He cocked an eyebrow at her words but nodded his assent for her to continue. This should be interesting.
“First. I will be seen as an equal partner to you. I am not to be ordered about as subservient to you. I have ideas, and I know I can help you in your management. Ye have to promise to, at the very least, listen to me and what I have to say, taking all that I have to say under consideration with as much seriousness as anything your brothers might say to you.”
He tipped his head to the side, not allowing any expression to cross his face as he studied her.
“What else?”
“If I decide I want to leave… ye must let me leave. I will stay married to you, but if I wish to return to my father’s home, ye must not fight me on it. I will try to live here with you, but if the time comes that I feel our marriage is no longer what I was hoping for, then I will go, and you cannot stop me.”
He listened as she spoke but remained unmoving. He wasn’t sure he would ever be able to bear the thought of her leaving him, but he wasn’t about to admit that to her.
“Lastly, I will not have… ah… marital relations with you until if, and when, I choose to do so.”
Her face turned pink as she blurted out the last sentence, but her chin was set stubbornly.
Finlay contemplated everything she had stipulated, crossing the room to look out the window on the land before them—land that he would do anything to protect. Finally, he turned around to respond to her.
He took a breath. “I agree to your last request. I will not force ye to do anything you do not wish to do. I would take no joy in that. As for the others… my mother does not much enjoy running the household. Would you be satisfied with taking on that responsibility?”
“I will help her with that, but no, I would not be satisfied with simply running a household. I would require more than that. If we are joining the clans together, I want a say in how they are run.”
“Why?” he asked, and she tilted her head to study him, as though she could read his mind if she tried hard enough. “Why do you want to do more when we have hands enough here to run things?”
“The same reason you do. I want to make a difference. I want to be part of something bigger than myself, to have a purpose to wake up in the morning and do something meaningful. Rory has no interest in looking after the MacTavishes, but I do. If that means I must marry you in order to help my family, to save my clan—to save both of our clans—then so be it.”
He thought on it for a moment, giving her a hard look, and then finally nodded. “I can understand that. Besides my father, I have the final say for the McDougalls, but I will promise to try to include ye in discussions.”
“You must also consider my thoughts.”
“I can promise to consider them. Is that good enough for you?”
“I suppose,” she said after thinking a moment. It was more than most men would do for a wife. “Depending on your answer to my second stipulation? That you must allow me to leave if I choose to do so?”
“No,” he replied, a tightness in his chest at the thought, “if you choose to marry me, you will be my wife and I expect to live that way. Once you go forward with this, there is no going back.”
“I willna agree to that.”
“Then don’t.”
They stared at one another for a few moments, each unrelenting. Finally, he felt himself breaking, needing to know what she was truly thinking. “Do you really believe it will be that bad to live with me?”
“I… I’m not sure.”
He tried not to allow the pain her words caused to show, and thought on it for a moment.
“Fine, Kyla,” he said with a sigh. “I will try my very best to be agreeable to live with. How about this. You must give me three months. No matter how you feel, ye must stay at least that long. Give me that much time to prove myself to you. Then you can do as you please and leave if you feel you have to.”
She looked out the same window he had been contemplating but moments before. After a few moments, she turned.
“Agreed.”
She walked over to him and stuck out her hand.
“Well, Finlay, is this a deal?”
6
Kyla stared at herself in the ornate circular mirror, raising her hands to attempt to pinch some color into her pale cheeks. She could hardly believe she was really doing this. She was marrying Finlay McDougall. It had been a few weeks since they had come to their terms of agreement, and she still didn’t know if she was doing the right thing.
This was for her clan, she reminded herself. The only problem was that the agreement was not just for today. An entire future together stretched out before them. Even if she chose to leave him, she would still be tied to him for the rest of her days.
A creak sounded behind her, and Kyla pasted a smile on her face as the door eased open to reveal Peggy.
“Oh, Kyla!” Peggy sighed as she entered the room and shut the door behind her. “I don’t think there has ever been such a beautiful bride as you!”
Kyla had to admit she did enjoy the way her mother’s wedding gown fit her so perfectly. The waves of lace cascaded from her shoulders, fitting tightly to her body before meeting the tartan skirt that draped over her hips to flow to the floor.
