Highland Hellion (Highland Weddings #3)(59)
“I’ve come down to swear my allegiance to the regent.” Diocail spoke loud enough to be heard by those listening. “Colum Gordon is dead.”
“I’m glad to see the Gordon clan being led by a good man.”
Whispers rose behind them in response.
The doors opened, drawing everyone’s attention.
“McTavish,” a Douglas retainer called. “Ye are summoned.”
Katherine watched him go, hiding near the wall as the men resumed their whispered conversations.
*
“Are ye simple?”
The Earl of Morton was gripping the arms of his throne with hands that showed how agitated he was.
“Nae.”
The earl sat forward and glared at him. “Yer father promised me Katherine Carew.”
“Aye, he did,” Rolfe answered. “Before I wed her. Now that she is me wife, I expect ye to understand why I did nae bring her.”
“Ye…what?” The earl leaned back. “I gave no permission for that.”
Rolfe stood his ground. “Ye wanted her wed to Marcus MacPherson for the alliance it would gain. I am a better alliance.”
The earl looked at him through narrowed eyes. “That was years ago.”
“Are ye saying ye are done trying to settle the feuding in the Highlands?”
The earl slowly smiled, and there was nothing kind about the expression. The man was hard and cold at his center. Rolfe decided Morton looked very much like Colum Gordon in that moment. The only thought in the earl’s mind was how to gain the most from the situation. His desires were the only ones with merit.
“The matter at hand is one of a promise made and not upheld,” Morton said very clearly. “I want Katherine Carew, and yer father promised her to me.”
“She is me wife now,” Rolfe responded. “So ye’ll have to understand I will nae be handing her over.”
The earl drew in a deep breath and leaned forward. “Nay, McTavish. Ye and yer kind will be understanding that I am Scotland, and ye will no’ cling to yer clans before me!”
“I am here.” The response gained him a flicker of respect from the earl, but that was all.
“Because yer father ordered ye here.”
Rolfe nodded. “Honor does nae bend to personal preferences. I gave me word I would face ye, and I willingly decided to take Katherine to wife to keep her from ye. She was me prize, no’ me father’s, and I intend to keep her. If that means there will be no title, I will tell me laird so without shirking.”
“Aye,” Morton agreed. “I believe ye, son of the McTavish.”
The earl held up a thick finger. “But the difficulty remains with ye Highlanders thinking ye can decide when to obey me. Katherine Carew is the natural-born daughter of the Earl of Bedford. The man is one of Elizabeth Tudor’s closest advisors.”
“Katherine has nae seen the man in over a decade.”
“Blood is blood,” Morton shot back. “Is nae that the code ye Highlanders live by?”
He chuckled when Rolfe was forced to nod. “Ye craved an alliance with a Highland clan. It is done with me,” Rolfe said.
The earl smiled again. “I’m tempted to take that offer, just because I suspect yer father will no’ be so pleased with the bargain ye are trying to strike with me.”
Rolfe grinned. “He’ll be furious. Me sire has no liking for the English, even one with blue blood flowing through her veins.”
“But if I did, there would be no respect for me in the Highlands.”
Morton truly had a great deal in common with Colum Gordon. Rolfe watched the way the man coddled his pride above everything else.
“Obedience…” The earl spoke loudly so his guards could hear him clearly. “That is what I will have of every Highland clan.” His eyes glittered with his temper. “Ye have defied me and will learn the error of yer ways.”
*
“What are ye doing here?”
Diocail kept his voice low, but Katherine heard the reprimand in it nonetheless. She kept her chin tucked, but the quick glance she chanced at the man told her he’d recognized her.
“Aye,” he confirmed as he looked out across the room. “I wondered who might be looking after Rolfe McTavish like a starving kitten.”
“And yet you do not unmask me.”
He made a low sound under his breath. “I was there to set ye free.”
She knew instantly what he spoke of. That moment when he’d stepped from the shadows and let them escape from the Gordon stronghold.
“And since I was willing to take the risk of going against me laird…” Diocail was still talking in a low voice and looking away from her, as though he were merely passing the time with someone he considered beneath him. “I will know why ye are risking yerself once again.”
“I won’t let Rolfe be harmed because of me.”
Diocail looked straight at her.
“He has a plan to deny the earl what his father promised him in exchange for a noble title,” she explained.
Anger flashed in Diocail’s eyes. “You?”
Katherine nodded. Diocail made a low sound under his breath. “Ye have a unique fate, one I do nae envy.” He swept his eyes over her, from head to toe. “Ye seem to rise to the challenge of it well enough. But if what ye say is true, ye need to leave.”