Christina’s mouth dropped open and her eyes widened with shock. “Oh I couldn’t! Why, that would be brazen. He’d think me … He’d think me …” she sputtered to a halt, clearly unable to voice the word floating through her mind.
“I wager he’d be too knocked off his feet to have such thoughts,” Maddie muttered. “Some men need a shove every now and again. A stolen kiss does not a harlot make. No matter what your mother might preach.”
“I agree with Maddie,” Keeley said.
“You do?” Christina turned to look at Keeley just as they stepped into the keep and were greeted by much warmer air. “Have you ever … kissed a man?” Her voice dropped to a whisper as she looked around to make certain they weren’t overheard. “I mean did you do the kissing?”
“Aye,” Keeley said softly. “I’ve kissed and I’ve been kissed. ’Tis not a shameful thing, Christina. If it doesn’t go too far. Cormac is a good man. He won’t take advantage, and if he does, you scream loudly and I’ll kick him betwixt the legs.”
Maddie dissolved into laughter while Christina looked so shocked that Keeley wondered if she and Maddie should have counseled the younger woman at all.
But then a speculative gleam appeared in her eyes and Christina’s expression grew thoughtful. As soon as they entered the hall, Mairin rose from her chair in front of the fire and hurried toward them.
“Thank goodness you’re here. I am driving myself daft with boredom. Ewan won’t allow me out of the keep but everyone else must still go about their duties.”
Then Mairin stopped and studied them curiously. “What is amiss? And Christina, why do you have such a peculiar look on your face?”
Maddie chuckled. “The lass is conspiring.”
Mairin’s brows shot up. “This, I must hear. Come, sit in front of the fire with me and tell me all. If there is mischief to be had, I want a part in it.”
“Oh sure, make the laird furious with us all for leading you astray,” Keeley grumbled.
Mairin grinned cheekily and settled back in her chair, her palm molding to her protruding belly. “Ewan won’t touch a hair on your head. At least not until our babe is safely delivered.”
“It’s afterward you need to worry,” Maddie teased.
Keeley sobered, for after she delivered Mairin’s babe, her future was indeed precarious. She had no idea if she even had a cottage to return to at this point. With her disappearance, naught would be known of her fate and her cottage would surely be taken over by someone in need of a sturdy shelter. She had no champion to back her claim, and in fact the cottage didn’t really belong to her. It was a McDonald holding.
“Did we say something wrong?” Mairin asked anxiously. “You look so … sad, Keeley.”
Keeley offered a valiant smile. “ ’Tis nothing. I was thinking of my fate after your babe is born.”
The other women looked shocked and a little appalled.
“Surely you don’t think you’d be turned out,” Maddie exclaimed.
Mairin shifted forward in her chair and clutched Keeley’s hand to hers. “Ewan would never allow such a thing to happen. You do know that, don’t you?”
“ ’Tis the truth I know nothing of my future,” Keeley said softly. “More likely than that, I don’t have a home to return to. Such as it was.”
“You don’t like it here?” Christina asked.
Keeley hesitated. Once Alaric married Rionna, ’Twas true that being here would take her further away from Alaric than returning to the McDonald land where she might very well be called to deliver Rionna’s first child. With Alaric. The thought was too much to bear. And yet staying here would also put her into close proximity with both Alaric and Rionna when they came to visit. ’Twas a conundrum that promised hurt for her no matter what the course of her fate.
“Aye, I like it here,” she finally said. “I never realized how lonely I was before I had all of you to laugh and talk with.”
“Keeley, will you tell us what happened to you?” Mairin asked quietly. “If ’tis none of our business, feel free to say so, but I wonder so why you no longer carry the McDonald name and why it is you say your clan turned their back on you.”
“ ’Tis shameful that,” Maddie offered with a scowl. “Family is family. A clan is all a person has. If they won’t stand behind you, who will?”
“Who will indeed?” Keeley asked ruefully.
She sat back and drew in her breath, surprised by how angry she still felt after so long. Resentment festered just underneath her skin, looking for a crack in which to spill out.
“I grew up as a close friend to Rionna McDonald, the laird’s only child.”
“Alaric’s Rionna?” Mairin asked with a gasp.
“Aye, Alaric’s Rionna.” It took her all not to flinch when saying those words. “It was common for me to be around the laird and Lady McDonald. They indulged Rionna and me and gave us run of the keep. As we grew older and became more womanly in look, the laird began watching me. So closely it discomfited me.”
“The lecher,” Maddie muttered.
“It became so uncomfortable that I started to avoid him entirely and started spending less time with Rionna inside the keep. One day when going to summon Rionna from her room, the laird caught me alone and he began saying horrible things. He kissed me and I was appalled. I told him I would scream for help and he asked who would go against him? He was laird. He could have what he wanted. No one would gainsay him.
“I was terrified, for he spoke the truth. He would have raped me in his daughter’s chamber, but Lady McDonald walked in.”
Mairin looked horrified. “Oh, Keeley.”
“I thought the worst of it was having the laird attack me so. I was wrong. The worst of it was when Lady McDonald labeled me whore and accused me of enticing her husband. I was banished from the keep and forbidden to return. I suppose I was fortunate that they allowed me to take a cottage a distance from the keep, but ’twas a lonely existence for a young girl.”
“That’s despicable!” Christina exclaimed. “How could they have done that to you?”
All three women’s faces were creased with horror and it sparked gladness in Keeley’s heart. It felt good to have someone be outraged on her behalf.
“The loss of Rionna’s friendship hurt the most. I didn’t know at first if she believed what was said about me. After Lady McDonald passed and she made no effort to see me or allow me back into the clan, I realized that everyone had indeed believed the worst.”