Read Online The Marriage Contract by Cathy Maxwell - Free Book Online Page B

around here.” He shrugged. “Have Norval do it in the morning.”
    Aidan didn’t answer. Anne’s reaction to Kelwin had unsettled him. The place did look like a hunting lodge after a raucous night of bachelor carousing. If he wasn’t careful, he would turn into an old roué.
    For the first time in his life, he sensed time was passing.
    “What are you thinking, Tiebauld?”
    Aidan shook his head. “Nothing.”
    “She must be gone before the Danes deliver thegunpowder,” Deacon said quietly. “Which could be any day.”
    “Who?” Aidan looked up.
    “Don’t pretend ignorance with me.” Deacon stepped down from the dais. “I know you are thinking about the Englishwoman.”
    “She’ll be gone in the morning.”
    “If she doesn’t manage a way around you.”
    Aidan tossed the untouched contents of his glass into the huge fire, where it hissed in retaliation. He faced his friend. “Either way, it is not your concern.”
    Deacon pulled back. “Is it not? Tiebauld, I had thought you’d have joined us by now, and yet you hesitate to commit fully to our cause.”
    “I’m smuggling in the gunpowder. What more do you want?”
    “We want you to lead us.”
    Aidan turned away from the argument, but Deacon followed. He lowered his voice. “I’ve heard word from Robbie.” He referred to his brother, Fiery Robbie Gunn.
    The Gunns had been a poor clan, loyal to their Jacobite heritage, and victims of a practice termed the “Clearances.” Wealthy landlords with strong political ties to England were allowed to turn tenants, farmers, and weavers out of their homes, burning the cottages if need be, to clear the land for the more profitable endeavor of sheep grazing. The Gunns wanted to strike back, not only for their land, butfor their birthright as proud Scotsmen. They wanted to throw the English out of Scotland for good and would settle for nothing less.
    “We need you, Tiebauld. All the clans would join the uprising if you were with us.”
    “I have no fight. My clan is safe, my relationship good with the neighboring landlords.”
    “But mine was destroyed. Robbie and I lost everything. Mark my words, the English will not stop until no highlander is left! They’ll come after your land rights. Especially that dog Lambert. His entire life is spent to see you forfeit your title. He’ll do it, too. See if he won’t.”
    Aidan lost his temper. “Save your rhetoric for the pamphlets. What is between Lambert and me is personal. Nor is war the answer. Have you and your brother thought about what will happen if you start a war and do win?”
    “We’ll stop the Clearances. We will return people to their rightful homes.”
    “But what of the future? Are you ready to put a government in place? To deal with the loss of industry and markets severing our ties with England will mean? And what if you lose— which you will? The English will crush you, just as they did my grandfather under Charles Stuart. He lost his life. I lost my country, my identity. However, this time the English will be even more brutal than before. Let us say you do escape and find a safe haven in Denmark or Holland. Can you live with the deaths and destruction of those you’ve left behind on your conscience? I can’t.”
    Deacon clenched his hand into a fist. “I burn with righteous anger, Tiebauld. Robbie and I won’t rest until we’re avenged. And there are many who follow us. Many more, if you will help.”
    “I can’t.”
    Deacon knocked over a chair. “I know it is not because you are a coward,” he said bitterly.
    Aidan sometimes wondered. How did a man know if he was brave? He’d been testing himself these past seven years, and still didn’t have an answer.
    For a moment, the two men studied each other and then their friendship, a bond almost as strong as brothers, rose between them. Deacon apologized, “I know you are braver than most.” He set the chair upright. “My temper gets the best of me.” He paused. “And so far you