Saving Grace (49 page)

She put the matter aside when the men requested permission to leave. “Where is Father MacKechnie this evening?” she asked.

Keith stood up before answering. “Auggie wanted him to sample a drink of his new batch of brew.”

“If you run into him, will you please tell him I would like to speak to him?”

“What do you want to speak to him about?” Gabriel asked.

“An important issue.”

“You will discuss your important issue with me,” he commanded.

“Yes, of course I will,” she agreed. “But I would also like to hear Father MacKechnie’s opinion, too.”

She turned back to Clare before her husband could question her further. “What do you think of my brother? He’s handsome, isn’t he?”

“Handsome? M’lady, he’s English,” Clare whispered.

Johanna laughed. She turned to her brother. “Clare doesn’t appear to like Englishmen, Nicholas.”

“It’s unreasonable to dislike an entire country of men,” he remarked.

“I’m not an unreasonable woman,” Clare defended. “If I were English, I might think your brother was handsome.”

It was all she was willing to concede. Nicholas didn’t appear to care what her opinion was. Yet Johanna wasn’t fooled by her brother’s indifferent behavior. He was interested in Clare MacKay all right and trying not to let anyone know.

Clare was acting a little too defensive. Johanna suddenly straightened on her stool. Gabriel noticed the look of surprise on her face. He demanded to know what the hell was the matter with her.

She patted his hand and gently told him she didn’t care for his gruff tone of voice. She deliberately didn’t answer his question.

“Nicholas?”

“Yes, Johanna?”

“When are you going to get married?”

Her brother hadn’t been prepared for her blunt question. He laughed. “I’m putting it off for as long as possible,” he admitted.

“Why?”

“I have other more important matters to think about,” he said.

“But do you have anyone in mind when you do decide to marry?”

Nicholas shook his head. “I really haven’t thought about it. When I’m ready, I’ll marry. Now, enough of this talk.”

She wasn’t finished discussing the topic just yet. “Would a large dowry be important when making your choice?”

He let out a sigh. “No,” he answered. “I don’t need a large dowry.”

She smiled. Then she turned to Clare. “He wouldn’t want a large dowry,” she repeated.

Clare frowned in puzzlement but only for a second or two. Then she realized what Johanna’s plan was.

Her eyes widened, and she vehemently shook her head. “You cannot think I would ever consider an Englishman,” she whispered.

Johanna tried to soothe her. “I wasn’t asking you to consider anything,” she said. It was a blatant lie, of course, but her motives were sincere and she didn’t believe she was committing a sin. She’d achieved her goal, too, for all she wanted was to plant the idea in Clare’s head.

“My father would die.”

“He would recover.”

“How does one recover from death?” Gabriel wanted to know.

Johanna ignored his question. “No one’s going to force you to do anything you don’t want to do,” she told Clare.

She turned to her husband. “Isn’t that right, Gabriel?”

“Isn’t what right? Johanna, I don’t have any idea what you’re talking about.”

Johanna wasn’t bothered by her husband’s irritation. “When is Clare’s father coming back here?”

“Tomorrow or the day after.”

Nicholas was staring at Clare now. The look on her face bothered the hell out of him. When she heard her father was coming, her eyes clouded up with tears, and damned if she didn’t look frightened. Nicholas didn’t understand his own reaction. He barely knew the woman and had already decided he didn’t like her much, yet now he felt the urge to try to straighten out her problem for her.

“You do not wish to see your father?” he asked.

“Of course I want to see him,” Clare replied.

“Clare won’t be ready to go home tomorrow or the day after,” Johanna told her husband. “She hasn’t completely recovered yet.”

“Johanna,” Gabriel began in a warning tone of voice.

“She looks fit enough to me,” Nicholas remarked, wondering what the hell they were talking about. “Have you been ill?” he asked Clare.

She shook her head. Johanna nodded. Nicholas was thoroughly exasperated.

“Clare’s been very ill,” Johanna said then. “She needs time to regain her strength.”

“So that is why her hair is cut like a boy’s,” Nicholas remarked. “She had fever, didn’t she?”

“She didn’t have fever,” Johanna said. “Gabriel, I must insist you tell Laird MacKay his daughter isn’t up to a journey just yet.”

“I don’t think I can put him off,” Gabriel replied. He turned to glare at Nicholas. “It’s a pity you didn’t father her child,” he muttered. “It would solve all our problems.”

Nicholas opened his mouth to say something but was too stunned to think of anything appropriate.

“I still cannot believe you thought my brother would be so dishonorable,” Johanna said.

“It was logical, damn it,” her husband countered.

“And just how would it have solved our problem?” Johanna demanded.

“He’s here,” Gabriel countered. “The priest would marry them. You did hear me promise MacKay there would be a marriage, didn’t you?”

“I couldn’t possibly marry him.”

Since Clare was pointing to Nicholas when she made the emphatic statement, he had to assume she was talking about marrying him.

“Damn right, you couldn’t,” he snapped. “I might also mention I haven’t asked you to marry me.”

Clare bounded to her feet. “Please excuse me,” she blurted out. “I suddenly feel the need for some fresh air.”

Gabriel nodded. Clare immediately left the hall. Nicholas watched her leave, then turned back to his sister. She was frowning at him.

“Will one of you tell me what in thunder is going on?”

“You’ve upset Clare, Nicholas. You’d better go after her and make your apology.”

“How did I upset her?”

“You refused to marry her,” Johanna explained. “Didn’t he, Gabriel?”

Her husband was thoroughly enjoying Nicholas’s confusion. “Aye, he did refuse,” he agreed, just to goad his brother-in-law’s temper.

“Start explaining,” Nicholas demanded.

“It would be wrong of us to talk about Clare’s problem,” Johanna said. “She’ll tell you when she’s ready. Nicholas, why did you come here?”

The switch in topics took him by surprise. He couldn’t come up with a quick excuse. He turned to Gabriel for assistance.

Father MacKechnie inadvertently came to Gabriel’s and Nicholas’s rescue. He came rushing into the hall.

“Keith told me you wished to speak to me, m’lady.” he called out. “Is it convenient now, or would you like me to come back later?”

Gabriel and Nicholas literally jumped at the opportunity to turn Johanna’s attention.

“Come and join us, Father!” Gabriel shouted.

“It’s good to see you again,” Nicholas called out at the same time.

If the priest was surprised by the warriors’ enthusiastic greetings, he didn’t let it show.

“I heard you were back, Nicholas,” Father MacKechnie said. “Were you checking up on your sister? You can see she’s happy,” he added with a nod.

“Is that why you came all this way?” Johanna asked.

It was sinful to admit, but she was really enjoying her brother’s discomfort. Lying to her was difficult for him. she decided, if the look on his face was any indication. His frown was quite telling, considering the innocence behind the question.

Gabriel rescued him. “Have you had your dinner. Father? Johanna, where are your manners? You should ask the servants to feed the man.”

“I’ve already eaten,” the priest announced. He sat down next to Johanna, declined the offer of a drink. and then went into detail about Auggie’s latest batch of brew.

“It’s got a kick to it all right,” he announced. “One drink and a body could fly across the courtyard.”

Johanna laughed over the priest’s exaggeration. “It will warm us come the long . . .” The priest was about to say the brew would warm their stomachs on the cold winter nights ahead but hastily changed his remark. “If there’s any left.”

“Long what?” Johanna asked.

“Long warm winter nights,” the priest mumbled with a glare in Nicholas’s direction. He obviously still blamed Johanna’s brother because of the lie he’d told about the warm climate in the Highlands.

Nicholas was surprised everyone was still keeping the truth from his sister. He almost laughed but caught himself in time.

“Nicholas, do you know that since I came here, the weather has turned most unpredictable. Why some nights it’s actually cold.”

“Nay, lass, it’s never cold,” Gabriel argued.

“Now Johanna . . .” Nicholas began.

“Are you going to tell me why you came here? There is obviously a problem of some sort, or you would have waited to accompany Mother, Nicholas.”

“Why are you here, son?” the priest also wanted to know.

Nicholas was hard-pressed to come up with an answer. “The weather,” he announced after a moment’s pause. “I couldn’t live with the lie any longer, Johanna. I came here to tell you the truth.”

Johanna’s burst of laughter told him she didn’t believe him. Yet once he’d started the fabrication, he was damned if he was going to stop.

“I lied to you. There, I’ve said what I came here to say.”

“Do you mean you lied to me about the weather?”

Nicholas grinned. Her laughter was contagious and so was her cunning. It suddenly dawned on him that she’d always known he was lying.

He leaned forward and pointed his finger at her. “You knew . . . all the while, didn’t you?”

She nodded. “I’m wearing a woolen plaid, Nicholas. Of course I knew.”

“Then each time one of us lied and told you the weather was unusually cold, you knew the truth, lass?”

The priest sounded appalled. Johanna nodded. “It was kind of you to hold my brother’s lie, for you only had my happiness in mind, Father.”

“You’ve got a bent sense of humor, wife,” Gabriel announced.

“It’s as warped as a shield left out in the rain too long,” Nicholas agreed.

She laughed. The men assumed she wasn’t bothered by their insults.

Johanna yawned and immediately apologized. Gabriel demanded she go upstairs to bed.

“First I would like to discuss something with all of you,” she said. “Then I’ll go to bed.”

“What is it you want to talk about?” Nicholas asked.

“I’ll help if I can,” the priest promised.

“I have a problem,” Johanna began.

“Tell us what it is, lass,” Father MacKechnie insisted.

Johanna stared at Gabriel when she gave her answer. “It seems I have two husbands.”

You have only one husband, Johanna.”

Gabriel’s tone of voice didn’t suggest she argue with him. She took hold of his hand and nodded.

“You listened while I was telling your husband about Raulf, didn’t you, Johanna?” Nicholas asked.

“I did,” she admitted.

“That wasn’t proper conduct, lass,” her husband decreed.

She shook her head. “It wasn’t proper conduct for you to think you could keep this important news from me.”

“I’m trying to get this straight in my head,” the priest interjected. “Are you telling me Baron Raulf’s alive?”

“We are,” Nicholas answered.

“Good Lord above,” the priest muttered. “Where’s he been all this while?”

“Locked away in a dungeon an ocean away,” Nicholas answered. “He was sent halfway across the world to act as King John’s representative to negotiate a trade agreement. Raulf left England before John started feuding with the Church. The king doesn’t give a damn about placating the pope now.”

After finishing his explanation, he turned to his sister. “How much did you overhear?”

“All of it,” she lied.

“Damn.”

She ignored the blasphemy. “Please explain the mess I’m in the middle of to Father.”

Nicholas picked up his goblet and drained the contents in one long swallow. Johanna suddenly felt the need to get closer to Gabriel. She stood up and moved to stand next to him. He put his arm around her waist and pulled her close to his side. She put her arm around his neck and leaned against him.

“Baron Raulf fell from a cliff and everyone believed he died.”

“I was in England when word came,” the priest reminded Nicholas.

“Yes, well, he didn’t die,” he muttered. “He’s back in England and mad as a hornet because his wife and his lands have all been given away. The king wants to appease the bastard, though only God knows why. John has ordered Johanna to return to Raulf, and in an attempt to pacify MacBain and avert war, he has agreed to let him keep this holding.”

Father MacKechnie muttered something under his breath. “It makes no difference what your king wants, son. Johanna’s marriage was annulled and that’s a fact. The pope himself signed the decree. Isn’t that what you told me, lass?”

Johanna nodded. “It is so,” she said. “I didn’t realize I would really need an annulment. I requested it only to stall the king from making me marry again.”

“John has decided to make himself pope. Since he started fighting with the Church, practically all ties with the Holy Father have been severed. Priests have already fled to the Lowlands in anticipation of the interdict. John’s sure to be excommunicated.”

“So your king believes he can switch husbands as easily as snapping his fingers?” Gabriel asked his brother-in-law.

“He does,” Nicholas replied. “He won’t listen to reason. I tried to talk to him, but he remains stubbornly determined to keep Raulf happy. I wish to God I knew why.