Alex’s face remained stone cold. “Have ye taken her innocence?”
Jamie fisted his hands. “Believe me when I say I wanted to—every moment of every day, she is nearly all I can think about.”
“What stopped ye?” Alex asked.
“Alex…” Keely shook her head. “Some things are not meant to be said aloud.”
“I have every right to question Jamie. Lady Helen is under my protection. What would her sire say, what would our people think if Jamie bedded her without a promise of marriage?”
“Ye think so little of me?”
“Nay! I’ve seen the way the two of ye gaze at each other. Can ye conceal the light of the sun or moon?”
Jamie smiled then. “’S ceart-leth m’ anama i.” She is the very half of my soul.
“Then go to the lady,” Alex encouraged. “Ask for her hand in marriage. I am feeling generous. I also fear once her sire receives that missive, he will come for her. If ye marry her, she has another layer of protection.”
Stunned silent, Jamie stared at his kinsman. “Weeks ago, ye told me to stay away from the lass. What has changed?”
“Ye.”
Jamie left the chamber with much on his mind. Had he really changed? Aye, he’d fallen in love for the first and last time in his life. Lady Helen had won his heart without trying. And though they had never spoken the words to each other, Jamie knew she loved him. But would she accept him as a husband and take his son as her own?
*
The Earl ofSutherland finished reading the missive his only daughter had sent. She was hiding in plain sight, as he had guessed, at the MacKay keep with Keely, the lass who had nearly become his daughter-in-law. He folded the parchment and set it on the table in his solar, then gazed across the chamber at Laird Munroe.
If he dinna need those blasted ships, he might reconsider the marriage contract. The earl refused to spend his own gold to build his own fleet. Unless… With six daughters, three of them of marriageable age… The earl’s sons were all unmarried. It had been his intention to see Helen settled first, then worry about his boys.
“Baran,” the earl said. “Come and sit with me.”
Laird Munroe stood and walked across the room. “Ye’ve heard from her.”
“How did ye know?”
“I watched ye read the missive. And the messenger, he’s a bloody MacKay. Last I heard, my nephew headed in that direction, and I’ve a growing desire to visit Laird Alex myself.”
“For what purpose?”
“Would I find her there?”
The earl took a deep breath. Perhaps he had acted too hastily in choosing the Munroe as his future son-in-law. Greed often affected the earl’s good judgement, a weakness he’d had since his youth. Baran wasna an old man by any means. He was a famed warrior with a substantial fortune and valuable lands. But the men of the isles were different; some still worshipped the pagan gods, and not in secret.
“Did ye kill yer wives?” the earl asked.
Deep lines appeared on Laird Munroe’s forehead as he formulated an answer. “I loved my first wife, Alvina, an English lass. I lost her on the birthing bed, and my only son perished with her. She left me with three young daughters. What was I supposed to do with them? I married again after I finished mourning my first wife.”
The earl propped his elbow on the edge of the table and rested his chin on his hand. “What about yer other two wives?”
“Why do ye inquire about my past now?”
The earl pushed the missive across the table. “Read it if ye wish.”
Baran picked it up. It dinna take long for him to grunt and look up at the earl. “She accuses me of many things.”
“I find there is always some measure of truth in rumors.”
Laird Munroe returned to reading, and when he was finished, he dropped the parchment on the table, looking completely disgusted. “She has nay right.”
