The “greatest hero of his race”
—I. F. Grant, on Tormod MacLeod
Dunvegan Castle, Isle of Skye,
Michaelmas, 1305
He was going to kill him. Slowly.
A sharp hush fell over the hall, like the expectant quiet following a loud crack of thunder, as the clerk finished reading the missive. The score of warriors gathered around the great hall of Dunvegan Castle stood stone still, awaiting his response. In their fierce visages he saw the outrage and shock that he shared but masked beneath a stony façade.
Alone on the dais, Tormod MacLeod, Chief of MacLeod, leaned forward in his seat, his gaze piercing the unfortunate man before him. “He did what?” The dead calm of his voice did nothing to dispel the tension.
The clerk startled, emitting what could only be described as a squeak. The missive flew out of his hand and floated through the smoky air to land on the rush-strewn floor. Tor clomped his foot down on the offending scrap of parchment. As he reached down to pick it up, beneath his heel he could just make out the familiar scrawl: Torquil MacLeod, his younger-by-two-minutes twin brother.
Barely had the fires died from the recent attack on the village, and now his brother did this? Slowly, he vowed again, crumpling the missive into a tight ball.
The clerk managed to find his voice, though it shook as he answered Tor’s question. “Y-y-your b-brother states that he cannot ab-b-ide the Nicolson chief’s refusal of his daughter’s hand in marriage and has been forced to take matters into his own hands.” The young churchman paused, wiping the sweat beading from his brow with the back of his hand. “He s-says his love—”
“Enough!” Tor’s fist landed with a resounding thud on the arm of the carved wooden throne, in a rare break of temper. His eyes blared red as rage surged through his veins. “I’ve. Heard. Enough.”
Love. Of all the most asinine justifications for acting like an idiot. He would rather Torquil use the excuse that Margaret Nicolson was a great heiress—which she was—and that he’d carried her off for the betterment of the clan; at least then Tor might attempt to comprehend this egregious lapse in judgment.
With one rash act Torquil was going to start a war, jeopardizing all that Tor had fought to achieve over the past twenty years. Twenty years ago, his clan had been on the brink of destruction—first from the massacre that had claimed the lives of many of his clansmen, including his parents, and then from years of famine. But with hard work and determination he’d brought them back. The clan was once again strong and prosperous. The last thing he wanted was to see it all destroyed by war. An odd position for a man who knew nothing else—who’d made his name and fortune from it—but his clan deserved peace and he intended to give it to them.
The recent spate of attacks was bad enough. Twice in the last year men had come at night to reive cattle, plunder the crops, and burn the fields. It was just the kind of cowardly act favored by the MacRuairis. If they’d broken the truce, Tor would make sure they paid.
But he had to deal with the more immediate threat first. Somehow he’d have to find a way to appease Nicolson and stave off a war. His mouth tightened into a grim line. He was half tempted to drag his brother in chains to Nicolson himself. That might appease him.
He’d be damned if he’d be Hector to Torquil’s lovesick Paris and allow his clan to suffer the fate of the Trojans. There were many reasons to fight a war, but a woman was not one of them.
He and his brother were much alike—or so he’d thought. Where in Hades was Torquil’s sense of duty and loyalty to his clan? He made a sound of disgust. Forgotten in the rush of blood between his legs, no doubt.
Tor forced his anger to cool. He didn’t lose control. Not that you would know it by the shaking of the obviously terrified man before him.
Tor’s gaze narrowed beneath the heavy weight of his brow, taking in the young churchman. John, he thought, was his name. The clerk wasn’t the type of man to make much of an impression. Of medium height and slight build, with straight brown hair cut in an arch around a smooth, unscarred face, and regular if nondescript features, he appeared perfectly suited to his profession. His thin arms were built for lifting a quill, not a sword.
Tor reserved his fighting for worthy opponents on the battlefield. Torquil would feel the lash of his anger, not this whelp. What satisfaction was there in stomping a mouse? Men who beat the weak—be it servants, children, or women—only shamed themselves.
As the clerk was new, Tor would forgive him the offense. This time. “Stop shaking, man,” he snapped. “I’m not going to cut out your tongue for being the bearer of ill news.”
Rather than looking reassured, however, the clerk seemed to turn an even sicklier shade of gray. Churchmen, Tor thought with disgust. For all their learning, they were delicate creatures. But he had no patience for subtlety. The clerk had best toughen his hide. And if he didn’t, he could be replaced.
“Where is my brother now?”
The clerk shook his head, his prominent Adam’s apple bobbing. “I don’t know, Chief. The messenger left before anyone could question him.”
If Torquil had one wit of sense he had taken his stolen bride and sailed to perdition—which was about the only place Tor would not follow him.
Murdoch, his henchman and captain of his guard, stepped forward, the first of his men to speak. It was not fear that kept the guardsmen silent, but respect for Tor’s judgment. Judgment he rendered alone.
“I’ll find him, ri tuath. Most likely he’ll have gone to Ireland or the Isle of Man.”
Tor had come to much the same conclusion himself. His brother—like the rest of them—had spent a large portion of the past twenty years as a gallowglass mercenary in Ireland. Sending fighting men to Ireland was one of the ways Tor had been able to restore the fortunes of his clan. He and his men knew Ireland almost as well as they knew Skye.
He nodded. “Take as many men as you need.” He gave Murdoch a meaningful look. “My brother had best hope you find him before Nicolson does.”
“And if he objects to returning?” Murdoch asked bluntly.
No one would question him if he authorized deadly force—despite Torquil’s popularity among the men. The chief’s word was law. His mouth fell in a hard line, tempted to do just that. But as always, he kept his thoughts to himself. “Tell him it’s a direct order from his chief.” Something not even his pig-headed brother would refuse.
He wished he’d thought to forbid him. After the trouble caused by their sister Muriel’s abduction, he’d assumed Torquil would know better. But he should have anticipated something when the negotiations fell through, and Nicolson announced a betrothal between his daughter and MacDougall’s son instead.
Hell. MacDougall would have to be recompensed, and knowing the greedy bastard, it was going to cost him.
Tor tossed the balled letter into the fire in the middle of the hall and dismissed the clerk with a curt wave of his hand. Though the churchman looked anxious to scamper away and retreat to the safety of his books and papers, he didn’t move—other than to shift back and forth on his feet anxiously.
The clerk’s temerity had begun to grate. “If you’ve something else to say, say it or return to your duties.”
“Yes, Chief. I’m sorry, Chief.” The clerk retrieved a folded piece of parchment from the pouch he wore tied around his brown woolen robes. “This came only a short while ago.” He handed it over to Tor for his inspection.
Tor examined the wax and took immediate note of the seal with the familiar four men in a birlinn. Angus Og MacDonald, Ri Innse Gall. He lifted a brow, amused. MacDonald was a bold one, using the old title of King of the Isles instead of Lord of Islay. A title with which King Edward just might disagree.
What did the “King of the Isles” want with him?
He broke the seal, scanned the letter, and handed it back to the young churchman. Though he could read some Gaelic, he did not have the proficiency of the clerk. Like most of the West Highland chiefs, he employed men for such tasks.
The clerk began to read. It took him a while to get through the extended greeting—Tormod son of the same, son of Leod, son of Olaf the Black, King of Man, son of Harald Hardrada, King of Norway—but eventually it became clear that MacDonald was sending out a summons to the island chiefs to attend a council at Finlaggan, his stronghold on Islay.
What wasn’t clear was why he’d summoned Tor. He didn’t answer to MacDonald. Skye had never been part of MacDonald’s dominion. Blood every bit as royal as MacDonald’s flowed through Tor’s veins. Not since his uncle Magnus, the last King of Man, had sat upon the throne had the MacLeods bowed to anyone.
Hell, Innse Gall—the Western Isles—had been part of Scotland for only forty years. Technically, he owed fealty to Edward as King of Scotland, but he’d not been called upon to give it. Nor would he.
So why would MacDonald summon him? He suspected it had something to do with the growing unrest in Scotland under King Edward’s ever-tightening grip.
The last thing Tor wanted was to be drawn into the distant squabbles of Scotland’s kings. He’d been very careful to avoid the appearance of taking sides—not just between an English king and a Scottish one but also between the MacDonalds and MacDougalls. In the Western Isles it was the struggle for power between these two branches of Somerled’s descendants that dominated the political seascape.
The clerk stopped and frowned. “There’s an additional note at the bottom written in a different hand. It reads, ‘I have a proposition for you, an opportunity you won’t want to miss.’”
Tor didn’t bite. If MacDonald thought to entice him with vagaries, he’d miscalculated. Whatever proposition Angus Og had for him, it did not interest him. He had more pressing concerns. Nicolson, for one.
He opened his mouth to instruct the clerk to pen a gracious but clear refusal when it struck him: Nicolson would be there.
Unlike the MacLeods, clan Nicolson, with their vast lands in Assynt, had been under the dominion of the King of the Isles. The Nicolson chief would answer the summons to Finlaggan, and that would give Tor an opportunity to attempt to clean up this mess before a costly war. Even if his first instinct was to fight, as chief he owed it to his clan to try to avoid it.
He relaxed back in his chair and eyed his men. “Ready the birlinns for the morrow.” One corner of his mouth lifted in a wry smile. “It seems I have been summoned.”
The clerk gave him a perplexed look, but the guardsmen chuckled, understanding the jest. If they were journeying to Finlaggan, his men knew it wasn’t because he’d been summoned.
No one made the Chief of MacLeod do anything he didn’t want to do.
Touchfaser, Stirlingshire
Christina’s breath caught, nearly causing her to choke on the sugared plum she was chewing. Her eyes flew across the page, but she couldn’t read fast enough to calm the racing of her heart.
Lancelot and Queen Guinevere had just arranged a liaison for later that night. In order to reach his love, Lancelot seizes the iron bars that block the window, bends them, and then removes them to climb through.
Iron bars! What amazing strength! She plopped another plum in her mouth, not breaking concentration for an instant. Her body tingled with restless anticipation, knowing what was about to happen next: the lovers’ tryst.
And the Queen extends her arms to him and, embracing him, presses him tightly against her bosom, drawing him into the bed beside her and showing him every possible satisfaction; her love and her heart go out to him. It is love that prompts her to treat him so; and if she feels great love for him, he feels a hundred thousand times as much for her. For there is no love at all in other hearts compared with what there is in his; in his heart love was so completely embodied that it was niggardly toward all other hearts. Now Lancelot possesses all he wants, when the Queen voluntarily seeks his company and love, and when he holds her in his arms, and she holds him in hers. Their sport is so agreeable and sweet, as they kiss and fondle each other, that in truth such a marvelous joy comes over them as was never heard or known.
Cheeks flushed, Christina closed the volume gently, leaned back against the wooden trunk that sat at the foot of her bed, and hugged the book to her chest with a deep sigh. She knew she should find it horribly wicked, but she couldn’t. It was too romantic.
She could read Chrétien’s Le Chevalier de la Charrette, “The Knight of the Cart,” over and over and never get tired of it. To think that a man could ever love her like that!
And Lancelot wasn’t just any man. He was the greatest knight in the kingdom, he was brave, gallant, and handsome, willing to do anything for the woman he loved, even putting aside chivalry—his honor and pride—by accepting the dwarf’s offer to ride in a cart, to save his lady from the evil clutches of Meleagant. For a knight to ride in a cart was a horrible humiliation. How could Guinevere not love this man who’d not only stooped so low, but also had battled for her and saved her twice?
Christina could see him, sitting atop his great warhorse, his tall, muscular warrior’s body covered in brilliant chain mail shining in the sun, the azure blue of his tabard matching the piercing blue of his eyes, which were just visible beneath the steel visor of his helm, his golden hair covered except for one errant lock that whips across his strong, handsome features as he rides across the battlefield, holding the heavy sword effortlessly in his hand, to vanquish all intent on harming his lady fair.
She sighed again, her eyes growing soft and a dreamy smile curling her mouth. Though such a scene did not take place in the book she was reading, it played over and over in her head.
Perhaps one day …
A shout from below put a harsh end to her daydreams. The romantic yearnings that filled her chest were replaced by ice-cold fear.
Father.
Surely it was too early? Her gaze shot to the small window in the small tower chamber, seeing the soft yellow and pink of the setting sun through the open shutter.
She froze. Nettles! How could she have let the day get away from her? She knew the risk. Her palm pressed reverently on the precious wooden cover wrapped in dark brown leather and secured by metal corner pieces painted to look like colored glass. The volume was her most cherished possession. And if her father caught her, her most dangerous. The memory of her father’s anger was painfully fresh. Her fingers went to the tender spot high on her cheek where the skin torn by his ring had just begun to heal. But the feeling of helplessness still lingered.
Christina had been so excited to tell him about her learning, remembering how proud he’d been of her brothers. But instead of being impressed, the man who’d become such a stranger to her had been enraged to hear that for the past three years while King Edward had held him prisoner in England, she and her sister had learned to read from the priest at the village church.
Reading would only fill their heads with ideas and distract them from their duties. An education was reserved for men and nuns.
That becoming a nun and escaping to the peace of the abbey was exactly what the girls wanted is what had earned them their beating. The beating had almost killed her sister. Beatrix was already so frail, the illnesses that had plagued her as a child having left their mark. He’d nearly finished the job when he’d forbidden them to return to the abbey. Only Christina’s promise that she would find a way for her sister to take the veil had prevented Beatrix from succumbing to hopelessness and despair. All her sister dreamed of was a life dedicated to God. The peace of the abbey called to Christina, too, but in a different way. It promised safety.
She couldn’t repress the shiver of fear. If her father discovered her reading, who knew what he’d do?
He’d become completely unpredictable, his moods swinging from cold disdain to an almost frenzied rage over the most seemingly inconsequential matter. Andrew Fraser, the former Sheriff of Stirlingshire, from the noble patriot family, once a proud and respected knight, had turned cruel with hatred. His impassioned patriotism had turned rabid in the quest to destroy Edward. It was so hard to remember the man he’d been, she wondered if she only imagined the father who’d been quick with a smile, now forgotten behind the mercurial mask.
For the last six months since his return, Christina felt as if she’d been living on the edge, in a constant state of fear. Fear that she’d say the wrong thing or appear at the wrong time. She’d learned to slink through the corridors, to hide in the shadows, and to avoid drawing attention to herself.
She forced herself to stay calm. He never came to the small chamber room in the garret that she shared with her sister and their serving woman.
Still, an abundance of caution made her hurry.
She turned onto her knees and, despite the frantic pace of her heart, carefully wrapped the precious volume in a swathe of ivory linen. The book had been a parting gift from Father Stephen. He’d assured her that despite its value, no one would miss it. Chrétien’s romances with their lustful adultery between Lancelot and Arthur’s queen had lost favor, replaced by tales of Arthur more in keeping with church doctrine.
She missed Father Stephen horribly. He’d opened up an entire new world for her.
“One day someone will see how special you are, child.” His parting words came back to her. She desperately wanted to believe him, but it was getting harder and harder in the face of her father’s cruel disregard.
For the first time in her life she’d been good at something. She couldn’t sing or play the lute, and her needlework was atrocious—all accomplishments that came so easily to her sister—but she’d learned to read and write faster than anyone Father Stephen had ever seen. Not just Latin, but Gaelic and French as well. He’d told her she had a gift that should not be wasted. He’d given her something she’d never had before: a purpose.
The lid of the wooden chest squeaked as she raised it to replace the book in its hiding place beneath a thick stack of linen towels and extra bedclothes.
Before she could close it, she startled at the sound of a splintering crash as the door to her chamber was thrown open.
Her gaze shot to the doorway and her heart crashed to the floor.
Andrew Fraser, dirty and still reeking of sweat from his day on the practice yard, stood in the doorway. Though not a tall man, he was thickly built, and in the six months since he’d returned, a single-minded determination to fight had restored most of the muscle he’d lost while imprisoned. But the other changes wrought by imprisonment were not so easy to repair. His face had aged well beyond his five and forty years, and gray had leached the brown from his hair. The broken bones and scars of battle on his face that she’d once thought so distinguished now served only to emphasize the coldness in his eyes.
Eyes that were now pinned on her with suspicion. She wanted to crawl under the bed or disappear into the woodwork, but there was nowhere to hide.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
He can’t find the book. A cold trickle of fear dripped down her spine, but she forced herself to calm. Like any predator, he would smell it. Instead, she stood up slowly and shook out her skirts with apparent disconcern, but her knees were shaking. She forced herself to meet his gaze. “Putting away some clothing that has just been cleaned and folded. Was there something you wanted?” She winced inwardly; even her voice had turned weak and submissive.
“Where is your sister?”
Her heart jumped. “Beatrix?” she squeaked, the high pitch completely erasing the attempt at nonchalance.
His face turned a splotchy, angry red. He took a step toward her, and instinctively she cowered. “Of course, Beatrix, you stupid girl. What other sister do you have?”
Christina cursed her fair skin. She could feel the heat of panic rising up her cheeks. “I’m-m s-sure she’s in the kitchens,” she stumbled out.
Please don’t let her be where I think she is. Beatrix tried to hide it from her, but Christina suspected her sister still snuck away to the abbey when she could. The call to God was stronger than the reality of their father’s iron fist.
He took another step toward her, his expression no longer simply angry but menacing. “You’re lying,” he growled, grabbing her by the arm. His strong fingers tightened around her like a steel clamp.
Her heart fluttered wildly. Fear clutched her throat. Out of the corner of her eye she could see his other hand lift. Her insides curled. She tried to pull away. “Please, don’t—”
“Where is she?” he demanded, giving her a violent shake.
The last shard of sun from the fading daylight caught the gold of his ring on his open hand. No! She turned her face away, anticipating the strike. Tears blurred her eyes. “I don’t know,” she sobbed, hating this feeling of helplessness. Hating that she could be reduced to a trembling mass in a matter of moments by a man she’d once revered.
“Here she is, Father.”
The sound of her brother’s voice filled her with relief. At eight and ten, three years her junior, Alex already showed incredible promise on the battlefield. He was also the one bright light in her father’s dark existence. Her three other brothers were too young, still away being fostered, but in Alex he saw something special.
“Beatrix was down in the kitchens, helping to ready the evening meal,” Alex said, his smooth, easygoing voice having the intended effect of soothing her father’s violent temper.
Alex had been home for only a few weeks, but Christina knew they’d found an ally. He would protect them as much as he could. If only he weren’t so young.
Her father released her arm, enabling Christina to see Beatrix slide past Alex and step into the room.
Christina nearly sighed with relief to see her.
Her sister stood before their father like a penitent, hands crossed before her and head bowed beneath a long, pale-blue veil secured by a circlet of gold. Tall and feathery thin, Beatrix’s delicate features looked as if they’d been carved from the finest marble—except for the yellowish brown shadows marring her cheek. The sight of them filled Christina with rage. How could he hit her? How could anyone strike someone so lovely? It wasn’t just her sister’s angelic face, but the beauty inside. She was innocent. Pure. And achingly fragile.
“You wished to see me, Father?” Beatrix asked, keeping her eyes lowered. Even her voiced sounded like an angel’s, soft and musical, with an ethereal breathiness.
But her sister’s sweetness seemed only to further annoy her father, as if he couldn’t believe such weakness came from him. “Pack your things.” He looked to Christina almost as an afterthought. “Yours as well. We leave on the morrow.”
“Leave?” Christina repeated, dumbfounded. “But where are we going?”
Her father’s gaze hardened at the impertinence. They were to follow orders, not question them. Thus, she was surprised when he answered her. “Finlaggan Castle on Islay.”
She would have been less shocked if he’d said London.
It took even Alex aback. “The Western Isles?”
It was like another world. Barbarian lands, full of … well, barbarians. Ferocious warlords and Norse-blooded pirates who ruled over the western seaboard with virtually unfettered authority. It must have been the sheer shock that gave Christina the courage to ask, “But whatever for?”
Her father’s hard, black gaze narrowed on her menacingly, as if he’d like nothing more than to grind her under his heel. So when he smiled instead of striking her, she knew the answer was going to be bad. Very bad.
“To forge an alliance.”
“But why do you need us?” Christina was surprised to hear her sister’s voice. Beatrix rarely found the courage to address their father directly.
“Why do you think?” he challenged. “One of you will marry him.”
The three siblings gasped in unison. Marriage? To some brutish warlord? God have mercy! The color drained from Christina’s face. She shook her head mutely; she couldn’t do it.
Her father drew up as if he intended to inform her otherwise, but then apparently reconsidered. “It will probably be Beatrix because she is the elder.”
A wave of relief swelled over her. Thank God.
Then she looked at her sister.
“No,” Beatrix whispered, terror choking her voice. She started to swoon, but Alex caught her around her tiny waist and held her against him.
Something twisted in Christina’s chest seeing them like that, her frail, innocent sister sagging against a big, mail-clad warrior. Though still young, Alex was dark-haired like her, but tall and broad-shouldered. Next to him, Beatrix looked painfully vulnerable. Like a butterfly in an iron claw.
Beatrix would die under some vile brute. Christina knew it with certainty that could not be avoided.
Without thinking, Christina stepped forward. Her stomach tossed, but she fought back the panic. “No, Father. I’ll do it. I’ll marry him.”
Her father looked back and forth between the two girls, appraising them as if they were two horses at market. For once he seemed pleased with what he saw. “You’ll both come, and he will choose which of you pleases him more.”
Without another word he turned on his heel and left the room, leaving both girls reeling in his wake.
Christina grabbed the wooden bedpost to steady herself. Beatrix was still plastered to her brother’s side like a floppy poppet of rags. Alex stroked her head as she wept softly against his shoulder.
Over their sister’s veiled head, their eyes met. Christina read the compassion in her brother’s gaze. They both knew he could do nothing to stop their father. That the girls had not been betrothed before this was only because their father had been imprisoned and King Edward had not gotten to them yet. Marriage was what was expected of them. She’d known it. Ignored it, perhaps, but in the back of her mind she always knew this day would come.
A vision of Lancelot sprang to mind before she quickly forced it back. Only a dream. But never could she have anticipated this.
“Maybe he won’t want either of us?” she ventured hopefully.
The look of compassion only deepened. Alex shook his head as if she were sadly deluded. “I very much doubt that, sister. You and Beatrix, well,” he paused uncomfortably. “You are very beautiful. In different ways, perhaps, but equally exquisite. Beatrix looks like an angel and you …” His cheeks reddened. “You don’t.”
It should be a wicked thing to say, but he made it sound as if it were just the opposite. Her brows wrinkled together. “I don’t understand?”
Alex grimaced, looking as if he’d rather be doing anything other than talking about this. “It’s your mouth and eyes.”
“What’s the matter with them?” Her eyes were maybe a little slanted and her mouth perhaps a tad wide, but she didn’t realize that something was so horribly wrong.
He made a sound of exasperation. “Nothing. It’s just I’ve heard men say it makes them think of sin.”
Her eyes widened, and self-consciously she covered her mouth with her hand. “Really? How awful!”
He nodded solemnly. “I’m afraid so. Between the two of you, the man is going to be hard pressed to choose.”
Beatrix’s soft whimpering was the only sound that could be heard in the forlorn silence that followed. The dread of inevitability settled over her, but Christina knew what she had to do. Beatrix might be the elder by a year, but Christina had always taken care of her, and she would continue to do so.
She swallowed the lump of fear knotted in her throat. She would just have to make sure that if it came down to it, the vile brute chose her.