“Clearly Chief McKay feels he’s welcome in Mistress Cora’s private chambers.”
Cora felt her eyes widen. Noreen’s words were a blunt accusation, and no one in the room missed it. As lady of the stronghold, her words carried a lot of weight.
Too much for Cora’s reputation to bear.
Noreen lifted her nose. “I find these surroundings lacking in dignity. We shall continue this in the hall.”
Her word was law. There was a shuffle of feet as the Retainers clustered around the door parted and began to descend. A few came inside the chamber, intent on reaching for Cora to take her along.
“Keep yer hands off her,” Faolan warned in a low tone.
The Retainers froze. Faolan opened and closed his fingers, two of his knuckles popping loudly. He was spoiling for a fight.
Cora admitted she wasn’t far from the same need herself.
But she represented all the Mackenzies. As the laird’s sister, she had to maintain the reputation of her clan. She set her teeth into her lower lip and forced herself to move toward the door. The muscles along her neck drew tight as she descended onto the ground floor.
The great hall was where the McKay Retainers slept. Noreen had settled into her chair on the high ground, so those men who had been rolled into their plaids for the night were now wide awake. With the days growing shorter, there were more dark hours to sleep, which meant the Retainers were rested well enough to enjoy a bit of entertainment.
At her expense.
But Faolan stepped up beside her. For a moment, Cora forgot all about everything happening around her. There was only the fact that she wasn’t alone in facing it. Their gazes locked for the briefest of moments before Malcolm McKay made a large production of sitting down next to his wife.
Noreen, for her part, appeared to smile at her husband, but Cora wasn’t fooled. The smile on the woman’s lips was a practiced one. Cora knew it because she’d been schooled in precisely the same art.
Always maintain appearances.
Behind her serene expression, Cora knew Noreen was making ready to exact her revenge on her husband. Malcolm might have a mistress. He was laird, and Noreen would be expected to ignore the situation. Such an arrangement would continue in silence so long as the mistress fell beneath the authority of the lady of the house. For if the mistress conceived, the child must be of lower station than the children of the lady. But if Cora gave Malcolm a son, Noreen would see her position in jeopardy since she had only daughters.
Cora felt her belly twist. There was nothing more dangerous than a mother defending her young.
“Ye’ve crossed the line this time, Faolan,” Malcolm McKay began. He raised his voice, so it carried down the length of the hall as though it were not the middle of the night. The light level was increasing as the household staff hurried to light candles. “Half-brother or not, I cannot protect ye. The Mackenzies will be raiding our shores next spring if I fail to pass down a sentence stern enough to appease this slight to their laird’s honor.”
“My honor is not slighted,” Cora insisted.
“I thought ye older than that comment would suggest.” Noreen leaned forward to peer intently at Cora. “I heard ye are at an age to wed, no’ some half-grown lass who does nae understand that reputation is the most important thing a girl has.”
Malcolm slapped the wide arm of the chair he sat in. “Faolan…ye’re beyond contemptible for taking advantage of such a lass, and I am going to have to make ye pay for it.”
“There is only one solution,” Noreen interrupted her husband.
Malcolm frowned and shared a look with his wife.
“Faolan must wed her.” Noreen was quick to speak her mind.
“The devil ye say!” Malcolm exclaimed. He recoiled from his wife as though she’d muttered a perversion of the darkest nature.
Noreen opened her eyes wide. “Of course, that is the solution,” she purred at him. “Otherwise, the Church will be displeased with us as well.” Noreen looked toward the McKays watching. “And we will, of course, be able to gain her dowry from the Mackenzies since we are seeing to making matters…right. The Church will even back our claim.”
Those watching were silent for a moment.
And then they began to grin.
Cora felt like a noose was tightening around her neck. The attention which had been directed toward the high ground where Noreen and Malcolm sat shifted to her. Greed simmered in the eyes of the men as they calculated her worth. The women were different, though. Some of them sent her scathing looks of envy as they contemplated Faolan.
“Let’s not be hasty,” Cora appealed. “Things are always clearer in the light of day. We should wait.”
“Wait until ye are growing round with a bastard child so the Mackenzies may accuse us of wanting to prove ye are fertile before we would allow the wedding no matter the stain on yer reputation?” Noreen asked bluntly.
Cora felt her cheeks heating. Around her, the McKay Retainers were nodding and adding their agreement to their lady’s words.
“Summon a midwife, and I will prove I am still a virgin.” Cora had to force the words through her stiff lips. Such an exam was something she’d almost die rather than endure.
Almost, that was. Faolan deserved better from her, and she’d give it to him no matter the indignities necessary.
Noreen started to respond, but Faolan interrupted her.
“Yer brother would only accuse the poor woman of telling her laird what he wanted to hear,” Faolan spoke through gritted teeth. “Her word would be useless in the Mackenzie great hall.”
Cora turned and locked gazes with Faolan. Rage was flickering in his blue eyes, but there was something else. Resolve. He’d thought it through and was feeling as trapped as she was. What chilled her blood was the fact that his jaw remained clenched, proving he hadn’t found any way of changing the course of the events sweeping them both along.
“I have a betrothed,” Cora used the last thing she’d ever thought to utilize for her advantage.
“Well, now,” Malcolm began. “Perhaps the lass is bringing up a valid point for us to put this matter aside for a wee bit.”
“Wait, so the Grants and the Mackenzies have a reason to combine their strength?” Noreen stubbornly argued.
“Cormac Grant will no’ be happy to see his bride stolen,” Malcolm informed his wife sternly. “Look at the lass. She’s a prize.”
“Aye,” Faolan spoke up. “My prize by right of the fact that I saved her life. I will wed her.”
Cora jerked her head around to Faolan once more. This time there was hard purpose on his face. His eyes glittered with determination as he looked her straight in the eyes.
“I will wed her right now.”
Chapter Five
“Here now.”
Brynna spoke the words. Cora looked up as the McKay girl held out a pair of stays.
“It will nae take too much time to bring the priest up from the church. Best we get ye dressed. Ye would no’ want to be wedding in yer shift?”
Cora felt like a doll. She was detached from herself as Brynna and two other maids helped to put a finer gown on her. Someone had poked up the fire, so it was blazing because the dress was one of Noreen’s and made of delicate silk. Although beautiful, it seemed as surreal as the rest of the evening’s events.