Page 34 of Highlander’s Lust

The Wife and the Lover

Acollective gasp greeted Jean’s words. But the most prominent reaction was to be had from the man sitting in the dock.

When Laird Brisbane heard his wife’s voice, he looked up, his expression resembling a man who had been woken from a nightmare by a beloved’s touch. He vaulted out of the dock, ignoring the futile attempts by the guards to grab him, and ran down between the benches toward Jean. When he reached her, he swept her up in his arms, such as his fetters allowed. For one moment, they stared into one another’s eye with rapt attention, and then they embraced with a fierce ardor.

Chieftain MacTavish announced, “There now! Does that look to ye like a man and woman who have no’ touched before?”

Sorley was shouting from the lectern, “Seize him! He is still in violation of our laws!”

Chieftain MacTavish banged the palm of his hand on the bench, calling for silence. The couple in the middle of the room were oblivious to all noise and racket around them; they were lost in the wave of emotion shared only between the two of them.

“Sweetheart,” Laird Brisbane whispered, “I thought ye had left me. I wanted to die from regret and sorrow. Does this mean ye forgive me all?”

Jean laughed softly. “That is so like ye, Charlie. Ye are always trying to hurry me into making my decisions quickly.” She saw his face fall and continued, “But, aye, I forgive ye some things. I believe ye have been harboring someone under yer roof who has been wishing ill will upon ye.”

He kissed the tip of her nose and laughed. “I care naught. All that matters is that we are together.”

Sorley was obviously not going to let the matter slide. “This is mere playacting! Where are the sheets, I ask ye? Where are the bloody sheets as proof the girl is nay longer a maiden?”

Jean summoned all of her courage and addressed the hall. “There are nay sheets!”

An astonished murmur of voices was heard at this announcement.

“Wait!” Jean shouted, not letting go of her husband’s hand. “There are nay sheets because the proof is on the carpet in his lairdship’s study! The room next to the library. We—me husband and I—have our disagreements, sure. What newly married couple doesnae?” A few laughs greeted this statement, and Jean was given the courage to carry on. “But after we fought, we made up. We made up such as I have never been made up to before, good people! So...the blood lies on the carpet!”

Now the laughter and merriment were clear. The villagers understood exactly what Jean was trying to say; they had been in that position themselves before.

“And so,” Jean said, “all the proof Sorley Brisbane needs is on the carpet back at the castle.” She gave a triumphant smile in the steward’s direction. “And might I add, ladies, that I heartily recommend chamber carpets as a wonderful alternative to the rigors of a beddan!”

Cheers and gales of laughter rang out. Chieftain MacTavish smiled and was about to raise his hand in judgment when Sorley shouted out, “Stop! Ye overstep yer mark! I have no’ finished!”

He gave an evil smile at Jean and Charlie.

“Just because ye have chosen to withhold yerself from our scrutiny thus far, Miss Macanroy, does no’ take away from the fact that yer faither was paid for yer services afore ye were bedded. An’ that’s no’ permitted! Charlie must still be cast out.”

Sorley said his words in such a way as to make Jean feel dirty. Charlie’s hands curled into fists when the steward called his wife by her maiden name.

The steward continued. “Maybe it’s because his lairdship is so used to paying women before lying with them that he did it with his wife too—him having gotten into the habit.”

This was too much for Charlie to take. He launched himself at Sorley as the man cowered behind the lectern. The two guards scattered out of his way. He dragged Sorley down the dais stairs and then proceeded to shake the life out of him.

“How dare ye mention me wife in the same breath as ye do wantons!” Charlie spat the words out at Sorley through clenched teeth.

“Huhhh-eww—” Sorley wheezed, scrabbling at Charlie’s fingers wrapped tightly around his throat.

Only when the two guards had been given the command by Chieftain MacTavish did they intervene. Charlie released the steward with a scornful curl of his lip. “Ye’re no’ worth me hangin’ for, Sorley, but after this is through, so help me, but I will put a sword into those useless hands of yers and ye will fight me fair and square.”

After a large mug of ale had been brought for Sorley to drink, the man felt well enough to continue. He whispered to one of the guards, and they went to the waiting room, coming back with Mistress Fiona Crawford in tow. The woman was dressed up in another purple creation, this time an elegant confection of mauve-scalloped edges trimmed with damson-hued lace. If Jean was honest with herself, the woman did not look like an irredeemable harridan; she looked like a true rich widow. On top of the woman’s brassy blonde hair was perched a tall aigrette of feathers and artificial flowers; her brown eyes looked as though they could be kind and intelligent if they were not looking so scared. For the first time in her life, Jean was able to understand how such a woman could appeal to a young man, one who had grown up with no mother to guide him, looking for a pair of motherly loving arms to hold him tightly, to murmur sweet endearments into his ear.

Fiona went to stand behind the guards, poking the men in their backs until they held their staves to attention. The woman had been peeking through the door to observe the proceedings and had watched Charlie as he streaked like lightning across the hall to strangle his accuser. She did not want the same thing happening to her.

Sorley, his crumpled collar looking as if it had been savaged by a dog, approached Fiona.

“Mistress, is it no’ true that Charlie Brisbane was yer lover when ye were still wed to yer husband?”

Fiona hung her head in shame as the clergymen on the judgment dais made murmurs of disapproval. “Aye, I cannae lie, sir, but ‘twas nay me fault. The knave lured me into it.”

Jean felt her husband react and held his hand tightly, whispering, “She’s no’ worth it, Charlie.”