A big hand clamped hard on my shoulder.
"My brother? You think I'd betray my brother?" For some reason, that had stung him; his face was dark with anger.
"You've just admitted that you did!" And then I realized.
"The both of you," I said slowly. "You did it together, you and Colum. Together, as you've always done things." I pulled his hand off my shoulder and flung it back at him.
"Colum couldn't be chieftain, unless you would go to war for him. He couldn't hold the clan together, without you to travel for him, to collect the rents and settle the claims. He couldn't ride, he couldn't travel. And he couldn't father a son, to pass the chieftainship on to. And you had no son by Maura. You swore to be his arms and legs"—I was beginning to feel a little hysterical by this time—"why shouldn't you be his cock, as well'?"
Dougal had lost his anger; he stood watching me speculatively for a moment. Deciding that I was going nowhere, he sat down on one of the bales of goods and waited for me to finish.
"So you did it with Colum's knowledge. Was Letitia willing?" Knowing by now just what sort of ruthlessness they possessed, I wouldn't put it past the brothers MacKenzie to have forced her.
Dougal nodded. His anger had evaporated.
"Oh, aye, willing enough. She didna fancy me particularly, but she wanted a child—enough to take me to her bed for the three months it took to start Hamish. A boring damn job it was too," Dougal added reflectively, scraping a bit of mud from his boot heel. "I'd as soon swive a warm bowl of milk pudding."
"And did you tell Colum that?" I asked. Hearing the edge in my voice, he looked up. He regarded me levelly for a moment, then a faint smile lightened his face.
"No," he said quietly. "No, I didna tell him that." He looked down at his hands, turning them over as though looking for some secret hidden in the lines of his palms.
"I told him," he said softly, not looking at me, "that she was tender and sweet as a ripe peach, and all that a man could want in a woman."
He closed his hands abruptly and looked up at me, that momentary glimpse of Colum's brother submerged once more in the sardonic eyes of Dougal MacKenzie.
"Tender and sweet is not precisely what I'd say of you," he observed. "But all that a man could want…" The deep-set hazel eyes traveled slowly downward over my body, lingering on the roundness of breast and hip that showed through my open cloak. One hand moved unconsciously back and forth, stroking lightly across the muscles of his thigh as he watched me.
"Who knows?" he said, as though to himself. "I might have yet another son—legitimate, this time. True"—he tilted his head appraisingly, looking at my midsection—"it hasna happened yet wi' Jamie. You may be barren. But I'll take the chance. The property is worth it, at any rate."
He stood suddenly and took a step toward me.
"Who knows?" he said again, very softly. "If I were to plow that pretty brown-haired furrow and seed it deep each day…" The shadows on the cavern wall shifted suddenly as he took another step toward me.
"Well, you took your bloody time about it," I said crossly. A look of incredulous shock, spread across his features before he realized that I was looking beyond him, toward the cave mouth.
"It didna seem mannerly to interrupt," said Murtagh, advancing into the cave behind a loaded pair of flintlock pistols. He held one trained on Dougal, using the other to gesture with.
"Unless ye mean to accept that last proposal here and now, I'd suggest ye leave. And if ye do mean to accept it, then I'll leave."
"Nobody's leaving yet," I said shortly. "Sit down," I said to Dougal. He was still standing, staring at Murtagh as though at an apparition.
"Where's Rupert?" he demanded, finding his voice.
"Oh, Rupert." Murtagh scratched his chin thoughtfully with the muzzle of one pistol. "He's likely made it to Belladrum by now. Should be back before dawn," he added helpfully, "wi' the keg of rum he thinks ye sent him to fetch. The rest o' your men are still asleep in Quinbrough."
Dougal had the grace to laugh, if a little grudgingly. He sat down again, hands on his knees, and glanced from me to Murtagh and back again. There was a momentary silence.
"Well?" Dougal inquired. "Now what?"
That, I realized, was rather a good question. Surprised at finding Dougal instead of Jamie, shocked by his revelations, and infuriated at his consequent proposals, I had had no time to think of what ought to be done. Luckily, Murtagh was better prepared. Well, after all, he hadn't been occupied in fighting off lecherous advances.