Read Duty of the Chieftain - a Highland 'Lord's Right of the First Night' novella (Clan MacKrannan's Secret Traditions #3) for Free Online Page B

said none ever talked of them afterwards. Never. At court or at home, my shame would be known to all within the hour."
    " Aye... well... Sir Thommas's tuition on the matter went far beyond the act.  There's none will hear it from me, lest for necessity."
    " They have already!  You spoke out in front of my guard!"
    " It bade ye come on the boat.  They heard nothing."
    " Then it is done and forgotten."
    Forgotten as quick as that?   Godsakes, he must have been well out of practise, right enough.  "There is a suspicion that something is afoot.  Many of my clansfolk could no' look me in the eye."
    " You have told it out!"
    " Only to my parents, for my own protection, and they would certainly say to none.  But Ginny the maid knows fine, for she is cousin to the Swordmaker’s bride who left the castle virgin."
    " That proves only that you did not perform the Lord's Right after all."
    " Ginny changed my bedsheets herself to hide the evidence while we were at Hall.  She knows.  Do ye think a virgin's blood on my bed is no' a recognizable sight in the wedding season?"
    The woman had the grace to blush, at least.
    "...And what of yer own maid?  Ye could no' have managed yer own dressing so quick without her and still reached the supper table afore me.  See, I now count six of us that know.  Nay, seven, for I cannot have Ginny keep such a secret from my steward Dougall who is betrothed to her and loyal to me.  I will tell him myself if she has no' done so already.  Plenty more will work it out for themselves."
    " I chose you for your discretion.  None will hear of this."
    " Discretion, ye say – was that all ye knew of me?"
    " I thought a stranger the simpler arrangement.  We had yet to meet, if you recall.  I might not have liked you."
    R anald turned his head aside, sniggering at her gall.
    " I cannot think what you find amusing!" she scowled. "I tell all this only under threat of the Scold's Bridle, and now you dare to laugh?"
    " Ach, that bridle is but an ornament.  The dairymaid that wore it died some years past and it has hung at its leisure since.  A fine deterrent, though.  There's no' been a MacKrannan woman misused her tongue in a long, long time."
    The nerve of the man!   She need have told him nothing.
    " I like you not at all for tricking me!"
    " Ye're a fine one to talk of trickery, Elinor Keirston."
    In her lay a pulsing remembrance of the previous day, and a little sadness that not even such a renowned chieftain could be trusted.  He seemed to think the deed nothing, no doubt amongst countless similar.  All he minded was knowing her reasons and keeping it secret from Maxton and the king. 
    " Have your merriment!  I care not!" she snapped.  "My affliction is now relieved, I thank you."
    The captain called down that they neared MacKrannan Castle.  Ranald took a deep breath, and the cabin seemed to fill with his massive chest and shoulders.
    " Well, lass, it matters none if you like me," he said gruffly, "As long as ye like the Earl of Maxton.  And ye've at least learned a little of what he'll expect of a woman wed three years."
    " A little?  What more is there?"
    He cocked a brow down at her puzzled stare and imagined the ways.  The lass in her innocence must think a quick coupling would be all required of her.  Ach, she'd fooled him into believing her experienced enough and could fool Maxton too, though he was not sure why it displeased him to think of her with the man.
    " Had ye stayed a while longer ye would have begun to find out," he said, turning to look out the window as the boat docked at MacKrannan harbor.  "And we seem to have a more urgent problem awaiting.  My parents are coming aboard."
    The captain’s cabin was only just large enough to accommodate both Elinor and himself, and the Chief and Agatha could hardly squeeze in.
    "We caught one of her guard heading east, but his comrade got away," said Sir Thommas, watching his son’s face go pale.  "That two are in Maxton’s