Marion gave a short laugh, and her cheeks grew rosy. “By edict of our kings.” Her eyes seemed to shine with the memory.
Isobel startled at the similarity to her own situation, and Marion reached out and grasped her hand. “You see, Isobel, you are not the first to feel as if you are all alone.”
Isobel’s throat tightened with thick emotion, made even greater when Marsaili reached across the space dividing them and gave Isobel a quick hug.
Marion patted Isobel’s hand before drawing away. “In actuality, my king ordered my marriage, but I likely would have tried to escape the marriage if Iain had not told me again—rather rudely, too—that my other choice was the horrid, evil English knight my father intended to bind me to for his own gain. Iain had no qualms pointing out I would likely end up married to that man if I refused him.” Marion grinned. “I decided of my choices, Iain was the least terrible.”
“Very sensible,” Marsaili said.
A sob escaped Isobel, but she quickly tried to muffle it. Their situations were even more similar than she’d thought mere moments before. When Marion wrapped her arm around Isobel and Marsaili took her hand, she could not hold back her pain. “Fathers are supposed to love their daughters,” she whispered.
“Yes,” Marion said in a gentle, soothing voice. “But they do not always do as they are supposed to.”
“We ken that well,” Marsaili added, her voice angry.
Marion sighed. “I am so sorry for both of you that your father sounds so very much like my own, but I vow to you, Isobel, no matter why Graham comes to this marriage, I know this man, and he will treat you with kindness and caring.”
Isobel sniffed. “I suppose it is the most I can hope for.”
“Oh no,” Marion replied. “It is the very least you can hope for, Isobel. I have only just met you and I see already that you are a woman of honor with a huge heart.”
“Aye, she is,” Marsaili said with such conviction that Isobel began to sob again.
“Graham will come to see it, too,” Marion said. “Your warm heart will be good for him.”
Isobel rubbed at her aching temples. “Yer husband, Lachlan, Bridgette, Lena, and many others in yer clan seem to distrust me at best, despise me at worse.”
“Together,” Marion said, grasping Marsaili’s and Isobel’s hands, “we will sway them to you.”
Marsaili nodded her agreement, but Isobel was still a tad wary. “Why are ye being so nice to me?”
“I see myself in you,” Marion replied. “It breaks my heart to know what you are going through. You have just as good a chance as I did that your marriage will be wonderful. I had Bridgette to help me, and now you have me and Marsaili.”
“I thank ye both, but yer husband did nae marry ye for revenge, Marion, so there was nae dislike in his heart for ye from the start.” Not to mention, she did not believe desire was something that could truly grow a marriage, not on its own.
Marion smirked at Isobel. “My husband was still in love with his dead wife when he married me out ofduty.” She raised her eyebrows in a high arch, as if to imply Isobel could not challenge that start, either. “He told me moments before we wed that he would never love me, that he had no desire to love me, and that all his love was for his first wife.”
“That’s terrible,” Marsaili said, her tone indignant for Marion.
Marion smiled at Marsaili. “It was, but—” There was distinct triumph in her voice “—it is also why I believe Graham could come to love Isobel as Iain did me.”
It was utter foolishness to long for Graham to love her or even care for her, yet, what if… No.
“Ye fill my head with nonsense,” she grumbled.
“A little nonsense is good for the soul,” Marion said, matter of fact.
“I do believe I’d like a dose of nonsense, as well,” Marsaili added in a wistful tone.
Isobel frowned with the realization of how selfish she was being. She had not truly gotten to talk privately with Marsaili and learn how she was faring with the rest of the MacLeod clan, though from what she had seen, the MacLeods did not glare at Marsaili as they did Isobel, so that was something.
“Has it been difficult for you with the MacLeods, Sister?” Isobel inquired.
Marsaili smiled brightly but cut her gaze to Marion, and Isobel thought she understood that Marsaili preferred not to speak her grievances about the MacLeods in front of Marion. Isobel understood.
“Nay. ’Tis fine,” Marsaili said. “It will just take time, I am certain.”
Marion nodded as she cast her gaze to Marsaili and then back to Isobel. “Tell me, doyoucare for Graham?”
