Page 25 of Unforgotten
He took the roll of parchment, glancing down at the wax seal bearing the distinctive boar’s head with a shin bone in its mouth and the clan motto:Audentes Fortuna Juvat:fortune favors the bold. Indeed, it was a message from the clan-chief himself. His lips thinning, Gavin broke the seal and unfurled the parchment. His gaze narrowed as he read the message within.
“Well?” Blair asked after a lengthy pause. “What pot of shit is he stirring this time?”
Gavin lowered the parchment and cast his brother a quelling look. Few on this isle loved Duncan MacKinnon, and Blair never held back when it came to voicing his opinion about the man. As clan-chief, Gavin had to be more diplomatic.
“He’s on the warpath,” Gavin admitted, handing the message to his brother. “Here … read it for yerself.”
Blair took the missive and did just that. A few moments later he glanced up, his gaze widening. “He’s demanding yeallmeet with him at Dunan?”
“Aye … in seven days’ time. He wants to tackle the lawlessness upon the isle ‘once and for all’.”
Blair raised an eyebrow at these words.
“This is a discussion we need to have,” Gavin reminded him. “Even on our lands, outlaws have become an issue of late.” Gavin thought then of a plucky, knife-throwing nun he had accompanied back to Scorrybraec, and a slight smile curved his lips.
“But MacKinnon as host to a meeting? He doesn’t get on with the other clan-chiefs and chieftains. Even ye, who can rub along with most folk, can barely stand him.”
Gavin’s mouth quirked. “Perhaps this is a chance to improve relations upon the isle.”
“They won’t all come.” Blair raised the parchment once more, squinting slightly as he prepared to continue reading it. “MacLeod and Fraser can’t be in the same room together … they’ll kill each other.”
Gavin snorted. His brother had a point there. The last time Malcolm MacLeod and Morgan Fraser had met, it had been on the battlefield. And then when Fraser’s eldest son, Lachlann, ran off with MacLeod’s youngest daughter, Adaira, relations between the two clans sank to a new low. However, as he’d just pointed out, lawlessness was a problem that now affected them all.
“What’s this?” Blair had continued reading. “He wants ye to wed his sister?”
Gavin leaned back in his chair and ran a hand over his face. Suddenly, he felt every one of his thirty-eight years, and more besides. “Aye … it seems so.”
Blair lowered the parchment and frowned. “This isn’t the first time he’s made the offer?”
Gavin shook his head.
“Have ye met Lady Drew MacKinnon?”
“Aye,” Gavin replied. “Many years ago … we were both newly wed to others then though. She lost her husband around the time that Innis died.”
“And … ye aren’t keen on the match?”
“No,” Gavin replied, his tone turning curt. “Lady Drew and I wouldn’t be suited.”
“Why … is she ugly?”
Gavin muttered an oath under his breath. Sometimes Blair had such a simplistic view of the world. He wouldn’t have minded if Lady Drew MacKinnon was of humble looks, if her character had been sweet.
“I’m well aware I need to wed again,” he said after a heavy pause. “However, I’ll not choose a scheming and dominant woman as my bride. Lady Drew reminds me of our mother.”
Blair winced, and Gavin saw that his point had been made. Blair wouldn’t ask after Lady Drew MacKinnon again. Yet her brother wouldn’t be as easy to put off. Duncan MacKinnon didn’t like being told ‘no’.
“Will ye go to this meeting then?” Blair asked. His brother walked over to the sideboard and poured himself a goblet of wine. He then drained it in two gulps and poured himself another. Like their father before them, Blair MacNichol liked his drink. Even though he’d barely passed his thirty-sixth winter, the color in his cheeks was already high, and he was starting to thicken around the middle.
Watching him, Gavin frowned. If he wasn’t careful, he’d suffer the same health problems as their father—the gout and bloated liver that had sent him to an early grave.
“Aye, I’ll go,” Gavin replied heavily. “The outlaw problem needs addressing. Besides … although MacKinnon isn’t my neighbor, I’d rather not make him my enemy.”
Across the room Blair gave a rude snort. “Not yet … anyway.”
12
So Soon
