Part 14 (1/2)
She scoffed, ”Any more than pillaging across the country has?”
d.a.m.n her! ”I do not pillage, steal or rape! I am paid well enough to lay siege and ride away.”
”Not anymore, PenDragon. This county and castle offers little fortune for tributes to your king, men for battle, and now you must see no others lay siege. For now-'tis yours.”
Slowly he shook his head, her gaze trapped in his. She was still, her spine so stiff he thought it would snap. ”'Tis ours, Siobhan. Ours.”
A flutter started in her breast as he neared, his eyes glowing with an emotion she wished she could decipher. Jager me, she knew so little of this man she would call husband. But in marriage, she could watch him, curtail any injustice to her people.
”Your marriage vow binds you to me more than an oath to Henry.” And he would gain it, he thought, someday, he would. ”Now what say you to my stipulations?”
She stared at his chest, feeling helplessly trapped, her words barely audible. ”I will share a chamber, but I ask that you not take me as ... as your true wife”-she lifted her gaze-”until I am ready.”
The fear in her eyes slapped him. ”I am not ruled by my l.u.s.t,” he snarled, turning away.
”What rules you then, my lord? For 'tis not your heart.”
He jerked a look at her, stung. ”Do you think I have no feelings, Siobhan? Do you think that because I live by the sword, I cannot feel the loss of a comrade? The pain of a wound?”
Instantly contrite, she moved to him, laying her hand on his arm. His hard flesh flexed beneath her touch, the lines bracketing his mouth tight.
”I beg your forgiveness.” He melted a little. ”That was thoughtless of me. I know not what is in your head or your heart-”
”You swore afore I did not have one.”
”The subject is still in debate, m'lord.” Her lips twisted wryly. ”I know being strapped with a bride you did not want-”
”Who said I did not want you?”
Her heart skipped at his softly growled words. ”You do so for compliance.”
”Do I?”
Her eyes sparked with anger. ”Do not play games with me, PenDragon.” She put distance between them. ”Raymond tells me you have always had this choice, that the king wanted you here as border lord.”
”Raymond should hold his counsel.” Gaelan had a dozen reasons for not wanting to remain, the foremost his part in her husband's death.
”At least he is honest to me. Had you done so, then-”
”Would you have wed me willingly?” Her hostile expression warned him not to seek what was not there. ”Would you believe me when I say that I am tired of warring and wish to cease?”
”Nay.”
He scowled.
”You were quick to threaten war on Ian.”
He loomed closer. ”I replied to his threat, Siobhan.”
”Ian is trustworthy, my lord, but I will argue that at another time.” When she told him of the raid before he arrived, she agonized, stepping away.
As much as he wanted to gather her in his arms and tame her with a kiss, he did not, his thoughts centering suddenly on the Maguire and what he meant to her. He dismissed the uncomfortable notion. She was his prize and he would keep her.
”Are we in agreement now?”
Reluctantly she said, ”In this private matter, aye.”
”You have more?”
”There is the honor price, my lord.” She stepped beyond the part.i.tion and motioned. In moments Raymond, Driscoll and the friar stepped in. Friar O'Donnel was a round little man, red-cheeked and thick-fingered. He clasped them around a stack of books, grinning hugely at everyone, even Gaelan.
The friar dropped onto a tall stool and reverently opened the books. With Driscoll near the entrance as if to guard against a fleeing bride, the friar read the contracts of marriage and the price Gaelan must pay to have her, brehon law strangely blended with the church's rule. Then he learned Tigheran O'Rourke had been married before and put his wife Devorgilla aside for her betrayal with his enemy Dermott MacMurrough, Siobhan's uncle.
”Do not look so disconcerted, PenDragon. I have been the price of peace afore.”
He arched a brow, a sick feeling working through his chest.
”Devorgilla was kidnapped by Dermott MacMurrough, but the truth was, she summoned him to take her away. Tigheran put her aside, as was his right by brehon law, but he was not satisfied, warring with O'Connor on MacMurrough. To stop the killing of my clansmen, I married Tigheran.”
A sacrifice. A hostage in wedlock, and the similarities twisted his gullet. ”By this brehon law, you could have refused.”
”Oftimes the church and the needs of the whole shadow such choices,” she said in a dead voice.
Once again she was atonement. But now that the wheels of his future were in motion, a thought occurred. ”Siobhan?”
She lifted her gaze from where she was reading over the friar's shoulder.
”We will be bound in a marriage of Christian law. Do not think to end this sacrament on the whim of ancient rules.”
The friar grinned, his eyes merry, but the look evaporated the instant his gaze swung to Siobhan's.
”I would have your agreement now, lady.”
'Twas his voice that bruised her, like a mortal blow through her breast, and though his expression was sharp and carved with impatience, his tone bore the entreaty of a man asking for more than ecclesiastical sanction, but a weary voice filled with deep longing and afraid-aye, she a.s.sessed again-afraid to voice it. It touched her to her very soul, this emotion she never thought he possessed, and she wondered how deep it ran and what else lay hidden beneath his coa.r.s.e exterior. Yet with the request, the tiny spark buried inside her flamed, the same burning ache she had when she'd come to Tigheran with the hope of something more than a marriage of bargains and peacekeeping. Though she was well and duly trapped by PenDragon's authority from the king, and had been, she admitted, from the moment he set foot in Donegal, she clung to the prospect that mayhaps in this marriage they would one day find even ground to stand upon.
”Forever in the eyes of G.o.d, then.”
Gaelan's shoulders relaxed, yet he remained wary. G.o.d and her heart were not one in the same, he knew, just as he understood this woman was not so easily won with words. And in that instant Gaelan wanted her respect more than he wanted Donegal.
He gestured to the priest to read on. O'Rourke had paid her and her family coibche, bride price, and a sum to her each year until the twenty-first year of their marriage. Naught was returned to his family if the marriage did not survive on his account, half returned if 'twere Siobhan's fault. And since Irishwomen owned land, and Tigheran's bride gift to Siobhan was half of Donegal, he unjustly swore to the king with his portion.
Gaelan's lips quirked. ”You are an expensive bride. Are you worth it?”