“Not for love o’ ye,” she interrupted fiercely, “but to win a smile frae me—an insult and a disgrace—if ye had killed him none had kenned he spared your life to please your wife!”
The Earl flushed a little at her tone, but he was lapsing into his usual calm manner.
“Woman, ye dinna ken the larger issues,” he said dryly. “If I had slain these Macdonalds how think ye it would hae sounded in Edinburgh? Sir John wouldna’ hae thanked me for it; it would hae pleased nane but the Jacobites that hae been glad for this handle against me.”
She moved a step away from him.
“Ah, ye hae grown too politic,” she answered. “When I wed ye, ye wouldna’ hae done sae—Campbell o’ Glenorchy would hae fought for me nor been dared sae tamely by these thieving Macdonalds!”
Breadalbane looked at her calmly. “I willna’ put myself outside the law when I may be avenged inside the law,” he said. “In a while not three, but all o’ the Macdonalds shall be in my power and without scandal can I use it—dinna ye understand?”
“But they will take the oaths,” she answered.
“Not after this—they willna’,” said the Earl, grimly.
But the Countess Peggy was not appeased; she looked with a frown at the fading marks on her wrist and rebellion against her lord rose within her.
“I’m no’ convinced,” she said, half under her breath.