Page 38 of A Flawed Scotsman

The guard hurried off to find out.

“Keithen and his men will bring them back safely.”

In truth, she wasn’t sure. Both her mother and Catriona were among the women who’d been sent off.

“Yer brother’s men have arrived,” a guard announced.

Her father none-so-gently pushed her aside and stood. “Ah, very well. With the number of the men here, the Mackenzie will know we are a force to be reckoned with. Alone without reinforcements, we were winning even outnumbered.”

The look of pride on her father’s face was reflected on the other men in the room. This would be a day which would be told about for many years to come. Esme was proud not only of her clan, but of herself. She’d not cowered or left but fought alongside her father.

She beamed at the guard. “We are Frasers. We are strong.”

“Ye are a brave lass, tis true,” Ruari said, his gaze clashing with hers. There was a definite connection with him that she could no longer deny. Something about Ruari Ross made her soft inside.

*

By the end of the day, a mixture of happiness and sadness hung in the air. The dead were taken to be buried by their families. The great room would be used for the many injured to be cared for. And as a sign of compassion, the Mackenzie prisoners were released and sent on their way on foot without shoes or weapons.

Several tables had been set up in the courtyard.

Cows had been slaughtered to feed the many people who’d gathered. Out in the fields, campsites were set up and scattered among them were fires with cauldrons of stew being cooked for the warriors.

The bakers from the village arrived with carts heaped with loaves of bread to feed the men as well.

“Keithen should have returned by now,” her father said to them as they sat at a long table to eat.

Esme had been thinking the same. They’d not had time to get far. Why had her brother not returned yet?

“Someone comes,” a guard announced, and they rushed out.

A lone rider entered through the gate and upon recognizing him as one of Keithen’s men, Esme jumped to her feet and ran toward him.

“What happened?”

The man dismounted and stalked toward her father with purposeful strides. “Laird.”

Her father was on his feet. “Where is my son? My wife?”

“We found the group. The servants are all alive and well. The young men who escorted them are dead. Lady Fraser as well as Miss Catriona were taken.”

Color left her father’s face. “Was it the Mackenzie?”

“They believe so. They left behind a message with the servants.”

“What is it?” Her father’s voice shook with fury. They were surrounded now by her uncles, Ruari, his cousins and two lead guards.

“That Lady Esme be sent to marry a man of the Mackenzie’s choice. Upon the marriage, yer wife and Miss Catriona will be released.”

Her father’s shoulders fell. “And we will then be in alliance with the Mackenzie by marriage.”

It was all for naught. In the end, the Mackenzie would win. Esme looked to Ruari who studied her face without expression.

Her father’s decision would be to sacrifice his wife and Catriona in exchange for the clan. Everyone there knew it.

“I will go, Father. I will do as they ask until my mother returns. Then I will murder the man he marries me to.”

“I forbid it,” her father barked.