A Gentle Feuding by Johanna Lindsey Read Free Book Online Page A

them, but with you.”
    “With me? And how is that?”
    “It has been suggested to me that you should marry one of my daughters.”
    Jamie tensed, trying not to look shocked. It was the last thing he’d expected to hear. “And who hates your daughters so, to make such a suggestion?”
    Dugald frowned. He hadn’t thought of that. William had suggested Sheena in particular, not just one of his daughters. Did William, in fact, hate Sheena? It bewildered him to think that. He had been aghast at William’s suggesting Sheena, but not at the idea itself, for it was something he had long considered. William’s thinking was sound.
    “I dinna like your tone, MacKinnion.”
    “And I dinna like your suggestion!” Jamie snapped. “If I ever marry again, and I have no intention of doing so, it certainly wouldna be a Fergusson.”
    “Dinna think I like giving you one of my daughters!” Dugald replied sharply.
    “Then why are we discussing this?”
    “I want peace, lad.”
    “Do you?” Jamie said dryly. “You should have thought about that ’afore you began the feud again.”
    Dugald was stunned. “ I didna break the peace! You did!”
    Jamie might have laughed if it weren’t so pathetic. He had been right about Dugald Fergusson. The man was insane, and no mistake. He would get nowhere arguing with a man addled in his wits.
    He sighed. “If ’tis peace you really want, I’ll give it to you. You have my word on it.”
    “Och, lad, I wish I could accept your word, truly. But I’d be a fool to trust you.”
    “That leaves you nowhere, then.”
    “Nay, it leaves you here, permanently, unless you accept one of my daughters and agree to trouble us no more.”
    “Old man.” An iciness crept into Jamie’s tone. “You keep me here at great risk, you know.”
    “I’m no’ so sure. I dinna think we’ll be attacked if attack would put your life in danger.”
    Jamie nearly exploded. “You threaten my life, and my men will tear your tower down stone by stone.”
    “Then you’ll die!” Dugald shouted, just as angry.This was not going the way William had said it would. Yet he was committed to this plan, this way of getting a treaty.
    “You’ll change your mind when you’re here long enough,” Dugald said, not all that confidently, however.
    The words made Jamie seethe. The man would not tell his clan that he was here. He tried a different tactic.
    “Very well, Fergusson. I’ll marry one of your daughters, if you’ll agree to my terms.”
    Dugald was surprised, and leery. “You’re no’ in a position to demand terms.”
    “Then we’ve no more to talk about.”
    Dugald glared at him. “What terms? I’ll hear them. I am a reasonable man.”
    “I was married once ’afore.”
    “Aye, there’s no’ many dinna know that.”
    Jamie shrugged. The tragedy of his marriage was well known, but few knew the truth.
    “I didna know my wife, nor she me, ’afore the wedding,” Jamie continued coldly. “I’ll no’ go into more of it, for ’tis something I never talk about. Enough to say…the marriage was a mistake.”
    “What has that to do with my daughter?”
    “If I had tried the girl I married ’afore the wedding, I’d have known she was so frightened of men she couldna bear a man’s touch. I swore I’d never marry again without trying the girl first. Are you willing for me to try all four of your daughters ’afore I choose one?”
    Dugald had turned bright red even before Jamie was finished. “There will be no trying of my daughters—nor handfasting, either!” he growled. “And ’tis only three daughters I’m letting you choose from, no’ four!”
    Jamie’s humor returned and he couldn’t resist baiting Fergusson. “You’ve four daughters, Fergusson, and no’ one wed yet? What is wrong with the one you’re no’ offering me?”
    “She’s betrothed.”
    “You surprise me, old man. You think I dinna know what goes on here? That I’m no’ aware of the three matches you’ve made in