Beauty and the Beastly Highlander by Kenna Kendrick
Chapter Twenty-Six
The castle was in chaos. Finley could tell even from where he sat in his study.
He had spent hours in there, the entire time thinking about Lochlan’s betrayal. He could hardly believe that his own brother had gone behind his back and teamed up with some brigands who wanted nothing more than to destroy the clan. The two of them had grown up together. They had shared everything. Finley had relied on him when he couldn’t rely on anyone else. He had told him things that he had never even shared with Anna; he had loved him dearly.
No. He loved him still.
He didn’t think that his love for Lochlan would ever fade, just like his love for Anna had never faded. He wasn’t that lucky. Despite his betrayal and despite Finley’s own fury, it seemed impossible that he would ever stop loving him.
Finley wished more than anything that it was all a misunderstanding or even a dream. But how could it be a misunderstanding when all the evidence pointed at Lochlan? He had been reluctant to see it at first, telling himself that he was crazy, that there was no way his brother would have done such a thing. Even if Lochlan held no love for him for whatever reason or even if he was after his title, he still wouldn’t have hurt his own clan. He had seen him with his men; a bond like that couldn’t be faked.
But did he na already fool me once? I thought that we had a bond, too. A stronger one, even.
As much as Finley had tried to deny it, and as much as the men were reluctant to believe it, Lochlan had betrayed them all. And he couldn’t let the traitor get away with it, even if it was his own brother.
Lochlan would have to hang, and Finley would have to be the one to give the order. His stomach twisted itself in a knot at the thought, bile rising to the back of his throat. The mere thought of having to kill his own brother was enough to break his heart all over again. His hands began to tremble, breath coming out in short puffs as his vision darkened, but he quickly pulled himself back from the edge. He didn’t have the time for panic.
Why? Why Lochlan? Why would ye betray me?
But it wasn’t just Lochlan. It was also Etna who had convinced him that she cared about him but who had been using him and lying to him the entire time.
That’s what I get for trustin’ people again.
He should have never let Etna get so close to him. He should have known better after what had happened with Anna. But Etna seemed so genuine, so honest. And she was beautiful, as beautiful on the outside as on the inside.
Or at least, so Finley had thought before her true colors were revealed to him. She, too, was nothing but a traitor. He had given her his heart, only to have it shattered once more, but from then on, Finley would be more careful.
He vowed to never love another woman as long as he lived. He had done it for years, and it wouldn’t be that hard to do it again.
As he sat at his desk, face hidden in his hands, he felt his eyes burn, but he refused to shed a tear for either Lochlan or Etna. They didn’t deserve it.
The knock on his door startled him, and Finley all but jumped out of his seat, trying to look at least mildly presentable, hands smoothing over the wrinkled and soiled fabric of his shirt. “Come in,” he said, and when the door opened, it revealed none other than Arlene.
Finley shot out of his seat and rushed to her, wrapping an arm around her shoulders as he led her to a chair, much to Arlene’s chagrin.
“Finley, we dinna have time for this,” Arlene said as she pushed him off. Her expression was one of thinly veiled panic and fear, and Finley thought that he knew precisely what she had come there to tell him.
She wants me to forgive Lochlan. She wants me to spare his life.
After all, she had been so shaken with the news and with Finley’s treatment of his brother that she had almost collapsed. She was their grandmother. It would have only surprised him if Arlene hadn’t tried to persuade him to give him another chance.
But when Arlene spoke, the words were not what Finley had expected to hear.
“Malina is gone,” she said, grabbing Finley’s arms in a strong grip that didn’t fit a woman of her age. “We think that Etna has gone after her to find her, but neither of them is anywhere to be seen. Ye must send yer men to find them, Finley. Noo.”
Finley’s veins turned to ice, his heart stalling in his chest. No, it couldn’t be Malina. Nothing could have happened to her because then Finley wouldn’t know what to do with himself. It was a thought that he couldn’t bear, one that he refused to even entertain.
“Finley!” Arlene shouted, pulling him out of his panicked trance. “Send them noo.”
Finley wasted no time before he rushed out of his study, ordering the first guard in his path to alert everyone else. He gathered them all in the courtyard, voice booming as he spoke to them.
“Me daughter is gone, and so is Etna,” he said. “Ye are to leave immediately and search for them.”
There was silence among his men for a moment, and the fact that they weren’t moving enraged Finley. “We have na time for this! Go!”
“But me Laird . . . where are we to look for them? Where do we start?” one of the men asked, the others echoing his question. And it was a question to which Finley didn’t have an answer.
He didn’t know where he should send them first. Malina and Etna could be anywhere. He didn’t even know when they had disappeared from the castle, so there was no telling how far they could have gotten.
“Split into groups,” he told them. He needed them to cover as much ground as possible, even if it was more dangerous that way. If brigands had taken his little girl, then they would surely be on high alert for any approaching soldiers. “Cover the entire area around the castle. Na one returns until we find them.”
His men, acknowledging his command, began to prepare to go outside the castle walls, and Finley decided to do the same. There was no way that he wouldn’t go out there with them. He would find Malina, and he would bring her home, even if he had to search for days and nights.
Anythin’ to save her. Anythin’.
And then, there was also Etna. She had betrayed him, and she had hurt him. That much was certain. But Finley’s chest heaved, and his knees weakened at the thought of any harm coming her way. He didn’t know what he would do if he found her body instead of her. The thought was too much to bear.
He loved her. He couldn’t deny it.
I must find her, too.
Before he could mount a horse, though, another guard rushed to him, panting as he spoke.
“Me laird, Lochlan is askin’ for ye,” the man said, though he did so hesitantly, as though mentioning Lochlan’s name in Finley’s presence would mean his end.
That was hardly the time for him to have a chat with his brother. Whatever Lochlan had to say to him would have to wait. Besides, it was probably just another lie, nothing that was worth his attention even when he didn’t have a matter of life and death in his hands.
“Do ye na ken what’s happenin’?” Finley asked the man. “Tell him I canna see him noo.”
He expected the guard to rush off, but the man lingered, taking a deep breath before he continued.
“He was quite insistent, me laird,” the guard said. “He says that he doesna want much of yer time but that he needs to see ye right the noo. He says it’s important.”
“What could be more important than me daughter’s life?” Finley asked. “I’ll speak to him when I return.”
“He says it’s about the brigands,” the guard added, and Finley took a pause, glancing at him.
If Lochlan was going to give him information about the brigands, it could prove to be helpful. Though he didn’t know how any of them could have possibly made it into the castle, a part of him—a big part—feared that it had been the brigands who had taken Malina. It could give them a place to start looking, at least, a hint to their whereabouts.
“Fine,” he huffed as he pushed past the guard, rushing to the dungeons and running down the stairs like a man possessed. Once he saw Lochlan, he paused once more, the sight of him behind bars, looking so desperate and defeated, making Finley falter.
He hated seeing him like that. And he hated himself for whatever he had done that had pushed Lochlan to become who he was.
He knew that his brother hadn’t always been that way. There had been a time when he would have never betrayed Finley, and so he could only assume that it had been his own behavior that had pushed Lochlan to betray him.
“Finley!” Lochlan shouted the moment he spotted him. “Finley, please, ye must listen to me.”
“Make this quick, Lochlan,” Finley said as he walked up to the bars, hands crossed over his chest. “There is a situation. Malina is gone. I must go find her.”
Lochlan’s jaw fell at that, his eyes widening with fear. “G-gone?” he asked. “Gone where? Did the brigands take her?”
“I dinna ken,” Finley said. “Ye’re the one who can answer that.”
But if there was one thing that Finley knew, that was that Lochlan would have never done anything to hurt Malina. Perhaps he was nothing more than an informant to the brigands, and he had nothing to do with her disappearance, or perhaps the brigands had nothing to do with it at all. Either way, Lochlan adored her like his own daughter, and Finley knew that she was the one person he would never hurt.
“I canna!” Lochlan said. “Ye must believe me! I’m na the traitor. But I think that I ken who is.”
Finley narrowed his eyes at Lochlan, shaking his head. “If ye’re tryin’ to blame it all on someone else—”
“I’m tellin’ the truth,” Lochlan interrupted. “Noo, listen to me. There’s somethin’, I must confess.”
Lochlan came to grab the bars with trembling hands, their faces only inches apart as he spoke again. “I’ve been in love with Mairi for a long time,” he said. “The maid. I kent that ye wouldnae approve of our relationship, and so I saw her in secret, and I saw her often.”
“What does that have to do with anythin’?” Finley asked. “I told ye, I’m in a hurry.”
“Listen to me!” Lochlan demanded. “As I said, I saw her often. Even when we were lookin’ for the brigands away from the castle. She was there when they burned down the village. Remember? I wasnae there, fightin’ by yer side because I was with her. She followed me to the village and she . . . she insisted that we stayed for a night at the inn, away from everyone else. And she . . . she was always interested in our missions. I kent that she’s a clever lass, so I thought that it all . . . weel, fascinated her. I wanted to impress her, and I told her . . . I told her so many things, Finley. I talked to her about our plans, I told her everythin’ that I kent because I thought . . . I thought she would like me more if I did, that she would think I’m clever, too.”
Finley didn’t know what to believe anymore. Mairi was nothing but a servant girl, and as clever as Lochlan thought she was, she couldn’t have possibly done it all by herself.
Then again, if Lochlan’s words were to be trusted, she had done nothing more than pass on some information to the brigands. That was hardly a difficult task, and if she was as clever as Lochlan claimed, then tricking him into telling her the plans couldn’t have been too difficult.
“But why?” Finley asked. “Why would Mairi do such a thing? What does she have to gain?”
“I dinna ken,” Lochlan said. “But what did I have to gain, Finley? Nothin’. What would I gain from betrayin’ me own brother? Ye must believe me. I would never do such a thing to ye. I’m only a fool who loved the wrong woman. Whatever it is that Mairi wanted, I can assure ye, I’ll find out. I’ll do anythin’ it takes.”
It seemed farfetched but so farfetched that Finley couldn’t believe Lochlan had made it up. He could have easily pinned the blame on someone else, one of his own men, but why would he pin it on Mairi if it wasn’t true? Why would he choose a maid over a trained man?
“Me Laird?” the guard that had followed him there said, clearing his throat to get his attention. “I didna think much of it at that moment but . . . I saw Mairi earlier. She was on horseback, and she had somethin’ wrapped in a blanket with her.”
Finley turned to look at the other man. “Somethin’?”
“Somethin’ that could have been a bairn,” the man clarified. “It was big enough, roughly wee Malina’s size if she was curled up.”
Terror coursed through Finley’s body as realization hit him. If the guard was right and Lochlan was telling the truth, then Malina was in more danger than they had all thought.
“Finley,” Lochlan said, reaching through the bars and grabbing his hand before he could pull away. “Ye ken me better than anyone. Ye ken that I would never betray ye. Let me out of here. Take me with ye. If . . . if she’s done anythin’ to Malina, I’ll . . . I’ll kill her meself.”
Finley looked at Lochlan and found nothing but honesty in his gaze and his words. He felt like a fool for putting him in that cell in the first place. That was his brother, the man that he knew better than anyone else. How could he have believed so easily that Lochlan would betray him? He should have been wary from the start. He should have known that something far more sinister was going on.
Will he ever forgive me for what I did to him?
Even if he did, Finley wouldn’t be able to forgive himself. He would always carry the burden of what he had done to his brother for the rest of his life.
But he couldn’t think about that, not when Malina’s life was in danger. He gave Lochlan’s hand a squeeze, nodding fervently before he turned to look at the guard.
“Let him out,” he commanded, and the man scrambled to obey, opening the door to the cell. Lochlan was far from his best shape. Finley guessed that he was tired, cold, and hungry, and every time he spoke, the wound on his lip reopened. But his gaze was hard as iron, determined. For Malina, he would find to the very end.
The two of them rushed out of the dungeons and back to the courtyard, Finley barking an order at the stableboy to grab Lochlan a horse. The rest of the men seemed confused, frowning at Lochlan’s sudden presence, but none of them dared to ask a single thing. Once they were all ready to go, Finley moved to the front, leading the group.
“We ken noo that the most likely possibility is that Mairi has Malina,” he told his men. “She was seen headin’ to the loch earlier today. We also ken that Mairi is the real traitor, and na Lochlan. Assume that the brigands are there. Dinna let yer guard down. Fight them, even if it’s the last thing ye do.”
His men roared behind him as the gates opened. The group poured out of them, the horses’ hooves splitting the night air like thunder, the men’s war cries echoing around the valley.
When Finley turned his head, he saw Lochlan right next to him, and he knew that his little girl would be safe.
