“Sit down, father,” Margaret said, taking his arm and helping him into a chair. Then she poured him a cup of whisky.
“Bless ye, lass,” he said, and drank it down.
“Why attack Dornoch?” Finn asked. “Alex must be gone from there by now.”
“The Sinclairs want revenge against the Murrays for helping Alex escape,” the priest said. “When they chased them into Dornoch, the Murrays took refuge in the cathedral and the bishop’s castle, thinking they’d be safe there.”
The Sinclairs would risk excommunication attacking a cathedral and a bishop’s residence.
“I fear the situation is dire,” the priest said. “A few of the Murrays are holed up in the cathedral’s tower. Lachlan and most of the others are trapped in the castle, which isn’t stocked for a siege, as the bishop is gone and no one expected his home to be attacked.”
The Sinclairs were exacting punishment on the Murrays for rescuing Alex.
“Who led the attack for the Sinclairs?” Finn asked.
“Their chieftain’s eldest son John, Master of Caithness,” the priest said. “He’s a ruthless son of a bitch.”
“He’s not the worst of them,” Finn said. “He may be willing to negotiate.”
“That’s why I’ve come,” the priest said. “He says he’ll parley with no one but you, Finn. If you’re not there at noon on the morrow, he says he’ll breach the walls and spare not a one.”
“Why me?” Finn asked, though he suspected he knew.
“He says ye were the peddler responsible for Alex Òg’s escape.”
John Sinclair wanted Finn for more than the parley. The parley, the chance to avoid a bloody massacre of the Murrays, was the bait John knew would draw Finn out.
“He says if you don’t come to him, he’ll attack Helmsdale next.”
The threat to Helmsdale was John turning the screw. Finn had no choice.
An hour ago, Finn saw a future beyond his dreams, a life with his beloved Margaret as his wife. He had allowed himself to imagine growing old with her and watching Ella and perhaps more children of their own grow up.
Tomorrow he would ride to Dornoch not knowing if he would return. Finn could not put his own happiness or even Margaret’s above the lives of so many good men. The best he could do now for Margaret and Ella was to make certain they had a home on lands of their own, a haven where they would be safe.
“I’ll go back with ye in the morning,” Finn told the priest, then drew him aside. “But I need ye to do something for me tonight.”
“What was it ye asked the priest to do?” Margaret asked after he brought her back upstairs to speak with her alone.
“I want us to wed tonight,” he said, taking Margaret’s hands. “We’ll say our vows with the entire household as witnesses, have the priest bless our marriage, and celebrate with a feast.”
Once the priest blessed their marriage, they were bound in the eyes of the church, and before so many witnesses, neither his relatives nor hers could challenge its validity.
“Ye expect a wedding feast with only a few hours to prepare?” she asked with a wide smile. “Surely we can wait until ye return.”
“After all that’s happened, we know how precious time is,” he said. “I don’t want to let another day go by without you being my wife.”
“How dangerous is it for you to meet with the Sinclair chieftain’s son?” she asked, drawing her brows together. “I thought this was just a parley.”
Finn should have left out the part about time being precious. He hated to lie to her, but he wanted her to be happy at their wedding.
“Ach, ’tis just talking we’ll do. I’ll be fine,” Finn said, giving her a smile and a wink. “But it would please me to know I have a wife and daughter waiting for me. I want the three of us to be a family now.”
CHAPTER 33
Margaret expected grumbling from the servants over being given so little time to prepare a feast, especially for a marriage they believed had already taken place. But it turned out that the prospect of a wedding feast was a welcome respite from the dark cloud that had hung over Helmsdale since the tragedies struck.
The entire household embraced the idea of a wedding celebration and threw themselves into a frenzy of preparation. Men set up tables and carried wine and ale up from the undercroft, women helped in the kitchen, and children ran outside to gather flowers.