‘You?’ I scoffed.

Aifric didn’t even blink. ‘Me.’ He inhaled deeply and looked around. ‘Everyone knows that Clan MacQuarrie has more than a touch of the moon about it. You will all remain here behind your pointless borders. You will not communicate with anyone. You will not come to the wedding and you will not get in my way.’

‘And why the hell should we do that?’ Chieftain MacQuarrie growled.

Aifric beamed, as if he were delivering wonderful news. ‘If you don’t, I will raze your Clan to the ground. Do this, keep quiet and you might live to see next year.’

‘We’ll do no such thing! We could never trust you anyway.’

I turned round and met his eyes. The MacQuarrie Clan had sworn fealty to me and they would do what I asked. Yes, Aifric was lying; he’d find a way to destroy this Clan one way or another, no matter what we decided today. But if they didn’t give him at least the illusion of passive agreement, he would destroy them right now. There was no choice to make. ‘Agreed,’ I said quietly.

Chieftain MacQuarrie opened his mouth. He would have disagreed but something in my expression gave him pause. ‘I’ve got this,’ I told him. I looked at Angus. He looked almost as sick as I felt. ‘Bob,’ I mouthed silently.

Angus swallowed and nodded slightly to show he understood and I relaxed slightly. I knew Angus: there was no way he’d permit Bob or the others to mount a kind of rescue without him. Even if Aifric killed me right now, Angus would make sure that Bob’s indenture, such as it was, passed to him or someone on our team. If I didn’t live to fight another day, they would.

‘There,’ I said to Aifric, ‘you’ve got what you wanted after all.’

His lip curled. ‘Somehow I don’t feel I can trust you.’ He pointed at Tipsania. ‘I want her too.’

Tipsania was an independent being and I couldn’t tell her what to do, I could only hope that she understood there were other factors in play. We weren’t giving up entirely, not yet. I swallowed and looked at her, expecting her to flatly refuse. Her eyes drifted from Morna’s body to me and then back to Aifric. She tossed her head. ‘It would be my pleasure,’ she said loudly.

I sensed Taylor stiffen. Hell, even I was taken aback and I knew she was lying.

‘I never wanted to be with these dirty outcasts,’ she continued. ‘I want to be the wife of the next Steward. It’s what my father wanted for me.’

Considering her father was lying dead in front of her, she did a damned good job of dissembling. From the expression on Aifric’s face, he wasn’t buying her act, regardless of how believable she appeared. All the same, I inwardly applauded her for trying. Tipsania understood the machinations required to get what she wanted – she’d had all her life to perfect that attitude. No doubt if all this ended as Aifric wanted it to, she’d find a way to worm herself back into his good books, not because she was a bad person but because she understood what survival took. That thought scratched at me.