Page 114 of Claimed by a Highlander
“With you?” The boy’s face lit up like a torch. “When? Tomorrow?”
“I have business away from the castle tomorrow.” Rory had asked before he’d thought it through. He had a dozen things he ought to do instead of hunting, but when he saw the look of disappointment on the lad’s face, he said, “But I’ll take ye the next day.”
Before he left, he ran his hands over the pony to see if he could discover what made him bolt. His legs and hooves were fine, and he had no sores from the saddle rubbing. The pony did have a couple of raised bumps on his rump, but nothing unusual for a horse.
Anything could set off a horse—a bee sting, a sudden noise, a nip from another horse. Luckily, there was no harm done.
***
Rory and his men rode across the Black Isle to the great red sandstone cathedral that had stood for more than three hundred years on the MacKenzie side of Moray Firth. Several highborn MacKenzies were buried here, along with a few Frasers.
Alex was waiting outside for them.
“Hector and his men arrived first,” Alex said. “They and the bishop are waiting for us inside.”
“I’m surprised the bishop is allowing us to bring our men inside.”
“They must disarm, of course, but they are invited to bear witness to the bishop’s peaceful—nay, miraculous—resolution of this dispute.” Alex rolled his eyes. “The bishop appears to relish his role and wants to be lauded for it.”
Rory drew a deep breath and crossed himself as he stepped inside the cathedral’s hallowed walls. Even in the dim light of the cathedral, the bishop was hard to miss standing in the middle of the nave with his arms outspread and wearing his red silk tunic, snowy white gloves and stockings, a large, bejeweled cross, and purple ropes of braided silk embroidered with gold thread hanging from his neck.
Hector’s men stood to the bishop’s left along the north aisle. Rory thought he had steeled himself to see his uncle, but a blinding rage took hold of him when he saw Hector.
The bishop cleared his throat. “Shall we begin?”
Rory walked past the bishop to stand toe to toe with his uncle.
“Are ye not afraid of being struck down in this holy place?” Rory said. “The blood of my brother is on your hands.”
“If you’re speaking of our sadly departed chieftain, I did my best to protect him,” Hector said. “But where were you when your chieftain needed you? You abandoned him, that’s what ye did.”
Alex hauled Rory back and said in his ear, “Don’t let him bait you.”
“Shall we turn to the matter that brought us here?” the bishop said. “I understand that you, Hector of Gairloch, have an offer to make.”
“We can end this conflict right here, right now, without bloodshed,” Hector said. “They pay good money for fighting men in Ireland and France. With a good ship and thirty strong warriors, a man could make a new life for himself.”
Rory was stunned by his uncle’s proposal. Surely Hector would not agree to go so easily.
“I give ye three days to accept my offer and leave MacKenzie lands,” Hector said. “If ye don’t, the blood of MacKenzies will be on your head.”
“I came here to discuss the terms under which my uncle will cease his rebellion,” Rory said. “If it takes bloodshed to end it, then so be it.”
Rory was furious that Hector and the bishop had brought him here for nothing.
“Wait,” the bishop said when Rory started to leave. “I believe Hector of Gairloch has brought evidence bearing on the question of who is the rightful MacKenzie chieftain.”
“Iamthe MacKenzie, the 9thof Kintail.”
“By what right,” Hector said in a voice that carried to every corner of the cathedral, “do ye claim that honor?”
“Ye know verra well by what right,” Rory said. “I have been chosen by our clan, and I carry the blood of chieftains from my father and his father and his father for as long as there have been MacKenzies.”
“Your mother was not wed to my brother when ye were conceived,” Hector said.
“Their marriage may have been irregular, but my father claimed me, as you and everyone in the clan knows.”
“My brother was so bedazzled by Agnes Fraser that he was blinded to the truth,” Hector said. “She was with child by another man before she ever went to my brother’s bed.”
