Tormod shook his head, confused and angry at his sister’s suggestion. “Aye, and how would I claim it once Arran is named laird?”
“Ye watch him, stay close to him, and find a truth that ye can distort into a believable lie. Make the people believe that their precious laird has perpetrated whatever crime ye decide to make him guilty of. Then it will be much easier for ye to take over as laird. Ye will have earned the trust of our people, and ye may be able to get rid of Edana in the process as well. I know ye doona wish to be married to the lass.”
Tormod paced the room, shaken by the thought of giving up everything within his grasp. He tightened his jaw as he turned to send his sister away. “Ye are right. I doona wish to marry Edana, but there are other ways to dispose of the lass once I am laird. I willna give this up, and if ye wish to be moved to the castle as well once I am laird, ye willna ask it of me again. Now leave at once.”
He turned his back as he waited for his sister to leave, tightening his fists as her last words caused him to vibrate with rage.
“As ye wish, but ye will regret this Tormod, and ye will see that I was right.”
* * *
Each of them must shoot ten arrows. Tormod had just shot his seventh. As Arran drew his seventh and sent it soaring into the center of the target, Tormod didn’t miss the roar of his clansmen. Their scores tied once again. With each perfect shot of his own, Arran matched it. Currently it seemed that they would have to go well beyond ten shots to declare a winner.
Drawing his own arrow, Tormod released another flawless shot, quickly turning to take in the crowd that remained mostly silent. His sister had been right. There was no denying the well wishes of his own clansmen lay with his rival. It would be a difficult lairdship if he took over as leader without the support of his people behind him.
Edana would be furious, but he knew that he could comfort her with his lies. He could make her work with him, and perhaps it would be even easier to destroy Arran if he had an ally that shared Arran’s bed.
With Arran sending another perfect shot, Tormod drew his bow and jerked his body at the last minute so that his arrow went flying wildly to the side, missing the target completely.
He would allow Arran to be laird for now, but it would be short-lived. Tormod vowed to contemplate a dozen ways to destroy the doomed Conall.
Chapter 13
Scotland
Present Day
Bri was due back to arrive at the inn today, and I still had no idea what Eoin wished to speak with me about. The week had passed in anything but silence as we spent most of our time listening to stories told by Jerry and Gwendolyn, whom finally had asked that we call her by the name that we’d first known her as, Gwendolyn. Morna was the woman of her past, and I could tell that it pained her to think back on the brother and family she’d left behind.
She was a vivid storyteller, and we all enjoyed listening to the adventure stories of Eoin’s father, Alasdair, and me own father when they were growing up. ’Twas a pleasure to watch Eoin discover the aunt he hardly remembered and had envisioned in his mind a very different woman than she actually was. Her spells and magic were just a small part of the lively, funny, warm woman, and ’twas easy to see why Alasdair had adored his sister so much when many of those around them feared her.
’Twas the first morning Eoin and I had spent alone together. Jerry and Gwendolyn had left earlier to visit a neighbor, but I was quite certain the closest thing they had to a neighbor was the castle itself. I suspected they’d left to allow us time to talk.
We sat across from each other in the living room as Eoin tried to busy himself with the television remote, randomly pushing the buttons, watching with fascination as the pictures changed on the screen. I sat silently for a few moments, knowing that me impatience was about to burst forth if he dinna set the remote down and start talking soon. Still, I knew me own fascination with the oddities of this century and so tried to be understanding.
“Eoin. Will ye please turn it off? It’s time for ye to tell me why ye and Bri asked me to come here.”
He dinna look at me immediately, instead staring at the remote as he searched for a way to stop the moving pictures. I reached over and pushed on the red button, taking it from his hands as the television ceased its movement.
Rising up, he situated himself more comfortably on the couch and crossed his arms as he looked up at me. “Aye, I suppose ’tis time. I should tell ye beforehand that this was no my idea. And I’m no too pleased with Bri for leaving me here to ask this of ye, all alone. She knows more of this than I.”
Why would Bri know more about anything than Eoin? She’d been there only a short period of time, and while I was still adjusting to the many differences of modern day life, I was sure she was still adjusting to the loss of modern conveniences, as well. “Just get on with it, Eoin. I doona care which one of ye tells me, I’m only anxious to know. Ye have left me waiting for the past week.”
“I know and I’m sorry. I’m only unsure of how to explain this to ye.” He paused as he cleared his throat, searching for a way to delay explanation even further.
“Eoin, if ye doona wish for me to cause ye physical harm, it would best serve ye to tell me right away.” I leaned forward, placing me elbows on me knees and rested me head on me clenched fists, doing me best to look as threatening as possible.
His hesitation ended as he spoke very quickly, obviously nervous. “Bri seems to believe that ye were in love with Arran, and that is why ye left. Ye dinna want to marry me, and ye couldna marry him, so ye decided to stay here. She believes that Arran is in love with ye, as well.”
I stiffened as I sat, every muscle clenching as if they desired to strangle me. I was suddenly breathless, and me heart pounded painfully at the hope-filled words I’d stopped allowing myself to imagine I would ever hear. “Why?” I had to pause and cough as my throat suddenly filled with cobwebs. “What reason would Bri have for believing such a thing?”
“Arran’s behavior as of late. He has never been a stranger to the drink, but he has been drinking more than ever lately. And I have no seen him in the company of another woman in a long time. I do admit that he seems rather sad, but until Bri mentioned it, I dinna put it up to being from a broken heart.”
It was hard for me to imagine Arran drinking more than he already did. The very day Arran had sent me away from him, he’d said he would soon share his bed with another. If he had not, perhaps Eoin was right. It filled me with a hope I could scarcely allow meself to believe without proof of his feelings.
“Has he told ye that he loves me, Eoin? If he did, surely he would have told his own brother. Ye have always been his closest friend, and now that ye are married to Bri, what would have been the harm in him expressing his feelings to ye?” Rising from my crouched position on me knees, I stood, feeling the need to move about the room, the rush of mixed feelings making the space suddenly seem too small.
“No, lass, he hasna told me, but I think Bri may be right. There was something that happened shortly after our wedding that should have warned me of his feelings for ye.”
I paused in front of the fireplace, keeping my back toward him, reluctant to allow him to see my eyes slowly filling with tears. “Aye? What happened?”
“There was a small fire set after the wedding that I was required to attend to, leaving Bri alone in our bedchamber. When I returned, I found Bri pinned to the wall outside of our bedchamber, with her dress falling below her breasts and Arran kissing her quite madly.”
I spun, my desire to hide my emotions suddenly forgotten. “What?”
“Aye, lass. I hit Arran, and he fell to the ground unconscious, and I threw Bri in the dungeon.”
I interrupted, unable to stop myself. “Ye threw me in the dungeon? On our wedding night!”
Eoin looked down at the floor. Someone else had clearly already reprimanded him for his actions. “I dinna throw ye in the dungeon, did I? It was Bri, but I doona wish to talk about it. It is no the point.”<
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“Aye, fine.” I smiled at him briefly, urging him to continue.
“Arran blamed his actions on having too much to drink, but no man, no matter how drunk, would kiss a woman in such a familiar way unless he’d already done so many times before.”
He quieted, and it was me turn to feel guilty. Regardless of how happy Eoin was with his new bride now, it was I who had been promised to him by me father, and I’d been unfaithful to him by the feelings I’d held for his brother.
“I’m sorry, Eoin. My behavior was disgraceful, and ye did nothing to deserve me betrayal of ye.”
“Ach, think nothing of it, lass. Ye and I were no meant for a marriage together. All I want now is for me brother to be happy and for ye to find happiness as well. If that is something that the two of ye may find together, ye have me every blessing. If ye still love him, Blaire, we’d like ye to return home with us.”
“Do ye truly believe he still loves me?” The words were already bubbling to the front of me mouth, but I wanted one more reassurance before agreeing to come home.
“Aye, I do. And Bri is certain of it. She’s a wise woman. I’ve yet to find her wrong in anything.”
“Then aye. I will come.”
“Well done, Eoin,”
Bri’s voice in the doorway startled us both, and we stood to welcome her back.
“I knew you could convince her to come without me. Now, let’s head to the castle. We’ve all been gone too long. Mother and Mary will both be in a tizzy.”
* * *
The wedding was arranged quickly. Only three days following his victory, Arran stood next to Edana in front of the crowd filled with his new clansmen. His brother would certainly be surprised upon his arrival back at home to find that he had moved away and now was a married laird. But Arran was sure he would be happy to have the security of having a guaranteed ally in the place of Ramsay’s former territory.
Their ceremony was coming to a close and, while he repeated the words asked of him, each promise made was made to the woman who owned his heart, not to the woman who stood beside him now. As he closed his eyes to kiss his new bride, it was Blaire’s face that he saw leaning into him.
Chapter 14
Tormod scooted further up the rock upon which he sat along the hillside cliff in an effort to avoid yet another spray from the ocean as the waves crashed upon the rocks. It was a cold evening and the water was freezing, just another reason he was thankful he and his fellow clansmen did not live in such close proximity to the ocean.
Edana was supposed to meet him here. She’d promised him right before the wedding ceremony that she would, but as the sun dropped lower and lower over the horizon, he began to question her loyalty to him.
While she’d spoken venomous words about Arran and his family, Tormod had seen Edana be quite friendly with Arran on more than one occasion. As the sun made its final bow against the horizon and night spread itself over the sky above him, Tormod stood to leave. Just as he stood, he heard Edana’s voice behind him.
“I’m sorry. I was delayed. What are we to do,Tormod? It will be difficult for us to meet now that I am married to him.”
He couldn’t have cared less about the tears she shed as she sat down next to him, burying her head in her hands as she wept. If he was to keep Edana’s interest and loyalty, he knew he must show her sympathy.
“Come here, lass. I doona wish to see ye cry. Yer marriage changes nothing. We shall be together as often as we can, and soon enough I will be laird.”
Edana lifted her head. With great difficulty, Tormod kept his face from showing his displeasure at her red, tear-stained face.
“How can that be? The men love Arran. They are glad to have him as laird and they willna take well to someone trying to take away his position.”
“Nay, they willna just now,” Tormod assured her. “In time we shall find a way to change their opinion of him.”
“How?” Edana collapsed into a fit of sobs once more.
Tormod stood, incapable of soothing the lass any further. “I doona know yet, but ye shall be spending much time with Arran from now on. Watch him, find something in his behavior that we can twist into an untruth, some way in which we can claim he did something he did not and make others believe that it is so. It may take some time.”
Edana sniffled, looking up and breathing deeply as if trying to stop her tears. “Aye, I shall do me best. Tell me, Tormod, I need to know, I fear ’tis the only thing that shall get me through every horrible moment I must spend with Arran. Do ye love me? Would ye wish to be with me even if it would no make ye laird?”
She stood and moved next to him. He pulled her in close, wrapping his arms around her as he kissed her on the top of her head. “Aye, o’course I do. I love ye as much as I’ve ever loved anyone.”
The second part of what he’d said was true, not that he’d ever loved anyone, save himself and perhaps his sister. The first, his declaration of love, was the lie, but it had slipped out easily. And perhaps he did love the lass a bit. At least, he loved what she would do for him and the power that would be delivered into his hands with her assistance.
Squeezing her once more in farewell, he pushed her away and waved her off to the castle.
“’Tis best that ye go. Yer new husband will be searching for ye, and we doona need to give him reason to be suspicious. I shall seek ye out after we have all arrived back home in a few weeks, after ye are both settled into yer castle.”
“I shall miss ye every moment that I am no with ye, Tormod.”
After she left him, he sat down on the rocks laughing quietly to himself. The lass was a fool to believe that he would care for her. He needed to find a way to destroy Arran soon. He didn’t know how much more of the pathetic lass he could take.
* * *
Early the next morning before the sun had risen, Arran snuck out of his room to retrieve his new bride from his late-mother’s bedchamber. All castle workers and wedding guests, Mary being the one exception, assumed the newly married bride and groom had spent their first night of marriage together, and that was just the way he wanted to keep it. It wouldn’t do if it was found out that neither of them had wanted to consummate their marriage.
After their wedding, Edana had briefly disappeared. When Arran finally found her, the marks of freshly run tears stained her face. He’d rushed her away to his bedchamber to comfort her, but she’d pulled away claiming her tears were caused by her fears of their wedding night.
While he suspected all new brides approached their wedding night with some anxiety, Edana’s reaction seemed to be caused by more than just nerves. Arran had already suspected that Edana’s father had harmed the lass in some way, but her apprehension for their wedding night only solidified his suspicions of just how monstrous Ramsay Kinnaird had been.
The lass’ fears aside, Arran was not eager to consummate the marriage either, his feelings for her being only of a platonic nature. Instead, he’d not questioned her, not pushed the ritual they were both expected to complete, but ushered her quietly down the hall to the safety of her own room.
Arran knew the consummation would have to be completed, but that could come in time, when the bonds of friendship were a little stronger between the two of them. For now, he would simply collect her from her room, and together they would make their way to the stables where they would meet with his new clansmen so they could begin their journey to the new Conall Castle.
* * *
“What do you mean they didn’t consummate their marriage? How on earth would you know that, Mary? Goodness, I know that you’re nosy, but I didn’t know you were a peeping Tom. What did you do, cut a peep hole into Arran’s bedroom?” Adelle laughed at her own wit. Mary had to refrain from whopping the woman on the nose. Bri, she loved, but it was going to take her more time to adjust to the loud-mouthed, say-anything ways of her mother. “I doona know what a ‘peeping Tom’ is, but I doona believe I like what ye are suggesting. O’course I dinna spy on them. I know they din
na consummate the marriage because Arran had me prepare his mother’s room for Edana to stay in. They dinna spend the night together.” Mary continued kneading the dough as her nosy kitchen visitor sat across from her watching.
“No! Why? It’s because Bri was right, isn’t it? He does still love Blaire. I knew we should’ve stopped that marriage, Mary! Perhaps, it’s not too late to do something. If they’ve not consummated it, it’s not actually binding, is it?”
“I doona know why they dinna spend the night together, but aye, I do believe Bri was right. But it doesna matter, there is nothing we can do because everyone else believes the marriage is consummated, and we are no going to tell them anything different. Do ye understand me?”
“Why? We must. Bri is going to kill us both when she gets back here with Blaire, and we’ve let Arran run off and marry somebody else.”
Mary threw her hands up in exasperation sending a cloud of flour soaring into the air. “What do ye think she would have expected us to do to stop him? Arran listens to no one, especially when it is someone trying to stop him from doing something foolish. If Blaire returns, which I doona think she will, she will overcome it in time. I doona like it for either of them, but both have made their own choices. ’Tis no our place to meddle.”
“Not our place? That’s what mothers do, Mary. And regardless of your position here in the castle, you know as well as I do that you are just as much a mother to those lads as their real mother was. They were young when they lost her, and you’ve been there for them and loved them since they were babes.”
Mary couldn’t help but smile. Adelle was right, she loved those boys as if they were her own. Movement in the doorway caused her to glance up from the heap of dough and, as Kip approached her with a letter extended in her direction, Mary turned to dip her hands into a bucket of water to cleanse them of the flour.
Morna's Legacy: Box Set #1 Page 28