CHAPTER 17
Finn could take the punishment the men meted out at practice each day. At least he felt he was making progress with them. But after three more nights of tossing and turning beside Margaret, Finn could not take much more. And Margaret showed no signs of changing her mind.
He was in a foul mood and well on his way to getting stinking drunk when his brother plunked down beside him. The other men in the hall had taken one look at Finn and had the sense to leave him alone with his whisky.
“Ye look terrible,” Bearach said, giving him a harder-than-friendly slap on the back. “That bride of yours must be riding ye hard.”
“Mind your tongue.” Finn kept his gaze fixed in front of him and willed his brother to disappear.
“Ach, that Maggie is something to look at,” Bearach said. “Acts all quiet and proper, but I’d wager she’s a wildcat under the blankets.”
“Don’t speak about her like that.” Finn’s head began to pound as he slowly turned to face his brother. “In fact, I’d ask ye not to foul her name by speaking of her at all.”
“If you’re having trouble satisfying your bride, little brother,” Bearach said, “I’d be happy to take a turn and show her what she’s missing.”
Finn grabbed Bearach by the throat and lifted him off the bench. Speaking each word slowly, he said, “Stay away from her.”
“It won’t matter if I do,” Bearach said with a smirk. “She’ll come to me, just like Curstag did.”
“Is minic a bhris béal duine a shorn.” Many a time a man's mouth broke his nose.
Finn was very close to planting his fist in his brother’s face when he heard the rustle of a gown and looked over his shoulder to find his mother fast approaching.
“Let go of him!” his mother shouted from still several feet away. “What in God’s name is wrong with ye, Finn?”
“I mean it. Stay away from my wife,” Finn said an inch from Bearach’s face before dropping his brother back onto the bench.
“Ha, you’ve fallen for the bitch, haven’t ye?” Bearach laughed and slapped the table. “Thought you’d learned your lesson. You’re a damned fool.”
Finn did not often agree with his brother, but he was indeed a fool.
Margaret would not have him, but he could not enjoy himself with any other lass because that would dishonor his wife.
Worse still, he had no interest in bedding any other lass.
No one could be more surprised than Finn was to learn that Margaret was the only woman he wanted.
###
Finn had no hope of sleep again that night. Watching Margaret in the moonlight shining through the window made him feel as if something heavy was pressing against his chest.
He tossed aside the bedclothes, got dressed, and headed down the stairs. He needed fresh air. A thorough swiving was what he really needed. It would not be hard to find a willing lass, but word would go around, and that would shame Margaret.
As he descended the dark stairwell to the floor above the great hall, he saw a shaft of light under the door to his aunt and uncle’s private solar.
Who would be in there in the middle of the night?
Imagining someone rifling through his uncle’s locked drawers, he eased the door open only to find his uncle sitting alone drinking.
“Sorry to disturb ye,” Finn said. “Just wanted to make sure nothing was amiss.”
“I’m surprised to see the new bridegroom out of bed at this hour,” his uncle said. “Come in and have a whisky with me. I’ve been wanting to have a quiet word alone with ye.”
Finn hoped this was good news for him and took a seat while his uncle poured him a cup.
“Tomorrow we’re going up to our hunting lodge at Helmsdale,” his uncle said. “We’ll stay there for a few weeks.”
“Ye should have good hunting up that way.” Finn could barely hide his relief. With the family gone, he would not have to keep up a pretense of newlywed bliss.
“I’ll leave most of my men behind to protect Dunrobin, as usual,” his uncle said. “But you and your lovely bride, of course, will come with the rest of the family.”
Damn, damn, damn.
“Ye must come to Helmsdale,” his uncle said, apparently noticing Finn’s lack of enthusiasm. His uncle leaned forward. “I need ye there to keep Alex safe.”
“You’re still worried someone may try to harm him?” Finn asked. “Even here in Sutherland?”
“There are still Sutherlands who wish one of their own ruled their clan and its lands instead of a Gordon,” his uncle said as he poured himself more whisky.
“You’re half Sutherland,” Finn said, though that did not carry water with those Sutherlands who considered the earl’s mother—and Finn’s grandmother—a traitor to her clan for usurping the earldom from the rightful heir. “I thought the resentment died down long ago.”
“Tensions have increased as of late.” His uncle sighed as he twirled the golden liquid in his cup.
“Why now?” Finn asked.
“Who knows what set them off this time?” his uncle said with a shrug. “And if not the Sutherlands, it could be the Sinclairs and the Mackays, who would also hope to gain if I lost my only son and heir.”
If the earl had no heir, there would be a fight among every Sutherland who had a weak claim to be the next earl. The chaos and infighting that would ensue would leave the clan vulnerable, and the Sinclairs and the Mackays would take advantage of that.
“I’ll do anything ye ask to protect Alex,” Finn said. “But with you and your guard at Helmsdale, I’m not sure why ye need me.”
“I’m his father. The men won’t respect Alex if they see me watching over him like he’s a bairn in leading strings,” his uncle said.
“But no one will think twice when they see Alex sticking close to his older cousin, a warrior admired by the men for his fighting skills and—if the rumors are true—liked even better by the lasses.”
“Ye ought not believe all ye hear, uncle,” Finn said with a laugh. “But if the men know the threat to Alex’s life, they’ll not think any less of him because ye want to keep a close watch on him. In fact, they’ll expect it.”
“I haven’t told the other men.” His uncle paused and stared into his cup. “I can’t be sure one of them has not been bought off by our enemies.”
This was disturbing news, indeed. Finn hoped this was just his uncle’s suspicious nature and not that he had good reason to mistrust the loyalty of his own guard.
“There’s been another accident, and it happened here at Dunrobin,” his uncle said. “Alex was thrown from his horse.”
“Alex told me it was just a thorn in the horse’s hoof.”
“Someone could have put it there,” his uncle said.
That seemed unlikely, but Finn was persuaded there could well be a risk to Alex from the other clans.
“It would be better if more of your men were aware of your concerns and were keeping watch on Alex,” Finn said. “But I appreciate that ye trust me.”
“I know ye love my son as much as I do.” His uncle gripped his shoulder and looked Finn in the eye as he spoke. “And you’re the best warrior I’ve got.”
Finn was surprised by the compliment. His relatives did not hand them out often, particularly to him.
“’Tis a damned shame my brother doesn’t see what a fine son he has in you.” His uncle shook his head. “That Sinclair mother of yours has poisoned his mind.”
It would take a stronger man than Finn’s father to withstand his mother. But no good would come of dwelling on that.
“As for that brother of yours,” his uncle said with a grimace, “he’s all Sinclair.”
That poisoned Sinclair blood ran through Finn’s veins too.
###
Margaret felt out of sorts all morning. After Finn left their bed during the night, she lay awake for hours imagining him with another woman—as if she was not miserable enough after her disastrous attempt to pleasure him.
She had no claim on him and certainly no cause to blame him for seeking out a woman who would give him what she could not. It should not trouble her in the least that he did. In fact, she should be relieved.
And yet it did trouble her, and she was anything but relieved.
The woman Finn went to last night—and may still be with this morning—would be the sort he was accustomed to, the kind he liked, and nothing like Margaret.
She would be a voluptuous and bold woman who reveled in her sensuality and knew just how to please him.
Despite herself, Margaret imagined him kissing the other woman’s lips and throat the way he had kissed her, running his hands over the woman’s bare skin the way Margaret wished she could let him touch her.
She was not ready to face Finn and whomever he had been with first thing, so she asked Una to have one of the servants bring breakfast up and ate alone with Ella.
She could not, however, hide upstairs any longer.
Bracing herself to see Finn without showing the hurt she felt, she went down to the noon meal with Una and Ella.
Finn arrived late and sat with the guards rather than with the family at the high table. He looked disheveled and tired. Evidently, he had not slept much either, though for a different reason.
Margaret suddenly realized Helen had been speaking to her, perhaps for some time, and she had not heard a word. “I’m sorry, what did ye ask me?”
“Are ye packed and ready to go?” Helen said.
Margaret’s heart lurched in her chest. Was Finn sending her back? She struggled to calm herself. He had cause to be upset with her, but surely he would have told her himself. And Helen would not be asking if she was ready with a pleasant smile if they were kicking her out.
“Finn hasn’t told ye yet?” Helen asked, raising her eyebrows.
Margaret felt a blush creep up her cheeks. She could not very well say Finn had not spoken to her since he left their chamber in the middle of the night.
“I suppose he got distracted,” Helen said in a conspiratorial whisper. “Ach, newlyweds. I remember those days.”
Margaret managed a weak smile. “Where are we going?”
“To Helmsdale, our hunting lodge fifteen miles up the coast,” Helen said. “We leave in an hour and will reach Helmsdale before supper.”