should leave. I won’t say it again, and I don’t believe Brodie wishes to hear it again.”
“Naught is resolved,” Monty argued. “You still disgraced yourself, and he compromised you.”
“So you’ve said,” Laurel said as she cast Monty a withering stare. “Sort out the contracts and inform Father that whatever pittance he calls my dowry needs to be delivered to the Campbells. For all my faults and sins, I just allied the Rosses with the most powerful clan in Scotland. If the next words out of your mouth, Monty, aren’t thank you, I’ll run you through myself.”
Monty shifted his gaze to the resolute expression on Brodie’s face, and his defensive posture near Laurel. He shook his head but smiled. “I sense you deserve one another. If you are so quick to defend my sister, I believe you carry genuine sentiment toward her. And I suspect she ended our fight out of pity and fear for my life more than worry for your safety. Laurel, I will send a missive to Father to inform him of these good tidings. And despite the words—and blows—exchanged here, I will stand beside you no matter what anyone says. And I do not doubt Father and our clan council will be, dare I say, jubilant to learn that you’re marrying into the Campbells.
“I shall sleep well kenning I’ve made Father and the clan council happy,” Laurel said snidely. “And you’re welcome, Monty.”
“Och, thank you, Laurel,” Monty stepped forward to kiss his sister on the cheek, but her pinched look and her eye that twitched made him pull back. “We should see the king as soon as we can gain an audience.”
Eleven
Laurel was sandwiched in a chair between Brodie on her left and Monty on her right. The trio sat across from an aggrieved King Robert. They hadn’t been made to wait when they requested an audience. The sneer the chamberlain cast her said more than his haughty greeting. Word had clearly spread to nearly every echelon within the court, and she could only imagine what awaited her on the other side of the portal to the Privy Council chamber. What she discovered was a very irritated monarch.
“Your Majesty,” Brodie said. “Lady Laurel consented to be my wife.”
“Before or after you nearly sucked her face from her head?” King Robert snapped.
Brodie ignored the Bruce’s comment. “I did not intend to remain at court overly long, but I wish to remain and properly court Lady Laurel.”
“You seem confused, Campbell. The courtship occurs before the marriage proposal and generally before you compromise the chit,” King Robert grumbled.
“Be that as it may, Lady Laurel and I seem well suited to one another, but I will not have her forced. I wish for Lady Laurel to have time for us to come to know one another, and then decide if she still wishes to proceed.”
“That is not how things work, Campbell. And well you know it. You both made the decision that you knew one another well enough when you trysted on the landing of the ladies’ floor. Unless you forced her,” King Robert glowered. “And now you wish to excuse yourself.”
“Laird Campbell did not force me,” Laurel said evenly, her head held high, and her spine rigid. “I was an equal participant.”
“Your honesty and courage are commendable, but your common sense is deplorable,” King Robert stated. “You have caused a scandal of proportions I cannot last recall. At least your peers usually cause their scandals far away from court. And how am I to believe that you or Laird Campbell came willingly to this agreement, when the men who sit beside your sport cuts and bruises?”
“That was my fault, Your Majesty,” Monty spoke up. “I had unkind words and less-than-brotherly comments for Lady Laurel. I justly received my comeuppance.”
“And Laird Campbell’s swollen nose and split lip?” King Robert pointed out.
“Proof that I defend Lady Laurel by choice, not merely out of duty.” Brodie didn’t look at Laurel, but he reached for her hand. She jumped, unprepared for the contact, but quickly splayed her fingers for Brodie to intertwine with his.
Robert cocked an eyebrow at the gesture and scowled. “That is still not how courtship works. And it certainly isn’t how a scandal works. There is no taking one’s time to become better acquainted—though the nature of the scandal is that you are already too well acquainted. I have already decreed that there will be no weddings until after Lady Laurel’s.” Robert turned his attention toward Monty. “I’ve also read your