“Sheona, would you please leave us now.” It wasn’t mean to be a question, rather as much of a direct order as she’d ever been comfortable giving.
“Aye, my lady. You will let me know if you need help dressing today. Remember, now that you’re married, you must cover your hair before you come below.”
“I will remember and I will be able to manage on my own.”
Sheona left and Elspeth stared hard at Freydis. The woman had some explaining to do.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
The tension in the hall was thick enough to cut with a knife. Kenneth gripped the man who had proposed to Elspeth by the throat and Osgar was trying to hold him back.
Magnus approached and slammed his arm down across Kenneth’s forcing him to break his hold on Malcolm; the man crumpled to the floor.
“What is going on here?” Magnus asked.
Malcolm coughed and sputtered as Kenneth turned on Magnus.
“I’ll tell you what’s going on. I’m the only person in this family who has the sense and decency to keep your kind out, that’s what.”
Magnus stepped toe-to-toe and looked down at him. He would be easily bested in a fight, but something told Magnus that it wouldn’t be enough. That simply beating this man to a pulp would not change one part of his behaviour and his clear dislike of him.
“That’s a far cry from a few weeks ago when you tried to pawn your sister off on my brother. What has brought about this sudden change? Or are you running out of options to line your pockets?”
Magnus was starting to figure the man out and the extent he was willing to go to gain control over Elspeth or anyone else who could possibly help him gain power and wealth. The end result was easy to identify, but the question that remained, was why. What could turn a man so vile as to put his own family’s safety at risk?
“Magnus, you had better sit down,” Osgar said. “There’s much you do not know.”
Malcolm got to his feet and made for the door. “The king will hear of this,” he said as he left.
Giric made to go after him, but Osgar stopped him. “Let him go,” he said. “He has a right to his grievance as he has been ill used.”
Magnus had no idea what was going on and looked from one man to the other hoping someone would soon fill him in on the drama he’d obviously missed.
“Come and sit with me,” Osgar said.
“I would rather stand,” he said and crossed his arms over his chest.
“Very well,” Osgar said. “It appears my brother secured a contract sanctioned by the king for Elspeth to marry Malcolm.”
“But he had said he was offering marriage only to protect her.”
“That was part of the deal. He was not to tell her about the contract.”
“And he bailed on his oath and he will pay for it,” Kenneth said.
“That’s enough, Kenneth,” Osgar said. “You have cost this family thousands in what I will have to pay out for a dowry that was promised and a wife who is now legitimately married to another.”
“That is by your wrongdoing, not mine.”
“I said that’s enough!” Osgar looked down upon his younger brother and held his stance.
Magnus shook his head at all of them. So obsessed with money and position and power that they would be willing to trade off their family to secure it. Giric had been no different when he’d first sailed to Islay to secure arrangements with Gunnar. And Kenneth was no different now. The more he thought about it, the more it enraged him.
The fact that Kenneth had tried to work against a match between Magnus and Elspeth after trying to secure it merely proved that the man was the worst sort of opportunist. That was a well-established fact in Magnus’s mind now.
So where did that leave them? Magnus didn’t want to spend one more night anywhere close to Kenneth and he was sick to his back teeth of Freydis’ obsession with Elspeth’s gifts. He was sick of all of it.
“So what now?” Giric asked.
