The Enemy Across the Loch by Stockton Kasey

Author:Stockton, Kasey
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Golden Owl Press
Published: 2023-01-04T00:00:00+00:00

Miles slipped into his mother’s room, surprised to find her standing at the window. She looked over her shoulder, her white hair pinned up, a lock brushing her shoulder.

“Should ye be out of bed, Mother?” he asked, crossing slowly toward her.

“Aye, if I’d like to be.” She looked back through the window and Miles came to stand beside her. “This has gone on long enough.”

“The feud?”

“Aye.” Her mouth was pinched in displeasure. “I dinna have a good feeling, Miles.”

That was discomfiting. He shifted. “Ivor is sending me across the loch with Ealann. The men have grown ill, and they need a healer.”

She grumbled, turning away from Moraigh’s stone edifice and the building’s reflection on the water. “That isna good.”

“I dinna have a choice.”

“Nae, I dinna believe that.”

“I’ve sworn an oath—”

“Aye, ye have.”

“I owe him my fidelity. My allegiance.” But even as the words slipped from his tongue, he felt their hollowness.

“He doesna deserve yer loyalty.”

“But I chose to give it to him. If I break it now, Mother, I sacrifice more than Ivor’s protection. I sacrifice our home, our clan, this land . . . I give up all connection to Elizabeth.”

The final words escaped on a breath, a mere whisper. He was unwilling to break his final connecting thread to her, regardless of how wrong it felt.

“Och.”

“Father taught me the importance of a man’s loyalty, and I canna forget that easily.”

“Nae, I’ll dare say ye willna,” Mother said bitterly. “Yer a man, and ye make yer own choices, but I dinna think Ivor is holding up his end of the bargain. Ye’ve sworn yer loyalty to him, but has he remained loyal to ye? Protected ye?”

“He hasna hurt me,” Miles said.

“He is forcing ye to take Ealann away from Mr. McEwan,” she said, crossing slowly back toward her bed and sitting on the edge of the mattress.

Ealann’s name shot through him like a warm ray of sunlight, and he snuffed the flame before it could grow. “She’ll want to help the ill.”

“She would prefer to stay here and help her kin.”

“Ye dinna ken what she truly—”

“I can guess well enough, and I am certain ye can too.”

She was correct. He couldn’t argue further about it. Miles sat beside his mother and rubbed his temples.

“She will forgive ye, I think,” Mother mused. “I dinna believe Ealann has a grudge-bearing heart.”

“Why would I need her forgiveness?”

She lifted her pale eyebrows. “Ye might be fooling yerself, but ye canna fool yer own mother. I have seen the difference in ye these last few months, and it isna because Ivor arrived.”

“Ivor didna arrive months ago.”

“Och, aye. But ye met Ealann on the loch months ago.”

Miles drew in a heavy breath. “Ye’re searching for something which isna there.”

“Nae, lad. I am noticing my son has an interest in a woman and willna allow himself to see it for himself.” She hesitated. “I havna seen ye speak of anyone the way ye speak of Ealann, no’ in years. Elizabeth wouldna want ye to be lonely—”

He rose, discomfort making its way through him.

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