In Bed with a Highlander (McCabe Trilogy 1)
“What are you going to do?” Caelen asked.
“I’m sure as hell not taking my wife anywhere Duncan Cameron is in residence. She’ll remain here under strict guard while I travel to court.”
“What do you want us to do?” Alaric asked tightly.
“I need you to watch over Mairin. I trust you with her life. I’ll take a contingent of my men with me but the bulk of my army will remain here. Mairin’s safety is paramount. She’s more vulnerable than ever now that she carries my child.”
“But, Ewan, these charges are serious. If the king doesn’t rule in your favor you’ll face stiff sanctions. Possibly even a death sentence, since Mairin is the king’s niece,” Caelen said. “You need more support. If you leave the majority of your army here, it puts you at a disadvantage.”
“Perhaps it would be best if you took Mairin with you,” Alaric quietly suggested.
“And expose her to Cameron?” Ewan snarled.
Caelen’s lips tightened. “We would go with the might of the McCabe clan behind us. We may not be as large an army as Cameron’s, but he’s already suffered one crippling defeat against us, and he has to know, judging by the way he tucked tail and ran like the bastard coward he is, that he’d commit suicide by challenging us to a fair fight.”
“ ’Tis too convenient that you’re summoned away, Ewan,” Alaric added. “It divides our might. If you go with too little protection, you could be ambushed and killed on your way to court. If you take too much, it leaves the keep vulnerable and Mairin as well.”
Ewan considered Alaric’s words. As much as it pained him, after his initial vehemence over taking Mairin anywhere Duncan Cameron would be in attendance wore off, he knew that the best course was not to let Mairin out of his sight. If he went, so would she, and he’d carry the might of the entire McCabe clan.
“You’re right. I’m too angry to think straight,” Ewan said wearily. “I will call on the McDonalds and the McLaurens to provide troops to protect the keep in our absence. Mairin needs to be close so I can see to her protection at all times. I don’t like to think of her traveling now that she is with child.”
“We can take a slower pace and bring a litter so that she is comfortable,” Caelen suggested.
Ewan nodded, and then he remembered snarling at Mairin to leave him, when she’d asked him what was amiss. He’d been so furious that he’d needed a moment to process the ludicrous charges that had been laid out against him.
“Jesu,” he muttered. “I must find Mairin and explain. I fair bit her head off before she left the hall, and now I must tell her that we have to travel to court to answer a summons from the king. Our future depends o the whim of our king. Her dowry. Neamh Álainn. My child. My wife. Everything could be taken away in a moment.”
Alaric raised an eyebrow and exchanged glances with Caelen. “Are you going to allow that?”
Ewan pinned his brothers with the full intensity of the emotion brewing in his chest. “Nay. I’ll send missives to the McLaurens, to the McDonalds, and to Laird Douglas to the north. I want them to be ready for war.”
Mairin paced the floor of her chamber until she was ready to scream her frustration. What had the message from the king contained? Ewan had been furious. She’d never seen him so angry, not even when Heath had struck her.
She was so sick with worry that for the first time in a fortnight, her stomach seized and nausea rose in her throat. She sank onto the stool in front of the fire and gripped the goblet of water that Maddie had brought up moments before. She sipped the liquid in an effort to settle her stomach, but the tension was knotted too thickly.
As soon as the water went down, her stomach lurched and she stumbled toward the chamber pot, retching the liquid right back up. She registered the door opening and closing, but she was too embroiled in her current misery.
“Ah, sweeting, I’m sorry.”
Ewan’s hands soothed up her back and her stomach convulsed painfully. He gathered her hair at her nape and put his palm over her belly in an effort to soothe her.
Sweat poured from her forehead and she sagged into Ewan’s arms as she finally stopped the horrible gagging. He stroked her hair and held her tightly against him. He pressed a kiss to her temple, and she felt the roll of tension flash through his body.
She turned, so worried that for a moment she had to battle back the urge to heave again.
“Ewan, what is it?” she whispered. “I’m so scared.”
He palmed her face and stared down at her, his green eyes flashing. “I’m sorry I yelled at you in the hall. I was greatly unsettled by the contents of the missive and I took out my anger—and fright—on you. It was unfair.”
She shook her head, unconcerned with his earlier outburst. It had been obvious that he had been upset over the news, whatever it was.
“What was in the message?” she asked again.
Ewan sighed and leaned forward until his forehead touched hers. “First I want you to know that everything is going to be all right.”
That statement only worried her all the more.
“We’ve been summoned to court.”
She frowned. “But why?”
“Duncan Cameron launched a claim for your dowry before my request was received by the king.”
Her mouth fell open. “On what grounds?”
“There’s more, Mairin,” he said softly. “He claims you were married, that he bedded you, and that I stole you away and sorely abused you.”