Duty of the Chieftain - a Highland 'Lord's Right of the First Night' novella (Clan MacKrannan's Secret Traditions #3) (13 page)

This brought Ranald to a state of mild unease.

Elinor and himself were almost strangers yet.  Most of the week and more since they'd coupled – and then officially met – had been taken up with his five-day absence to see the king.  He'd spent far longer on horseback journeying between castle and court and back again than he'd spent with the woman who became his wife yestreen… the same woman bedded by his father last eve, with tuition from his mother, and in front of the three Wisewomen.

Something about the whole situation seemed
a bit off, no matter that it saved his heritage as chieftain, and he was now being forced to listen to Elinor providing the gathering with more of his own shortcomings.

"…and Ranald had not shaved, so it was quite a peculiar sensation having his face on me compared with his father's fingers
with the oil…"

Elinor was rather enjoying
the power she had to make Ranald uncomfortable, as he clearly was.  She was the star of the moment, and she wanted him to envy what she'd received as the sample bride.  There was one other thing she could say that would really get a reaction from him.

"…Ranald
nearly
blissed me using just his tongue," she said, full of mischief.  "But then he stopped and said
'Your mouth on me!  NOW!'
so I had to do that instead."

A
nasty silence came over the cottage like a prickly blanket, and Elinor knew she'd gone much too far.  All eyes in the room turned to Ranald.

The chieftain
had taken just about enough comparisons that found him wanting.  "I do no' recall saying it like a demand, Elinor," he said with narrowed eyes.  "It was said as a question, an offer of the next part of the bride's tutoring.  Ye had chance to cry off if ye wanted."

The flame of a candle sp
uttered and blew out.

"I didn't mean to
infer…"

A goddess statuette toppled from the mantel
, bounced off the hearth and landed face down at Ranald's foot.  The Wisewomen began muttering positive affirmations to little avail.

"Aye
, ye did, Elinor!  And just so that ye know, elsewhere ye'd no' be getting the chance to cry off any part of the Lord's Right.  Hell's pit, it's the talk of the royal court that the new Earl of Aldcanton sits with his cock in his fist while his mistress breaches the bride with four fingers in a leather glove.  Dinna go telling folks ye've been hard done by, and acting like ye're the latest expert!"

Ranald slammed down his tankard and
stormed out the cottage.

Heritage be damned.  He'd sooner trade places with his brother in Ireland than put up with this
nonsense.

And
to hell with that idea as well.  Elinor Keirston had done enough damage since she came here.  She'd no' be losing him his place as chieftain with her bloody scoring system.

He'd get this sorted once and for all.
  Feisty was a good thing in a wife, but using it to debase her husband in public was the worst of all misdemeanors.

The Chief looked at
the door shaking on its hinges, and then raised an eyebrow at Elinor.

"My apologies, Sir Thommas.  Perhaps I was a
little insensitive."

"
A bride is never allowed to bliss afore she is breached. 
Never."

"
Oh… I had forgotten that… I wasn't told so until recently…"

"
Ye must beg Ranald's forgiveness, Elinor."  He took her hand and rubbed it, and an intimacy loomed between them.

"I am
so
sorry."

"I know, lass. 
It's a mistake ye'll need to fix, though."

The Chief was riled
, and paced awhile.  Elinor had just kicked his son in the ballocks with her words and shamed him in front of the Wisewomen.  The Scold's Bridle had been put on women for less, the chieftain's wife or nay.

The clan had a problem here.

When he finally took Ranald's vacated chair to reconvene the meeting, he could see that Elinor was clearly much agitated by the affair.  Best to let the matter rest and revisit it when all had calmed down.  Other topics needed reviewing with the Elinor and the Wisewomen, and it was to these that he directed the focus now.

"We will stick with the detail
of last eve's sample bride scenario.  Wisewomen, how was it for ye?"

Hessa the Grandam spoke for all three. 
"We are honored to do duty by acting witness henceforth, milord.  Yer checking for a maidenhead is important.  We worry that a bride might even be early with child when she weds."

"
That happens once in a while," said the Chief.  "The Bard has record of the times I have discovered that very fact and called the husband in to verify."

"Exactly so, milord.  But of course most brides, as ye have
said, have maidenhead intact.  Have ye given more thought to how we may record what ye've found at the time without yer saying it aloud?"

"Aye.  A hand signal of crossed fingers for a portcullis intact, and an '
O
' made with my forefinger and thumb if her gate is already open."

"An excellent method, milord.  Ishbel, add that to the formal instructions, if ye please."

The Chief put Elinor out of her misery by involving her again now.

"
And what of yerself, the sample bride?  Did ye enjoy yer first bliss?"

Elinor was relieved by his kindly tone.  Her whole face lit up at the memory.  "
Oh
very
much so, Sir Thommas.  It was absolutely exhilarating!  Rather like the first time I galloped on a horse!"

"Good, g
ood!  Anything else a real bride might like or dislike?"

She should have quit when ahead.  Instead she
threw herself deeper into the hole that the Chief had just dug her out of.

"Well…
technically I
was
a real bride, Sir Thommas, having wed Ranald that day."

"Maybe so," said the Chief with
much caution, "but I will no' be making a habit of bedding my sons' wives.  Ye do understand this was for the Bride's Right only, and done as part of yer service instead of the customary Tradition called the Coupling of the Chieftain?"

"Absolutely," said Elinor,
with a flick of her hand, dismissing the most important part as if nothing.  "Anyway, perhaps I shouldn't mention this, but it was just
awful
to be there while Lady Agatha came to you afterwards and I think that part definitely needs reviewed."

The Chief's voice came from a gravel
quarry.  "A bride would no' be there by that time.  I needed my wife and saw no reason no' to have her help in that simple way, considering all that had gone on.  And I expected ye would take it as an extra lesson for what Ranald might need from yerself when he performs his duties in this Bride's Right.  Better that than him spending in any brides now he is wed to ye."

The chilly silence was not one that needed filled with anything except
Elinor's total retraction, but she kept going anyway.

"
Still, maybe you could make sure everyone else has left the bower before you… before Lady Agatha begins to… well, it was most embarrassing to be so close to…  I could see her arm moving with the utmost rapidity, you know!  Or better still, you could keep it for later in the privacy of your own chamber?"

An arrangement of crystals hanging from the ceiling began to chime discordantly
and still Elinor thought to justify her viewpoint further.  "It's not part of the Bride's Right by then, you see, it's only… well…"

A heart-shaped ornament engraved with the word 'PEACE' fell from the wall and shattered on the stone floor.  Elinor saw the Chief's eyebrow raised in expectation and finished vocalizing her thoughts.  "…
Well, it's just seems a needless indulgence.  I can see why it would be better than a lord spending in the bride but I worry it might be construed as a lack of self-control on his part."

The Chief's face appeared to have frosted over, despite his smiling nod.

"Hmmmph.  Let us remove yer worries, then. 
Ishbel, take note, if ye please.
The MacKrannan doing duty in the Bride's Right will henceforth always be a married man.  His wife will be present and witness throughout and do formal duty also.  The wife's duties will be in the tutoring of the bride and in the easing of her husband's… let us call it 'tension'
…
after the bride has left the bower.  Hessa the Grandam, would ye say that wording would be sufficient for the purpose?"

Hessa hummed and hawed a little, but her misgivings were not about his lack of consultation
with the Wisewomen before making such decree.

"Milord, I would venture that ye could word it in
blunter terms.  The vocabulary in the record is already highly specific, for we dare not have anything which could be misinterpreted."

"I thank ye, Hessa. 
Then let the duties of the lord's wife be recorded thus...  At the lord's behest, the lord's wife will come to the bed and tutor the bride in the manual arts of husband-pleasing until the lord himself cries halt.  And once the bride has left the bower, the lord may call upon his wife to to ease him to full spend in whatever way he chooses and with the Wisewomen present to witness both her actions and his spillage..."

Ishbel's quill sped across the page, drips of ink flying off in all directions.

"...Is that better, Hessa?  I'm saying
'may call'
for it's no' every time I would bother."

"Ideal, milord.  It makes it an option rather than a mandatory act. 
And is it to be only the
manual
arts of husband-pleasing, or...?"

The Chief gestured
again to Ishbel to get her quill poised.

"Ye're right, Hessa.  Ranald might decide on different with his own wife.  Phrase
the husband-pleasing as
'manual or oral or other alternative arts, according to the lord's own desire'. 
Ye never know what the youngsters will dream up."

"
And should we put in anything about the wife washing her lord first?"

"
Ye saw that I always wash my own hands and cock after I've tended to a bride.  Ach, put it in and make it official.  Ginny always made sure there was plenty hot water and I see ye have continued with that."

"
Three basins minimum, milord," said Hessa.  "Milord, we are in total agreement with the wisdom of all ye have said.  Ishbel, make sure to credit the Chief with this new rule's devising."

Elinor knew
she had made yet another huge mistake, and one which would have consequences for herself as Ranald's wife.  She would now have to sit and watch him deflowering brides, tutor the brides herself to rouse him before he breached them, carry out the pumping of his manhood afterwards, and all in front of witnesses.  Or worse, for Sir Thommas had just laid it wide open for Ranald to have her do just about anything he wanted.

The Chief would not look at her.  He rose from his chair and walked the room,
thumbs in his belt either side of the big buckle, very much the head of the clan.  He addressed his next remarks to a miniature planetarium bolted to the wall.

"Elinor, ye are a woman
with verra little experience of men.  It canna be assumed that Ranald will make choice to stay here in his role as chieftain, and considering all ye have said I would no' blame him if he decided ye were unworthy of the effort."

And then h
e turned and looked directly at her, engaging her eyes and sharing the secret between them.

Elinor felt much better for that.
  It was as if he were forgiving her without saying it aloud.

"…
Go now to Lady Agatha, and tell her everything that has gone on here.  And then take heed of whatever she says.  Take
verra
good heed, ye hear?"

The Chief turned to Ishbel. 
"The notes from last eve, if ye please.  My son and myself will discuss this Bride's Right further, afore he must do duty to Ginny."