By the time the priest had guided them all to a private chamber set back from the nave and they’d been seated around a small circular table, anxiety gnawed viciously in Anna’s stomach.

What could Graeme possibly have in mind? His knee brushed hers beneath the table and he gave her a reassuring look before turning his attention to Laird Munro and Jerome.

“As ye said, Laird Munro, the alliance between yer clan and the Rosses has long been stable,” he began.

“Aye,” Laird Munro said cautiously. “Though in uncertain times like these, an alliance can never be too strong.”

“Yer main concern is the Mackenzies, is it no’?” Graeme went on. “Both ye and the Rosses share a border with them, and they are a large and powerful clan.”

Laird Munro nodded once, his brows drawn together.

“The MacKays have lands that border the Mackenzies as well,” Graeme said. “But we worry less about them because of our alliance with the Sutherlands.”

“And the Rosses dinnae like the Sutherlands, so the Rosses dinnae like the MacKays, and therefore the Munros, who like the Rosses, dinnae like the MacKays either, and on and on,” Laird Munro finished, a frown on his face. “I ken all this, lad. What is yer point?”

Graeme leaned forward, propping his elbows on the little wooden table. “My point is, Laird, we are all Highlanders united behind Robert the Bruce and the cause for freedom.”

He turned to Anna and surprised her by taking her hand. “Anna reminded me of that,” he said, his gaze soft on her for a moment before he went on. “We’ve come together before—to join our forces for the Bruce’s cause. Is it no’ madness that we should continue this endless clan squabbling when we have been fighting and dying alongside one another on the battlefield against the English?”

Graeme’s attention shifted to Jerome. “Just this past April, I was part of the King’s siege on Berwick Castle. I fought alongside a Munro. When I took an arrow to the leg, he dragged me to cover. If it wasnae for him, I’d have been turned into a MacKay pin-pillow by the English archers, and my bones would be buried outside Berwick’s wall right now.”

Anna’s hand tightened on Graeme’s as he continued. “I also fought beside a Sutherland, and a Ross, and a Mackenzie, as well as a MacLeod and other MacKays. Dinnae ye see? We are on the same side for once in our bloody lives. This in-fighting needs to stop before we make complete arses of ourselves and do something irreversible.”

Laird Munro blinked at Graeme’s bluntness. Jerome remained silent, watching Graeme closely, though the suspicion and anger narrowing his eyes earlier had eased slightly.

The Laird brought a hand up to the graying beard on his chin. “I hear what ye are saying, lad,” he murmured. “Truth be told, that is the verra reason the Bruce called me to Lochmaben. He hopes that the Highland clans can find a way to expend less energy on our feuds so that we can face the English in a united front. We’d all hoped the war would be over with the Battle of Bannockburn, but it looks as though freedom will come slow and hard-fought.”

Graeme nodded. “Aye, exactly. The King needs our best if we ever hope to defeat the English once and for all, no’ all this squabbling and fighting over a dozen sheep here and there.”

“Or a thwarted marriage alliance?” Jerome asked quietly, lifting a dark brow. “Some of our feuds are petty, aye, but others have run in our blood for centuries.”

“Do ye want yer bairns fighting the same wars as ye, Jerome?” Graeme murmured. “Or yer grand-bairns? I dinnae.”

He looked at Anna again, and her pulse quickened. It felt as though they were teetering on a blade’s edge.

On one side lay the familiar ways of doing things—feuds, squabbles, and long-standing tensions. If their people could not learn to get along, it wouldn’t matter if the Pope himself blessed Graeme and Anna’s union, and all this would be for naught.

On the other side, however, lay a future where they could live and love whom they wanted, and mayhap even find a greater strength in their unity than they ever had apart.

“Aye, our feuds run deep, but someone has to end them. Someone has to be willing to be the first,” Graeme said quietly. “And I propose that we be those people.”

“What are ye suggesting?” Laird Munro asked.

“That the MacKays, Munros, and Rosses all form an alliance,” Graeme replied, squaring his shoulders. “My marriage to Anna will go a long way to unite our two clans. And with the Munros so close to the Rosses, yer clan would be a natural friend of the MacKays as well, Laird. Together, we’d have far greater leverage and bargaining power when it comes to dealing with the likes of the Mackenzies. Who kens, mayhap this will even ease tensions between the Rosses and the Sutherlands, what with the MacKays as a common ally.”

Laird Munro considered this for a long time until Anna feared that he wouldn’t even dignify such an idea with a response. At last, though, he spoke.

“Such talk is all well and good when it is just that—talk. But how do ye hope to bring this all to fruition, lad? To speak plainly, ye are neither a Laird nor the son of a Laird. What sway do ye have over such dealings?”

“I may no’ be in a position of power myself. But as ye say, the King himself wishes for such alliances amongst the Highland clans,” Graeme said. “My cousin, Colin MacKay, has worked closely with the King in his Bodyguard Corps, and I was set to join him in the Corps before…well, before I made a mess of things with this mission.”

Graeme let out a breath that was half-mirth, half-desperation. “Even if I am no longer welcome in the Corps after…all this,” he waved a hand to encompass Anna, the abbey, Jerome, and Laird Munro, “Colin still has the King’s ear. I have every faith that if it meant peace in the Highlands, the Bruce would direct Colin to speak with Laird Iye MacKay about an alliance treaty between our three clans.”

Jerome leaned back in his chair then, and to Anna’s shock, he actually wore a look of respect on his normally hard-set features.

Laird Munro began to nod slowly. “I believe—as does the King—that it is past time we put aside these petty differences and come together as Highlanders.”

He stood slowly, and Graeme and Jerome followed suit. The Laird extended his hand toward Graeme. “For peace.”

Graeme took Laird Munro’s hand in a firm forearm shake.

“For peace.”