Mairin shifted forward in her chair and clutched Keeley’s hand to hers. “Ewan would never allow such a thing to happen. You do know that, don’t you?”
“ ’Tis the truth I know nothing of my future,” Keeley said softly. “More likely than that, I don’t have a home to return to. Such as it was.”
“You don’t like it here?” Christina asked.
Keeley hesitated. Once Alaric married Rionna, ’Twas true that being here would take her further away from Alaric than returning to the McDonald land where she might very well be called to deliver Rionna’s first child. With Alaric. The thought was too much to bear. And yet staying here would also put her into close proximity with both Alaric and Rionna when they came to visit. ’Twas a conundrum that promised hurt for her no matter what the course of her fate.
“Aye, I like it here,” she finally said. “I never realized how lonely I was before I had all of you to laugh and talk with.”
“Keeley, will you tell us what happened to you?” Mairin asked quietly. “If ’tis none of our business, feel free to say so, but I wonder so why you no longer carry the McDonald name and why it is you say your clan turned their back on you.”
“ ’Tis shameful that,” Maddie offered with a scowl. “Family is family. A clan is all a person has. If they won’t stand behind you, who will?”
“Who will indeed?” Keeley asked ruefully.
She sat back and drew in her breath, surprised by how angry she still felt after so long. Resentment festered just underneath her skin, looking for a crack in which to spill out.
“I grew up as a close friend to Rionna McDonald, the laird’s only child.”
“Alaric’s Rionna?” Mairin asked with a gasp.
“Aye, Alaric’s Rionna.” It took her all not to flinch when saying those words. “It was common for me to be around the laird and Lady McDonald. They indulged Rionna and me and gave us run of the keep. As we grew older and became more womanly in look, the laird began watching me. So closely it discomfited me.”
“The lecher,” Maddie muttered.
“It became so uncomfortable that I started to avoid him entirely and started spending less time with Rionna inside the keep. One day when going to summon Rionna from her room, the laird caught me alone and he began saying horrible things. He kissed me and I was appalled. I told him I would scream for help and he asked who would go against him? He was laird. He could have what he wanted. No one would gainsay him.
“I was terrified, for he spoke the truth. He would have raped me in his daughter’s chamber, but Lady McDonald walked in.”
Mairin looked horrified. “Oh, Keeley.”
“I thought the worst of it was having the laird attack me so. I was wrong. The worst of it was when Lady McDonald labeled me whore and accused me of enticing her husband. I was banished from the keep and forbidden to return. I suppose I was fortunate that they allowed me to take a cottage a distance from the keep, but ’twas a lonely existence for a young girl.”
“That’s despicable!” Christina exclaimed. “How could they have done that to you?”
All three women’s faces were creased with horror and it sparked gladness in Keeley’s heart. It felt good to have someone be outraged on her behalf.
“The loss of Rionna’s friendship hurt the most. I didn’t know at first if she believed what was said about me. After Lady McDonald passed and she made no effort to see me or allow me back into the clan, I realized that everyone had indeed believed the worst.”
Mairin clumsily got up and enfolded Keeley in a hug, squeezing until Keeley was breathless. “You cannot return there. You’ll stay here with the McCabes. We don’t turn on our own and we’d certainly never cast a young girl out for the sins of a lecherous old man. The laird visited here some months past. I wish I had known then. I would have spit in his eyes.”
Keeley laughed. Once she started she couldn’t stop. Her shoulders shook as she imagined Mairin spitting on the laird. She looked helplessly at the other women and soon they were all laughing uproariously.
They wiped tears from their eyes and gasped for breath, and then they looked at Mairin’s disgruntled features and laughed all over again.
“I cannot tell you how much better that made me feel,” Keeley confessed. “ ’Tis the truth I’ve never told anyone the source of my shame.”
“ ’Tis not your shame,” Mairin said fiercely. “The shame is Laird McDonald’s.”
Maddie nodded her agreement while Christina still looked dumbstruck by Keeley’s tale.