Read Chapter 26: The Bargain

The Campbell lands spread out beneath Lachlan like a bruise healing into twilight, purple and gold and grey. He had ridden through the night to reach Donal MacAllister’s estate by dawn, and now he stood in the great hall of a man he had sworn to hate, waiting to offer him everything.

Donal entered without ceremony, boots loud on the flagstones, a cup of wine in his hand. He stopped mid-stride when he saw Lachlan, then smiled slowly.

“The prodigal Campbell. Come to beg?”

“I come to bargain.”

Donal laughed, but his eyes were sharp, calculating. “You have nothing I want. Your father already sold me the treaty land. Your sister’s marriage is void. Your clan is scattered.” He took a long drink. “You are a ghost, Lachlan Campbell. What could you possibly offer me?”

Lachlan reached into his coat and pulled out the deed to the Campbell estate. He had taken it from his father’s desk before riding out, knowing Fraser would never have the spine to use it. The parchment was old, the seal cracked, but it was still legal and binding.

“This,” he said, laying it on the table between them. “All of it. The house, the fields, the tenant bonds. Every acre my family has held for three hundred years.”

Donal’s smile faded. He set down his cup and picked up the deed, reading it with the hunger of a man who had been chasing land his entire life. His fingers traced the seal.

“You would give me Braemore?”

“In exchange for three things.”

Donal snorted. “Name them.”

“Release Gregor MacAllister. Drop the charges against Alistair MacTavish. And leave Iona alone.” Lachlan’s voice was steady, though his hands were clenched at his sides. “She walks free. Unharmed. Untouched by you or your men, now and forever.”

Donal studied him for a long moment, a smile curling at the corner of his mouth. “You love her.”

Lachlan said nothing.

“You love the MacTavish girl,” Donal repeated, savoring the words. “And you are willing to surrender your birthright to save her. How poetic.” He set down the deed and picked up his wine again. “I will release Gregor. He is useless to me anyway—bastard blood, no claim to anything. And I will have the charges against Alistair dropped. He is old and broken; the magistrate will do as I say.” He took a sip. “But Iona MacTavish is the one who stole from me. She will not walk free until I have the ledger back.”

“I don’t know where she hid it.”

“Then you are not as useful as you think.” Donal turned away, dismissing him. “Find the ledger. Bring it to me. Then we will discuss terms.”

“I cannot find what I cannot see,” Lachlan said. “She trusts no one now. Least of all me. And you have made certain of that.”

Donal paused at the door. “Then make her trust you.” He looked back, his eyes gleaming with amusement. “You are a handsome man, Lachlan Campbell. Charming, when you want to be. The girl is alone, grieving, hunted. Slip into her confidence. Learn where she has hidden the evidence.” He smiled. “Then bring it to me. And I will release Gregor into your care, and I will make certain the MacTavish name is cleared.”

“And Iona?”

“Iona will be allowed to live in peace, so long as she never sets foot on MacAllister land again. She can have her miserable scraps of MacTavish soil and grow old on them, for all I care. She will be nothing to me.” He picked up the deed again. “But this will become mine, and you will leave the highlands forever. Swear it, and we have an accord.”

Lachlan stood very still. The words lodged in his throat like stones.

“Your oath,” Donal pressed. “On your father’s grave. On your mother’s soul. Swear you will leave this country and never return.”

The silence stretched. Lachlan thought of his mother’s portrait in the Braemore hall, her quiet smile, the way she had loved the heather in autumn. He thought of his father’s cowardice, the shame of selling out to a man like Donal. And he thought of Iona—her fierce eyes, her stubborn chin, the way she had looked at him in the cave when she had chosen to believe in him.

None of it was worth more than her life.

“I swear it,” he said. “On my mother’s soul.”

Donal smiled and extended his hand. Lachlan took it.

The bargain was sealed.

---

Iona had watched the sun rise from the mouth of the cave, the stolen ledger hidden deep in a crevice behind a loose stone. She had not slept. Every sound sent her heart into her throat, every shadow became Donal’s men come to drag her away. She had eaten nothing since yesterday, and her hands shook as she pulled her shawl tighter.

She needed allies. She needed help. But her father was in a magistrate’s cell on land Donal controlled. Gregor was Donal’s prisoner. Lachlan had ridden off toward Edinburgh—to find her, the note said, to apologize. But that note had warned her of someone in Edinburgh who knew her mother’s name, and she did not know if Lachlan was friend or enemy anymore.

She had only the ledger. And the truth it held.

A sound below. A horse, walking slow. Iona pressed herself against the cave wall, peering through the scrub at the valley floor.

A rider came into view, alone. Recognizable even at this distance—the broad shoulders, the easy seat. Lachlan.

She watched him approach. He was coming from the south, from the direction of MacAllister land. His face was pale beneath his hat, his coat stained with travel. He stopped at the base of the hill and looked up.

“Iona!” His voice carried clear. “I know you are there. I need to speak with you.”

She hesitated. Then she stepped out from the cave mouth, holding her skirts as she picked her way down the slope. She stopped ten feet from him.

“You went to Donal.”

He stiffened. “How do you know that?”

“Because you smell of him.” She crossed her arms. “Oil and wine and old rot. What did you trade, Lachlan? What did you give him?”

He dismounted slowly, leading his horse closer. “Gregor is free. He is waiting at the inn in Dunmore, under guard until I return. Alistair will be released by nightfall. The charges are dropped.”

Iona stared at him. That was more than she had hoped for. And yet—

“What did you give him?”

Lachlan looked at her, and his eyes were grey as winter. “The Campbell estate. All of it.”

The world tilted. Iona gripped the strap of her shawl to keep her hands from trembling. “You sold your family’s land. To him.”

“I made a bargain.” His voice was flat. “Your father walks free. Gregor walks free. And Donal will not touch you, so long as you never go near MacAllister land again.”

“And you?”

Lachlan’s jaw tightened. “I leave the highlands. Forever.”

“No.” The word burst out of her before she could stop it. “No, Lachlan, you cannot. That is your home. That is your inheritance. Your clan needs you.”

“My clan is gone.” He said it without bitterness, which somehow made it worse. “Fraser sold them out weeks ago. The MacTavishes have lost their leader. The MacAllisters are wolves. There is nothing left for me here except the hope of seeing you safe.” He met her eyes. “And that, I will have purchased at a fair price.”

Iona stepped forward, her heart pounding. “You did this for me?”

“There was no other way.”

“There is always another way.” She thought of the ledger hidden in the cave, the names and dates and transactions that would destroy Donal if they ever saw the light of day. “I have proof, Lachlan. Real proof. If we can get it to someone who matters—a judge, a lord, anyone not in Donal’s pocket—then none of this would be necessary.”

Lachlan shook his head. “Everyone is in someone’s pocket. That is how the world works.”

“Then we make our own pockets.” She grabbed his arm, feeling the warmth of him beneath her fingers. “You cannot leave. Not for me. I will not let you sacrifice everything for a promise that Donal will break the moment you are gone.”

He looked at her, something cracking behind his careful calm. “Then what would you have me do?”

Iona took a breath and released him. “We still have the ledger. We still have the truth. What we need now is the means to make it count—and the people willing to stand with us.” She glanced toward the valley, where the smoke of her father’s empty house rose into the grey sky. “There are MacTavishes who remember what loyalty means. And there are Campbells who followed you, not your father. If we can bring them together, if we can confront Donal with evidence and numbers, we might have a chance.”

“You are asking me to break my oath.”

“I am asking you to choose what kind of man you want to be.” Her voice softened. “I know what it is to feel like you have lost everything. But you have not lost everything, Lachlan. You have me. And I do not intend to let you go.”

He looked down at her hand, still resting on his arm. Then slowly, he placed his own hand over hers.

“I made him a promise,” he said quietly. “I meant it when I made it.”

“And I am telling you that keeping it will destroy you.” She squeezed his fingers. “Do not trade your future for my safety. I want to live in a world where that bargain was never worth making.”

Lachlan let out a long breath, his shoulders sagging beneath the weight of her words. “What would you have us do? Where do we find enough strength to stand against a man like Donal?”

Iona looked up at him. “We start with the ones who remember why the clans fought in the first place.”