“I hate to disappoint you, lad, but I’m no’ the ravisher of women you assume I am.”
“The impression you gave when last we met was no’ encouraging. You did say—”
“You’ve no’ need to remind me,” Jamie interrupted. “But I was angry then, Niall, with you and with your father. The truth is, your father never offered me Sheena. But if you hadna thought so, thenyou would never have let me go. So I let you think he had.”
“Sheena wouldna be here now if she hadn’t been banished,” Niall continued thoughtfully. “She had a great fear of you, James MacKinnion. Does she still? Is that why my father is taking so long?”
“She did fear me, I’ll no’ deny it. But what she feared was my learning who she was. Even knowing how much I wanted her, she thought I’d do her harm if I discovered she was a Fergusson. Today she learned it made no difference to me. I’d never harm her. She knows that, deep in her heart, but she’s too stubborn to admit it.”
“What are you saying, MacKinnion?”
“That I believe she feels the same about me as I do about her.”
Sheena burst into tears the moment her father left her room. Not five minutes later, Niall was knocking on her door, ready to continue where her father had left off. What was she to do, when the two people she cared the most for were insisting she marry The MacKinnion?
Her father hadn’t been kind about it. “The feud will be over,” he had said. “Our kin will be safe.”
As if the fate of them all were in her hands. He had made it sound as terrible as he could.
“You want us all to die?” he had stormed. “He says you’ll no’ leave this place unless you’re his wife. Can I go home, knowing that? Nay, ’twillmean war now, the bloodiest war yet. Is that what you’re wanting? Are you that selfish, Sheena, lass?”
How he had heaped on the recriminations! He had thundered, and he had threatened. His last words had been, “You’ll do it!”
And then Niall. She was so happy to see him, but he ruined their reunion. “You’ll have to be marrying him, you know. And ’tis lucky you are, I’m thinking.”
Lucky! Could no one see her point of view? “What of the raids, the killings?” she finally demanded, furious with her brother, her father, all of them. “What of his first wife, who died rather than be married to him? And what of love? He’s no’ spoken of love.”
“And if he did speak of it?” her brother asked quietly.
Sheena never answered. She didn’t know why she had mentioned it at all. Grasping at straws was what she was doing, reaching out desperately. But whenever she reached out, she found herself clutching at nothing. Was there no help for her? Had they taken everything away?
Chapter 29
They were married in the late afternoon on that very day, bound by a kirkman whom Jamie had summoned the day before. In the presence of her clan and his, before God, Sheena became wife to The MacKinnion.
The clans, also, were bound by the marriage. The Fergussons were delighted. It was a day for great celebration—a marriage and the end of a bitter feud. For most, it was a day to be happy.
There were, however, some who were not pleased. Those who had recently lost loved ones to the feud, for example, of whom Black Gawain was one. He refused to attend the wedding or the festivities that followed. His current mistress was also quite bitter. Harboring a hope that she might get Jamie back after he had finished with the red-haired Lowlander, she had stayed where she was. That was the only reason for the relationshipwith Black Gawain, staying at Castle Kinnion. The marriage dashed hope for Jessie.
But Sheena was by far the most miserable. Her wedding day felt like a day of execution. Now that she had been given to the savage MacKinnion, her life became his to do with as he chose. And once his lust for her cooled? Then he would remember that she was a Fergusson, always his enemy. He would remember, and he would never let her forget. She ought to have worn black, instead of the lovely gown Lydia had worked on so hard and so swiftly. It was made of lime green silk, and the bodice had been cut with a V of white lace, the wide sleeves trimmed with white fur. She knew very well that such a special gown was meant for a special occasion. So Lydia had known all along!
Watching her father, so pleased with himself, and her brother enjoying himself, only added to her misery. Couldn’t they understand what they had done to her? Why did nobody care abouther?
And her husband? The last time she had dared glance his way, he had not looked like a newly wedded man. Was he already regretting what he had done and the finality of it?
He got up, startling her, and walked away from the tables where the splendid feast was laid out. She was happy to see him go and considered sampling a bit of food. There was roasted venison, Highland grouse stuffed with wild cranberries in butter, smoked fish, mutton pie, stewed beef, kid, pigeons, and capons. And the sweets! Cream crowdies, ginger cakes, sugary nutmeg cakes. She would get fat, that’s what she would do. He wouldn’t want her if she was grotesquely fat.
But Jamie didn’t go far enough away, and Sheena never filled her plate. He went to her father and had a few words with him, laughing. It stung, how glad her father was to have her wedded to The MacKinnion.
Jamie returned. He took her hand and forced her to rise. She looked at him questioningly, but his expression revealed nothing and he said nothing. He tugged at her, expecting her to follow. She held back.
“You’ll be telling me where we’re going, Sir Jamie.” Her tone was obstinate.
Jamie turned around to face her, giving her hand a sharp tug, making his point. “So you’ll be giving me trouble already?”
“If you’ll just give me a reason why you’re taking me away…?”
“I dinna need a reason, wife. Youaremy wife?” He put the question coldly. “You do agree you are my wife, Sheena? Say it.”
