Page 9 of When a Scot Gives His Heart
Two
Callum stepped into the inner courtyard of Urquhart Castle, the Clan Grant stronghold and his home. He swept his gaze around the courtyard, noting the Grant flags flapping in the wind. They were tattered from three long years of sieges by the MacDonald clan, as well as the Gordon clan. The flags were not the only battered parts of his home, though. The land to the west that had once been rich and green for sheep to feed was now bare from the constant galloping of war horses. The stone walls of the towers had chinks in them from the catapults used to try to breach the castle, and the defensive walls were peppered with large dents from the battering rams. In some places, the light of day even shone through. The walls needed to be repaired, but that required coin, and he had precious little of it.
Callum rolled his shoulders in an attempt to alleviate the knots that seemed to be a permanent part of his body. The roaring din of his clansman chattering as they proceeded from the castle, woods, and courtyard to the shore of Loch Ness below was a swift reminder that these people relied upon him for protection. The task was a great one, especially given the number of good warriors they had lost in battle over the past three years. He scanned the water of the loch, which shimmered almost silver in the bright sun, and his chest tightened as his gaze settled on the incoming birlinn carrying the Earl of Ainsworth to Urquhart.
“Callum, I hope ye remember well what has happened to us because ye broke yer vow to wed Edina Gordon,” his mother said, coming up beside him with his younger brother, Brice. Callum stilled. He’d long ago accepted it as his due penance to be reminded daily that his actions had plunged his clan into war, a war that had gotten his father killed.
Beside his mother, Brice scowled and opened his mouth as if to protest. Callum discreetly shook his head, relieved when Brice clamped his jaw shut. Callum had long ago given up trying to make his younger brother understand the guilt he felt for their father’s death. That was why he endured his mother’s constant reminders, but he would not endure Brice and Mother fighting.
As if she recognized she’d won a moment to continue to speak as she desired, she waved to her companions, hovering respectfully a few feet away, indicating they should continue onward toward the steep path that led down the jagged cliff to the water. “Lady Coira will be expecting to see ye at the shore for her arrival at the tournament.”
“I ken well Lady Coira and the earl will take offense if I’m nae waiting to greet them like an obedient hound,” he replied, casting his eyes up to the blue sky in a bid for peace and patience.
His mother clucked her tongue. “Ye’d nae be in this position if ye had swallowed yer pride and wed Edina as yer father and I had agreed.”
“Again, Mother?” Brice burst out, despite Callum narrowing his eyes at his brother. Brice shrugged, as if to say he was sorry for not listening. “I kinnae imagine that Callum could ever forget why ye believe we are in this position.”
“Why Ibelievehe is in this position?” Their mother’s face purpled with anger. “Why Ibelieve?” she repeated, her voice pitching high.
“Aye, why ye believe,” Brice snapped. “Ye conveniently forget that ye and Father wanted Callum to wed Edina to simply gain allies. And neither of ye seemed to have a care that the lass was nae true to the upcoming union, nor was she pure.”
“Sacrifices had to be made,” their mother barked. “Callum could have taken Edina in hand and controlled her once they were married.”
Their mother was right on that point. Callum also knew his love for Marsaili Campbell had kept him from agreeing to renew his broken vow to marry Edina. Then his grief over losing Marsaili before they’d ever had the chance to start a life together had held him firm in his refusal.
His gut clenched, as it always did, when he thought of Marsaili, of sitting in the great hall of his home arguing with his parents, telling them he would not wed Edina despite their insistence. He recalled acutely the moment one of their servants had handed his mother a sealed letter. Callum could still see her opening it, her gaze flying to him before revealing the contents of the letter: a proclamation that the Campbell’s beloved daughter Marsaili had drowned.Drowned.She had drowned the day after he had left her with the promise that he would return to wed her.
The message had been short and impersonal, but of course, it would have been, as the Campbell had been unaware of Callum’s love for Marsaili. He had been home for a month before the letter arrived, and he had been delayed in returning to Marsaili because of the Gordon’s immediate sieges after Callum had refused to honor the promise to wed Edina. His mother and father had held firm that he must relinquish his foolish infatuation and mend things with Edina, which the Gordon had said would restore peace between the clans, especially since Edina had lied to her father and told him Callum had gotten her with child.
Callum had refuted the claim, but the Gordon refused to believe it. His own parents had claimed to believe him, but they also believed the Campbell would not agree to a marriage alliance with them when he could have one with the powerful Earl of Ulster. And they certainly had not wanted to draw the Campbell’s ire by telling him that Callum had taken his daughter’s innocence. They had robbed Callum of ever knowing if the Campbell would or would not have agreed. But later, when Callum had sent a call out for aid to fight the Gordons and the MacDonalds, the Campbell had shown he was not a friend.
“Look what yer pestering has done, Mother,” Brice growled, bringing Callum back to the present. “Callum looks dazed.”
“I did nae do it! Ye did!” his mother screeched.
“Enough.” Callum looked from his mother to his brother and back again, his patience wearing thin.
His mother sniffed as if he’d injured her feelings. He didn’t know whether he truly had or if she was acting. She was a strong, ambitious woman, yet she had loved his father, and Callum could vividly recall her grief when Father had died. He’d been stabbed through the heart by the Gordon laird during a siege on Urquhart Castle two fortnights after Callum had returned from the Gathering.
The memory of his mother’s wails upon learning of his father’s death made him hold in much of what he wanted to say to her. It was a fact that his refusal to marry Edina had ultimately plunged his clan into war with the Gordons. “Rest assured, Mother. My guilt about Father’s death and at how our clan has been ravaged is nae ever eased.” His mother nodded as if pleased by the confirmation. He took a long breath, searching for the calm that had eluded him all morning. “I ken well we need the Earl of Ainsworth, as he needs us. I will marry the cold Lady Coira—”
“Ye will thaw her once ye’re married,” his mother said in her practical tone.
He held his mother’s stare. Her refusal to believe that he did not care to have Coira’s affection always amazed him. He suspected it was how she avoided feeling any guilt for her own mistakes in life. “I dunnae care to thaw her,” he said, biting out each word. In two months, he would take to wife a woman as cold as the northerly winter winds; yet, that was why he had finally decided he could marry her to save his clan. Her ambivalence toward him actually allowed him to accept the inevitable. He did not have to feel guilty that she would want his heart, when he knew well that Marsaili had taken it with her to her grave. God’s blood, he had not wanted to think of her today, on the day that he would greet his soon-to-be wife. It seemed an utter betrayal to Marsaili’s memory and the love he had held—still held—for her.
“This union benefits both clans, Son,” his mother said, her voice more of a coo now that she was about to get what she wanted.
He nodded, for she spoke the truth. The Earl of Ainsworth had approached Callum a year ago about marrying his daughter. At first Callum had thought to decline, but a ride around his clan’s ravaged castle and a particularly vicious siege by the Gordons, during which Callum had lost twenty good warriors, made him think again. His coffers were so low that he could ill afford to repair Urquhart, and he still needed to gain more warriors. He could no longer delay a marriage union to get an alliance.
He was lucky to have received an offer of an alliance at all. After his father died, he’d sent out a request for an alliance to those his father had considered friends, and not one of them, including the Campbell laird, had answered the call. Callum had then turned to King David, ready to pledge the loyalty his father had taken away and given to the Steward, but it was not that simple. The king did not trust Callum because he was his father’s son, and King David had refused even to hear Callum’s pledge, let alone offer him aid. Only recently had the king agreed to allow Callum to come to Edinburgh to speak with him. It had taken two and a half years of paying a penance fee to the king to achieve. Callum could not be certain what would happen when he saw the king. He may well leave Edinburgh still in disfavor. His clan had no one to turn to—except Ainsworth.
The earl wanted an alliance with Callum, as well, because Urquhart blocked the path that the MacDonalds needed to take to get to Ainsworth’s home, which the laird desired to claim. MacDonald wanted to gain power closer to England. Ainsworth needed someone loyal to help fight off the MacDonald, and someone with a personal stake in keeping MacDonald away, like Callum, would fight the most fiercely against their common enemy.
“I love ye, Son,” his mother said, squeezing his shoulder.
“Aye,” he acknowledged immediately, knowing she did but also realizing her affection had many strings attached to it. And one of them was Callum agreeing to the union with Coira. His mother’s motivation was not only to strengthen the clan but to receive the chest of gold that the earl had promised the Grants upon the marriage, which would bring great wealth to the clan—and to her.
“Ye will nae even think of Marsaili Campbell ever again once ye and Lady Coira have met in the marriage bed.”
