Highland Blessings (27 page)

Akira seldom strolled through the village, knowing how some of the MacPhearson clan felt about her. But today Bryce had called the Council to a meeting, and she needed to speak with him.

As she walked down the side of the dirt road, Akira noticed people watching her. She hated the uncomfortable stares that made her feel as if she’d suddenly sprouted horns on top of her head. She kept her gaze down, doing her best to ignore people.

“Good day, Lady MacPhearson!”

Akira looked up to see Vika waving. Although Vika mostly kept to herself, she always went out of her way to greet Akira. On impulse, Akira motioned for Vika to join her. Vika nodded her blonde head, looked around before she crossed the dirt road, and scurried over like a runaway mouse.

“Vika, I canna help but feel heavy tension in the air. Did something happen while I was ill?”

“Naught that I’m aware of, m’lady.” Vika shook her head.

Akira gave her a direct stare, knowing she wasn’t telling her everything. “The Council is meeting today. Do ye know about it?”

Vika looked down at her worn brown boots, apparently feeling uneasy. Akira waited patiently. Vika then looked around her, still avoiding Akira’s gaze.

“Are ye afraid of someone?” Akira wondered aloud.

“Nay,” she shook her head.

“I know that many of the clan still think of me as a MacKenzie. Does it bother ye if someone should happen by while we’re talking?” Akira decided to be direct.

Vika’s fingers flew to her lips and she gasped, “Oh, nay, m’lady. ’Tis not that.”

“Then what is it? I don’t understand why everyone is staring at me so.” Akira’s agitation began to grow as she shifted her weight to her other foot and crossed her arms. “This is worse than how they treated me at Evan’s funeral.”

“They only wonder about ye, m’lady.”

“I know that people wonder about me, but for some reason this day seems worse than normal, and I haven’t the faintest idea why.”

Akira lifted her shoulders in question. Several MacPhearsons had scorned her when she first visited the village, and some openly stared at her with hatred. She’d come to expect their behavior, but today something different lurked in the gazes that followed her.

“Vika, I pray ye’ll tell me the truth. I’ve verra few friends here besides Bryce and Sim. What does everyone else know that I’m obviously unaware of?”

“Yer husband has declared that the clan should decide Mirana’s fate, and some feel that if they choose in favor of ye then they’re betraying the MacPhearsons. They question if ye’re worthy of such an action. Bryce says he canna make the decision because his first loyalty is to his wife. Most of the men respect that and are now meeting to make a decision. I fear they’re in a heated debate over the matter.”

Akira blinked and tilted her head. “What are the women saying?” she asked, unsure if she wanted to know, but the question had already escaped her lips.

Vika waved a hand in dismissal. “It doesn’t much matter what the women think, does it? I mean, the men are the ones making all the decisions.”

“I still want to know.” Akira watched her friend’s uneasy expression, as her eyes shifted from one object to another. When Vika didn’t answer, Akira reached out and tugged on Vika’s elbow. “Please, ye must tell me. I canna allow yer people to be split amongst themselves because of me.”

Gulping with wide eyes, Vika took a deep breath. “M’lady, ’tis mostly the women against their husbands on this issue, and women are not allowed in the meetings.”

“Yet, ’tis a woman’s fate they are now discussing,” Akira said dryly. “Ye never answered me. What are the women saying?”

“The women feel ye were right in demanding Mirana leave. No wife should have to put up with another woman in her home. ’Tis bad enough that some of us have husbands who are not faithful, but to have to bear looking in another woman’s eyes and seeing her presence in our own home is too much. The women have sided with ye, Lady MacPhearson.”

Akira felt compelled to defend Bryce. “My husband has not been unfaithful to me. I knew Mirana’s hatred against me ran deep. I simply felt that she and I would both be happier if she were under a different roof.”

“Of course, m’lady.” Vika lowered her eyes. Akira couldn’t tell if Vika believed her or not.

A burst of energy lifted Akira’s shoulders and her hands flew to her hips. “The fact that Mirana shouldn’t have been in our home is irrelevant. The woman poisoned me and that is the true issue here.”

“Precisely,” Vika agreed as two passing women overheard their conversation and paused. “The men have completely changed the issue.”

“When ye poison someone, what are ye hoping to accomplish?” Akira asked them.

“Murder,” one woman answered.

“Or at least make someone deathly ill,” the other woman chimed in.

Akira turned to the other woman. “Ye bring up a good point and one that Bryce and I have already discussed. We really don’t know if Mirana intended to kill me, or if she only hoped to make me so ill I’d be sorry for asking Bryce to make her leave. How do ye determine a just punishment for someone without knowing the full cause of what motivated them, or what they really intended to happen?”

The women exchanged glances. Akira looked at them, realizing the root of all the strange stares she’d been receiving. Her poisoning brought unwanted division to their clan. While many of them didn’t want to be perceived as betraying their clan in defending Akira, neither were they willing to excuse Mirana’s promiscuous behavior. The men, on the other hand, had no problem overlooking Mirana’s behavior, which brought arguments and division among husbands and wives.

Each woman took a turn to share her individual perspective while a few more joined them. Before long, several of the village women held their own council outside the very building where the men held theirs.

“I hope the men are discussing these same points,” one of the women stated.

Akira thought about how at home a woman of standing could appear before the Council and give an account or speak on a particular subject. While women couldn’t vote, they could at least be heard. She wondered if the MacPhearson Clan operated in the same way. “Does the Council hear individuals who may not be council members?”

Several of them nodded.

“Only men are allowed to attend the meetings. Some of them aren’t members, but they’re allowed to voice their concerns,” another lady volunteered.

This piece of news disturbed Akira. She frowned in thoughtful silence. It would be best if she didn’t bring up how the MacKenzies operated. She thought of another approach.

“Even though we’re women, we are still part of the clan, and the person on trial here is a woman. I don’t see why the Council canna at least hear our concerns.”

Several of the women agreed, and separate conversations rose among them.

“Ladies … ladies!” A voice from the back rose above them. “Bryce MacPhearson said he wanted the clan to decide. Are we not also part of the clan?”

Heads bobbed up and down while a number of “ayes” echoed among them.

“What are we going to do?” Vika asked, looking at Akira.

Akira froze. At home she’d have no problem voicing her opinion, but here among these women, she hesitated. As the wife of their chief, she held a leadership role among them, but she needed to tread carefully. Only a few moments ago she still felt like an outsider among them. If she proposed something and it didn’t go well, how many would turn on her?

“If ye intend to approach the Council, we need to have a plan.”

“Aye, m’lady.” Vika leaned toward her. “What’s our plan?” The others gathered in close.

Akira took a deep breath. “Well, we canna approach the Council with all of us having different ideas. We need to be in agreement so the men won’t think we haven’t thought things through.” Akira stepped out from among them and turned to their eager faces. “We canna prove what Mirana’s motive was in poisoning me. Only one thing is certain: whatever the motive, we know she canna be trusted. She could be a possible danger to everyone around her.” Akira lifted a finger. “I propose one solution: The Council should ban her from the clan.”

More discussions took place as Akira listened to them. It seemed that few wives were fond of Mirana, and it made Akira wonder about Mirana’s relationship with the other clansmen. She remembered back to the night Mirana had been dallying with Rae.

They finally agreed to approach the Council as one group and to request that Mirana be banned from the clan. Those who made the decision to approach the Council prepared themselves to face their husbands, brothers, and fathers. Akira took a deep breath, hoping and praying that this one action wouldn’t put her and Bryce at odds. Their group had grown to about twenty women, and in the end only fifteen were willing to charge forward as planned.

“Wait!” Vika called. “Akira is our Lady. We should follow her into the Council.” Akira wanted to give them full rein to do as they wished without her, but knew it would be cowardly, and besides, she would be standing up for what she believed. She walked to the front of the women and straightened her shoulders, purposefully striding toward the building that contained her husband and the men of the clan.

Akira’s heart pounded as she passed through the entrance. Kian’s words dissolved on his lips, and he gave them a look of disapproval. The men sat in circled rows and wore astonished frowns as the women filed in, crowding around the entrance. Akira slid her gaze across the room and found her husband sitting in a corner. Only mild curiosity marked his features. While the strange silence lengthened, all eyes eventually rested on Akira. She tore her gaze from her husband’s and stepped forward. Kian’s frown deepened, as he looked even more displeased at her approach.

“What’s the meaning of this interruption?” an elder on the Council demanded. “We haven’t called any of ye forward.”

Akira stepped before him, lowered her eyes, and curtsied. “We beg yer pardon, gentlemen of the Council. We did not intend to interrupt. We will be content until it is our turn to speak.”

The gray-headed man turned to Bryce. “Did ye invite them to speak?” Bryce shook his head, and Akira could tell he tried to hide a smile. The elder then turned to Tavis and Balloch, and they also shook their heads. The other men also claimed they hadn’t invited the women to speak.

The elder member turned back to Akira. “It appears that ye haven’t been called to speak.”

Akira nervously linked her fingers together in front of her. “The women of this clan would like to be heard, regarding Mirana’s punishment.”

Her announcement stirred tempers and caused the men to murmur among themselves, while a few of them shouted for Bryce to cease this nonsense. Kian burst out laughing.

“Women have no place in such matters. It doesn’t concern ye.” A middle-aged man spoke up, and Akira recognized Davis, the one who had claimed she wouldn’t melt in the rain the day Bryce took her.

She unlinked her fingers and lifted her chin. “And why should it not concern us?”

“Lady MacPhearson, we are quite capable of handling what needs to be done with Mirana,” Davis said, trying to placate Akira, but it only made her more determined.

“Were ye the one she poisoned?” Her voice held a stinging edge to it. “Nay, none of ye was,” she answered for them, looking around the room and meeting their gazes with a challenge of her own. She realized how uncomfortable they felt when their eyes downshifted from hers. It was the encouragement she needed, for it told her that deep down they knew she was right.

Abruptly, she turned to where Bryce sat. He now leaned forward, his attention upon Davis.

“Bryce.”

Her husband turned an interested gaze upon her.

“Aye?” he asked, hesitantly, as if he feared what she might require of him.

“Did ye not turn over the decision of Mirana’s punishment to the people?”

“Aye,” Bryce admitted.

“And are women not people as well?” A couple of men snickered at the question. “I pray, sir, that ye not jest in this matter, for we are speaking of a person’s life,” she warned, hoping the others would hush as well.

“Of course.” He pretended contrite seriousness. “Aye, Akira, I must agree that women are people as well.” She gazed around the room and noticed that some of the men were having an even harder time disciplining themselves. They elbowed each other and leaned over to tease.