Page 73 of The Wrong Bride
But through it all, she thought about Hugh’s accusations against his mother, and she had to know more details. Dancing around the issue would take too much time, and Hugh could be home at any moment.
“Lady McCallum, I’ve been talking to Hugh about Agnes.”
Maggie’s head lifted from her sewing in surprise. Lady McCallum’s pale face grew even whiter. The older woman gazed helplessly at Riona as if needing her silence.
The whole family had all been silent too long.
“The groom you met—Brendan?” Riona said. “She was his mother.”
Maggie watched Riona cautiously. “The groom who looks like Hugh.”
“He’s not Hugh’s son,” Riona said. “Maggie, you know that Brendan is your brother. Hugh finally told me.”
Maggie winced and glanced at Lady McCallum with worry.
“Your mother already knows,” Riona explained. “Don’t you, my lady?”
Lady McCallum’s sewing dropped into her lap, and she put a trembling hand to her mouth.
“Mother—” Maggie began, then had to swallow. “Hugh told me never to speak of it, even to you. I’m so sorry that Father hurt ye this way.”
“He hurt all of you,” Riona said. “He let everyone believe Hugh was the boy’s father, yet when Hugh wanted to marry Agnes, your father forbade it, because of me—because of the contract,” she amended. Sometimes it seemed so real thatsheshould be Hugh’s bride.
Maggie lifted both hands. “What else could Hugh have done? He couldn’t break the contract.”
“Of course not. And Hugh feels guilty enough about that. But does he also have to bear the sins of his father, who let the entire clan think his sonfostered a bastard on an innocent young girl rather than admit that he himself had raped her?”
Lady McCallum gave a little scream at that horrible word. Even Maggie blanched.
“And it’s not ending,” Riona continued. “This ugly secret could poison Hugh’s relationship with the whole clan. Lady McCallum, your husband is dead now and can’t hurt anyone else in the clan—including you. Can you not speak out in your son’s defense? Agnes—and maybe other women—suffered, and we can’t change that. But hasn’t Hugh suffered long enough?”
Lady McCallum put her face into her hands and wept. Maggie wiped her own eyes, but didn’t go to her mother, just stared at her, waiting, but Lady McCallum didn’t speak.
“I heard other things I wasn’t supposed to,” Maggie finally said, her voice a hoarse whisper. “I wasn’t here much, so people didn’t know me, even forgot about me when I was near and spoke plainly. I heard . . . I heard a village girl hung herself because of my father.”
Riona held her breath, and for a moment, all that could be heard were Lady McCallum’s wrenching sobs. Maggie’s strangely colored eyes glimmered in the candlelight, and outside the wind slammed a shutter somewhere in the castle below.
“I didn’t want to believe it,” Maggie added woodenly. “I knew he drank, that he could be loud and lose his temper, but I didn’t know what—a man could do to a woman that would make her kill herself. I made myself stop thinking about it.”
Riona reached to clasp Maggie’s hand. “There was nothing you could have done.”
“I can do something now. I just remembered—they said . . . they said she had a sister, too.”
She didn’t meet Riona’s eyes as she said this, and Riona assumed it was out of misplaced guilt.
“I need to find this girl,” Riona said, feeling renewed determination surge up inside her. “If she would speak up, we’d have proof of what your father was capable of. Then we could tell the truth about Agnes and the clan would surely believe us.” If she could make just this part of Hugh’s life better, she would feel some sort of solace when she was gone. “Do you know her name?”
Maggie shook her head.
“I do,” said Lady McCallum, her eyes wide and stark with fear.
CHAPTER 20
After a day spent traveling, and then dealing with stubborn cattle in fear of their life, Hugh was grateful for a hot bath before supper. He could have wished for Riona to attend him, but since he still had to maneuver to make that happen, he hadn’t been hopeful. He wasn’t even certain where she was, since he’d seen his mother and Maggie in the great hall when he’d arrived, but not Riona.
Still, he felt satisfied with his progress with the clan. He’d renewed ties with a dozen chieftains and gentlemen who’d known him only by his youthful reputation. He felt he’d strengthened their confidence, and had known they’d been impressed with Riona. For a woman who was still reluctant to marry him, she presented only a dignified, sweet countenance to the world.
Just not to him. But that was all right—he preferred her fiery and stubborn.
