Page 103 of Highlanders for the Holidays
Chapter 10
What reason couldAlexander have for inviting Lily to their private conference? Roderick did not like it. He glanced at Lily as they followed the guard. She looked far too fetching in that gown. Though it was simple, the color showed off her red hair, and it did not hide her womanly shape.
He wished he had left her dressed as a lad.
Most chieftains had numerous women—wives, mistresses, and occasional bedmates. Alexander, however, had set aside his “church wife” to wed a woman whose beauty would long be remembered in song, and by all accounts he was devoted to her. He had even ignored an edict from the Pope to cease cohabiting with her and return to his church wife.
But Alexander’s wife was not on the Isle of Islay tonight.
A short time later, they stood before the door to the Lord of the Isles’ private solar.
“Saynothing,” Roderick hissed at Lily as the guards opened the door.
“How did ye find the Douglas chieftain?” Alexander asked after they exchanged formal greetings.
“Just as I expected,” Roderick said. “Conniving and untrustworthy.”
Alexander chuckled. “I’ll not trust him either, cousin, except when our interests coincide.”
“The Douglas gave me a reply to carry back to you,” Roderick said, and waited for his chieftain to signal for him to approach. The warrior who always stood guard behind the chieftain’s chair knew Roderick’s loyalty, but protocols that served to protect the Lord of the Isles must be followed.
“I’ll have my scribe read it to me later,” Alexander said, and passed the missive to his clerk, a tall, stoop-shouldered man in churchman’s robes who stood unobtrusively to one side.
Roderick was a trifle annoyed that his chieftain showed so little interest in a message he had traveled across the Lowlands to bring to him.
“Your grandmother told me that the Douglas chieftain would propose I join him in rebellion against the crown,” Alexander said. “He suggests we ally ourselves with the English.”
“The English!” Roderick was about to give his chieftain his opinion in a string of curses, but he stopped short when he realized Alexander had turned his gaze on Lily.
“I can use his message against him should I need it.” Alexander dismissed the traitorous proposal with a wave of his hand and leaned forward. “So this is the lass.”
“My lord?” Roderick asked, with a sense of impending doom.
“The one your grandmother foretold.”
His grandmother had told Alexander? Roderick started to sweat. “My grandmother often speaks in riddles. Who knows what she meant?”
“She told me quite plainly that if I sent ye, you’d return with a lass,” the chieftain said. “And so ye have.”
Ach, he should have left Lily in the village.
“’Tis fortunate Roderick has brought ye to live among us,” Alexander said, speaking directly to Lily. “The clan needs ye, lass, and I welcome ye as one of us.”
Praise God Lily could not understand a word they were saying.
“What does he say?” she whispered, turning wide eyes on him.
“He welcomes ye,” Roderick said. “That’s the sum of it.”
Lily gave Alexander a lovely smile and dipped a curtsey.
Alexander turned back to him. “Have ye made your pledges yet?”
The blood drained from Roderick’s head. “Pledges?” he choked out. “Lily and me?”
“So ye haven’t,” the Lord said, narrowing his eyes at him. “I wish it to be done and soon.”
“But why?” he said. “I was only to bring her back with me.”
