“None of this changes the fact your Da wants to improve his ties with Fraser. Perhaps it would be best if she married one of the younger Frasers and stayed at home as she wishes.”
Quinn weighed his words. “Perhaps. We just have never been allied with the Frasers, so we don’t really know them well.”
“That is the point, isn’t it? It’s the reason your Da seeks the betrothal?”
“Aye, but marrying our timid sister to someone we know very little about has me worried, too.”
“Lachlan has daughters. There is always Rowan,” observed Peadar.
“Or Quinn,” Flan said.
“Or Flan,” Quinn countered.
Tadhg laughed at the interplay between brothers. He had always envied the MacKenzie’s close family bond. Tadhg had only had one brother who would have been twenty-two now, Quinn’s age. Seeing the brothers together when Quinn had started training reminded him painfully of his loss. However, befriending them allowed him to feel a little of the brotherly bond he missed. “I don’t think either of ye needs to worry about it. The discussion is already underway, and Fraser would be a fool not to settle one of his clansmen with your sister. It would certainly be in his best interests to have your father as an ally.”
Peadar nodded. “That is true.”
The conversation shifted to other topics until the hour grew late, forcing Peadar and Quinn to seek their own camp reluctantly.
~ * ~
Tadhg thought no more about betrothals until the next day when Flan sought him out again, tears streaming down his face. “What is the matter, lad?”
“It’s my sister. If ye would just marry her everything would be all right, but she can’t marry Darcy Fraser.”
“Flan, your father wasn’t seeking a betrothal with Darcy, it was to be with one of his cousins.”
“That’s not what happened,” Flan wailed. “If Mairead marries Darcy, she will have to leave home and she can’t. It will be awful for her if she does. It is too far away. If ye would just marry her, she would be close. She could be with me.”
“Flan, I know it is hard to think about your sister moving away, but ye will be all right. It is part of growing up, lad.”
“I’m not worried about myself. That isn’t why I want her close. Ye don’t understand. No one does.”
“Flan, calm down,” Laird Matheson ordered firmly. “Tell me why ye think Mairead shouldn’t go so far away if your parents think it is a good match.”
Flan looked desperate and seemed to be fighting some sort of inner battle. Finally, he sighed, appearing to have made a decision. “Ye remember Peadar told ye Mairead is little shy?”
“Aye.”
“Well, she is more than a little shy. She is pretty much afraid of everyone, and that is because of something I did. It will kill her to leave home and live with strangers, and it will be my fault.”
“Flan, I have no idea what ye are talking about. Ye had better start at the beginning and tell me now.”
Flan took a deep breath before launching into the story. “Seven years ago, we were here at the festival, and I goaded Mairead into sneaking away with me to look at the stalls. She didn’t want to. Da told us we couldn’t go alone. She was afraid I would get lost, but I kept teasing her. I called her a coward and a mouse.” Flan leaned in to tell him, “She hates being called a mouse,” and rolled his eyes as if he couldn’t imagine why. “Finally, she gave in and we sneaked away to the merchant stalls. Mairead loves music. I was looking at one of the stalls and she turned away from me to listen to a minstrel. Since she was afraid of losing me, I thought it would be funny to hide from her so when she turned back around, she couldn’t see me.”
Flan looked embarrassed but continued, “She looked for me frantically, but before I could pop out and surprise her, she was gone. I tried to find her—I looked everywhere around the stalls, but she wasn’t there. I thought that maybe she went back to our camp, so I did, too. I caught up with her on the road, and she was with a priest who had found her crying. At first, I thought she was just upset at losing me. But her clothes were dirty—she said she had fallen down running. She was never the same after that, and I think something bad happened to her.”
Silently, Tadhg agreed. Flan would have been a wee lad seven years ago. If he spent time searching at the fair for her and yet still caught up with her on the road, something must have delayed her. He shuddered to think what could have happened to an unprotected lass. “Do your parents know?”
“They know we went to the fair alone, we were separated, and a priest brought us back. That is all any of us know except for Mairead herself. Laird Matheson, I know it was wrong to goad her and then hide from her. I know this is my fault, and I will understand if ye don’t want me to train at Cnocreidh, only please help my sister.”