William had the sense to remain silent.
“You canna mean to just forget this, Father!” cried Margaret. “You’ve always favored her over the rest of us, and look how she’s repaid you.”
“That’s enough, lassie.”
“Nay! I’ll have my say,” Margaret insisted. “I’ll no’ have my wedding delayed more because of her. You’ve made me wait because you didna want to shame her, but now she’s shamed us all. Her betrothal’s broken, and no other man will ever haveher, for if she’ll betray her own family, she’ll betray her husband. She canna be trusted ever again.”
“You’ll have your wedding as planned, Margaret,” Dugald said in a tired, saddened voice. Perhaps he knew he’d been too hasty in blaming Sheena. But it was too late to reconsider.
“She’ll be leaving Tower Esk,” he said, resigned.
Sheena stared at her father, disbelieving and horrified. Banishment? To be sent away from her home and family?
“Dinna look at me like that, Sheena,” Dugald said in a ragged voice. “’Tis no more than you deserve.”
“Where am I to go?” she asked, her throat constricting.
“You’ll go to your aunt in Aberdeen. A nunnery’s a good place for you to contemplate the wrong you’ve done your family. To your room, now. You’ll stay there until tomorrow, when you’ll be taken north.”
Sheena ran from the hall, refusing to let anyone see her tears. Fortunately, no one followed, and she dried her eyes before she reached Niall’s door. He was still asleep, and she stood quietly for a moment, trying to compose her thoughts before she woke him.
At last she sat on the bed and said, “Niall, you have to wake and listen to me ’afore someone comes.”
The seriousness in her voice alerted him, and he sat right up. He took in her expression, and, all at once, he knew what was wrong.
“The alarm’s been given?” he began. “They know he’s gone?”
“Aye, they know,” she said miserably.
He mistook her tone for disapproval and blurted, “I had to do it, Sheena! The MacKinnion said he’d beat you and rape you and make you suffer all your life if he was forced to marry you!”
“My God!” Sheena gasped. It was worse than she had known.
“You see, I had to let him go, for he wouldna listen to reason. He was furious, and no mistake. He said you dinna force a MacKinnion against his will and no’ suffer for it. It didna matter to him that you were no’ to blame. He swore he’d make you suffer and suffer, Sheena.”
“Then I’m doubly grateful to you, Niall,” Sheena said, her voice soft.
“Grateful? You’re no’ angry?”
“I knew you did it for me. ’Tis thankful I am, and no mistake. And you’re no’ to feel bad when I tell you…I’ve accepted the blame.”
“You? But The MacDonough—”
“He was watched, Niall,” Sheena explained. “They know he didna do it, and William managed to make our father blame me.”
“But Sheena—”
She held up her hand. “Listen to me. I’ve come out of this better than you think. The MacDonough broke the betrothal, so I dinna have to marry him. And thanks to you, I’ll no’ be given to The MacKinnion.” She grinned. She really was better off thanshe had been. “I’m being sent away as punishment, Niall, but to Aunt Erminia in Aberdeen. ’Tis not so bad. I’d rather that than marry!”
“You’ll become a nun?” he gasped.
“Father didna say that, so dinna worry. And I havena seen our aunt for years. ’Twill be a pleasant change, and I’ll no’ have to worry about a husband being forced on me, at least not for a while. Truly, Niall, I’m no’ unhappy.”
“But you’ll come back?”
“Father was very angry, so I canna say. But even if I am forced to become a nun, I think I would prefer that to a loveless marriage.”
“You dinna mean that, Sheena.”
