Chapter Nine #4
The chief’s smile became more feral and strained. “Celebrate the peace we have always maintained?”
“Aye.” Drummond waved down a servant and pointed at the new arrivals’ goblets. “Our guests thirst. Please inform Mrs. Farris that it is high time she served the feast.”
“Aye, m’lord.” The maidservant dipped a quick curtsy, filled every glass on the table, then scurried off to an archway behind them.
After a glance at his daughter that spoke volumes, the visiting chief cleared his throat. “Yer messenger led us to believe that this visit was more than merely a celebration of the peace betwixt our clans.”
“I recently became aware of that, Heberdy. I fear that messenger was ill-advised.” Drummond offered them an apologetic nod. “And for yer troubles, we would like to gift ye five of our best yearlings. These coos come from our finest bloodlines. They will strengthen yer herds.”
The Heberdy maiden leaned forward and cast a hate-filled glare at Evie. Baring her teeth in a poor attempt at a smile, she tittered with a snooty, high-pitched laugh. “Yer messenger brought a contract, m’lord. A signed contract needing only our witnessed signatures to be complete.”
“Aye,” Heberdy said, puffing out his chest and jutting his grizzled chin higher. “Signed by the old MacMuirrow himself.”
Morganna leaned closer to Evie while yanking on her sleeve. “Yer Drummond would have to agree to a marriage contract, and his signature would have to be witnessed,” she whispered.
Evie eyed the blonde, whom she could probably take in a fair fight, as long as she was in her jeans and not all this yardage of wool and velvet.
She couldn’t remain silent any longer. “So you mean to marry a man with one foot in the grave and the other on a banana peel just to insert yourself into Clan MacMuirrow?” she asked the girl.
Clearly perplexed, Lady Merelys didn’t answer. She just sat there with her mouth slightly ajar, staring at Evie.
“They dinna have bananas yet,” Morganna whispered in Evie’s ear.
Dammit. Evie squared her shoulders, determined to fix this.
“So you’re saying you came here to marry the old chief and become his widow in a few weeks instead of becoming the Earl of Blackmorrow’s powerful countess—right?
Because Lord Blackmorrow signed no marriage contract.
” At least, she thought the wives of earls were called countesses.
Holy crap, she hoped she got that part right.
“Who are ye?” Lady Merelys asked, her tone leaving no doubt of how little she thought of Evie.
“Forgive me,” Drummond interrupted. Once again, he rose from his seat and pulled Evie to stand at his side. “Allow me to introduce Lady Evie, my wife. We only just returned to Dubh Tower today.”
His freaking wife? Evie forced a smile while biting the inside of her cheek to keep from screaming at him that this was not how this was supposed to go down.
“We have a betrothal contract between yerself and my daughter,” Chief Heberdy sputtered.
“Else we would not have come. We heard of yer rejections of the other clans and never would have wasted the resources to make such a trip without certain…security.” Standing now, he raised his voice to an insulting volume.
“When did the two of ye marry? What priest heard these vows? The betrothal contract is dated over a fortnight ago, yet ye say ye only just returned with yer wife this verra day? That makes yer marriage null. The betrothal to my Merelys came first.”
Morganna groaned, then leaned close and whispered in Evie’s ear, “A betrothal contract would not necessarily have to be signed by yer Drummond. He should never have said ye were already married.”
“You think?” Evie glared at the fairy who needed to throw some pixie dust around and make this problem go away. Ready to run in case things got even uglier, she gathered her skirts above her ankles and sidled out from between the chairs and away from the table.
“I refuse to stand here and be insulted,” she told the clan chief and his daughter, for whom she kind of felt sorry.
Apparently they’d been duped just like Drummond.
But it couldn’t be helped. Both her heart and her conscience insisted that she take care of Drummond.
After all, he’d been nothing but good and kind to her.
Even with her weak background in history, she realized that a cruel, beastly sort of man could’ve been the one to find her on that sidhe hill, and her circumstances would have been so much worse.
“Drummond and I have been bound since the beginning of time,” she told Chief Heberdy and Lady Merelys with a stamp of her foot. “Beat that date.”
A blinding flash of lightning exploded through the windows, then ear-splitting thunder shook the keep so hard that dust sprinkled down from the rafters. Once the racket quieted, all those gathered in the hall straightened from cowering, then turned and stared at her with their mouths ajar.
Holy crap. What had she done? This was not good. She could almost see the clan’s thoughts. A date with a stake in the middle of a bonfire was surely in her future.