Chapter Three #2
Lenora nodded, and they continued toward the door. When they reached it, Lillith pressed her ear against the rough wood while Lenora stood beside her, once again worrying her lip. Inside, the voices had risen to near shouts. They were muffled but sharp enough to make Lillith flinch.
“I absolutely will not stand for this!” That was their Grandmama Marion’s voice. Her English accent always became more pronounced when she was vexed. “These girls were promised they could choose their own husbands!”
“The king has spoken, Marion,” came Granda Iain’s deeper tones, weary but resolute. “I’ll ask ye, yet again—would ye have us lose MacLeod lands over this?”
“I would have Royce not break his word to our granddaughters!” rebutted Grandmama Marion.
“I am in total agreement with your mother!” came the enthusiastic reply of their stepmama, Eve. Lillith grinned at the protective fury she heard in Eve’s voice. Her English accent also got heavier when she was vexed.
A male voice—Uncle Brus, Lillith thought—said something too low to hear clearly, followed by what sounded like a scoffing laugh from possibly Aunt Sebille.
“The Mathesons have been our enemies for generations,” their da said.
Lillith was glad he sounded frustrated. That boded well for his not agreeing to the king’s demands.
“Do ye think I want this?” Lillith didn’t know who he was asking, but she didn’t like where this seemed to be leading. “Da is right.”
Lillith bit down hard on her lip at her da’s words.
“The king has decreed—”
“The king’s decree be damned!” Aunt Elena’s fiery temper was unmistakable. “Ye promised them, Royce. Ye swore they could wed for love, brother, nae political advantage!”
Uncle Rolland’s voice followed, though Lillith couldn’t make out his words. A chorus of female voices rose in objection.
“Enough!” Their da’s voice suddenly thundered above the rest, silencing the room.
“I’m laird of this clan, and what I say goes,” he bellowed.
“Either Lillith or Lenora will wed Rory Matheson by order of the king by Winter Solstice, and if either of the girls refuses, then it is off to the nunnery for them.”
Lillith pulled away from the door, shaking in fury and shock.
Da had said either her or Lenora, so it had not been decided who Rory Matheson was to wed when she met him—except, well, except apparently he had concluded upon meeting her that he had no wish to wed her.
She felt strangely offended and relieved. But poor Lenora!
Lillith’s mind raced. Winter Solstice would be upon them before they knew it.
She understood her da had been given an impossible choice, but he had promised them they could choose their husbands if they so wished.
She felt as if all their talk of choice and freedom had been nothing but empty words to placate them until they were old enough to be useful in political alliances.
She didn’t care if she wasn’t being fair.
Da was not being fair. The king was not fair. Life was not fair.
Inside the solar, the argument had resumed, though at a lower volume.
“You’re allowing the king to use our girls as pawns, Royce,” Eve said. Lillith found herself nodding in agreement. Yes, Da’s choice was impossible, but he had a choice, and he’d made it, apparently.
“I’m protecting our clan,” he insisted. “If we refuse, the king will seize MacLeod lands. Would ye have our people homeless? Our clan scattered?”
Lillith bit her lip. She would not wish that, and she knew Lenora would not either, but there must be another way.
“There must be another way,” Grandmama Marion stated, as if she’d read Lillith’s mind.
Suddenly, the latch on the door clicked, and before Lillith or Lenora could retreat, the heavy door swung inward. Grandmama Marion halted in the doorway, her petite figure framed by the other women of the family lined up behind her—Eve, Aunt Elena, and Aunt Sebille.
Grandmama Marion’s eyes widened momentarily as she took Lillith in and then Lenora, and she offered a look of assurance to them, which Lillith found immensely comforting. The women had clearly departed the solar as one, leaving the men behind to stew in their righteous indignation.
“I know you two heard us arguing,” Grandmama Marion said. “Don’t fret. We’ll come up with a plan.”
Lillith glanced past her grandmama to where her stepmama stood, eyes red-rimmed but resolute. Eve gave Lillith and Lenora a slight nod, as if to confirm Grandmama Marion’s words.
“A plan?” Lenora echoed, her voice barely audible. “But Da said—”
“Your da says many things when he’s backed into a corner,” Aunt Elena interrupted, stepping forward to place a comforting hand on Lenora’s shoulder. “That does nae mean we accept them without a fight.”
This! This position women faced of possibly having no choice in their own future was exactly the reason Lillith did not wish to wed. Or one of them, anyway.
“The women of this family have overcome far worse obstacles than stubborn men and royal decrees,” Aunt Sebille added, her amber eyes glinting with determination.
Lillith felt a surge of gratitude for these women—fierce, clever, and utterly unwilling to surrender to the whims of kings or lairds.
Perhaps there was hope after all. But even as the thought formed, she remembered Rory Matheson in the woods, bleeding from her arrow, looking at her with those cold blue eyes and saying he was here to wed Lenora.
She was safe, but her sister wasn’t, and Lillith would do everything in her power to ensure Lenora did not have to wed the man either.
“I’m nae worried,” Lillith said, squaring her shoulders and lifting her chin in defiance.
Her grandmama grinned. “That’s the spirit, Lillith. We will overcome!” she said, raising her fist and shaking it.
“Aye, we will,” Lillith agreed, but she knew she needed to tell them what she’d already told Lenora. “Rory Matheson has already made up his mind to wed Lenora and nae me.”
Everyone frowned at her, except Lenora, and then her stepmama asked, “How could you know that?”
“Because,” she replied, recalling his mocking tone when she’d revealed herself as Laird MacLeod’s daughter. He’d asked her if her sister had shared her temperament, and she’d told him no. She’d sealed Lenora’s fate, but she now had an idea how to extract Lenora from the mess she’d gotten her in.
“Because how?” her grandmama demanded of her.
“I met him earlier in the woods.”
The women’s gazes all widened at the same time.
“You met him?” Eve asked.
“She shot him!” Lenora announced.
“Ye what?” her da barked from within his solar. Clearly, eavesdropping ran in the family. Lillith knew she was in for it now, but she needed some time to think.
“Aye!” she said, lifting her chin in defiance and sweeping her gaze over the women, who oddly did not seem to be looking at her at all now but beyond her. She supposed they were shocked. She needed to make her escape now.
“Lillith!” her da bellowed.
Too late. She was good and trapped. Her da’s steps resounded in the silence before he ordered, “Ye will make yer apologies—”
“I will nae!” she bellowed in return, tears immediately filling her eyes and blurring her vision.
“I do nae regret shooting that arse! I only wish I’d killed him!
” With that, she swung around to dash away as she swiped at her blurry eyes, but three steps into her sprint, she smacked into someone, who grunted at the same moment Masie yelped.
Before Lillith knew what was occurring, she was flying forward toward the ground to land with a jarring thud on top of a very solid person.
And when she opened her eyes, which she’d apparently squeezed shut, her gaze met the murderous one of Rory Matheson.