Page 30 of A Laird and a Gentleman

“You don’t understand.” His eyes narrowed on her face. “I had to have her gift. In the months following our meeting on the beach, I worked relentlessly, controlling my anger. The isle and your mother became my passion. For two years I saved every farthing I had, denying myself even the most basic of needs, until I had the funds to buy the isle and everything on it.”

“That’s when you went to claim your prize.”

He inclined his head. “I brought five mercenary soldiers with me—my little army—praying it would be enough to capture what I truly desired.”

“Was it Mother you desired, or what she could give you?”

A glint of pride shone in his eyes. “You were always smarter than you should be for a girl.”

Mariam kept her expression blank. She refused to let him get the better of her.

When she didn’t react, he continued. “I asked your mother to share her magic a second time. She denied me again. So, I asked her to marry me, to come back to the mainland with me. When she rejected me a third time, something inside me broke free.” A terrible smile crept across his lips.

“What did you do?”

“The only thing I could. I captured her mother—your grandmother—and punished her for her daughter’s willfulness.” His hand drifted to the now-empty leather pouch at his belt. “She was the first woman I ever tortured. I pricked her until she cried out in agony, but she wouldn’t reveal either her or her daughter’s secrets to me. She chose death over a confession.”

A ripple of revulsion moved through Mariam. “You didn’t stop there, did you?”

He shook his head. “I tortured her father to death, followed by her younger sister. When the young girl was on the verge of lifelessness, your mother finally relented. I forced those who remained alive onto the boat and brought them to the mainland with me.”

“She married you then?”

“Aye. After which I drove her family away, forcing them to settle elsewhere, leaving her alone with only me. But even then, no matter how much pressure I applied, she still denied to share her gift with me.”

Mariam knew full well what kind of pressure he had used on her mother. She might not remember much about the woman, but she would never forget the bruises on her mother’s flesh or the pain in her eyes. “If you wanted her magic so badly, then why do you punish others who might also have a ‘gift’?”

He gazed directly into Mariam’s eyes as he moved ever closer. “If I could not have magic, then no one else would either.” Cold bitterness stared back at her until he stopped, towering over her. His smile became set in place. “Ridding the world of those who possess such power has become my life’s work. My glory. My passion.” His hand jerked up and around her throat. He tightened his grip, squeezing.

Mariam sputtered, desperately seeking air. She tried to cry out for the guards, but only a strangled sob came out. She clawed at his fingers. “F—ath—er. Pl—ease!” Fear coiled inside. She was going to die at her father’s hands.

As her senses faded, desperation took hold. Mariam summoned all her strength. An unearthly rumble echoed through her chest and shuddered through her body until it erupted from her in a great burst of power, which she directed at her father. His features distorted as his hands slid from her neck.

He roared in outrage as he hurtled backward, slamming against the opposite wall. He collapsed in a heap just as the door to the chamber burst open and Orrin and Kyle rushed in, swords drawn.

Mariam’s knees failed her and she sagged to the ground, drained of all energy. Orrin sheathed his sword and dropped to his knee beside her. “Are you well, my lady?”

Her throat burned. “I will be,” she rasped out, allowing him to help her up. She turned her gaze to her father. Kyle was at his side. “Is he . . . does he live?”

Kyle rolled the man onto his back. “I can see his chest moving up and down.” The guard’s gaze shifted from her father to her neck where she could feel a welt beginning to rise. “How did ye do it, my lady? How did ye best him? He’s twice as strong as ye?”

Mariam set her jaw. “I was twice as angry that my own father would attack me.”

The explanation seemed to satisfy the young guard. He assisted Orrin in helping her from the chamber. Once outside the doorway, Mariam looked back at the man who might have sired her but had never truly been a father. Anger and hatred had motivated him over the last many years to harm not only her mother and her people, but hundreds of others as well.

“Your tyranny ends tonight,” she whispered under her breath. The man was mad. Instead of encouraging his behavior as King James had, somehow, some way, she would make certain he never harmed anyone else again.

*

On unsteady feet, she made her way back to her chamber. Her maid Thea, who she’d learned early today was Kendric’s sister, waited inside. For a moment, Mariam hesitated with her hand on the door latch. Did the dark-haired maid secretly blame Mariam for their mother’s death? “If you’d rather not attend me, Thea, I would understand.”

The girl looked up, startled. “Nay, my lady.” She hesitated and wouldn’t meet Mariam’s gaze. “I have nae objections tae attendin’ ye,” she continued as she finally looked up. Her expression was blank, her gaze shuttered. “’Tis time to prepare ye fer supper, milady.”

Mariam stepped fully into the room and came to stand before the maid, still unsure of the girl’s loyalty. She had to be certain. “Thea, can I trust you?”

The words must have startled Thea because she paled. “Of course, milady.”

“Then why were you spying on me this morning when I went out with Laird Sinclair?”