The Marriage Contract (22 page)

“I did what was right,” Aidan told him.

“You did what protected you!” Robbie shot back.

“Yes,” Aidan admitted. “And the people I love. There will be no more killing.”

“You’ve fallen under the spell of an English temptress,” Robbie flashed.

Aidan started to reach for Robbie’s neck—but to his surprise, Anne laughed.

“I’ve never been called a temptress before,” she said. “I thank you for the compliment, Robbie Gunn. But I’ll advise you no one leads the Earl of Tiebauld around by his nose. Not his wife or his angry friends.”

“I’ll not stay under this roof,” Robbie said malevolently. “I curse it and everyone in it.”

“Brother—” Deacon started.

Robbie whipped around to him. “Let us go, Deacon. And when the time comes, Kelwin will be the first castle we burn!” So saying, he rose from the bed. “I’ll get help to move you, brother.”

He’d taken several steps toward the door when Deacon said, “I won’t be going, Robbie.”

“What?” He faced Deacon. “You won’t be at my side? You’d choose to stay here over your own brother?” He glared at Cora and then Anne. “The women have made you both soft. They’ve sapped your lust for freedom.”

“That’s not true,” Aidan said. “I’ve decided to take my seat in Parliament. I will take the Scottish question to them.”

Robbie spit his opinion on the ground. “No one will listen.”

“They will, if I am persistent enough,” Aidan answered.

“It will take decades. Centuries even!” Robbie declared. “No man gives up power freely.”

“Then I and my heirs will work for centuries,” he vowed. “But I want no more of killing.”

“What of Deacon and me,
Lord
Tiebauld? We are wanted men. Will you betray us? Will you turn us over to the English to save your precious peace?”

Aidan reached for Anne’s hand. The time had
come to make the offer they had discussed the night before. “No, I have another proposition to offer you. One I hope you and Deacon both agree to. My family owns property in North America, purchased by my grandfather. Having lived with the aftermath of Culloden and being an English hostage for a time, he feared the family might someday be forced into exile. He wanted the place of exile to be of his own choosing.”

Robbie had turned sullen, but Deacon was listening. “What place did he choose?”

“Canada. Along the St. Lawrence River,” Aidan answered. “I’m told it’s good land and I have the surveyors’ reports as I had the land recently remeasured. I’m told the property could be developed profitably by the right men.”

“For your own gain,” Robbie shot back.

“No, for yours,” Aidan answered. “I will deed the land over to the two of you. You can start fresh. When you are established, pay me what it is worth.”

“I don’t want to start
fresh,
” Robbie mimicked. “I have lands, lands that were stolen from me.”

“And will probably never be returned to you, either,” Aidan shot back. He moved with Anne to the door. As they passed, Robbie childishly made a show of pretending not to want them to touch him. His actions disappointed Aidan. He’d hoped for better. “It’s your decision,” he said, opening the
door. “I won’t talk you into it. You can stay and fight—I can’t stop you. Or you can try to build something new.” He and Anne left the room.

Anne waited until they were out of earshot to ask, “Do you think they will accept your offer?”

“I don’t know. Every man must make his own decision. I’ve made mine.”

Norval was waiting for them in the great hall. “Everything is ready, my lord,” he whispered conspiratorially.

“Every
what
thing is ready?” Anne asked.

“You’ll see,” Aidan answered cryptically, and led her to the front door.

She hung back. “My lord, I don’t like surprises.”

“Trust me, my lady.”

“You ask for my trust quite often.” She arched a suspicious eyebrow.

“Aye, and have you ever regretted it?”

Her expression softened. “No.”

He grinned. “Then trust me now.” He opened the door.

She hesitated a moment, and then went forward. Aidan and Norval followed, the manservant almost skipping, he was so excited to be a part of the surprise.

Outside, spring had truly arrived. The wind off the North Sea blew with as much force as always, but there was a difference in the air. Tender shoots of green grass peered around the cobbles of the court
yard, and the baaing of newborn lambs could be heard all the way from the sheep shed to the castle.

It was the time of year for a new life, for a new beginning, Aidan thought, as he piloted his wife in the direction of the chapel.

“What are we doing here?” she asked, curious. She frowned. “Aidan, I don’t like surprises—”

He covered her lips with one finger, warning her to ask no more questions. “Close your eyes.”

She didn’t want to, but in the end curiosity got the better of her. She closed her eyes. Standing behind her, Aidan put his hands on her arms and guided her forward.

“There’s a step here,” he said in her ear, warning her of the rough-hewn slab of stone at the entrance of the chapel. “Over the threshold.” Dutifully she lifted her foot higher.

“Open your eyes,” he whispered in her ear.

Anne didn’t know what to expect, but it wasn’t what she saw. All of Kelwin was crowded into the chapel dressed in their very best, even Nachton McKay, the distiller, and his two other daughters. They held thin sticks with bright bands of multi-color ribbons tied to the top. The ribbons bounced and jiggled with the movement of the crowd.

Reverend Oliphant stood before the altar dressed in sacramental robes.

“What is this?” Anne asked.

Aidan took her hand. He glanced at their audi
ence, drew a deep breath, and said, “Well, if you’ll have me, I’d like to marry you. Only this time, it will be of my own choice…and I’ll be present for the ceremony.”

People chuckled at his words. They all knew the story. Anne’s proxy marriage had already become the stuff of legend.

She looked around the room. There was Bonnie Mowat with all her boys. Fang stood proudly at the other end of the row, a head shorter than his oldest sons. Hugh Keith had placed himself at the very front of the church. He was flanked by his mother, Kathleen, on one side, and by his sweetheart, Fenella, and her mother on the other.

And there were others, so many others. People who were becoming the weave of the fabric of her life. The hopeful expressions on their faces and their total acceptance of her said louder than words that she was one of them.

“You can’t refuse me,” Aidan said bluntly. Did she detect a touch of desperation in his tone? She pretended to weigh her options, and people chuckled. “What of the banns?” she asked.

“The banns?” Aidan repeated. “Anne, it’s too late for the banns. We’ve consummated the marriage.”

His blunt words surprised and delighted everyone, including Reverend Oliphant. The clergyman pretended to cough, but Anne had caught sight of the sparkle in his eye.

Before she could answer, Aidan took her hand
and knelt on one knee. “Come, Anne. You already have my heart. Will you accept my name in front of my people?”

She thought she would melt right there on the spot. “Yes, my lord, I will marry you.”

Everyone clapped and even cheered. It was Reverend Oliphant who brought matters to order. “Come, now. I’m anxious to see this business done so I can have another taste of that ale you are always bragging about, my lord. Let’s get on with it.”

Indeed, the ceremony itself was simple and speedy. Aidan didn’t bother to don a jacket but married her in his white shirtsleeves. She smiled at the poetic justice of her wearing the periwinkle dress. And as he slid the wedding band on her finger, promising to love and honor her, she knew at last she had found her home.

1817

Being a politician’s
wife was not easy for someone who could be as shy as Anne, especially when her husband wholeheartedly threw himself into the role.

Aidan arrived in London with a mission. He had much to accomplish and a difficult road ahead. There were many late nights when Parliament took precedence over social and family life.

Society was intrigued by the “mad Lord Tiebauld” who so brashly declared the task he had set for himself. He was handsome and wealthy and claimed a colorful lineage.

England was entering an age of unprecedented world dominance, an age of the Politician. New ideas were being discussed, the middle class was growing and coming into its own. Many Britons wanted to use their world power judiciously. They’d
had enough of war. The earl Tiebauld and his lady wife soon found themselves inundated with invitations.

Because Anne believed in his battle, she forced herself to overcome the shyness that had held her back during her Season on the Marriage Mart. She worked to become an accomplished hostess, one who made an extra effort to see
all
her guests were included at her social functions. Consequently she became a success.

Her sister-in-law, Alpina, saw to it they received vouchers for Almack’s. Anne discovered the vaulted assembly rooms were a bore. She had missed nothing back in the days when they would not admit her. Of course, she’d changed much since then, too. Her values were different and not even the strong opinions of her Aunt Maeve and her beautiful cousins bothered her. In fact, once she relaxed and let down her guard a bit, they were actually decent people. Not thoughtful, but not the villains she had imagined them to be, either.

Alpina was not completely pleased her brother had returned to London only to plead the Scottish cause, but she delighted in pronouncing the marriage a success and in taking full credit. When within the first year of wedded bliss, Anne gave birth to Donner Burnett Black, no one was happier than Alpina.

“You knew it would be a boy,” Anne reminded her one day when Alpina came to visit the nursery.

Alpina sat on the edge of her chair, holding baby Donner as if he were the most valuable treasure in the world. “Oh, Anne, I was grasping at straws. I feared Aidan had involved himself with a Jacobite rebellion and I prayed the responsibility of a wife would bring him to his senses.” She smiled sheepishly. “Can you imagine such a thing?”

Anne hummed her answer, a combination of “no” and “maybe.”

Her sister-in-law placed a benediction kiss on the baby’s cheek and handed him back to Anne, saying, “Now, I can die in peace.”

Her statement startled Anne. Alpina had not been well, but she had managed to live with her illness. Now, Anne realized her sister-in-law had merely been biding her time.

A week later, Alpina’s condition took a tragic turn for the worse—but now, she didn’t try to fight. As she’d told Anne, she was ready to die.

Anne was glad she and Aidan had been in Town to keep watch by his sister’s bedside. Alpina had silently suffered so much pain, death came as a blessing. She left her estate to Anne, who used a portion of it to purchase rugs for the floors and hangings for the walls at Kelwin and the rest to start a school in Caithness. She named the school after Alpina, Lady Waldo.

Deacon accepted Aidan’s offer to emigrate to British Canada. Two months after the gunpowder explosion, when he could walk on his own, albeit
limping, he and Cora married. Aidan and Anne returned to Kelwin for the ceremony, and a great celebration it was, too. A week later, the couple left with Marie and many members of the clan Gunn to begin a new life.

Unfortunately, once he’d sided with Aidan, Deacon never heard from his brother again. Robbie Gunn refused to have anything to do with his younger brother, whom he considered a traitor. Robbie turned to highway robbery as a means to raise money for his rebellion. He was captured outside Glasgow in the fall of 1815 by English troops and hanged. It was Aidan’s duty to write Deacon and inform him he was now laird of clan Gunn.

Deacon’s response took several months to arrive. He thanked Aidan for performing such a “grim service.” He finished by hoping Aidan was successful with his quest to fight for Scottish rights. “You are closer and dearer to me than my own brother,” Deacon wrote, “but I tell you this, I and my children and my children’s children will not set foot on Scottish soil until the English give back what was ours from the beginning: our right to self-government.”

Hugh managed Kelwin in Aidan’s absence. He turned out to be a good steward and the estate prospered.

Whenever they returned to the Highlands, Aidan and Hugh always took off hunting. They’d paint
their faces blue, drink a toast to Deacon, and charge off on the trail after deer. Often, Fang’s sons joined them. And once, Fang himself.

Anne, Fenella, and the other women shook their heads at such boyish nonsense, but what could they say? All men were really children at heart when it came to sport. If Aidan was happy tramping the hills dressed as an ancient Celt from time to time, well, Anne loved him enough to let him do it.

Several months after Donner was born, Hugh added a postscript to his letter reporting lamb counts that Fenella was expecting their first and Thomas Mowat had begun courting Fenella’s cousin.

Sitting in his study, a book-lined room paneled in walnut, Aidan passed Hugh’s letter to Anne. She nursed the baby in a chair beside his. Holding the letter in one hand, she read the postscript with delight.

“I can’t wait to return to Kelwin,” she said, shifting the baby to a more comfortable position. She could have hired a wet nurse, but had decided against the practice. Her father had once said it was natural and right for a mother to nurse her child and she had chosen to follow his advice. Aidan teased that she was being very “Republican.”

If the truth be known, sometimes, when all was quiet and she was alone with Donner like this in the nursery, she could sense her parents’ presence. She
realized now they always hovered close because now she understood a parent’s love.

“I can’t believe you invited your Aunt Maeve and Uncle Robert up for a visit,” Aidan said with a mock shiver. He was not impressed with her tight-fisted relatives. On the other hand, they adored him…or, at least, adored bragging about their connection to him.

Anne laughed. “You don’t need to worry. I can invite them all I wish but they’ll never make the trip. It’s all form.”

“Good.”

Someone knocked on the study door. “My lord, Lady Tiebauld, your guests have arrived,” the very correct butler said.

“They are here!” Anne said happily. They’d been waiting for the arrival of her old friends Tess and Leah and their husbands.

While she quickly made herself presentable, Aidan said through the closed door, “We’ll be there in a moment, Baxter. Please make them comfortable in the blue salon.”

“Yes, my lord,” came the droning reply.

“I miss Norval,” Anne said.

“I thought you wanted to pension him off.” Aidan held out his hands to take Donner from her.

“I do. He’s old and deserves to enjoy his remaining years in comfort. But he is one of the family. Baxter is so butlerish.” She shivered.

Aidan laughed in agreement and opened the
door for her. Anne hurried ahead of him down the marble-tiled hallway to the blue salon.

She burst into the room and was rewarded with the welcoming cries of Tess and Leah. Her friends were more beautiful than she remembered them.

Tess and her husband, Brenn Owen, the earl of Merton, were expecting their second child. They had left their son Hal with his nanny, since he suffered a slight cold. Pregnancy only served to make Tess more radiant. Anne liked her husband immediately, especially when he took Donner from Aidan and dubbed him “a handsome baby.”

Leah proudly showed off her son, Benjamin. He was over a year old and the happiest boy. Leah’s husband, Devon Marshall, viscount Huxhold, absolutely doted on the child. Anne hadn’t seen her for years and marveled over the sense of peace and maturity womanhood had brought to Leah.

Baxter interrupted the joyful reunion by announcing dinner. Donner’s nanny took both the boys up to the nursery so the parents could enjoy their meal. Afterward, the women left their husbands to their brandy while they slipped back into the blue salon to enjoy tea and cozy confidences—as they had as debutantes.

“Can you believe how well our husbands are getting along with each other?” Leah asked, accepting a cup from Anne.

“Amazing, isn’t it?” Tess agreed. “In fact, Brenn confided to me over dinner if Aidan is successful
with his Scottish legislation, he will take a more active interest in his seat in the House of Lords and push for Welsh concerns.”

Anne tilted her head thoughtfully toward Leah. “Now that you have met him, is the mad Lord Tiebauld such a terrible person?” At one time, Leah had been contracted to marry Aidan and had done everything in her power to avoid the liaison.

Leah laughed. “He is quite charming, but absolutely smitten by you. No, my dear Anne, I believe everything has worked out exactly as it was intended. You and Aidan are wonderful to each other.”

Anne felt her eyes turn watery. She cried often now, but not out of sadness. Her life brimmed with happiness. Many times during the day, she would pause and reflect, scarcely believing her own good fortune. Now, she fussed with the creamer. “Yes, he has made my life worthwhile.”

“I think he might say the same of you,” Tess observed.

“I pray you are right,” Anne said. “At least now his house is clean.” She told them of the first time she’d seen the great hall at Kelwin. They laughed so hard, tears rolled down their cheeks.

Tess changed the subject. “Do you ever think back to the evening at Lady Ottley’s musicale when we talked of sticks and pillows?”

Leah howled with laughter and covered her face
with her hands. “How could we have been so naïve?”

“But it all worked out fine,” Anne said. “We did figure it out.”

“Yes, but only after a few embarrassing moments,” Tess confessed.

“I’m curious,” Anne said. “If you had to sum up what you’ve learned about marriage—”

“And love?” Leah interjected, always the romantic.

“Yes, and love,” Tess agreed softly.

“—What would you say to the young, impressionable girls we were back then?” Anne finished.

Her question made all of them pause to reflect. Tess sat back in her chair, her hand resting on her rounded belly. Leah stirred her tea. Both women considered the question carefully.

It was Leah who spoke first. “Well, I believe I have discovered—and I should say now that I don’t want to be held to this opinion years from now, because I may change my mind—”

Both Tess and Anne laughed. “Well, truly,” Leah defended herself. “I am the youngest, but I’d wager I know better than the two of you the twists and turns life takes. I’ve learned that sometimes what we see as misfortune is really destiny. Love is not always rational. It’s almost as if God plays a hand.” She smiled. “I’ve become philosophical. Still, who would have thought I would love so dearly a man
who was my family’s enemy…or have found so much happiness with him? Before him, I was lost. Now he is my life.”

Tess reached for her hand. At one time, the two of them had been rivals. Now, they were friends. “I am glad you are happy.”

“Thank you,” Leah said quietly and then, on a stronger note asked, “Who is next?”

“I am,” Tess said. She sat up, back straight, her hands slipping down to help support the weight of her pregnant belly, her spirit proud. “I have learned you can’t really love someone unless you can come to them as a complete and whole person.”

Anne frowned. “I’m not certain of your meaning.”

Tess elaborated, “Before Brenn, I ran from marriage. I felt it was the same as a death sentence. It would be like being buried alive.”

Leah made a distasteful sound.

“I now understand my feelings were because I didn’t have a true purpose in life. I saw myself as an ornament for a man’s arm and little else. My whole world revolved around the narrow focus of the
ton.
”

“And now?” Anne asked.

“Brenn has shown me there is a whole world outside of London. I’m fascinated by the people I’ve met and by new ideas.”

“Tess, you sound like a bluestocking,” Leah said, referring to women who valued education over lighter pursuits.

“Maybe I am one,” Tess answered resolutely. “I
was always too clever for silly painting lessons and endless musicales. I’ve discovered I want more. I’ve been writing.”

“Writing?” Anne repeated in surprise.

“Yes, and I think I’m quite good. However, I’ve learned marriage is a new beginning, especially when you are with someone who lets you be the person you want to be.”

“But you’ve always had strong opinions,” Anne remarked.

“With you and Leah, but not with men…until Brenn. I hate to think of what sort of person I would be if I had stayed in London and continued my selfish, narrow-thinking ways. He has challenged me.”

“And made you stronger,” Leah added in agreement.

“Yes,” Tess said. She turned to Anne. “Very well, what have
you
learned?”

Anne lifted her gaze to the gilded artwork on the ceiling and contemplated how much her life had changed.

“Well,” she began, swinging her attention back to her friends. “I now understand the depth of love my parents had for each other…and also for me. When a parent dies, a child feels abandoned. Now that I am a mother myself, I understand a parent’s love is always with you, even beyond death.”

“But what of your husband?”

Anne smiled. “He’s taught me that the best part of marriage is the laughter. I agree with you that fate
intervenes and steers us toward people we would never have chosen for ourselves. I truly believe I was waiting for Aidan. He brings out the best in me, but I also bring out the best in him. Together, we make a whole. I could not imagine my life without him.”