“We will speak in private,” she told him.
“’Tis a most generous offer, sir,” the laird of Rath said to Matthew Ferguson. “My wife and I will consider it. We will gie ye our answer in due time.”
“I am satisfied to await yer answer,” Matthew responded politely.
“Well, I am nae satisfied!” Agnes said.
“Be quiet, daughter!” the laird of Rath snapped.
“Aggie, do gie over, and cease yer turmoil,” Annabella chided her sibling. “Ye’re tired, overexcited by this long day and our parents’ arrival. Ye hae our permission to seek yer bed, dearest.”
“Aye, Agnes,” the earl spoke up, backing his wife’s decision. “Go and rest, lass.”
Agnes Baird looked briefly as if she were going to cry, but then she turned, running from the hall. When Matthew made to follow, his brother bade him remain. The laird of Rath was pleased by the firm hand with which the earl ruled his household and his lands. He spent many a pleasant hour in the weeks that followed in Angus Ferguson’s company, coming to like his son-in-law better and better with each passing day. And the lady Anne’s previous concerns of sorcery were erased entirely. Both parents were touched by the devotion between their daughter and her husband.
When November was half-gone, the matter of Agnes Baird’s betrothal came to the forefront once again. The laird of Rath was willing to accept Matthew Ferguson’s proposal for his daughter’s hand, but both Annabella and her mother felt that Agnes had to be allowed to make the choice to wed him or not.
“I’ll nae return to Rath,” Agnes said stubbornly.
“The scandal over yer sister has long died,” the laird told her.
“And there are several fine young men seeking wives,” the lady Anne added. “There are Bobby Lindsay, Ian Scott, Alexander Bruce, Jamie Elliot, and several of our Hamilton cousins who look most favorably upon ye, Agnes.”
“But I like it here at Duin. As for the swains ye offer me, Mam, Bobby Lindsay has a nose like a turnip! I’m taller than Jamie Elliot, and he stammers every time he looks at me. I thought Alex Bruce was to wed Mary Douglas. If that light-skirt cried off I certainly wouldn’t want him. As for Ian Scott, he has a face full of pockmarks, and lips that are much too big. He always looks like a salmon gasping for air.”
“What of our Hamilton cousins?” Annabella said sweetly.
“Never! They may be our kin, but one of their ilk stole my sister’s laddie. I’ll hae nothing to do wi’ any of them,” Agnes said angrily.
“Ye’re getting a bit long in the tooth for us to marry ye off well,” the laird noted.
“Annabella was twenty when she wed Angus!” Agnes snapped. “I’ll just be seventeen next month, Da. I certainly hae time.”
“Yer brother will nae take a wife until all of his sisters are wed and gone,” the laird told her.
Agnes laughed. “’Tis but an excuse for Rob to play the tomcat, Da.”
“ ’Tis yer brother who will inherit Rath one day. It is important we find him the best match, which we canna if I must worry about ye. Besides, I want to see another heir before I die. I’m nae a lad, daughter.”
“Bah!” Agnes laughed again. “Ye’re nae old, Da.”
The laird sighed. No one knew how to irritate him more than his youngest daughter. “I canna hae ye causing a calumny like yer sister,” he told her. “There is a certain willfulness in ye, Agnes. What respectable family will gie us a well-dowered daughter for yer brother if ours is considered a scandalous household? Ye’ll settle on a husband here or I’ll take ye home and pick a man for ye,” Robert Baird threatened her. “Yer mam was fifteen when she wed me. Seventeen is nae too young to marry.”
Agnes burst into tears, sobbing piteously, but her father was not moved.
Annabella put a comforting arm about her little sister. “Why will ye nae accept Matthew when I believe that ye love him, Aggie?”
“He doesna love me! He has nae said it! He never asks. He only tells me what I am going to do! I’m nae his servant!” Agnes said.
Blessed Mother!Why was it that beautiful girls thought they could have their way in everything? But Agnes was correct in one thing: Matthew was too bossy and set in his ways. But it would be up to Aggie to change that. No one else could do it for her. Annabella sighed. “Ye hae to tell him,” she advised Agnes. “If ye care enough for him ye canna refuse him. I dinna want ye unhappy, Aggie, but I do believe ye care.”
“He is the only man who can make me angry,” Agnes said slowly, “but he also makes me happy,” she admitted. “And he is so very handsome. Not as handsome as the earl, but handsome enough to make me the envy of many a woman in the borders when I become his wife. But I’ve been so mean, Annabella. Will his offer to Da still stand?”
“We’ll only know that if Da gives him an answer,” Annabella said.
Agnes looked up at her father. “I’ll wed him, Da.”
“Good!” Robert Baird said. “I’ll be glad to hae this drama over and done wi’.”
