Duty of the Chieftain - a Highland 'Lord's Right of the First Night' novella (Clan MacKrannan's Secret Traditions #3) by Jonnet Carmichael Read Free Book Online Page B

for I must concede my position.  Our clan has some strange Traditions, Elinor.  They go back centuries and cannot be changed to suit the circumstance of one chieftain.  All men of the bloodline must marry virgins, especially the man born to be Chief of the Name of MacKrannan."
    Elinor raced to his side.  "But they cannot take away your heritage like this!  I was virgin until you!"
    " It is insufficient," he said, turning to her.  "The bloodline's brides must be virgins on their wedding day, for there is a Tradition named the 'Coupling', a witnessed event in which yer blood must be seen.  It is too late, lass."
    Considering the disast er befallen each of them, Ranald was confused at the swelling below his kilt that seemed to come upon him whenever he met her eye, or spoke with her, or held her hand.
    Was it the scent of her?  That summery perfume after years of battleblood and comra de’s sweat?  Surely it could no' be that, for he'd had plenty of sweet-smelling women in his time. Yet none had come close to the fragrance of this Elinor Keirston with her hair new-washed and a twinkle in her eye.  That sparkle was now born from tears of hopelessness, for their dealings since the Lord's Right had taken place in this very room had been little but mistrust and argument.
    "Surely if you explain to His Majesty?"
    "Nay.  All our Traditions are kept secret.  I only tell ye of this one because we must wed on the morn.  Ye are in here without chaperone because it makes little difference now."
    She turned away, but he took her hand.
    "Elinor, I came to find ye first for it is yerself has lost the most, even for all yer good motive.  I still have my family and my clan, and they will be yours now also."
    "How kind…"
    "No' really.  They are all ye will have.  My brother Connor will be recalled from his post in Ireland to be chieftain and I will be sent there in his stead.  Ye may as well settle in here at the castle, for the garrison has no married quarters and the region is no place for any woman.  It is a year since my brother was let home.  I canna say it will be any different for me, even when wedded.  Come, we must go to the Chief with our letters from the king."
     

     
    "HEAR YE, ALL PEOPLE OF CLAN MACKRANNAN!" the Bard shouted to a packed courtyard scarce an hour after the Chief read the letters.
    " WE ASSEMBLE THIS DAY to discuss the matter of Ranald, chieftain of Clan MacKrannan, and the Lady Elinor Keirston, a widow foisted upon him to wife by the king of Scots."
    The clan was in uproar at the king's decision, and a hasty meeting in the Vault between the bloodline and the Bard and the three Wisewomen had led to this assembly being called.
    "MUCH RUMOUR has been told of the circumstance, and I am here to tell ye the truth of the matter, as told to His Majesty... "
    Ranald and Elinor had written this part, but the Bard told the tale in his own way, aware of his supreme power in swaying opinion in the Lady Elinor's direction.  He liked her fine, and the chieftain obviously liked her fine as well, and she was exactly the kind of wife a future Chief should have.  And he'd be damned if the king or any man would lose them Ranald as chieftain.
    Facts were facts.  Opinion came from the telling of the story.  It was all in the phrasing and the extras, and he had now arrived at the clincher.
    "…And this husband who so NEGLECTED his wife that he left her a VIRGIN WIDOW was none other than SIR ALAIN DOUGLAS OF FORDNETHAN…"
    The name brought a roar of contempt from the crowd.
    "… Loud ye may jeer, for this was the verra same man who left our chieftain Ranald for dead at the Siege of Drumallager and whose blatant INCOMPETENCE caused SIX OF OUR MEN TO BE KILLED there."
    Another roar of disgust.
    "And after Douglas's death the Lady Elinor FOUGHT STURDILY to keep her people safe from the English…"
    By the time the Bard had finished the background story, the clansfolk were well acquaint with Elinor's supreme