Highlander of My Heart (Mcardle Sisters of Courage 1)

“I would not have her name ruined since she had done nothing wrong, but I wed Sorrell because I love her, like you did when you wed my mum unlike your other two wives.”

“You had two previous wives?” Sorrell asked surprised, since having heard nothing of them, though she hadn’t been here long enough to hear much gossip. Given time she probably would have learned about it.

“I did, but it doesn’t concern you,” Finn said annoyed.

“Maybe not, but it makes me curious, but that’s all right. If you don’t want to speak about it, I’m sure I can learn it all from servant gossip,” Sorrell said with a shrug as she walked around the bed to stand near the small table the tankard sat atop.

“Your wife needs to learn her place and mind her tongue,” Finn said, shaking his finger at Ruddock.

“My wife knows her place… it’s beside me. As for her tongue, she’ll never mind it and that’s one of the things I love about her.”

Finn leaned back against his pillows as if in defeat. “You’ll not learn the truth from gossiping tongues.”

“I’m listening,” Sorrell said, an eager smile lighting her face.

Finn spoke, if not reluctantly. “I was young, barely ten and nine years when I married for the first time. It was an arranged marriage and we got on well enough. She died in childbirth a year into our marriage, as did the bairn. My second marriage was also arranged, three years following the first, and we dealt well enough with each other. She lost one child she carried shortly after learning she was with child. Two years later she died in childbirth, the bairn as well.”

He seemed lost in memories as he continued, “I thought myself cursed and refused any marriage arrangements proposed to me. I didn’t want to lose another wife or bairns, two wives and three bairns were enough to lose. But then I had never truly fallen in love, until Alida came along.”

Sorrell wondered if he knew he smiled when he spoke her name.

“She arrived at the village alone and in need, a widow and childless. Some would think her plain, to me she was beautiful and older than my ten and eight years by five years.” He laughed softly. “It was madness. I fell in love with her at first sight. Nothing mattered but her. She was all I wanted, all I needed. It took her a while to even look at me, thinking I wanted only one thing from her. I wanted so much more. I wanted a whole life with her, yet I also feared it, frightened she would die like the others had. I chased her until she finally gave in and we wed, even though our union was met with some disapproval. I was shocked and worried when she became pregnant. She was surprised herself since she had never had any children with her first husband. She was so happy and I was so frightened I’d lose her.”

Sorrell saw his eyes turn misty and from his tone and the way he spoke about her, there was no denying he loved her beyond reason.

“She was the perfect wife and as her delivery time grew close, I grew more frightened.” He shook his head and smiled. “To my great relief, she delivered the child without difficulty. It was such a joyous day. The whole clan celebrated. She gave me a son or so I thought.” He shook his head again. His smile gone. “How could she betray me?”

“How could you believe she would?” Ruddock asked with a bite of anger. “Mum loved you beyond measure. How could you think otherwise? And what proof do you have that she cheated on you and that I’m not your son? You never even gave me a chance to defend myself against the false accusations.”

Finn shot forward, looking as if he would lunge from the bed. “How could I when it came from your mother’s own mouth?”

Ruddock glared at his father in shock, then in the next moment he was ready to plummet him for speaking such an awful lie. “What nonsense do you speak?”

“Your mum confessed all to Father Andrew on her death bed. She wanted absolution for her sin. He told me as he lay dying, wanting no sin on his soul for letting a bastard inherit my title and holdings. He also told me that he was not the only one who heard it. Lander had entered the room, having fetched something for the cleric and heard Alida beg for forgiveness for her adultery and for lying to me that you were my son.”

“I don’t believe it. Mum would not do such a thing and if she had anything to confess it would have been to you and no one else, not even a cleric. Mum was like Sorrell; the most honest person I know. She would never have cheated on you and that you believe such lies disgusts me.”