A/N: Sherry n Tiffany rock!
Trying my best to get back on my feet and updating regularly.
Chapter 40
Isabella did her best to soothe Tiffany, but she couldn't help, but feel the blame for the woman's distress. If she hadn't been foolish enough to wander off on her own, then none of this would have happened. She hadn't thought twice about it at the time. She had presumed that she was perfectly safe within the castle walls. Though clearly, she wasn't. She wondered if her attacker was someone else who had been wronged by her countrymen. Would she always be paying for their crimes? What did she have to do to prove to the clan that she wasn't like those Englishmen that had hurt them?
"My Laird," Jasper gasped as he came running into the hall, catching both Isabella and Edward's attention.
Isabella could tell by the expression on Jasper's face that he bore bad news.
"Whit is it?" Edward asked, walking towards his captain. He hoped that his men had finally caught his wife's attacker. Whoever it was, was starting to make them look like fools.
"Some eejit opened the bloody gates while we were inside. People hae been coming and going fur over half an hour. If the real attacker wiz still inside, then they most certainly have left noo."
Edward was furious. He was that mad he completely forgot that his wife and other women were still in the room. He grabbed hold of a table and tossed it over, letting out an almighty roar. "Who gave the order!?"
Isabella jumped. She had never seen her husband so angry. She feared what he may do. Tiffany reached up and squeezed her mistress' hand, trying to let her know that everything would be alright. She knew her Laird would never take his temper out on his wife.
"I dinne ken," Jasper replied. "It wiz a mistake, the soldiers believed that the attacker hid been caught. They thought they were to resume their duties."
"They weren't given the order!" Edward bellowed.
"Aye, yer right," Jasper agreed.
"Find oot who is responsible. I want them punished."
Jasper nodded. He knew better than to argue with his Laird when he was in a mood like this, especially when he had more bad news to bear. "There is something else," Jasper said, hesitantly.
"Whit!?" Edward snapped.
"The Robertsons delivered something this morning, saying it hid been left on thier land."
"Whit is it?"
"I hink ye should see it fur yerself."
Edward followed Jasper outside, but he wasn't prepared for what he saw. Lying mangled on the ground was Collin's dead body. "Where are the rest o the men?" Edward snarled.
"That wiz all that was left on oor land," one of the Robertson soldiers said, stepping forward.
"And who wiz it that left him on yer land."
The soldier shook his head. "We don't know."
Edward didn't believe him, but he didn't have any evidence to prove he was wrong. If he called him a liar, he could end up provoking a war, a war he could do without. For now he would let the Robertsons go. He would turn his attention to the English because they were most certainly the ones who had slaughtered his soldiers, and he was going to make them pay.