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door hadn’t been shut properly, and Margaret had heard. Sheran, then, and Sheena found her voice. “Go after her, Niall! She’s surely gone to tell Father.”
    Niall raced through the doorway, but Margaret was already running down the stairs that led to the hall. He could hear her shouting.
    He turned to Sheena. She had never seen her brother look so miserable. “What am I to do?”
    Her heart ached for him. “Dinna worry, Niall. You were no’ forbidden to go near the dungeon. Father will be angry, but he’ll no’ punish you.”
    “It isna that, Sheena. ’Tis him! I gave him my word I’d no’ tell about him!”
    She was a touch angry that Niall should worry about breaking his word to a MacKinnion, even the laird himself. “Then you shouldna have told me,” she snapped.
    “But you’re no’ just anyone,” he protested. “You wouldna have told.”
    “Well, but you see what happened?” She loved his devotion to her, but he had to understand.
    “I know.” Niall was near tears. “He’ll hate me for this.”
    “What’s got into you, Niall?” she cried. “You’re a Fergusson. He already hates us all.” She turned away and lowered her voice. “I just wish you’d kept the secret. What William will make of it with Father is what I fear.”
    Niall was doubly miserable. “Should I lie to Father? I can say Margaret was mistaken in what she heard, or I was only jesting.”
    “Nay, you canna lie, for Father will no doubt confront The MacKinnion, and who’s to say he willna admit the truth? Why should he want it kept secret?”
    “He’s ashamed because he was caught.”
    “Och, men and their strange ideas are beyond me. He’ll be released sooner now, so he should be glad. Father wouldna dare keep The MacKinnion.”
    The Fergusson bailie came to the door to tell Niall he was wanted below.
    “You’ll come with me, Sheena?” Niall asked, his eyes pleading.
    “Aye, if you’ll promise no’ to leave William alone with Father after I’m gone. Father will send me from the room when they discuss what to do, but I must know what William suggests. So you must stay.”
    “I’ll stay if they let me.”
    Dugald Fergusson was more upset than Sheena had expected. William’s eyes were drawn to her the moment she walked into the hall. There was a smug look about him that boded ill. Niall was standing before their father.
    “’Tis true then, you were down to the dungeon?” Dugald demanded.
    “Aye.”
    “You know you had no business there?”
    “Aye.”
    “Is it true what you told your sister? Have we James MacKinnion himself down there?”
    Niall hesitated a moment too long before answering, and Dugald backhanded him. Sheena gasped and moved to Niall’s side, her eyes furious.
    “You didna have to hit him!” she shouted at her father. “He’s done naught that was so terrible.”
    “He knew we had James MacKinnion but he didna tell me so.”
    “He would have.”
    “When? After I’d ransomed a man I thought only a crofter? Sweet Mary!” Dugald blustered. “I’ve a son who keeps secrets from me and a daughter who defends him!”
    “What secret?” Sheena snapped. “If you’d gone down and talked to the man yourself, you’d have found out easily enough who he was.”
    Dugald glared at her, but the truth of that was plain. And he was wasting time bickering. The fact that he had James MacKinnion in his dungeon turned his blood cold. For all he knew, the MacKinnions were planning an attack on the tower at that very moment.
    “I’ve got to let him go,” Dugald said wearily. He sounded defeated.
    “Dinna be hasty, now,” William warned. “The man’s been injured by us and shamed. He’ll no’ take kindly to that. He’s probably even now plotting the revenge he’ll have as soon as you release him.”
    “But I canna keep him in the dungeon.”
    “Aye, you can. A few days will no’ hurt, until you devise a means to protect yourself.”
    “You have something in mind?”
    “Aye, a way to