Page 59 of Stealing a Kilted Heart

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

“This is preposterous! Tae think we’ve been lookin’ fer a proper bride fer ye all this time only fer ye tae go against us all an’ make such a proposal tae a peasant! Impertinent! Entirely impertinent!”

“That is the laird o’ the clan tae whom ye’re talkin’ like this,” Magnus told the elder, who now stood among the other members of the council, his hands up in exasperation. Knox could only look at them all in silence from behind his desk. Cairn had not been the first to express this sentiment, but as the eldest of the council, he was the one who could express it in such a way. There was no doubt in Knox’s mind that everyone else wanted to say the same things to him; everyone itched for an opportunity to give him a piece of their mind, but seeing as they were addressing the laird of the clan, there was only so much they could say.

“Is it?” Cairn asked. His thinning, white hair was mussed from all the times he had nervously ran his hands through it, his rheumy eyes narrowing as they glared at Magnus. “Because it seems tae me that we are dealin’ with a bairn! This is the only way I can justify this madness!”

“Let us calm ourselves,” Iain, another of the elders said. He was younger, though still older than Knox, one of the men who had barely managed to serve under his father before his death. “I dinnae think it is helpful tae anyone if we lose our composure like this. It is important tae remember that we are here tae resolve this, nae tae make such unwarranted comments.”

“Ye forget I am old enough tae have kent our laird as a bairn,” said Cairn. “I was workin’ with his faither when he was only a wee lad! I was there when our good laird brought him tae our meetings an’ sat him on his knee, teachin’ him right from wrong!”

“What are ye tryin’ tae say?” Knox asked.

“Tryin’? I’m nae tryin’. I will say it outright… yer faither would be ashamed o’ ye!”

A collective gasp rippled through the elders. Knox let out a weary sigh, pinching the bridge of his nose between thumb and forefinger, trying to calm himself.

He had expected resistance, of course. He had expected that the elders would not be open to the idea of a peasant girl becoming the next lady of the clan, but he hadn’t quite expected this. Even for the elders, who had looked down on Fia time and time again, this was far from the resistance he thought he would have to face.

“I’m sorry ye feel this way,” Knox said, his voice a little strained, as he tried to keep that comment from getting to him too much. He knew Cairn was frustrated. He knew everyone in the room was frustrated, but if he allowed this to devolve into an argument, then he would never get what he wanted. He had to approach this with tact, even if some of the elders refused to do the same. “But I disagree with ye. I think me faither would want me tae be with the lass I love, an’ I love Fia. Naethin’ will change that.”

“Love an’ marriage are two very different things, me laird,” another one of the elders said. “Ye may love her while wedded tae a woman more befittin’ o’ yer station.”

It was then that Knox lost his temper despite his best intentions.

“I willnae have the woman I love be a… a concubine!” he said, slamming his hands on his desk and sending the cup of wine that rested on it rattling, and the elders flinching. “Impossible! I will only have one woman in me life, an’ that will be me wife. An’ the only woman I will wed is Fia.”

A collective sigh passed through the crowd of elders, all of them caught between their desire to disagree with him and the knowledge that it would get them nowhere. Silence fell over the room and Knox took a sip of wine to calm his nerves, trying to get himself under control. Despite his best efforts, though, not only was he furious, but he also couldn’t find anything to say that would solve this issue.

He wanted Fia. The elders didn’t even want to hear it.

What happens now?

“If I may…” Iain said, stepping forward with a polite cough. “Perhaps everyone here would be more open tae hearin’ the laird’s… suggestion if Miss MacKenzie proved herself capable o’ such a great position as that o’ the Lady o’ the Clan. It is true that her origins are humble an’ it is true she has naethin’ tae offer our laird other than companionship, but we mustnae disregard her immediately. Our clan is strong an’ maintains strong alliances, even without marriage.”

“Still, a marriage with a noble lass would be preferable,” said an elder.

“Aye, that is true,” Iain agreed, much to Knox’s chagrin. “But imagine what this will dae fer the peasant population. A peasant, marryin’ a laird! They’ll never be happier!”

Murmurs spread through the council and among them, Knox could hear both agreement and disagreement. If Knox heard them all correctly, though, it seemed to him that those who agreed were the majority.

Leave it up tae the council tae turn this tae their favor.

It was a clever move, he had to admit, and he should be thanking Iain for it. Knox didn’t know if the man was doing it for his benefit or if he truly believed it was the right way forward, but it was at least the beginning of a solution to their problem.

Of course, testing Fia wasn’t something he wanted to even suggest to her. But what other choice did he have? If they could simply get through this together and proved to the council that she was, in fact, more than capable of taking on the role of the Lady of the Clan, then they would finally be allowed to wed without any more dramatics.

And there was no doubt in his mind that she would pass with flying colors.

“Very well,” he said, placing his cup down. “It shall be as ye ask. Give me a list o’ tasks that ye see fit fer this an’ I shall have her execute them.”

He could only hope this would be their final obstacle before they could be husband and wife.

Fia was exhausted to say the least. On top of her usual duties as the healer of the clan, she had suddenly been saddled with several more responsibilities after the council decided that the only way for her to marry Knox would be if she proved herself through a series of - what seemed to her -herculean-like tasks. Perhaps for another type of woman, who had grown up in a keep and had been prepared her whole life for the day she would marry a laird and would take on the mantle of the Lady of the Clan, such tasks were simple routine; nothing more than another day of normal duties. For Fia, though, everything was new and foreign, and no matter how much she tried, she began to fear that maybe that role wasn’t for her, after all.

She wanted to marry Knox; she wanted that more than anything, and she was determined to do anything in her power to convince the council that she was the right woman for him. But that fear kept creeping into her mind, never letting her rest. Even at night, when she slept, she had nightmares of failing the tasks set for her by the elders or running out of time to complete them all.

Every morning, she woke up drenched in cold sweat.