When the Laird Returns by Karen Ranney Read Free Book Online Page B

prayers have been answered in the best way. You’ll marry the nephew of the man I loved. If he is half the man Fergus was, then I’m well pleased.”
    Standing, Iseabal kissed her mother’s pale cheek. People had always commented upon their similar appearance in that both of them had been gifted with black hair and green eyes. But her mother’s hair had begun to whiten and her eyes seemed to have become lighter in hue over the years. Almost, Iseabal thought, as if she were becoming a pale version of herself.
    Iseabal could refute her mother’s words in a hundred ways, but the small smile on Leah’s face discouraged any spoken truths, even though they lingered in the air.
    Gilmuir bound Iseabal and the MacRae together, not love, however much her mother wished it different.
     
    Alisdair stood beneath the stained-glass window in the hall of Fernleigh, Iseabal silent beside him. She’d not spoken to him once, and her only acknowledgment of his presence had been a halfhearted nod when she’d appeared in the hall. From that moment on, she’d stared at the floor as if the worn stones held the map to heaven.
    The rough planks of the table beside him were still littered with tankards, as if Drummond had spent hours celebrating his victory over the MacRaes. Whiskey fumes permeated the room, mixing with the smell of a hundred unwashed Drummonds.
    Despite the rainy day, no candles were lit, no lanterns gleamed from the mantel, nor did a warm and welcoming fire burn in the huge hearth. There was no priest in attendance, or pipers playing the MacRae March. On such an important occasion as this, it was customary to wear the kilt, but even that had been forbidden him since the garment was still outlawed in Scotland. Nor was his family here to witness this ceremony.
    Instead, his marriage was accompanied by a fetid and chilly gloom, being witnessed by his crew and the assembled Drummond clan, all of whom remained silent, as if realizing that this wedding was no cause for celebration.
    The feeling of being pressed into this marriage only increased, like he was stepping into one of his brother’s boots and finding it painfully small.
    Turning to the assembled clan, Alisdair began speaking the vows given him only an hour earlier, then repeated them to the parents of his bride. Leah was smiling, her expression carefully directed away from her husband, whose bloodshot eyes were gleaming with triumph. Finally, Alisdair turned to face Iseabal. “I take this woman to my side, and bind myself to her,” he said.
    Her face was too pale, and her green eyes paler still, as if all the color had been leeched out of her by this ceremony.
    All his life he had been surrounded by love. Passionate, endearing, humorous at times. He had never wondered about his own marriage, being certain that he would find that one woman to be his helpmate, companion, and lover.
    One day he’d expected to marry a girl from the Cape. Noreen, perhaps, with her sunny smiles and her habit of teasing him. Or Sarah, who prided herself on her cooking and invited him for dinner every week, the meal shared with her father and brothers. But his heart leaned toward Hester, only because she was brave and daring and fearless. Women he’d known from his infancy, friends for a lifetime.
    Not a woman who looked terrified of him, whose breathing was so rapid he wondered why she did not faint. Alisdair glanced at Drummond, thinking that being his daughter might well have given her a reason to fear all men.
    The price for Gilmuir had been steep indeed.
     
    Iseabal could hardly breathe, her heart was beating so fast.
    The MacRae had shaved his beard, revealing a square chin and full mouth. But it was not his handsome appearance that caused her to look away, wondering almost frantically if there was a way to stop this marriage after all.
    The scowl, forming over eyes the color of a pale blue sky, hinted at a formidable temper. He towered over most of the people assembled in the hall,