Page 72 of Claimed by a Highlander
***
Sybil was exhausted from the strain of greeting so many strangers, all of whom were suspicious of her and prepared to judge her harshly. She would not care so much about winning them over, except that if she fell short it would reflect poorly on Rory.
“My face hurts from smiling so much,” she whispered to Rory.
“You were wonderful,” Rory said.
Late that evening, while everyone else was still celebrating, Rory brought her with him to meet with Malcolm, Alex, and Lovat in the chieftain’s private room behind the hall, similar to the one at Frazer Castle.
“What news do ye have of Hector?” Rory asked as soon as they had settled around the small table.
“He arrived two days ago at Fairburn Castle,” Malcolm said, “in plenty of time to answer the call to the gathering, if he were so inclined.”
“Fairburn is Hector’s home here in Eastern Ross,” Rory explained to Sybil. “’Tis only a four-mile ride from here.”
“I’d say we should drag him out of Fairburn, but it would be a bloody fight,” Malcolm said. “He’s brought at least a couple hundred MacKenzie warriors with him from the west and northwest who are loyal to him.”
“Damn him,” Rory said. “By bringing those men here, he’s leaving us vulnerable to an attack by the MacDonalds.”
“That’s not all he’s doing,” Alex said. “He’s also spreading rumors about your birth.”
“Ach, those old tales about our parents’ irregular marriage will gain him nothing,” Rory said. “I have chieftain’s blood, and that’s what matters.”
“The lies are not about your legitimacy.” Alex cleared his throat. “Hector claims you’re not our father’s son at all.”
Rory slammed his fist on the table. “What exactly is he suggesting? That our mother was unfaithful?”
“He and his supporters are telling anyone who will listen that our mother was already pregnant by another man when she wed our father.”
“Hector goes too far this time,” Lovat said. “I’ll have his head for maligning my sister.”
“Our father openly claimed me,” Rory said. “He even had us legitimized through the church, or so I was told.”
“He always meant to,” Lovat said. “It was only in that last year when his health was failing that he finally did as I’d urged years before and sought a papal bull sanctioning his marriage to my sister Agnes and declaring the three of you as legitimate.”
“If the church did legitimize us,” Alex said, “no one could question whether Rory has chieftain’s blood without questioning the authority of the Holy Father in Rome.”
“I never saw the papal bull,” Lovat said, “but I believe it arrived in that chaotic time around your father’s death.”
“That could be what Duncan of the Axe was looking for at Killin,” Rory said. “If that’s where Mother kept it, it’s in cinders now.”
“It could take years to get a copy from Rome. Such an important document, however, which is signed by the pope himself, would have passed through our old bishop’s hands and been recorded,” Alex said. “I’ll look for a record of it at Fortrose Cathedral.”
“Do that,” Rory said with nod to his brother. “Has anyone seen or heard from Catriona?”
Sybil squeezed Rory’s hand under the table. She knew how much it distressed him to not know his sister’s whereabouts.
“I received a message yesterday,” Alex said.
“And ye waited until now to tell me?” Rory said. “Where in the hell is she?”
Alex hesitated before answering. “The message was from the new Munro chieftain.”
“Why would he send a message about Catriona?” Rory asked in a low, dangerous voice.
“Apparently he has her,” Alex said.
“The bastard has taken our sister!” Rory shouted.
