When Lady Ravenna Mackay is forced to marry Laird Alasdair MacLeod by her unhinged brother, Iain, she agrees to try and get to know the man she is to call Husband. As the two grow closer, they release that Iain's plans were far more sinister then th...
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2. Of Missives and Men
In the fortnight since Laird Alasdair MacLeod of Lewis had agreed to marry the Mackay lass, he had grown increasingly more eager to have the proceedings over and done with, so that he could move on to more pressing matters.
He knew that this marriage would be no easy endeavour due to the Mackay's and the MacLeod's having been enemy clans for over a century. However, grudges had a way of becoming meaningless over time. In the proceeding years since the original slight that had torn the two families apart, no living person could accurately recall how the rivalry had ever begun.
Thankfully, this age old dispute had been put to rest when Malcolm MacLeod and William Mackay, both Lairds to their respective clans, had come together and formed a truce almost three decades ago.
Alasdair had been but a small child when he had traveled with his father to the inland border between the clans. Though the majority of the MacLeod's resided on the Isle of Lewis, the MacLeod's also owned land along the coast of Scotland, including the land that bordered the south-west edge of Clan Mackay.
Though he couldn't remember much from the treaty negotiations, he did recall that there had been no fighting involved. The Laird's had shook hands and walked away as friends. However, over the years the treaty had all but been forgotten and even after the passing of Malcolm MacLeod, the Mackay's were still considered a hostel clan by some of the common folk.
So, when Alasdair had been unexpectedly contacted by Iain Mackay, it was safe to say that he had felt cautious when considering his response.
The Mackay's missive have been simply and direct. Iain wished to speak face to face with Alasdair to discuss an important matter which could not be divulged over letters.
This had done nothing to assuage Alasdair's feelings upon the matter and man in question.
Nonetheless, he had excepted Iain's request and a few days later had entertained the man in his grand hall.
He had never, in all his musing on the meeting, expected Iain Mackay to step forward and offer him the hand of Laird William Mackay's only daughter.
'She will make a good wife for ya,' Iain had sworn.
It was common knowledge that Alasdair had remained a bachelor for far too long and it was indeed time for him to start considering marriage and children to be his next endeavour. But he had always believed that he would marry a local woman from within his own clan. Not a Lady from a Clan which many of his man still thought upon with malice.
But his own immediate family and that of William's Mackay's were civil enough with one another. So much so, that Alasdair's own Brother and Sister had attend the late Lady Mackay's funeral.
