CHAPTER 7

“Then I’ll discuss the matter with your laird and only your laird,” Mary said firmly. She hoped that by injecting enough strength into her voice she’d make the other woman back down. Gertie still rolled her eyes and resumed tending her fire.

“Can you take me to him?” Mary asked Christina as she rose from the stool. “I really must speak to him right away.”

“Of course, Lady,” Christina said in her sweet voice. “I was instructed to take you to him the moment you finished eating.”

The food Mary had just consumed swirled in her gut like sour ale.

“Are you nervous?” Christina asked as they descended the steps from the keep. “You have no reason to be. The laird seems gruff, and he can be stern when crossed, but he’s fair and very evenhanded with our clan.”

The part that Christina left out was that Mary wasn’t part of the Woods clan, which meant that any policies about fair and evenhanded didn’t apply. But she had saved Crispen, and it was obvious that the laird loved his son. She held on to