Chapter 2

Eliana looked around the hall and sighed. It had been so long since her family had visited that she did not remember this castle at all. When they had come for the old Laird's funeral they had stayed outside, and two years ago when she had run here to wed Paddy and stay with him, they’d stayed in a croft for a night of privacy. Had the keep always looked so empty? She remembered feasts with more sweets than she was permitted at home. There had been music and games here too. Had there been decorations? More furniture? She couldn't recall having even looked to see. Perhaps it was her view of it that had changed now that she was grown. Or perhaps because today was not a day of celebration.

This keep was clean enough and in good shape, but it did not look like the grande hall of a wealthy clan. Perhaps they simply did not waste coin on frivolous finery the way her father had wont to do. If her parent’s home had been more simply decorated, would her father have been able to keep his taxes paid? Then the king might not have taken her in compensation for the clan’s debt. Then again, if he hadn’t she might be married to an ancient Earl and living in London, not the home of her childhood playmates.

According to the emissary, she was the lucky one. Her older sister would stay in their family home but be married to a warrior named Fann whom the king favoured. A warrior so vicious that even the guards had smirked whispering him a wicked warrior! Eliana shuddered, wondering how horribly mean and cruel he must be that even other warriors called him wicked. How would her sister ever manage to survive going from an abbey into the arms of a wicked warrior?

She looked up at a painting of the MacInnis brothers and sighed. Both of her husbands were staring out into the room with their nearly identical, mischievous grins. Three troublemakers, so similar in appearance that none of them could ever be punished since nobody could ever be certain which brother was responsible. In this instance, she suspected she was the one who was in the wrong, though through no fault of her own. Her father’s mischief had resulted in her being wed to two of them at once.

Her father had forbidden her to wed, or even to see, the man she had loved her entire life, so she had run off in her sixteenth summer and wed Padraig. Unannounced to her, she had already been the king's ward, and the king refused to acknowledge that marriage. Now, two years later, he had wed her to Griogair instead! Apparently, it didn’t matter that she still considered herself wed to Paddy.

What had the McInnis men done that the king would force them all to wed? Were their new wives supposed to tame them? Or was it the bairns that followed that would do so? Eliana shuddered. Would she have to carry three bairns at once? Would the strain of it kill her as it had their mother?

That was the concern that had kept her delaying her marriage with Paddy. If she hadn’t been so afraid she would have stayed with him when they had come for his father’s funeral. She’d had been very young, with not much courage of her own. She hadn’t been able to consult her mother at the time either, she’d been too sick to come to the funeral or even to really have a good conversation with her anyways. When she got back home she found out that her mother had been hoping she would run off with Paddy at the funeral and not come home. If she had known that, she would have done it. Then all this would have been avoided. Instead, she had refused when Paddy asked her to stay and then meekly followed her father home. And now here she was, wed by handfast to Paddy and by proxy to Grair!

Would she be able to give herself to Gair without tears, knowing it was not the brother she had chosen or would she shrink away from his touch? The men looked just alike, so perhaps she could pretend. She sighed and shook her head, knowing that would be impossible. She could tell them apart by sight, and their personalities were nothing alike. Griogair had never appealed to her at all. He was always goofing off! Padraig was always calm and serious. He seemed to know what to do at any moment and could usually get people to do what he wanted without seeming to really try. He was a leader and made her feel safe. Griogair always wanted to know how others felt and what they wanted. He laughed constantly and teased without end. It was most irritating! How would she ever manage to put up with him every day for the rest of her life?

She stood by the fire, warming her hands even though she knew most of the chill she felt was from within. The woman travelling with the emissary had explained to her what would be expected of her this day. She had hardly slept last night for fretting over it, but not for the reason they believed. They believed her a shy and innocent maiden and kept trying to reassure her, but she knew what went on between a husband and wife. The question was, could she bring herself to couple willingly with Gair when it was Paddy she loved? The idea of it did not sit well at all. She had barely been able to eat a morsel since she'd found out. Perhaps Paddy would somehow be able to fix this for her. For them. So the two of them could remain together despite her past cowardice.

PADRAIG MADE SURE he was visibly fiddling with the coin when Eliana walked into the solar. She looked at his face first, then the coin. Her head tipped to the side and she pulled her bottom lip between her teeth. Padraig smiled. She remembered how their game worked. She'd never condoned the game when they were younger, but she wouldn't call a stop to it today.

“Make your mark here,” the emissary said, handing the quill to Eliana. She raised an eyebrow at the man but sat in the chair as instructed. The emissary rolled his eyes and made a noise in his throat when she started to read it. Padraig wasn’t sure if that was because the man felt she was wasting time or if he doubted she could actually read and write. “This says I am wed to Griogair?”

“All is as you were told.”

“You and I will be legally married when I sign my name on the line,” Padraig said, holding her eyes. “See here,” he pointed to the line before the signature, “it says Griogair Padraig Alasdair MacInnis, which is my full name, agrees to be bound in marriage to you, Eliana Mary Catherine, and you are to sign the line beside mine. We will be doing as the king wishes once we both sign.”

“That is what it says,” she smiled slightly. Did she remember that they all had the same name and he was just called Padraig by choice? She was one of the few people who could tell him and his brothers apart. If she didn't go along with it...

“We're the lucky ones, Eliana, for we are not strangers to one another, I am sure we can make a good match.”

“It appears we have little choice,” she said, “we are wed by order of the king and our signatures only acknowledge it.” She looked at the emissary and asked, “that is what you said, was it not? I wonder why the king bothered making us sign anything at all.”

“He wants to be sure that neither of you can say you didn’t agree to it,” the emissary said. “After you sign the priest is to bless the vows and I am to ensure they are properly sealed before I leave so you cannot go for an annulment on any grounds. The king has left nothing to go wrong in this matter. This is quite important to him.” Eliana’s eyes met Padraig’s. He could see she was biting her lips to keep from smiling and he hoped the emissary would simply think her nervous.

“What if I do not wish to do that with you in the room?” Eliana asked the emissary, her face turning bright red as her eyes fluttered to the floor.

“We will do as the king requires,” Padraig commanded.

“We...we will?”

“Yes, Eliana,” he took her chin in his fingers and tipped her head up until their eyes met. “The emissary will see us couple.” Her face paled and he felt her swallow hard.

“Quite right,” the emissary agreed, a grin spreading across his face as his eyes traveled over Eliana from head to toe. “The king decreed I must witness that the vows are consummated.”

“I thought perhaps just the bloody sheet...” she said softly. Padraig’s eyes narrowed. She could not provide a bloody sheet and they both knew it.

“One of my brothers is to marry a widow, she can not provide a bloody sheet. It would not be fair if the emissary had to watch them and not us.”

“I...I suppose not.” Padraig smiled as he let go of her chin and bent over her to sign his name. HIS name. Eliana noticed. Griogair and Alasdair were written slightly smaller than Padraig, the name he chose to be called most of the time. She looked up at him, her eyes questioning.

“My other brother is wed to a lass far to the east whom we have never met. They too will have to couple for the emissary and they are yet strangers to one another. You are lucky to know me, are you not?”

“It would appear so,” she said softly as she let him help her to her feet. The emissary, fortunately, seemed to be so excited by the idea of watching them couple that he put the paper away without even checking if the ink was dry enough not to smudge. They waited for the priest to finish, neither of them really listening to him. Finally, Padraig put his arm around Eliana’s waist and held her tightly to his side as they led the emissary down the hall and up the stairs to his bed chamber.