“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.

“And ’tis why you simply must stay here,” Maddie announced. “You might not be a McCabe born, but a McCabe you’ll be and stay. Your healing skills are needed here and no one will dare treat you as you were treated on McDonald land. Our laird doesn’t stand for such injustice.”

“I’ve been so angry for so long,” Keeley admitted. “It felt good to tell someone. Thank you for not judging me.”

“Men are pigs,” Christina spit out.

The three women turned to the younger girl in surprise. Christina had remained largely silent through the telling, and now her cheeks were flushed and her eyes glittered with anger.

“I don’t know why any of us tolerate them,” she continued.

Mairin laughed. “They aren’t all pigs. Your Cormac has a good head on his shoulders.”