“I traveled close to the captain,” Morgann answered.
The captain chuckled with malice. “Is that what ye call it?”
“Call what?” Padrig queried.
“I…” The captain was truly going to make him confess to them. He swallowed and waited a moment more, hoping the captain would intercede. But he didn’t.
“I…I was traveling with Jack MacKinny—” They smiled. “And Richard D’Ato.” Their smiles faded. They didn’t like D’Ato. They often spoke of him gathering information for the English king, though he was a Scot.
“What were ye two doin’ with him?” Will asked, then looked around as he walked away toward the cottage. “Where is MacKinny anyway?”
“He is dead,” Morgann told them quietly.
Padrig stared at him. Will stopped in his tracks. “Who killed him?”
Morgann ran his hand down his face. With each question he answered, he was getting closer to the pit from which there was no escape.
“The captain shot him after he tried to kill Sister Silene.”
Padrig’s eyes opened wide like twin chasms of darkness and the promise of pain. “Is she hurt?”
The captain shook his head.
“MacKinny had orders to kill her,” Will said.
“Aye.”
“Ye rode with him and that other traitor, D’Ato.”
“Aye,” Morgann heard himself confirm while he watched the captain enter the cottage. Morgann looked up to him. He was sorry he was weak.
They all entered the cottage and stood near the hearth fire the captain had prepared.
“Who were the orders from?” Will asked him, then answered his own question. “John.”
His gaze met the captain’s. “He wants her dead, though he doesna tell us this himself. That he told Morgann says much.”
Padrig nodded and stared into Morgann’s eyes, unsettling his bones. “What did ye do to stop them?”
“I pleaded with them.”
“MacKinny shot his arrow,” the captain told them, rubbing his chin on the kitten. “By God’s goodness, he missed.”
Will fell into a chair. “So, ye are the steward’s man? What else did ye do fer him?”
“I…ehm…he wanted me to report to him all that the captain and any of ye said against him.”
“Ye spied fer him. On us.” Mac, who was quiet up until now, spoke up.
“In the beginnin’ ’twas so,” Morgann confessed. “But things changed. Ye became my brothers. My reports to him were always the same. That ye are all loyal to him and havena wavered.” He looked at the captain. “Especially ye, Sir. He mostly wants to know of ye but I have never told him anythin’.”
The captain stared at him.
“What d’ye think we should do with ye?” Mac asked.
“Whatever ye will,” Morgann told him. “But I would appreciate it if after ye kill me, one of ye would tell Sister Silene that I am sorry.”
“I will tell her,” the captain said, “after I kill ye.”