“You will indeed stay here,” Jamie replied adamantly.
She glared at him. “I want the tower room repaired, Jamie!”
“Nay! Dinna force it, Sheena,” he warned her. “I’ll no’ be gossiped about as my father was whenever my mother got the sulks. I warned you ’afore there’d be no doors ’atween us.”
“You’ll sleep on the floor then!”
“I’ll sleep on the bed!”
“Then I’ll—”
“You’ll cease this blathering now!” he stormed. “I’ve said I’ll no’ bother you. Leave it be.” She seemed ready to continue shouting, and he said tiredly, “Go to sleep, lass.” He began to remove his clothes.
Sheena turned away from him and stared at the fire, still standing in the center of the room. They had both carefully refrained from mentioning the real issue. Sheena knew that if Jamie dared to try to justify his doing nothing to Black Gawain, she would say things she might regret.
Jamie wasn’t going to discuss it, he had decided. He didn’t have to explain himself to anyone. Sheena had no right to question him. If he let her sway him now on any issue, it would always be so. He couldn’t allow that. She was only a wife—albeit a beautiful, tempting curse. Be damned to her!
He lay down on the bed but couldn’t rest.
“I’ll no’ stand for this, Sheena.”
“What?” She turned to face him, and he sat up. “This anger ’atween us. This room is no place for it.”
Her eyes narrowed. “This room is theonlyplace for it!” she hissed. “Or would you rather I be telling you what I think of you in front of your kin?”
“Tell me now and get it over with,” he said, bracing himself.
“You’re a coward!” she cried. “You didna dare pass fair judgment for fear your kin would cry favoritism on my behalf. You couldna bear that, to be accused of being partial to your wife. So you did what was wrong in order to save yourself that!”
“I didna do wrong, and partiality had naught to do with it, Sheena.”
“For me, nay, but for Black Gawain it did. You canna tell me otherwise.”
“Would you rather have seen your kin forced to arms?” he asked. “The atmosphere was too heated, Sheena. My kin would never have stood for a judgment against Black Gawain. Why should they? They believed him. They would never have considered the word of a Fergusson, two Fergussons, a dozen, no’ over a MacKinnion. Too many years of hatred have made it so. They believed Gawain.”
“Nay!” she cried. “If you had waited till Iain recovered, you’d have seen his story would be the same as my kinsman’s—without Iain’s having heard it. That would have been proof. You could have waited, Jamie.”
“It is done. I canna bemoan it now.”
“You could,” she said bitterly. “But you willna because you dinna care.”
“Och, Sheena, it wouldna make any difference tochange my mind. Can you no’ see that? All that matters isfurtherbloodshed.”
“I see only that my father will never forgive you for the injustice you dealt my clan.”
“I saved them any more fighting!” he returned sharply. “Is that injustice?”
“So a Fergusson is never to be dealt with fairly? Is that what you’re telling me, Jamie?”
“Sheena, ’twill all take time. The feud is over, it ended when I made you my wife. I’ll no’ be starting it again, no matter what. In time, old grudges will be forgotten. We’ll even visit your father and make it right with him. It will just take time.”
“And what of Black Gawain?” she demanded. “Is he to get away with what he did?”
His face was set in a hard tine. “I’ve no’ said I agree with you that he’s guilty.”
“But he is!”
“Then if he is, I’ll deal with him in my own way!” Jamie replied in exasperation.
