Chapter 3
Angusshire, Scotland
Sheena Fergusson stared out over the battlements of Tower Esk, gazing at the peaceful moor, her thoughts anything but peaceful.
An early riser by nature, she watched the dawn sky brighten and challenge the pink heather below, and chafed because she was forbidden to leave the tower house, not even for a short brisk ride, not even with a dozen retainers riding beside her.
It wasn’t fair. But nothing was going right these days, and all because The MacKinnion had decided, last month, to break the truce that had existed for two years.
For two peaceful, carefree years Sheena had been allowed the freedom she had known as a child.
The first of four daughters and Dugald Fergusson’s favorite, she was always treated with the care of a treasured heir until the long-hoped-for heir finally arrived.
After Niall was born, she was still the favorite daughter—but just a daughter.
Strange, but she had never resented Niall. She had loved her little brother from the day of his birth. Six years old, a true hoyden, and spoiled terribly, she had been fascinated by the boy baby after the uneventful births of three sisters.
Their love surprised everyone. By rights, Niall should have been closest to his sister Fiona, for they were only a year apart.
Yet it was Sheena he tagged after, Sheena he looked to for amusement, Sheena who gave him the love he needed as he grew from a wee bairn to a young lad.
They were inseparable even now. Sheena was nineteen, long past a marriageable age, and Niall was only thirteen and still quite childlike most of the time.
During a moment of great maturity, Niall had agreed with their father that Sheena should stay within the tower walls.
It was no longer safe in the countryside during the day.
That was the most galling: the MacKinnions were the only clan to raid by day.
All others, including their own, rode under cover of night.
But the MacKinnions, ever bold, struck during daylight.
The fear that had prevailed this last month was disgusting, bringing all kinds of changes into Sheena’s life—the loss of freedom, the threat of marriage, too many arguments.
The fights with her sisters were nothing new, but the fights with her father were tearing her apart.
And why must they fight? Was she wrong to want to marry a man she loved?
Was it her fault she had yet to fall in love?
Oh, there had been talk, when she was a child, of a marriage that would create a powerful alliance, but that had stopped two years before, and she had assumed she would be allowed to have a love match.
Her father had even said as much. He had taken her side every time her sisters pleaded with him to force her to marry so that they, in turn, could marry.
Every one of them had her husband picked out already and was eager for marriage, even fourteen-year-old Fiona.
They had had no problems finding love matches that were also powerful unions. Sheena had not had their luck.
But Dugald Fergusson had refused to rush Sheena.
Nor would he allow any of his younger daughters to marry before she did, which would shame her.
Now all that was suddenly changed. Now it was imperative that she choose a man from a powerful clan.
And she must do it within the month, or her father would do it for her.
Sheena was stunned. How could her father do that to her?
He loved her. She was his pet, the jewel of Tower Esk, as he fondly called her.
But, deep down, she knew why. And although she hated it, she couldn’t fault him, not really.
He was protecting his clan, ensuring their defense with powerful alliances.
There would be a triple wedding. Sir Gilbert MacGuire had long ago asked for Margaret, after Sheena turned him down.
Margaret, just turned seventeen, had been waiting a year and a half to marry Gilbert.
And arrangements were also being made for sixteen-year-old Elspeth’s choice, Gilleonan Sibbald, of whom Dugald heartily approved.
It remained only for Sheena to make her choice.
But there was no one she cared to spend the rest of her life with.
“I should have known I’d be finding you here, now that you canna ride off to chase the morning mist.”
Sheena looked around, saw her mother’s cousin, and dismissed him. Turning back to face the dawn, she said, “I dinna like your dogging me, Willie.”
“I’ve asked you no’ to call me Willie.”
“William then.” She shrugged. She was beginning to thoroughly dislike him, cousin or not. “What difference does it make? I’d rather no’ be talking to you at all.”
“Och, Sheena, you’re a hard lass, and no mistake. And here I’m only looking after your best interests.”
“Was it my best interests that made you tell my father I should be marrying now?” she asked sharply, her dark blue eyes piercing William with a look of pure venom. “I dinna think so, cousin. I think you had your interests at heart. But ’twill gain you naught, for I’ll no’ be marrying you!”
“I wouldna be so sure of that, Sheena,” William replied coldly.
She laughed. The sound was altogether humorless. “You’ve done naught but defeat your own purpose, Willie. You’ve convinced my father well. He’ll no’ be letting me marry a MacAfee. We’re already aligned with them, and he wants new blood in the family—thanks to you.”
William ignored her bitterness, as he ignored all things not to his liking. “Dugald will agree to our marriage. I guarantee it.”
“And how is that?” she sneered. “You have the means to end the feud?”
“Nay, but Fiona’s marriage can be moved up. She has her heart set on The Ogilvie’s brother himself. Think of it, Sheena. An alliance with The Ogilvie is worth three with any other clans. It might even make the MacKinnions back down.”
“Now you grasp at straws, cousin.” Sheena’s contempt was growing. “Nothing would make The MacKinnion run scared, and you know it as well as I. He’s a savage Highlander. He lives to kill, as do all his clan.”
William went on smoothly, “But your father would rest easy with an Ogilvie in-law, so he would have no objections to your marrying me.”
“You always seem to forget I dinna want you,” Sheena replied levelly.
“Why is that, cousin? I’ve told you enough times.
I told you earlier this year, I told you last year and the year ’afore that, but you never listen.
I’m telling you again now, and I pray ’tis the last time.
I dinna love you, and I dinna want a man nigh as old as my father for a husband.
I dinna mean to hurt you, cousin, but your persistence makes me want to scream. ”
“Would you rather be marrying The MacKinnion then?” William shouted angrily.
The color drained from Sheena’s face. “Are you daft?” she gasped.
“Nay, quite serious,” William said, smug now that he saw her fear. “To marry The MacKinnion himself would end the feud, wouldn’t it? Dugald would pounce on the idea if I encouraged it, for it has already crossed his mind.”
“You lie!”
“Nay, Sheena. Ask him. Such a marriage would end the bloodshed and the lifting and even make the Fergussons prosperous for once.”
Sheena’s stomach knotted, for his reasoning was sound, awful though it seemed.
And Dugald listened to William’s advice much too often.
But to marry The MacKinnion himself, a man so terrible that his first wife killed herself on her wedding night because of his brutal treatment!
That was how the story went. Marrying such a man! She couldn’t bear the idea.
“He wouldna have me,” she said in a desperate whisper, shaking her head.
“He would.”
“I’m his enemy, a Fergusson. He hates us all. He proved that by starting the feud again.”
“The man would have you,” William said firmly. “Any man with eyes would want you. The MacKinnion would no’ just accept the offer of you, either. With his bold arrogance, he would demand you be given to him.”
“You would do that to me, William?” she asked quietly.
William scanned her face, pleased that he had shaken her so deeply.
“I want you for myself, Sheena. But if I canna have you, then aye, I would see you go to him to end this feud, for it kills MacAfees as well as Fergussons. Think about that, Sheena. And you think well, for soon again I’ll be asking you to wed.
I’ll be expecting a different answer next time I ask. ”
Sheena watched his tall form walk away. She began to tremble.
Of course she would choose her cousin over a savage Highlander, even though she couldn’t bear the thought of marrying William.
God, would her father really do that to her?
Make her marry their terrible enemy? No, he wouldn’t, not even to end the feud.
Dugald loved her. He knew as well as they all did that The MacKinnion was an uncivilized brute.
He had himself told her stories about James MacKinnion, terrible stories.
The man had been raiding and killing since he was a child.
His own wife had preferred death to his touch.
William couldn’t convince her father to condemn her to a life of beatings and cruelty.
Sheena left the battlements and went in search of Niall. He would give her courage. But…her problem still wouldn’t be solved. She still had to marry someone—and soon.