weak and vulnerable.”
Jack ordered them to punish the leader of the brigand for the entire village to see, then spread the word, so all the other villages in his land would know what had happened.
Everyone left his study except Jamie, and he asked. “What about our plan?”
Jack had ordered Jamie to be his eyes and ears with the guards. He knew to find the man betraying them then he had to act like he trusted everyone.
“I did as ye asked, My Laird. I asked every guard to watch the dungeons in turns. This will allow me to watch their interactions with the brigands. Also I have assigned someone to watch the servant Penelope. Whoever tried to kill her the first time will try again if she kens somethin’.”
“I also am watchful of the secret passages. They are sealed, and only Aideen, Elliot and I have the access to those areas. If anyone ever gets into this Castle to commit murder then it must be done by one of us.”
“Good,” Jack said.
He dismissed Jamie after that, then sat in front of his desk for a long time plotting in his mind. While he had put Jamie in charge of a secret watch and investigation of everyone around him, he also had a plan of his own.
Jack lifted his léine and stared at the cut covered in herbs on his lower side. He had seen the face of the man who had cut him. Dark hawkish eyes with a remarkable scar slashing through the left brow down to the left cheek, and hair as black as night.
He knew exactly who to look for this time, and he knew just the right man who could help him. Jack took out his quill pen and scribbled down a note to send to the Highland’s best spy.
Odin Bullock from Clan Robertson, the oldest clan to exist was the only man who could find anyone including a ghost with his ravens and pigeons.
All Jack needed to do was describe the man in question. He knew he would hear from Odin in a few days.
After sending Jamie to deliver the message to his Clan’s messenger, he went out to find Isla.
30
Isla hummed to herself as she sat outside in the garden and enjoyed the stary night. She rested on her chair and closed her eyes. Her mind was full of thoughts from the Shakespearean novel Romeo and Juliet.
It was the only literature she could relate herself to now. Isla had never believed that she needed to love any man, but now she was falling in love with one she could never be with.
“My Lady,” Jack’s voice called and cut into her thoughts. Isla turned to see him standing behind her, his hands crossed at his back.
“Ye have been avoidin’ me,” he said.