CHAPTER 32
While Isabel was taken away and locked in one of the storerooms, Finn sent someone to fetch Una and Ella. Margaret, the stubborn woman, refused to let him carry her upstairs to bed until Una and Ella arrived and she had held her daughter in her arms.
Una took over then, sending for hot water and checking Margaret for injuries over her objections that she was fine.
“Mind Ella while I clean up those nasty scratches and put her to bed,” Una said, and shooed him out of the bedchamber
Finn waited in the other chamber with the door open. Though it could not have been long, it seemed like hours passed before Una stuck her head out.
“All she needs is rest. I’ll send for ye when she wakes,” Una said. “And stop your fretting, or you’ll worry the poor bairn.”
Ella took his hand and looked up at him. Hoping to make her smile, he pulled her doll out of the tuck in his plaid and held it out to her. When her bottom lip trembled, he saw that the thing was soaking wet from the seawater in the crevice and even sadder looking than before.
“She just needs a wee cleaning up,” he said, then he remembered the dog he’d brought her. “I have a new friend for ye to meet.”
He suddenly realized that after the dog had helped him find Margaret, he’d ridden off and left him without a backward glance.
“Don’t want another horse,” she said. “I like Ceò.”
“Then let’s go visit Ceò,” he said.
When they stepped out of the keep, the wee dog was sitting at the bottom of the steps waiting. He was even more pathetic looking than her doll, with his raggedy fur and one eye.
Ella adored him. The bairn had a soft spot for broken things.
“This wee dog deserves a good meal after all he’s done,” Finn said, patting it on the head. “You two get acquainted while I go to the kitchen to get him some meat.”
When he went down into the undercroft, he decided he needed to talk to Isabel one last time. He nodded to the two guards watching the door and went in.
“George will rescue me,” she said as soon as he entered. “After I delivered Alex into his hands, he won’t forget me.”
“He doesn’t have Alex anymore,” Finn said.
Her eye twitched. She had not expected that.
“George doesn’t need ye now,” he said. “He’ll let you take all the blame for the murders.”
“I’m a Sinclair,” she said, staring ahead. “He’ll stand by me.”
She would find out in time. “Ye didn’t ask, but I thought you’d want to know that your husband isn’t doing well.”
“He never loved me,” Isabel snapped. “All these years, he mourned my dead sister.”
Finn wondered for a moment if she knew that her sister was his real mother.
“She ruined everything when she ran off with the man I was supposed to wed,” she said, jabbing her thumb to her bony chest. “’Twas all arranged. She was to wed Gilbert, and I, as the elder sister, was to marry Robin Sutherland and become Countess of Sutherland.”
“Ye would have become the widow of a rebel, not a countess,” he said.
“With me as his wife, Robin would have succeeded in taking the earldom,” she said. “Nothing and no one would have stood in our way.”
“He chose love instead,” Finn said. “They both did.”
“He died for making the wrong choice,” she said.
Finn was more than ready to leave, but she continued talking, as if he was not there.
“If I had to marry a Gordon, an enemy to my clan, it would not have been such an insult if he was the Earl of Huntly’s first or second son,” she said, bitterness oozing from her like black bile.
“But nay, I was bound for life to the third son, a man of low stature and little property.
And worst of all, a man my sister discarded.
“I needed to pay them back and take what should have been mine. When my sister came to me seeking forgiveness, I spat in her face and had her followed when she left. Then I told the Gordons where she and Robin were hiding.”
“How could you?” Finn asked. “She trusted you.”
“Robin was caught because of me,” she said. “And yet I wept when I saw his head over the gate at Dunrobin.”
Finn knew then that if she had found out his true parentage, she would have killed him in his cradle.
Later that day, he watched the Gordon warriors lead her in chains down to the boat that would carry her to Edinburgh for trial.
Isabel had made his childhood a misery and never shown him a bit of affection.
She murdered her husband’s kin, a couple who had done nothing against her, while a guest in their home.
And yet Finn felt nothing but sadness as he watched her go. Her evil design to murder her nephew and his parents had led her to kill her own son. Finn watched until long after the boat disappeared on the horizon.
###
It was late in the day before Una sent word that Margaret was awake and asking for him. The old woman was waiting for him outside the chamber door.
“She’s had no bleeding, God be praised,” Una said, patting his hand.
“No bleeding?” His pulse jumped. “What’s wrong with her?”
“She’s a strong lass,” Una said. “Stronger than she looks, for certain.”
Her words only made Finn more worried. What was Una hiding from him?
You’ve every reason to hope for a healthy babe.”
Margaret was with child? Finn suddenly felt lightheaded and had to rest his hand against the wall. He had known it was possible, but that was not the same as knowing for certain. The thought that she could suffer another miscarriage—and it was his fault—hit him like a punch in the gut.
Finn had not only left her at the mercy of a murderer, he did this to her.
When he went into the bedchamber, he found Margaret sitting up in the bed stitching. She set her needlework aside and gave him a warm smile.
“How are ye feeling?” he asked, taking her hands. It pained him to see the scratches on them.
“Remarkably well once Una brought me food,” she said. “Ye should have seen how much I ate.”
“Why did ye not tell me you’re with child?” he asked.
“I didn’t know for certain myself until Una told me,” Margaret said.
“I’m so sorry,” he said in a choked voice. “I know ye didn’t want to go through this again.”
“This time will be different, I know it,” she said, squeezing his hands. “If I didn’t lose the babe last night, I don’t believe I will.”
Despite the scratches and bruises, she did have a glow about her. Still, Finn could not forget the sadness in her eyes when she told him about her miscarriage.
“Can’t ye see?” she said. “I’m happy to be carrying your child.”
“Ye want a child with me?” he asked.
“Of course I do,” she said, blinking back tears.
He pulled her into his arms and held her. God knew he was not fit to be a father. But if by some miracle Margaret had the child, he would try his best. And if she lost the babe, he would be there to comfort her. He needed to be with her, no matter what came.
###
“Ye came and found me,” Margaret said, leaning back to look into Finn’s eyes, “even though I told ye I was going to leave ye.”
“I had to be sure ye were safe,” he said.
Finn would never know what that meant to her, after the men of her family and her former husband had valued her so little.
“I never truly wanted to go to my sister’s,” she said. “I was afraid of so many things. Afraid to love you. Afraid you’d desert me when I needed ye most.”
There was only one thing she was still afraid of.
“Una told me ye rescued Alex,” she said. No matter his own ambition, Finn would not leave his cousin in danger. But that did not mean he did not want to become an earl in Alex’s place.
Finn told her the tale of Alex’s rescue then, though she suspected he left out the dangerous parts.
“Alex should be on his way to Huntly now,” Finn said.
“You’re a good man to save his life,” she said.
“I gave my word I’d look out for him.”
Finn would have rescued Alex even if he had not given his oath, just as he had rescued her.
“I have something to confess,” she said. “I overheard Gilbert tell ye that Robin Sutherland was your real father.”
A sudden wariness came into Finn’s eyes.
“What will ye do?” she asked. “Will ye claim your rightful place?”
Fear tightened her belly as she waited to hear her future.
“I’m sorry, mo rùin, but I can’t claim the earldom,” Finn said. “That would cause a war between the Sutherlands and the Gordons, when we must fight together to push the Sinclairs out of our lands.”
Relief flooded through her, until she noticed how wretched Finn looked.
“Besides, I couldn’t take it from Alex,” he said. “I can’t do it, even for you.”
“I should have known ye wouldn’t sacrifice Alex, even though ye have the right to,” she said, tears running down her face. “If I didn’t already love ye, I would love ye for this.”
“What?” Finn’s eyes went wide. “Ye don’t want me to claim it?”
“If I’d wanted to marry an earl,” she said, “I would have stayed with my brothers.”
Finn did not look persuaded.
“If you were an earl, ye couldn’t avoid being drawn into the dangerous games and changing alliances of Scotland’s most powerful nobles,” she said.
“You’d be expected to attend court and participate on the council, and we’d have other important nobles coming to visit.
I don’t want my brothers to find me and try to use us both, as they would be sure to do. ”
“I wouldn’t let them,” he said.
Finn had not lived in those circles as she had. No matter how he tried, he would be forced to choose sides. There was no neutral ground, just shifting sands among the most powerful nobles.
“Garty is a small property with a modest tower house.” He brushed a strand of her hair behind her ear. “You were meant to be a countess and live in a great castle with a hundred servants and dozens of jewels and fine gowns.”
“I don’t need any of those things,” she said. “What makes a home is love, and that’s all I ever wanted.”
Beneath his charm, Finn carried wounds from never feeling that he truly belonged. Though he had hidden it from himself for years, he longed for family and home as much as she did. He still did not believe he was worthy of love, but she would show him he was.
They would build a life together for themselves and their children and make a home that would be a sanctuary for them all.
“Marry me,” she said, and kissed him. “Marry me, Finn.”
###
Finn could not believe his good fortune and smiled at Margaret while they ate a late breakfast. When he caught Ella feeding the dog—whom she and Una named Cù-sìthe, fairy dog—under the table, he winked at her. His heart felt so full. He never expected to be this happy.
He looked up as a man in priest’s robes burst into the hall.
“The Sinclairs have set fire to the town of Dornoch,” the priest said. “The godless heathens even burned the cathedral.”
The priest was shaking, and his face was charred with smoke.
“Sit down, father,” Margaret said, taking his arm and helping him into a chair. Then she poured him a cup of whisky.
“Bless ye, lass,” he said, and drank it down.
“Why attack Dornoch?” Finn asked. “Alex must be gone from there by now.”
“The Sinclairs want revenge against the Murrays for helping Alex escape,” the priest said. “When they chased them into Dornoch, the Murrays took refuge in the cathedral and the bishop’s castle, thinking they’d be safe there.”
The Sinclairs would risk excommunication attacking a cathedral and a bishop’s residence.
“I fear the situation is dire,” the priest said. “A few of the Murrays are holed up in the cathedral’s tower. Lachlan and most of the others are trapped in the castle, which isn’t stocked for a siege, as the bishop is gone and no one expected his home to be attacked.”
The Sinclairs were exacting punishment on the Murrays for rescuing Alex.
“Who led the attack for the Sinclairs?” Finn asked.
“Their chieftain’s eldest son John, Master of Caithness,” the priest said. “He’s a ruthless son of a bitch.”
“He’s not the worst of them,” Finn said. “He may be willing to negotiate.”
“That’s why I’ve come,” the priest said. “He says he’ll parley with no one but you, Finn. If you’re not there at noon on the morrow, he says he’ll breach the walls and spare not a one.”
“Why me?” Finn asked, though he suspected he knew.
“He says ye were the peddler responsible for Alex òg’s escape.”
John Sinclair wanted Finn for more than the parley. The parley, the chance to avoid a bloody massacre of the Murrays, was the bait John knew would draw Finn out.
“He says if you don’t come to him, he’ll attack Helmsdale next.”
The threat to Helmsdale was John turning the screw. Finn had no choice.
An hour ago, Finn saw a future beyond his dreams, a life with his beloved Margaret as his wife. He had allowed himself to imagine growing old with her and watching Ella and perhaps more children of their own grow up.
Tomorrow he would ride to Dornoch not knowing if he would return. Finn could not put his own happiness or even Margaret’s above the lives of so many good men. The best he could do now for Margaret and Ella was to make certain they had a home on lands of their own, a haven where they would be safe.
“I’ll go back with ye in the morning,” Finn told the priest, then drew him aside. “But I need ye to do something for me tonight.”
“What was it ye asked the priest to do?” Margaret asked after he brought her back upstairs to speak with her alone.
“I want us to wed tonight,” he said, taking Margaret’s hands. “We’ll say our vows with the entire household as witnesses, have the priest bless our marriage, and celebrate with a feast.”
Once the priest blessed their marriage, they were bound in the eyes of the church, and before so many witnesses, neither his relatives nor hers could challenge its validity.
“Ye expect a wedding feast with only a few hours to prepare?” she asked with a wide smile. “Surely we can wait until ye return.”
“After all that’s happened, we know how precious time is,” he said. “I don’t want to let another day go by without you being my wife.”
“How dangerous is it for you to meet with the Sinclair chieftain’s son?” she asked, drawing her brows together. “I thought this was just a parley.”
Finn should have left out the part about time being precious. He hated to lie to her, but he wanted her to be happy at their wedding.
“Ach, ’tis just talking we’ll do. I’ll be fine,” Finn said, giving her a smile and a wink. “But it would please me to know I have a wife and daughter waiting for me. I want the three of us to be a family now.”