Occasionally she contemplated having an adulterous affair so Macoran would set her aside and send her back, but there was not much chance of that even if she were pretty enough to entice a man. Her husband was powerful with all authority of execution and few were willing to cross him.
Every spring Macoran sent his guard with her on the two day journey inland to visit her parents and she stayed until her father insisted she return in the fall. When she was not with child by the third year, he accused her, and rightly so, of not submitting to her husband. There was nothing she would not do to please her father, even that. So she plied her husband with strong drink, enticed him into her bedchamber and the next year she gave birth to twin boys, both with Macoran's awful red hair and green eyes.
That was the end of her wifely duties to her way of thinking and Macoran did not complain. Why should he? Daily he went off on his horse to see that Jirvel woman, whom Agnes was sure he was bedding despite her having a husband of her own. And Agnes was glad of it. Another wife might have been embarrassed by his blatant actions, but she cared not what the Macorans thought of her…or of him.
Yet there had to be a way out of her lifeless marriage so she could go home for good, and the more she thought about it the more only one answer came to mind - Macoran had to die.
Until she found a way to accomplish that, she had two little secret weapons she was more than willing to use to make his life as miserable as he made hers. Macoran named them Searc and Sionn.
*
Kannak was excited about the coming festival and could hardly concentrate on her share of the work during the day not to mention making baskets at night. She waited until Stefan finished sharpening his sword and put it in his sheath. "Perhaps ye would like to learn basket weaving."
"Basket weaving be for lasses and wee bairn."
"Is that so? I say ye will not, because ye cannot."
He got up from the table and hung his sword on a hook on the wall. "Good. I am pleased that be settled. For a moment, I feared another wager coming on. No doubt ye have tired o' losing." Stefan tested the position of the sword to be sure he could draw it easily in the night and then sat back down at the table. "Tonight, 'tis I who will challenge ye."