“Bah,” Arlan huffed. “You like it rough. Why else would you flaunt yourself before four men? You begged for it.”
“She didn’t want it six years ago,” Alexander spoke over Arlan’s rants. He and Magnus pushed their way forward. The men glanced at Cairstine, and when she nodded, Alexander continued. “Magnus and I were returning from hunting when we heard a woman’s screams. When we found her, it was Lady Cairstine. She was being held down by the same men standing here. I pulled Arlan off her.”
“Lady Cairstine’s guard arrived just as I helped her to her feet,” Magnus explained. “I swung a few punches along with Alex, then they ran off. Cowards. Only willing to go after those who are smaller than them.”
“If she didn’t want it, then why was she walking in the woods alone?” the Mackay guard asked.
“You will be silent, Niels, or I will cut your tongue out myself,” Tristan Mackay barked. “I have already made my decision aboot you. You’d best hope your mother’s people take you because you’re done being a Mackay. Go be with the Gunns if that’s who you’re loyal to. Step foot on my land again, and I will kill you.”
Tristan Mackay had been forced to witness men attempting to assault Mairghread. It was common knowledge that he offered no forgiveness to any man who abused a woman. Cairstine could see he was holding Mairghread—who had a dirk in her hand—back from attacking Niels and the three men. Alexander and Magnus crossed their arms and stood with their feet hip-width apart while Callum, Tavish, and Liam came to stand behind them. The Sinclairs were easy to identify because the five men had the same stance, creating a mountain of muscle. Alexander squinted, “Are you questioning my honor?”
It was as if every person in the Great Hall took a step backward. The five Sinclair siblings were the king’s and queen’s godchildren, and the family was said to have more loyalty and integrity in their little fingers than all other Scots combined. Niels clamped his mouth shut. He’d already earned the ire of his laird; he didn’t wish to die that day. Unfortunately, Arlan wasn’t so wise.
“Niels is right. If she wasn’t looking for company, why was she walking alone?” Arlan sneered. Alex took a step forward.
“Mother, did I go for a walk alone?” Cairstine’s voice rang clearly once again.
“Nay. You weren’t feeling well, so you were returning to the keep,” Davina explained.
“Then how’d she end up in the woods?” Arlan gloated.
“You pulled me in there,” Cairstine snapped. “I walked around the edge of the market because it was too busy to walk through the center. I was trying to find my guard when you wrapped your arm around me, just like you did tonight. Then you dragged me into the woods and threw me to the ground, just like you did in the orchard tonight. Those three,” Cairstine pointed to the men who’d helped accost her. “Were with you then just like they were tonight, pinning me to the ground. If I went willingly, why is my sister holding one of my shoes? Why will you find my other one at the entrance to the gardens? Why would I leave them behind, other than to be found?”
“The whore—” Arlan began.
Eoin couldn’t bear the scene any longer. Cairstine was trembling and needed her split lip and bruises seen to, and she needed privacy so every clan in the Highlands wasn’t gawking at her as she barely held her gown closed. He interrupted Arlan, his tone hard enough to bend steel. “I challenge you to single combat.”
“Wait a moment,” Farlane intervened on his son’s behalf. “There is no need for that. I will handle this situation with my son, and my clan will leave.”
“I am laird here,” Edward shoved Arlan toward his father. “As such, I am the law on this land. Not only will your clan leave by sunset tomorrow, my son-by-marriage is well within his rights to challenge your dung heap of a son. Attempt to slip away, and you and your son will find your accommodations have been moved to my dungeon.”
“Sunrise, the lists,” Eoin announced. “Fail to show, and I will hunt you down.” Eoin didn’t wait for a response. He swept Cairstine into his arms and marched to the stairs. Neither looked back as they made their way to their chamber.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Eoin helped Cairstine with her bath and was slipping a fresh chemise on her when Davina and Fenella knocked at the door. They explained that Edward was meeting with the other lairds to discuss the brawl and the upcoming challenge. Davina assured Eoin and Cairstine that bad blood had been put aside to support Eoin’s right to defend her. Cairstine’s appearance and story angered the majority, and many irate husbands and fathers from various clans offered to stand alongside Eoin. It took Davina and Fenella longer than they intended to make it abovestairs because so many women stopped them to ask what they could do to help Cairstine.
If her body weren’t in so much pain, Cairstine would have appreciated the rally cry that went up among the clans to defend her honor. When she heard how people responded, she wondered just how much of a mess she looked. She swiped the ruined gown from the floor and held it up before her as she peered in to the looking glass. She gasped and dropped the gown when she saw her bruised face. The injuries were worse than she’d thought. She hadn’t felt the scratches and bruises while she was fighting nor when she stood in the Great Hall, but now that the initial terror had worn off, she ached all over and was bone-weary. Eoin was about to ask the women to leave when Edward knocked and opened the door a crack. Cairstine bade him to enter, and he eased her into his embrace. He kissed the top of her head and clung to her as much as she clung to him.
“Ma wee, wee lassie,” Edward murmured over and over as tears filled the normally stoic man’s eyes. Davina came to stand with Edward when Cairstine moved back to Eoin’s side. The laird wrapped his arms around his wife as they watched Eoin tend to Cairstine’s face. When Eoin finished cleaning the cuts with witch hazel and put salve on them and the bruises, Davina spoke up.
“Is this why you refused to marry?” Davina whispered, tears still streaming down her cheeks.
Cairstine nodded. “I thought they’d done worse than just pin me down. I couldn’t risk a groom discovering I wasn’t a maiden. I feared what would happen to me and to our clan.” Cairstine turned to Eoin, crumbling against his chest. “Tell them.”
Eoin inhaled and held his breath for a moment before picking up Cairstine’s story. “Cairstine was mistaken aboot what happened that day in the woods. They attacked her and hurt her, but they didn’t steal her innocence like Cairstine believed. The pain—well—she—” Eoin couldn’t bring himself to say it, but he knew Davina, Edward, and Fenella understood him. “She feared the disgrace if you found out, the disappointment she was certain you would feel, and she feared what would happen to her if you learned of it. But more than aught, she feared being forced into bed with a mon.”
Cairstine stood with her face pressed against Eoin’s chest, listening to him retell her story because she was still too scared to look at her parents. Davina and Edward exchanged a look before Edward stepped forward. He reached out his palm and waited for his elder daughter to place her hand within his.
“You feared my punishment because you believed I would blame you,” Edward sighed. “Lass, there are evil men in this world who do evil things to women because they can, or at least they think they can. But you are my daughter and an honorable lass. You have been so your entire life, so it pains me deeply that you feared me too much to come to me. I suspect you believed I would do far worse than just send you to a convent. It pains me that you have harbored that despair for so long. I am a faithful mon, but I am not without a heart. A wise young mon warned me that I should have told you much sooner how I feel, but hopefully it’s not too late. Cair, I love you, and that will never ever change. I should have said it sooner, and often. I’m sorry that I raised you to think I wouldn’t defend your honor, that I would assume you were the guilty party.”
Cairstine listened to her father’s confession, and her heart broke for the years of resistance and resentment she’d felt because she hadn’t been forthcoming with her parents. She could have saved herself the trouble of cultivating her reputation, she could have saved the other ladies-in-waiting from enduring her malicious words. She would change so many of the things she had done out of fear. But she knew that without those events, those mistakes, she wouldn’t be standing with Eoin as her husband. She would never have fallen in love with him and he with her. No other man could have helped her find the strength to move past what happened that fateful day.
“Mo ghruagach, I should have known something happened. You changed, but I was never sure why.” Davina stroked Cairstine’s back, and she twisted into her mother’s arms. It was the only place she’d felt safe before Eoin. “I wondered if something happened once I saw how Eoin protects you and cares for you. But I couldn’t bring myself to ask for fear of what you would say. I was a coward not to help you. And I should have protected you better that day. I should have insisted you wait until Bram was at your side, or your sister and I should have gone back with you. It was my decision that put you in that position.”
“No, Mama. You didn’t cause this any more than I did. Those men did this. How could you have known? We were on our own land, at our own home. I wished I’d told you and Father the truth. There were so many opportunities to tell you, but if I had, then there would have been no reason to travel with Eoin, and I never would have fallen in love with him. Out of all of this, Eoin has been the one blessing. I thought I was broken, a failure, because I couldn’t move beyond the past, but Eoin stood beside me.”
Cairstine reached out her hand to Eoin and stepped back from Davina, clasping the older woman’s hand. She stood between her past and her future, and she felt loved and cherished by both. She looked back at Eoin, who nodded. If everything was being laid bare, then they had to tell her family the truth.
