Black Richard's Heart (The MacCulloughs #1) - Suzan Tisdale Page 0,5
replied sternly. “But they are of no importance at the moment.” He drummed his fingers on the top of the table. “What shall I tell David?”
Rory stepped forward and glowered at the young man. “Ye can tell David he can go straight to hell, along with his Chisolm kinfolk!” While in truth that was exactly what Black Richard would have enjoyed telling the king’s messenger, ’twas wholly inappropriate. He shot Rory a look of warning that made the young man take a few steps back.
Rory’s outburst had no visible effect on the king’s messenger. He kept his attention on Black Richard. “Is that what ye wish me to tell him?”
Black Richard grunted. “Tell David I shall see him the day after tomorrow, at the MacRay keep.”
“Ye cannae mean to agree to this,” Rory ground out. “’Tis madness!”
Black Richard had waited until David’s messenger was gone before addressing Lachlan or Rory’s outrage. “What choice do I have?” he asked them. “If I do not agree to the union, we lose everythin’.”
Lachlan and Rory were hard pressed to find a more palatable solution to Black Richard’s problem. For a long while, the three men stood in stupefied silence.
“I will go to the MacRay keep, as requested,” he told them. “But while I am there, I shall say me peace to David and the MacRay. ’Tis high time David knew the truth about Garrin MacRay.”
Rory grunted his disgust. “David will not listen, Richard.”
Black Richard knew he was right.
Lachlan agreed. “I cannae believe ye are bein’ forced to marry a MacRay wench! The MacRay’s only daughter.”
The more he thought on it, the angrier he became. He was being forced to marry the daughter of his enemy. There was nothing fair or just about David’s edict. He might has well have gutted Richard and be done with it, for the result would likely be the same. Knowing the MacRays and their penchant for duplicity and treachery, the woman would undoubtedly wait for Richard to fall asleep before running a blade across his throat, or plunging it into his chest. He imagined the MacRays were at this very moment plotting that very thing.
“There has to be a way out of this,” Black Richard grumbled. His ire continued to churn deep in his gut. It had been the MacCulloughs who had suffered the most these past years, at the hands of both the Chisolms and MacRays. It had been his clan who had been displaced, forced out of their ancestral home. It had been his clan who came far closer to total annihilation than anyone else.
Yet the two clans responsible for all of their pain and suffering were allowed to go on as if they hadn’t been complicit nor guilty. Nay, they weren’t being punished for their actions; the MacCulloughs were.
“’Tis a slap in the face for our many years of loyalty to David,” Lachlan said. “We have done naught but support him and defend ourselves against the Chisolms and MacRays. And how does David repay us?”
From the way the two men were behaving, one would think ’twas they who were being forced into a marriage with the MacRay’s daughter. Giving a shake of his head, Black Richard pushed away from the table and stood to his full height. He needed time to think, to try to formulate a plan that would get him out of the godforsaken plight. Marry a MacRay?
“I must agree,” Black Richard said with a shake of his head. “Again, I wish there way out of this.”
From their pained expressions, Lachlan or Rory held as much hope as he did. They knew their laird was doomed even before he stepped one foot on MacRay lands. “I think ye best prepare yerself for the inevitable,” Lachlan told him. “Fer we both ken that once David’s mind is set on a thing, there be nae changin’ it. Unless ye give him his weight in gold.”
Rory nodded in agreement. “And we do not have a bird’s shite worth of gold.”
Black Richard was too furious to think clearly. All he wanted was a chance to say his peace to both David and Garrin MacRay and get out of this ridiculous plan for peace. Aye, he wanted peace betwixt the clans, but not at any cost. He was, after all, a man of pride and dignity. Pride and dignity were all he had left to his name.
But how to get out of this mess? Suddenly, the solution burned bright. All need happen would be for the lass to