Highland Devil (Murray Family #22)(42)

There was a tall, stern man in the door to the great hall. He nodded at  Sigimor and then looked at Gybbon and Harcourt. Gybbon thought he looked  like a stiff-necked elder fellow but just smiled as Sigimor introduced  him and Harcourt.

"The prisoner will be brought in in a moment if ye will come and take a  seat." The man spoke very politely and waved them inside. "The boy said  ye came to speak for the accused?"

"Aye," replied Sigimor. "Is there a special space for such ones to sit?"

"Nay, for none were expected. Simply find some place to sit. This  shouldnae take much of your time." He walked toward the table at the far  end of the hall and faced the door.

"Weel, that tells us the verdict is all planned nay matter what anyone  says," said Sigimor, and he walked forward to an empty bench.

"Then how can they call this a judgment? They are not making one; they  have one. She is being brought in just to hear their opinion."

"Aye, doesnae mean we cannae argue it."

"I am nay sure anything would help her."

"Nay, but that is why we are here, isnae it."

Gybbon sat down next to Harcourt, who was staring at Robert. He looked  at the brothers and sighed. Robert looked smug and satisfied and the  other three looked miserable, especially Murdoch. He glanced at Mora's  brothers and saw that their hands were clenched tight into fists,  revealing they were not as calm as they wanted people to believe. He  heard the doors to the great hall open and looked back.

Mora was brought in by a man and a woman. Her hair was piled up on her  head and he wondered why someone had bothered with that. He felt a  little sick when he thought of one reason it might have been forced into  that style, and it had to do with the placement of the noose. The gown  she wore was stained but clean. He saw no bruises or cuts. She did look  tired and sad. She was marched down to stand in front of the table where  the laird sat.





Chapter Eighteen


Mora looked to the table at the back of the hall. Her uncle looked much  better than he had when she had last seen him, but he looked angry. That  did not bode well for her.

Then she glanced toward her cousins. Robert was sneering in that way he  seemed to favor, and the other three brothers looked miserable,  especially Murdoch. Since her uncle was busy fumbling with a bunch of  papers, she decided to have a look at the surprisingly large crowd that  had come to see this.

She did not realize a hanging was such a crowd pleaser, she thought  angrily. Then she tried to push the anger away, except it would not  leave. This was so unfair and her uncle knew it.

Suddenly Robert tensed and looked behind them. It was enough to have his  brothers looking, too, and there were almost smiles on their faces.  Robert looked as if he wished he could take up his sword and go after  whatever, or whomever, he saw.

Curious as to what they were all looking at, she looked over her  shoulder. A faint smile curved her lips when she saw Gybbon, Sigimor,  and Harcourt all sitting there with their arms crossed. The looks they  were sending her uncle and his sons would certainly make her rethink  whatever she was about to do. Unfortunately, all they could do was  glare, as they would have been disarmed before entering the hall.         

     



 

Then she noticed two men at Harcourt's side in the same pose. It took  her a moment to recognize them as, in the nearly three years they had  been gone, there had been changes. She took a step toward them and Manus  again tightened his grip.

"My brothers," she whispered, and Hilda was suddenly at her side.

"Lass, ye have to face the laird."

Then her brothers looked at her and smiled. It was not a dream. Somehow  her brothers had arrived home, safe, just when she needed them. The  roaring in her ears grew loud and, with a soft sigh, she gave in to the  blackness sweeping over her mind.

Gybbon and Mora's two brothers leapt to their feet, but they had to  wrestle with a few of Ogilvy's guards to get out of their seats. Gybbon  was surprised when every one of the brothers save Robert also stood up,  but it was Murdoch who acted. He moved fast, sliding on his knees over  the floor until he could catch Mora. Sigimor moved the guards blocking  them out of the way simply by picking up one and tossing him into the  others.

By the time they reached Mora's side, Murdoch had roused her and she stared wide-eyed at her brothers. "Ye have come home."

"Aye, Mora. Ye have gotten yourself in a tangle, havenae ye?" said Niall as he chaffed her hand between his.

"Oh, aye, I have indeed. But I did get some friends that may help," she said as he helped her sit up.

"We have met. Perhaps later we can have a chat about who that fellow Gybbon is." He nodded when she blushed.

Mora suddenly had to get away from Niall as she was in no state to be  answering any questions about Gybbon. That was a conversation she needed  to have with all her wits clear and working at their sharpest. Finally  getting on her feet, she hugged David as best as she could with her  wrists tied together.

"Has Andrew seen ye?" she asked David.

"Aye, Harcourt brought him to Sigimor's manor. We have been rather busy  trying to get ye free of this trap. We ken he is protected and that is  enough for now."

"Is your little family moment done now?" Robert drawled. "Can we get back to the judgment?"

Mora gripped Niall's arm when she felt his body tense and looked at  Robert. "Aye. Let us get to this." She went back to standing in front of  the table where the laird sat. "M'laird."

"Ye are here to answer for charges of murder and theft," he said.

"I see. And who brought such charges against me?"

"Robert Ogilvy."

"Of course, and ye believe him to be an honest source?"

He glared at her. "He is my son."

"Aye, and I am but your niece."

She just stood as he went through all the things Robert was trying to  blame on her. Her brothers protested and several times Gybbon pointed  out she could not have done that because she was with him or at  Sigimor's, but it still left enough to hang her with. Mora felt her  heart sink as her uncle declared her guilty and read her punishment out.  Even when one knew they were innocent, she discovered it was hard to be  charged, convicted, and even sentenced to hang.

As Jonathan and her uncle stepped out from behind the table and  proceeded to walk her outside, Mora noticed that her brothers, Sigimor,  Gybbon, and Harcourt were gone. That five such sizeable men had slipped  out so silently surprised her. She hoped they were not planning  something too dangerous to free her. She did not want to be the reason  that the tight circle of alliances that made the area so peaceful had  been destroyed.

Once outside, she blinked at the sunlight. She had not realized how she  had missed it, but was annoyed that she had been in the dark long enough  to react badly to its return. She looked at the scaffold and resisted  the strong urge to fight the hold the two men had on her arms.

Then she noticed all the men circling the scaffold and wondered why they  were two deep. She was no threat. One of the men standing behind a man  leaned around the man and winked at her quickly before ducking back  behind the man. The man he was behind was shaking in a way that told her  he was badly smothering a laugh. Mora was sure that had been one of the  MacFingals that hung around Sigimor. Looking around at each of the ones  with a man behind them, she realized that a lot of them had red hair,  and from what she saw, a lot of them were actually having a pleasant  conversation with their guard.

Her uncle tugged her up the steps and Robert skipped by them, nearly  nudging them off the steps. Robert went and stood by the hangman, who  looked extremely displeased with his presence. The moment she was placed  by the noose, and the hangman began to slip it on, her uncle let her go  and faced the crowd to repeat her sentence and what she was being  punished for. While her uncle's back was turned, the men on the platform  disappeared rather abruptly and were replaced with others. Even the  hangman, she realized, when the strong smell of leeks had disappeared to  be replaced by a scent she knew all too well.         

     



 

Then her uncle turned to tell the hangman to do it, and she saw in his  eyes such sorrow she actually felt bad for him. Glancing at Robert, she  saw only glee, but right behind him stood Harcourt, sword in hand. She  tensed, but instead of the noose being tightened it was taken off her  neck and put around Robert's, who stood there openmouthed with shock but  unable to move because he had a sword at his back.

"What is happening!" demanded her uncle.

"We are about to hang the guilty man," said Sigimor as he got up on the platform with the others. "Is that nay why we are here?"

"But, we had her  … "

"Nay, ye didnae, and ye ken it. This lass has ne'er killed anyone and  ne'er stolen a thing. So, what are ye doing here? Protecting Robert yet  again? Do ye really believe he is worth an innocent lassie's life, the  lives of your own brother and his wife, the life of your nephews for he  tried to end them too and made certain their family could not get in  touch with them? Or your own life? This lass didnae poison ye. She  wasnae around here often enough to do so, and ye ken it weel."