Chapter One
Later that evening
After preparing for his departure the next morning, Gregory joined Daniel in his solar. Beth had retired for the evening and it was just the two of them sipping ale and watching the small fire burn down.
At last, Daniel, most likely thinking of his wife all soft and warm waiting for him in their bedchamber, broke the stillness.
“You’ve never been one to shirk a vow, Gregory.
So why does this one trouble you so? I get the impression that you seem to think marrying Megan Sinclair is akin to a noose about your neck. ”
Gregory gave a humorless laugh. “Because it is. Marriage was never meant for me.”
Daniel arched a brow. “You’ve said as much before. But you’ve never told me why.”
For a long while Gregory continued to stare into the fire. Then, as though the words dragged themselves out of him, he spoke. “When I was but a lad, I watched my mother’s eyes grow sad with disappointment and misery over the years of her marriage.
“My father was a hard man. He cared more for alliances and land than for her. She was given to him by her da like coin traded across a table, and he demanded from her obedience, sons, and silence. No’hing else.
“He also had no problem taking his fists to her. After a beating, I would hide under my bed and listen to her crying.”
Daniel’s jaw tightened, but Gregory continued.
“I swore I’d never bind a woman to me that way. Never make her feel as though she meant less to me than the sheep in the pasture. And I would ne’er take my fists to her.”
Daniel’s eyebrows rose. “Nay. Ye are no’ a mon to harm someone under yer care.”
He looked at Daniel. “And then…” His voice roughened. “Then I tried once. There was a lass, years ago, before I came here from Fairburn Tower to act as your Second-in-Command. I thought… perhaps.”
He shrugged and took a gulp of his ale. “She died before winter ended. Fever took her so swiftly, I scarce had time to understand what I felt for her before she was gone.”
Gregory smiled. “I believed it was fate’s way of reminding me that marriage for me is no’ meant to be.”
The solar fell quiet but for the crackle of flame. Two men sitting there with their own thoughts. Daniel with his happy marriage that took him forever to talk his wife into.
Gregory rubbed a hand over his face, weariness making him appear much older than his twenty-eight years.
“Since then I’ve held to my oath. I’ll fight for my clan, bleed for them, die for them if need be.
But I’ll not bind a woman to me and watch her suffer and fade.
” He shrugged. “Mayhap I have my da in me and will turn on any wife I take.”
Daniel leaned forward, resting his arms on his thighs.
“Ye’ve spent too much time alone, cousin.
Ye are yer own mon, not a copy of yer da.
Since it seems ye are headed to the state of marriage, consider it need not be a chain, nor something that will turn ye into a mon ye would ne’er be.
” He sat back in his seat. “The elders gave me two choices for a bride and I thank the Lord every day that I was able to convince my Beth to marry me. She has shown me what love really is. ’Tis a great thing, ye ken. ”
Gregory’s mouth twisted. “Aye, well. Ye’ve always had more faith in love than I.”
He stood and nodded to Daniel. “I leave at first light. If I doona see ye before I leave, I will honor my vow and return with a wife.”
Daniel nodded and watched his cousin leave.
*
As planned, Gregory and the half dozen men Daniel sent with him were mounted and on their way to Sinclair Castle Girnigoe before the sun rose.
The night before, while tossing and turning, punching his pillow every half hour or so, Gregory had plenty of time to think about his life and the changes he was about to face. A wife. Something he hadn’t planned on. Certainly not for a long time.
He’d had plenty of lasses, but never one who expected more than a tumble in bed and in some cases, a coin or two. Sometimes he felt as though that whole process left him feeling empty, but a man had needs.
He spent a great deal of time wondering how he was going to approach Robert’s widow. Did she know about the pledge they had made? Were there several bairns to bring back with him? Would the woman even honor the agreement made so long ago?
Gregory had never met Robert’s wife. The two men weren’t the best in keeping up correspondence. Robert had stopped a few times at Castle Leod before he married Megan.
It had been a joy to reunite with his friend. They wrestled, clashed over swords, drank the village inn dry, and had fun with a couple of lasses. At the same time.
Robert had never mentioned plans to take a wife, so getting the message telling him of Robert’s death and enclosing the document with the pledge they’d made to each other when they were barely twenty years had been a shock.
Gregory had no idea who’d had possession of the document to send it to him. It would have been better if the sender had enclosed more information than “Robert is dead from a skirmish on the border. He asked me years ago to hold this and send it to you if he should die, leaving a wife.”
And there in his hand was the note from so long ago, with the words of the pledge and his signature, along with Robert’s scrawl.
There was no mention of bairns, so Gregory was left to wonder if he was bringing back an entire family or one woman.
*
Lady Megan Sinclair sat on her bed and studied the tree that grew outside, right in front of her window. Again, she wondered if she should crawl over the opening and climb down the tree to escape.
The first clumps of dirt had just hit her husband’s body when his uncle, the new Laird Anthony Sinclair, told her without any care that he was arranging a marriage for her.
When shock and anger had overtaken her, she’d lashed out at the man. For her trouble, she had ended up in her locked bedchamber with no more information on Uncle Anthony’s announcement. Since that day, she’d been ordered to remain there with meals sent up to her.
She didn’t want another husband. Robert had not been a mean man, but she had never felt a connection between them. Aloof, indifferent, cold. Any one of those words would have fit her husband and their marriage.
She and Robert had been married to fulfill a betrothal between Megan’s da, Laird Monro, and The Sinclair, Robert’s father.
She’d reluctantly accepted it. Although ’twas not an uncommon practice, she had hoped to skip her obligation to her clan and choose her own husband, someone who would love her and accept her love for him.
No more than a few months after their marriage, the laird died from the heart issues he’d been suffering with for years.
Robert was then immediately thrust into the position of Laird Sinclair.
He had not been properly prepared for the role and she oftentimes thought that was when he had begun to withdraw from her.
Although her husband had known all his life that he was the next laird when his da passed, he had not been given enough training for the position.
Robert had seemed to use his title as laird to impress the clan members and, she was certain, to attract a number of lasses to bed.
He strutted around, seeming to forget he had duties to go with the title.
Robert’s Uncle Anthony took over the role of laird, claiming to offer advice to Robert to such an extent that her husband eventually stepped back and let his uncle take over.
Freed from the responsibilities, Robert continued to spend his time visiting the local ale house, training on the lists, and taking a tumble with one or more of their maids.
A few times Robert made the effort to take back his duties, but power-hungry Uncle Anthony was not willing to step back.
In the almost two years of their marriage, no bairns appeared, which became another point of contention between them. Despite Robert’s claims to the contrary, if she was indeed barren as the healer had suggested to her, it was not something she planned, or did on purpose.
She sighed, going over those things in her mind when she was interrupted by a knock on her bedchamber door. It was not time for supper yet, so she was surprised to be disturbed.
The locked turned and the door opened. One of the young chambermaids stood there. “The new laird wishes to see ye in his solar.”
The new laird.
She shook her head. No, with Robert not willing to do his duty, Anthony had been laird since Robert’s da had died.
Megan wiped her damp palms on her dress and followed the maid to the solar. She should have freshened up and brushed her hair, but with her lack of interest in Anthony, she didn’t care.
The man sat at the desk in what should have been Robert’s solar, that he had seldom visited.
“Ah, my dear niece.” He waved to one of the chairs in the solar. “Please have a seat.”
She raised her chin and looked him in the eyes. Remaining standing, she said, “What is it ye want with me?”
Anthony leaned back and studied her. “Ye are a pleasant-looking woman. Yer attitude could use some attention, but in any event, I have arranged a marriage for ye to Laird Stephen Gunn. Yer marriage to the laird would make for a strong alliance.”
“The Gunn is a small clan, how would ye benefit?”
“It will strengthen us against the encroaching Sutherlands, who are causing issues on the border with us.”
“Ye’re no’ as wise as ye think. The Sutherlands could wipe ye out without the help of any other clan. Uniting with the Gunns gives ye no advantage.”
Anthony slammed his fist on the desk, his face twisted and red with anger. “Ye think ye ken so much. As a woman ye need to learn yer place.” He stabbed himself in the chest with his thumb. “I am yer laird and I make the decisions.”
Not one to submit to this man’s demands, she narrowed her eyes. “What else are ye gaining?”
“’Tis none of yer business. Now prepare for yer marriage. We leave first thing in the morning.”
“I think no’.” Megan shook her head. The Gunn was old enough to be her grandfather.
He was smelly, almost bald, and had sausage fingers that she couldn’t imagine touching her.
He’d already gone through two wives in the hopes of a son, and Megan wasn’t convinced he didn’t “help” them to meet their end when he grew tired of them.
Before Anthony could reach across the table and use his fist on her—which he had done before—she added, “’Tis too soon after Robert’s death. The priest willna’ allow it.”
“I’ll see that he allows it.” He slammed his hand on the desk again, almost rattling her teeth. “He needs an heir.”
Megan tilted her head and looked at the man. “Dinna’ ye accuse me of being barren? Did ye share that information with The Gunn?”
A knock on the solar door had them both turning toward the maid standing there. “My Laird, there is a gentleman here asking for Lady Sinclair.”