Highland Intrigue - A Prequel

Bliss stepped forward. “May I speak with you alone before this is done?”

“There is nothing you can say that will change this,” Lawler warned.

“Just a moment of your time, please,” Bliss pleaded.

“Very well,” Lawler said annoyed. “But only a moment.”

Annis latched onto Bliss’s arm. “There is nothing you can do.”

“It does not hurt to try. Now watch over each other,” Bliss said, looking to each of her sisters. “This will not take long.”

Elysia hooked her arm around Annis and they huddled close as they watched Bliss walk off with Chieftain Emory.

“Give us a moment, Cleric William,” Lawler said, after entering the solar and holding the door open for the cleric to take his leave. “Make haste, woman, for I will see one lord finally wed,” he ordered as soon as he shut the door.

“You are tasked, sir, are you not with finding the cursed lord a wife?” Bliss asked, trying to keep the anxious tremor that ran through her out of her voice.

“I have, but—”

Bliss did not let him finish. “A task that has proven most difficult, has it not?”

“It has but—”

Once again, she did not let him finish. “What if I were to agree to wed the cursed lord in exchange for Annis being freed from marrying Lord Brogan?”

Lawler smiled and shook his head. “That is no bargain at all. I could easily take both of you as wives for the two lords.”

“You could, but that would not be a wise choice,” Bliss said, her voice having grown more confident.

“Why not?” Lawler asked curiously.

“If you accept my offer, I will wed the cursed lord willingly and being a healer I would do everything I could to heal him. I also would make sure there was at least a chance that I would bear him a bairn, hopefully a son, securing an heir for Lord Lochlann and the Clan MacClaren.” Bliss could see that she had stirred interest and that Lawler was giving her proposal thought, and she continued to convince him. “I am a fine healer and I have no doubt that I am the only healer who would make such a generous offer. There is much I may be able to do for Lord Rannick if given the chance. I am sure his father would be pleased to know that you have found his son not only an agreeable wife, but a healer as well.”

Lawler rubbed his chin. “And you would do this all willingly without complaint no matter what you faced when meeting Lord Rannick?”

Bliss squared her shoulders and lifted her head a notch. “As long as you spare Annis from marrying Lord Brogan and Elysia as well or Lord Fergus’s son, the other cursed lord in need of a wife, I would do it all willingly with no complaint, and on that, you have my word.”

Lawler smiled. “You bargain wisely, thinking I would replace Elysia with Annis, something I did give thought to.”

“You can find other women to wed the other two cursed lords, but it would continue to prove difficult to find someone to wed Lord Rannick, the one more cursed than the other two.”

“I hate to admit it, but you are right,” Lawler said. “Let us see how serious you are.” He opened the door and summoned the cleric.

“What do you think is going on in there?” Annis whispered to Elysia.

“I have no idea, but Bliss has always found a way of protecting us,” Elysia said, holding on to hope.

“Not this time,” Annis said.

Cadell grinned as if tasting victory. “You are lucky you go to Lord Brogan and not Lord Rannick, the one known as the cursed lord. He is not fit for any woman.”

“Watch your tongue, Cadell,” Lord Brogan warned. “Lord Rannick is a longtime friend of mine.”

“You would want Annis to wed him instead of you, for that can be arranged,” Cadell said, his grin turning to a sneer.

Brogan turned a fierce glare on Cadell that quickly wiped the sneer from his face.

“This curse does not need to be fed. It needs a solution,” Elysia said.

“Don’t you think solutions have been tried?” Cadell asked as if Elysia understood nothing.

“Endless times and to no avail,” Brogan said, turning his head to the flames in the hearth as memories took hold of him.

“Perhaps you were not looking in the right places,” Annis suggested.

Brogan’s head shot up and he glared at her. “You think you could do better.”

Annis nodded. “I do not think. I know I could.”

Brogan’s scowl darkened. “Then find a way to break the curse after we wed and I will set you free.”

“That’s not possible,” Cadell said, “setting her free, I mean. Your father made careful provisions that the marriage would last or it will be Annis who suffers for it.”

Brogan released several oaths and Annis was glad to hear them, for she would have released several herself if she could.