Page 70 of Highland Jewel
Maisie didn’t need to be reminded, but she didn’t want to think of his anguished admission after Fiona’s arrest.The life I wanted to share with you was simple. Love, respect, raising a family away from the madness of wars and politics. That wasn’t too much to ask, was it?
Her heart ached as she thought of that night. Of Fiona. Of everything Niall had to go through while searching for his sister before he traveled to Dalmigavie. The life they were starting, as husband and wife, was far different from the one he’d hoped for.
“I don’t really know him, but from what you told me, he didn’t quit the king’s service to fight another war.” Morrigan cast a troubled look at her. “So, when he’s finished with this mission and he walks away, are you willing to just stop? Put this all behind you? Are you ready to become the quiet little woman, tending to his house and raising his children?”
She couldn’t stop. But she also knew that whatever it was the Mackintosh clan expected of Niall, it didn’t include retiring to some peaceful corner of the Highlands, away from the wars and politics either.
“I can do both. Niall knows that this is who I am, and he loves me. And I love him as he is. Our life will work out.”
“You think love is enough to solve your problems,” she scoffed. “Without talking plainly and honestly. How do you know if you still want the same things out of life if you don’t talk? And if you want different things, a different future, how can you rush into this marriage?”
Maisie frowned at Morrigan. She did want to know this new Niall. And hewasdifferent from the man she’d last seen in Edinburgh. He now seemed to have a curtain of mystery drawn around him. But considering the way she behaved when they reunited, she couldn’t really blame him. Even so, Morrigan was right.
“Well? What do you have to say?”
“You’re too smart. And I don’t know if I particularly like you being the voice of reason in my head.” She laid her hand flat on the table. “Perhaps I was naive before, but since that fight came to our door on Infirmary Street, I don’t feel as if we have any control of our destiny. You and I have both seen how quickly a life can be irrevocably changed. Or even snuffed out.”
“All the more reason to be honest with the people we care about in whatever time we have.”
Honesty. She was right, but Maisie wished it were that simple. Her own contribution to that conversation would be small compared with the mystery surrounding Niall.
Unanswered questions raced through her head. How was it that he’d convinced the Mackintosh leaders of his innocence? Had he lied to them? For her own peace of mind, she wanted to hear him tell her. And what were those things that Isabella and Searc asked her about this morning? Why did they want to know her whereabouts? The Mackintoshes were a secretive bunch. People didn’t gossip. At least, not with an outsider like herself.
Morrigan was again at the open window, and the breeze lifted her hair. She pulled it back, holding it at the nape of her neck. “Go find him. Have this talk.”
Sheshoulddo that. They’d started their relationship with honesty and openness. Now their lives were closed off from each other. Maisie had lived most of her life hiding. No more.
Hearing shouts in the courtyard, she got up and moved to the window, resting a hand on her friend’s shoulder as she looked out.
Niall and Cinaed were walking side by side away from the keep, heading toward the training yard. Blair,ever-vigilant, trailed them by a step, his hand on the handle of his long hunting knife.
“It appears I won’t be having that conversation this afternoon.”
CHAPTER27
The Great Hall of Dalmigavie exuded a feeling of ageless fellowship. Voices and laughter rose and fell at tables lining the high stone walls, paneled to the height of a man’s head with dark wood. Above them, five-hundred-year-old tapestries depicted companies of lords and ladies hunting and sitting in gardens amidst dogs and unicorns hung between ancient shields and swords, lances and battle-axes.
Niall stood at the doorway, waiting for Maisie to come down and join him.
Two days he’d been here, and he’d already learned that meals were a social event, attended by any and all. Smiths and stable hands and farmers, men and women and children, all gathered, and they appeared to be grateful for the open-handedness of Lachlan Mackintosh, the laird.
Niall looked across the hall. At a table on a raised dais, Cinaed sat with Isabella. He thought about the dressing down she’d given him after he’d confronted her husband at the foot of the stairwell yesterday. She was definitely Maisie’s sister. A lioness, a woman-warrior, fearless andprepared to tear him apart with her bare hands, regardless of anything he had to say. And Cinaed’s protectiveness of his wife was unmistakable.
Their kind of romantic attention and devotion was what Niall wanted in his own marriage. He and Maisie were to be wed tomorrow morning. But they’d had so little time in each other’s company in the past two days. In a way, he was thankful for it, for they’d had no time for questions and answers. He knew she must be curious, and so much had transpired behind closed doors. So far, she’d been excluded from all of it.
Last winter, she’d known him as clearly as he’d known her. But he had secrets he couldn’t divulge to her.
Approaching footsteps drew his attention, and he saw Morrigan coming toward him. They’d been briefly introduced, but he’d seen immediately that she had a distinctive personality.
The young woman paused before him. “She’s on her way.”
He nodded, relieved.
“She searched for you all day. To speak to you.”
Archibald Drummond’s daughter was blunt and protective of Maisie. Niall liked both qualities, and he was glad she would always look after Maisie. “I was out with Cinaed and Blair.”
She glanced over her shoulder. “Maisie needs to say her piece before you two stand up and take any vows tomorrow.”
