Chapter 77

Gair stared into the fire. He’d kept on the road to Campbell, but his eyes had been searching the bush for any sign of Izzy or her dogs. He knew it had been hopeless, even if she’d come this way she would not have stayed near the road. He tensed as Fann took a seat beside him and refused the flask of ale.

“Most men,” Fann said, “would be glad for a wife they favour and a clan to rule. Why is it you are not?”

“Have you been there?”

“No. I should have been, but when I heard the Laird was not the one who had invited me to visit I left. Mercenaries are not usually welcome unless they are invited.”

“It is not a clan I can rule. The men are everything I despise.”

“Why?”

“They are all lazy drunkards who rape and beat their women and children.”

“When the women see that Izzy expects better from you, and gets it, the women of Sinclair will expect better too. Young men who wish to wed will have to do better to get their attention. Your reputation for putting rapists in the stocks naked won’t hur