Page 152 of Highland Spy

“It was me,” Ariana said. She didn’t let it scream from her as the clawing desperation inside her longed to do. No, she said it with the careful calm of one who had long since weighed her words.

The king stopped. “What did you say?”

Everyone turned to stare at her and the impact of what she was about to do slammed into her as though she’d run headlong into a stone wall.

Her pulse was jagged and wild.

Connor stared at her, confusion evident in the amber warmth of his eyes. She would never forget those eyes. And she would not regret this.

Love was a far greater reward than death was a punishment.

“I said…” Ariana stepped forward. Fear nipped at her waning bravery, but she swept it aside. “It was me.”

• • •

What the hell was Ariana doing?

Connor stared in horror as she came forward to stand at his side in the fire of the king’s accusation. She strode with a confident gait.

“Killing Laird Gordon and MacAlister were tasked to me.” She spoke without looking at Connor.

He’d once told her the king didn’t know the girls didn’t kill. He regretted that now. “That isna—”

“I didn’t tell Connor about Lady MacAlister—she was merely caught in the middle by accident. And I told him I did kill Laird Gordon.” Ariana tilted her head in an arrogant manner. “But I did not.”

The king cast an incredulous look at Connor. “And you believed this?”

“She’s lying,” Connor growled the words through his teeth, as if he could somehow convince the king with the force of his vehemence.

“I compelled him,” Ariana said in a cool tone.

Everything inside Connor chilled to brittle ice.

No.

She was not going to do this.

The king went still and the color faded from his cheeks.

“I lied to him and compelled him to believe me,” she said.

“Compelled.” The king repeated the words with wide eyes. “Ye witch. Why?”

“Because I know a lot about you.” She sneered. “Like all these years you’ve left Urquhart unguarded. And how Laird Gordon kept Connor’s people safe when you failed.”

Frantic fear clawed its way deep into Connor’s heart. “Stop this, Ariana.”

She turned to him and gave a gentle smile. “My hold on you is so deep, you cannot help but defend me.”

Connor fought the manacles behind his back. They rattled with his effort and cut into the heels of his palms, all to no avail. “Dinna do this.” He looked up at the king, whose face had gone completely white. “Dinna listen to her. She’s lying.”

But King James was not listening to him. He stared at Ariana with bulging eyes, his arms protectively crossed over his heart like a child who’d been frightened.

Ariana regarded the king once more. “I know it’s you who betrayed Connor.”

King James flicked an anxious glance toward Connor. He swallowed—a soft thunk in the great silence.

“I know many, many things, James.” She said the king’s Christian name as if it were a curse. “More than how you’ve dangled Connor’s lands over him and how you’ve let his people go without a leader. Like how you worked behind his back.”