Chapter One
Sands Airgid, northern Highlands
Winter, 1463
“Ibeg youto reconsider this notion,” Miran MacKay said to her newly seated cousin, Laird Jamie. “There is nothing Kuresh can teach me. And even if there was, I refuse to learn anything from him. I find him arrogant and uncivilized.”
Jamie looked about his great hall, where only a few servants remained to clean up after the late meal. Everyone from the smallest child to his most accomplished warrior had been busy setting up his new household. Recently granted permission to establish a new branch of MacKays by his laird and cousin, Alex, Jamie had worked from sunrise to sunset, finally exhausted after filling his belly. His cherished cousin, Miran, had been tasked with accompanying his right hand, Kuresh, across the northern Highlands to recruit maids for his household.
“I gave ye an order, Miran. Twas not a mere request.”
She shook her head, anger showing on her pretty face. “Let me return to Alex’s household. At least I was happy there.”
Jamie sighed and leaned over the high table, staring down at Miran who had chosen to stand below the dais instead of sitting at her usual place of honor. “You dislike my home?Ourhome?”
She stared at the floor. “Sands Airgid is a beautiful manor house,” she assured him. “Everything is so new and elegant…”
“But?”
“I find little comfort in luxury, milord.” She gazed at him. “Ye know this of me.”
Aye, the lass had often chosen to wear rough-wool gowns instead of linen. She had chosen to live as a servant instead of the noblewoman she was born to be.
“Ye agreed to accompany us here, Miran. To shed yer old life. The same way Lady Helen and I have given up our pasts to embrace the future.”
“Aye,” she said. “But I dinna agree to accept Kuresh and everything he represents.”
“He is my captain.”
“He is a heathen.”
Jamie scratched his stubbled chin. “Ye would judge a man for his faith?”
“Did God no do the same?”
Obstinate creature!But correct. God had indeed instructed his chosen people to avoid anyone outside their faith. But those times were in the ancient past. And Kuresh… The man had served his cousin honorably and saved Lady Helen’s life. “I doona care for the stories from the Old Testament.”
Miran arched a blond brow. “Doona let the priest hear ye say that!”
“Miran.” Jamie stood and rounded the trestle table, stepping off the dais so he could speak to her on the same level. “I choose no’ to judge a man for his religion.” He rested his palm on her proud shoulder.
“Doona criticize me for having my own opinion of him.”
Because she was ruled by the rigid logic she’d inherited from her father, and emotions like her mother’s, Jamie dinna know what to say, except the hard truth. “Are ye laird of this clan?”
“Nay.”
“Do ye have the right to disobey me?”
“Nay.” Tears gathered in the corners of her eyes but dinna fall.
“Did ye swear allegiance to me? Promise to serve my wife? Did Laird Alex no agree to ye joining this new branch of the MacKays?”
“Why are ye asking me questions ye already know the answers to?”
“To make sure ye understand. Twas not a conditional arrangement. Ye have no right to flee the moment something happens ye disagree with or are afraid of.”
She wiped her eyes and sniffled. “I am tired, laird. So tired of fighting ye and everyone else who thinks they know what’s best for me. I am a lady, no? Left a substantial inheritance from my father. Enough to grant me independence if I so wish.”
