Duty of the Chieftain - a Highland 'Lord's Right of the First Night' novella (Clan MacKrannan's Secret Traditions #3) (6 page)

And then he had bade her mount him
to have her maidenhead destroyed.  Astride? 
Astride? 
Too lazy to be bothered getting off his back to do his duty in the Lord's Right?  Too lazy to shave before it?

Fool…
fool
for trusting the MacKrannan chieftain.  She’d spent supper turning away from his every question, and he'd picked the veil of her bonnet out his supper where it landed each time she did so.

How stupid she had been…
  This MacKrannan was not a man to be duped and forgotten.  He'd nearly told her guard!  He'd be telling everyone how she'd tricked him, making mock of it.  All chance for her to be Countess of Maxton would be gone, and the safety of her people with it.  And the king and queen… oh she could not even imagine what they'd say!

He'd devise some way to punish her. 
MacKrannan trades, indeed!  A Scold's Bridle he'd shown her, and she'd not missed the implied threat.  Her late husband had told her stories aplenty of this MacKrannan’s prowess in battle and his ruthless treatment of spies.

W
ould he dare to use such a contraption on a lady of her birthright?  Have her stripped naked and whipped in public?  Never!  And yet the filthy shirt on that prisoner had been one of quality…

E
linor chilled with the realisation that MacKrannan would show no mercy to any who stood in his way.  And now she was on a boat far from anyone who would help her, and his parents had gone along with the kidnap, and all the guards and sailors totally under his command and showing a loyalty to him she’d scarce seen in her life.

When at last the boat cast off from the island and Ranald entered the cabin again, stooping half double to come through the doorway, she did not wait for him to repeat his earlier question
about her marriage to Alain.

"Three years.  I was wed at the age of nineteen."

"A bit late, no?" he said, closing the door.  "Sit down, if ye please, that I might also."  He settled himself on the berth before continuing, "For how long were ye promised to him?"

E
linor had no intention of telling Ranald MacKrannan anything beyond the minimum needed to appease, so she gave answer that would do so and no more.

"
Eleven years."

"H
is people delayed, then.  The Douglases were ever the clan for seeking a better offer."

H
is comment on the obvious was naught but impertinence. 
She would not be intimidated! 
Elinor jerked her head up, mouth firmly closed.  She was determined not to show fear, though he exuded a power that made dignity all but impossible.

"
Ye’re too silly a lass for games, Elinor Keirston.  Dinna start playing with me.  I knew Alain Douglas well enough and he never once spoke of ye.  I wouldna even have known to send ye particular word of his death were it not for his squire telling me of a wife by name of Elinor.  Why were ye never at court with him?"

"
He did not invite me," she retorted, simply.

"Surely the queen would insist on yer presence."

"He made constant excuse."

"Did ye travel elsewhere with him?"

It was as if he'd made a joke.

"Nay."

"And left you widowed at two-and-twenty, still maiden."

D
id he ridicule her? 
She turned in petulance to search his face for any hint of it, and found his eyes would be giving nothing away.

This lass was
the same age as himself and his twin sister and he could no' think what different existences they had led in those years.  His sister had been much better treated, and her no' even marrying a knight.

H
is tone changed to a kindlier one, and he said, "No much of a life for ye, was it, lass?"

Elinor could defend herself against anger
and mockery, but the chieftain's perceptive remark was her undoing.

Alain
had never wanted her.  He’d bribed the peephole priest, slept beside her throughout their wedding night for appearances' sake in front of the servants, and left at the dawn to go to his lover.  Each brief visit home had brought the same rejection, no matter how many enticements she tried.

And
she remembered this MacKrannan in his room, in the warmth of the fireglow, lifting long strands of her hair and marvelling aloud at its color and scent, looking down at her with those piercingly dark eyes as he becalmed her for their coupling...

She
rose from the chair and turned away lest he see her distress, and was fumbling for a kerchief when his voice came from somewhere overhead.

"
Why now?" he asked quietly.

Elinor told a partial truth.  "I
would not have my late husband's memory nor his family shamed by my state when I wed the Earl of Maxton.  Please!  It must never be known that our marriage was chaste, I
beg
you."

"
Like that, was it..."  Alain Douglas had no ballocks in battle, and apparently none for use at home either.  "There's men aplenty would have been pleased to oblige ye.  Why was there need for deception when ye could have been taken abed in honesty?"

Ranald had confused her now, and there was only so much that she could tell him. 
She moved away to look out at the waves rise and slump beneath the little window.  The sailors had set out fish lures to catch sea birds, and she watched as a gannet swooped in expectance of the fine prize on open offer – only to find its beak skewered to the floating board the fish was nailed upon.

She'd fallen into much the same trap herself.  Pleading for release would do as much g
ood as the gannet's squawking.

The boat lurched, and Elinor heard a thud
, followed by a muttered
"Hell's pit… is every sailor a midget that they build boats so?"
followed by a polite request.

"
Elinor… I would be thankful if ye would sit down with me."

She turned to see that his head was pushed forward by the low ceiling of the cabin,
and those immensely long legs placed apart to keep his balance upright in the boat's swaying.  When he took her arm this time it was with the gentleness she'd first known, and she sat with him on the berth.

H
er hand disappeared in between his two calloused paws as he rubbed the shaking away.

"
You'd best tell me it all, aye?"

"
No!  There's no need..."

Women
… How could this chit think to share her body like that, yet keep back her speech?  "We must sort this between us.  There is much to discuss."

"
Why?  It is done!"

"
It is no' done at all.  My bairn could be on ye now."

W
as that all his fret? For the first, her answer came easily.  "Maxton will be deemed any bairn's sire," she said decisively.

"
Ye jest, surely.  He is small and fair of head and will expect his get to be likewise.  He has sons and grandsons already his image.  I would no' envy your task in explaining a lad that looks like Roddy."

S
he flinched at his truth.  There was no mistaking Roddy’s father to be a MacKrannan.

"
…And what if Maxton hears we have been abed?  Do ye no' realise the position you have put me in, Elinor?  I'm a wee bit busy to go fighting an honor duel with yer next husband, just for doing the work of yer last.  Maxton's no' the worst of it, either.  Have ye thought what the king would do to us if he found out?"

She was dumbfounded at the possible scenario, and pulled her hand away as if scalded.  But imagination was as far as it would go, surely.  No-one would ever know... would they?

She breathed deeply before saying, "The women's talk at the Swordmaker's wedding was of the MacKrannan brothers, and they said none ever talked of them afterwards.
Never.
At court or at home, my shame would be known to all within the hour."

"
Aye... well... Sir Thommas's tuition on the matter went far beyond the act.  There's none will hear it from me, lest for necessity."

"
They have already!  You spoke out in front of my guard!"

"
It bade ye come on the boat.  They heard nothing."

"
Then it is done and forgotten."

Forgotten as quick as that?
  Godsakes, he must have been well out of practise, right enough.  "There is a suspicion that something is afoot.  Many of my clansfolk could no' look me in the eye."

"
You
have
told it out!"

"
Only to my parents, for my own protection, and they would certainly say to none.  But Ginny the maid knows fine, for she is cousin to the Swordmaker’s bride who left the castle virgin."

"
That proves only that you did not perform the Lord's Right after all."

"
Ginny changed my bedsheets herself to hide the evidence while we were at Hall. 
She knows. 
Do ye think a virgin's blood on my bed is no' a recognizable sight in the wedding season?"

The woman had the grace to blush, at least.

"...And what of yer own maid?  Ye could no' have managed yer own dressing so quick without her and still reached the supper table afore me.  See, I now count six of us that know.  Nay, seven, for I cannot have Ginny keep such a secret from my steward Dougall who is betrothed to her and loyal to me.  I will tell him myself if she has no' done so already.  Plenty more will work it out for themselves."

"
I chose you for your discretion.  None will hear of this."

"
Discretion,
ye say – was that all ye knew of me?"

"
I thought a stranger the simpler arrangement.  We had yet to meet, if you recall.  I might not have liked you."

R
anald turned his head aside, sniggering at her gall.

"
I cannot think what you find amusing!" she scowled.
"I tell all this only under threat of the Scold's Bridle, and now you dare to laugh?"

"
Ach, that bridle is but an ornament.  The dairymaid that wore it died some years past and it has hung at its leisure since.  A fine deterrent, though.  There's no' been a MacKrannan woman misused her tongue in a long, long time."

The nerve of the man!
  She need have told him nothing.

"
I like you not at all for tricking me!"

"
Ye're a fine one to talk of trickery, Elinor Keirston."

In her lay a pulsing remembrance of the previous day, and a little sadness that not even such a renowned chieftain could be trusted. 
He seemed to think the deed nothing, no doubt amongst countless similar.  All he minded was knowing her reasons and keeping it secret from Maxton and the king. 

"
Have your merriment!  I care not!" she snapped.  "My affliction is now relieved, I thank you."

The captain called down that they neared
MacKrannan Castle.  Ranald took a deep breath, and the cabin seemed to fill with his massive chest and shoulders.

"
Well, lass, it matters none if you like me," he said gruffly, "As long as ye like the Earl of Maxton.  And ye've at least learned a little of what he'll expect of a woman wed three years."

"
A little?  What more is there?"

He
cocked a brow down at her puzzled stare and imagined the ways.  The lass in her innocence must think a quick coupling would be all required of her.  Ach, she'd fooled him into believing her experienced enough and could fool Maxton too, though he was not sure why it displeased him to think of her with the man.

"
Had ye stayed a while longer ye would have begun to find out," he said, turning to look out the window as the boat docked at MacKrannan harbor.  "And we seem to have a more urgent problem awaiting.  My parents are coming aboard."