Wedding Jitters
The setting sun was beautiful, but it did nothing to dispel Ailsa McDuffie of all the emotions swirling in her stomach. Tomorrow was her wedding. She should have been looking forward to this special day, but then she should have been marrying Alec. Her best friend. He was the son of the MacKay laird and as the only daughter of the McDuffie laird; their marriage had been a sure thing for years. The McDuffie and Mackay clan had been allies for centuries and the marriage of the two families was supposed to reflect that friendship.
But then 'the incident' happened. And the two clans were now enemies, and Ailsa was now to wed the son of the McDuffie's new ally. It didn't matter to her father that Ailsa did not know her new betrothed. She hadn't even been asked to give her opinion last night when her father had called her to his study, and given her the news before dismissing her like she was a servant. Her younger brother looked at her with sympathy from her father's side, but even he said nothing.
And why should he? Ailsa thought angrily. He and her father still got the same benefits no mater who she married. With her married off to a son of an important laird, and more soldiers added to the McDuffie army per her marriage agreement, her family and clan benefited far more than she did. The fact that she was also marrying into the enemy of the MacKay family was just a bonus to her father. She was just a tool to be used; a female child that had finally reached her only use in life; an investment that had taken far too long to cash in. It didn't matter that tomorrow she would be married to a man she had never met before, that she would be sent all alone to his clan without any familiar faces to help with the transition. That she may never see her family again. That she would be seen only as a baby making machine where she was going.
When she had been a child she had been happy to be marrying Alec, to wed him for the good of the clan. She had always loved to play with the boy whenever he visited with his father. She had been glad her father had chosen such a funny, nice, and sociable boy to marry. And along the way they became friends.
Of course marriage was not about love or friendship and about alliances that benefited the clan -and heirs to carry on the family name, but she didn't want to wed someone she knew nothing about.
"There ye are, lass!" her nurse maid called down the hall at her from where she was sitting by the window watching the setting sun. "It's a busy day tomorrow," she hustled Ailsa down the keep's long hall to her bedroom.
Ailsa sighed. What will come, will come. And she would have to face it when it did. With that thought in mind, she slipped on her night wear and let her nurse tuck her into bed and settled down for the last time in her room as a maiden, though she feared she would get no sleep that night.
