Isobel frowned but nodded regardless. “I promise ye. Whatever it is, it shall stay between us.”
Elayne didn’t need any more assurances. She believed Isobel and she knew she wouldn’t give up her secrets easily.
“Well… when I found out about the marriage, I was willin’ tae dae anythin’ tae avoid it,” she said. Now that she had started talking, she found it impossible to stop, the words pouring out of her like the rain poured out of the clouds. “An’ I met this man, Dunn. He saved me life on the way tae me aunt’s an’ then I met him in a tavern when I left my aunt’s cottage. We started talkin’ an’ I… I ken it’s insane, but I asked him tae pretend tae be me husband.”
A laugh escaped Isobel, as though she believed Elayne was only jesting. When she realized she was perfectly serious, though, her laugh was cut short, her eyes widening with horror.
“What dae ye mean?” she asked. “What dae ye mean ye asked him tae pretend tae be yer husband, Elayne? What did he say?”
“He agreed,” Elayne said, much to Isobel’s growing horror. “He needed access tae the castle an’ I needed his assistance, so we decided tae work together. It was the only way I could think tae keep Laird McCoy away from me.”
For a long while, Isobel was speechless, staring at Elayne in total silence. Elayne could see the cogs of her mind turning as she mulled it all over.
“Wait… ye said that he needed access tae the castle,” Isobel said in the end. “Why?”
“He says me faither is plannin’ a war an’ he wishes tae stop it,” Elayne said.
“An’ so ye let him come tae the castle? Elayne, what if he wishes tae kill yer faither? What if he harms ye?”
“He doesnae want any o’ that,” Elayne said, waving a hand dismissively. She didn’t know Dunn that well, but she could tell he had no desire to harm her. If he did, he would have already done so. He wasn’t foolish enough to try and kill her father in his own castle, either. There was no way he could escape without being caught and hanged for it. “An’ I dinnae wish fer a war either. I’ve had enough o’ battles an’ bloodshed, Isobel. Ye’ve seen the worst o’ it. Ye’ve seen what wars dae tae people.”
Isobel couldn’t deny that. Though tending to the wounded had hardened Isobel, there was a time when Elayne would hold her in her arms late at night as she cried for all the lives she and her parents couldn’t save; all the lives that had been lost to war for no good reason.
“So what happens now?” Isobel asked after another long stretch of silence.
“Now we wait an’ see what me faither does,” said Elayne. She tried her best to push down the terror those words brought her and the nausea that came with it. For all she knew, he could decide to kill Dunn regardless and enact his plan. Perhaps he would even try to be stealthy about it, making it look like an accident. Who could blame him if Dunn fell off one of the turrets? Who could blame him if he drank too much one night and had an accident?
Even if Dunn’s brother knew the truth, even if everyone knew the truth, no one would be able to prove it.
“Who is this man ye chose?” Isobel asked. “Is he at least handsome?”
Elayne laughed despite herself. Even in her darkest moments, Isobel knew what to say to lighten the mood and help her feel better. Still, guilt gnawed at her at the thought that she had been the one to drag Dunn into all this.
“Dunn Mackintosh,” she said. “An’ aye… he is very handsome.”
CHAPTER FIVE
Elayne could taste none of the food the servants had placed in front of her. She could hardly eat it and instead she only tried to appear like she did, pushing it around idly on the plate.
Her stomach turned itself into a knot the moment she had stepped foot in the great hall. No one had told her Laird McCoy would be there. No one had warned her of his presence, and seeing him in front of her brought her to a halt just as she was entering the room, Dunn freezing right next to her.
Now they all sat around the table, Dunn next to her as her father and Laird McCoy occupied each end. Laird McCoy’s advisors sat at each side of him, all of them looking just as displeased as the man himself, while her father was flanked by his own men, all of them tense and careful. At least Blaine was there, too, a friendly face among all the people who seemed to want to have both Dunn’s head and her own.
The tension around the table was thick, the silence heavy. All Elayne could hear were the scrapes of cutlery against plates, the polite coughs of those around her. No one seemed to know what to say or how to act, the entire table trapped in a prison of politeness of their own making.
That was the case, at least, until Laird McCoy spoke.
“This matter o’ the weddin’ seems very suspicious tae me,” he said.
Elayne had feared this moment would come when people would begin to question the validity of her claims. Even she had to admit that to an outsider, it had to seem strange. Anyone who knew her would have to wonder how she had come to the decision to marry Dunn so quickly, without even getting her father’s approval, but she hoped she could chalk it up to love and a late rebellion against her father.
“What, precisely, dae ye find suspicious, Laird McCoy?” asked Dunn, swiftly coming to Elayne’s rescue. She supposed he had more to lose than she did here, but she was still grateful that he took the lead. “I dinnae see what is so suspicious about it. Like we told Laird Macgillivray, we met, we fell in love, an’ we decided tae wed. How is it any different from what every other couple does?”
“Ye hardly ken each other,” Laird McCoy pointed out. “Ye only met recently, correct?”
“Aye, but that doesnae change anythin’,” said Dunn. “Many have fallen in love quickly.”
“An’ many have fallen out o’ love just as quickly.”
