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Bad Days
Dunan broch
MacKinnon Territory
Isle of Skye, Scotland
Winter, 1350 AD
SOME DAYS, IT was better to stay abed.
From the moment Lady Drew awoke in her frigid chamber to find that the hearth had gone out in the night, she resisted the urge to pull the blankets over her head and go back to sleep.
But retreating wasn’t Drew’s way—and so she gritted her teeth and climbed out of bed, wincing as her bare feet hit the ice-cold flagstones. She called for her maid—a sullen-faced lass named Cadha—thrice, before the young woman deigned to present herself. The lass’s face was even sourer than usual when she finally appeared and helped Drew dress. She was so rough as she started to braid her mistress’s hair that eventually Drew sent the lass scurrying away with a sharp reprimand.
Drew finished her hair herself—a task which took her an age, for her fingers were clumsy with cold.
By the time she joined her brother and his wife in the clan-chief’s solar, they’d almost finished breaking their fast.
“We thought ye weren’t joining us this morning, Drew,” Craeg greeted her with a grin. He and Lady Coira sat together at the far end of the table. Her arrival had interrupted a passionate kiss.
“I slept in,” Drew muttered, taking a seat at the table. She had the urge to complain about Cadha and yet held her tongue. Craeg was very good to her. She didn’t want to appear ungrateful.
Instead, she reached for the last wedge of bannock. “I see ye left me plenty.”
The tart edge to her voice made Craeg’s grin widen. “Worry not, sister … I’ll have Kenzie bring up some more.”
Sister.
Drew stilled for a heartbeat before dropping her gaze to the wedge of bannock she’d just placed on the dish before her.
By rights, Craeg shouldn’t even want her here. Although he welcomed her continued presence in the broch, Drew felt like an interloper. She was part of the old guard, from a time when their elder brother had ruled this broch.
When Craeg had bested Duncan MacKinnon and his men in battle and ridden to Dunan to take his place, Drew had been too ill to care. But afterward, she’d braced herself for his hate, his vengeance.
There had been none.
Drew’s mouth thinned as she started to butter her wedge of bannock. Craeg deserved a better family than the one he’d been born into.
For years, she’d known of his existence—the bastard Duncan had loathed. Their father had sired him off a local whore, and many years earlier, Duncan had run him out of Dunan, although not before he’d nearly beaten his younger brother to death. He’d thought never to hear from Craeg again, but instead the Bastard had risen up against him as the leader of an outlaw band that had caused the MacKinnon clan-chief no end of trouble over the years.
Drew stifled a sigh and reached for the pot of heather honey. She was glad that Craeg now ruled the MacKinnon clan, but his presence here was also a painful reminder that she was powerless in this world. Although Drew was clever and capable, she’d never have been allowed to become clan-chief. She was a woman—and as such was destined to forever sit in a man’s shadow.
Drew clenched her jaw, before her attention returned to the far end of the table. She shouldn’t dwell on such things—she risked turning bitter.
Oblivious to her brooding, the clan-chief and his wife had forgotten that she was present.
Craeg gazed at Coira as he fed her a morsel of bannock, while she leaned toward him, her proud face soft with love. They made a beautiful pair, both dark-haired and tall. Craeg’s moss-green eyes hooded then when Coira licked honey off his fingers. Her violet gaze darkened with sensual promise.
Drew’s jaw tightened.God’s teeth, can’t they keep their hands off each other when others are present?She tore her gaze from the couple and glared down at her plate.
Every morning she had to endure this. Usually, she just ignored them, but this morning their behavior grated upon her. Once, it would have pleased her to see two people so in love; once, she’d have happily entered into the spirit and flirted with the nearest handsome man.
But these days, it just made her feel jaded.
Drew’s chest tightened. Craeg and his love, Coira, certainly deserved the joy they’d found in each other. They’d passed through fire to reach this point—had braved war and plague—battling against the odds that had been stacked against them.
