by Terry Spear
“You have us.” He pulled her into his arms and held her tight. He didn’t want this to be an issue between them, but she had to marry him. He understood her reluctance because she had no family—at least that would be welcome. “You have my family and extended family.”
“No one would sit on the bride’s side of the church.”
“Oh, aye, the place will be packed. Mark my word.”
“Wolves don’t get married,” she said again. “I never planned to be married if I found… found the right mate for me.”
“If something should happen to Ian, I would gain his title.” He sighed and kissed her forehead. “It’s nothing to worry about now.”
“That’s easy for you to say. You wouldn’t have to do anything but show up at the ceremony.”
He smiled. “We fight the battles, lass. You plan the fun stuff.”
She snorted.
“My mother will insist on helping.”
She sighed at that.
“Tell her to stay out of it if you want. It’s up to you.”
“If it was up to me, I wouldn’t have a wedding!”
“Except for that.”
Cearnach took Elaine’s hand and led her through the front door of the kennels. As soon as they walked across the inner bailey, several people greeted them, small smiles on their faces.
Elaine’s cheeks flushed beautifully. “They know,” she whispered to him. “Don’t they?”
“Aye, I imagine so.”
She frowned. “Your mother will think it’s her doing.”
Cearnach didn’t say anything.
“Flynn will think it’s his.”
Cearnach finally smiled down at her and pulled her to a stop. “But I will know it was your doing.”
“Mine?” she asked, looking up at him, her gaze questioning.
“Oh, aye, lass. You hooked me from the very beginning.” He wrapped his arm around her shoulders and pulled open the door to the keep, then escorted her inside.
Though they had jobs to do, Duncan and Guthrie were milling around in the great hall. When they heard Elaine and Cearnach crossing the stone floor, both turned to watch them.
Duncan, not one to mince words, spoke right up. “Is it done?”
Cearnach frowned at him. “We haven’t spoken with Elaine’s solicitor yet,” Cearnach said, not about to discuss mating with Elaine with his brothers.
Duncan gave him a small smile, knowing just from his response that he’d taken Elaine for his mate.
Guthrie raised his brows.
As Cearnach and Elaine walked by his brothers, he cast a glance over his shoulder at them, giving them a look, reminding them not to spread the word until he was ready to tell everyone. Duncan would speak with Shelley about it, and he was certain Ian had told Julia already.
When they arrived in Ian’s office, he introduced Elaine and Cearnach to her solicitor, a wiry, little gray-haired man with a laptop computer and a big black briefcase. The man smelled like a gray wolf.
“I’ve been managing the lass’s estates for years,” Mr. Hoover said. “Samson and Tobias Hawthorn gifted the properties to her centuries ago, and the estates have earned enough money to pay the taxes and upkeep all these years. I… couldn’t locate her once I learned her uncles had died. I did try. Once I discovered where she’d gone, she had already disappeared again.
“You own Senton Castle and all the land around it. Your parents married in the chapel there when the castle was still standing. Grand affair, if I do say so myself,” Mr. Hoover said to Elaine. “Here are the property descriptions and locations.” He passed a pile of papers to her.
“They were married at Senton Castle? Why did my parents leave there?” she asked, tears forming in her eyes.
“Many years later, they left when they couldn’t maintain the castle. Wars, famine. One of those wars resulted in the death of your older brother.”
“Brother?” Elaine asked, sounding horrified. “I had a brother?”
“Two, but one was stillborn. The other was ten when you were born. Fighting broke out and he was beyond the shelter of the castle walls at the time. Your parents were distraught over the death of their male heir.” Mr. Hoover looked at Ian as if the fault was his.
That had Cearnach thinking about the times they’d bombarded the castle with cannon fire.
“Your parents left the castle in your uncles’ care shortly after that. Not wishing to remain in Scotland, your parents started anew in Florida. While your uncles were away sailing the seas, the Kilpatricks and McKinleys ran Senton Castle into the ground. Your uncles bought the other properties also. All of them were bequeathed to you.”
“I’d had no word. My parents never mentioned any of this to me.”
The solicitor nodded. “You were young.”
She hadn’t been for years. Cearnach frowned at the solicitor.
Mr. Hoover cleared his throat. “We did try to locate you, Miss Hawthorn. You’d changed your identity and moved so many times over the years…” He spread his hands in a gesture of helplessness.
He glanced down at his notes. “You own two manors and a keep in Scotland that have been continuously rented out at a goodly income for years. The properties have been well maintained and are in good shape. All but Senton Castle, which as you probably have learned is in…”
“Ruins, I know,” Elaine said, frowning.
“Did the Hawthorns store any merchandise at any of the locations?” Cearnach asked.
“You mean, sir, the merchandise stolen from ships while they were away at sea?” Mr. Hoover inquired, his brows raised.
Elaine barely breathed.
So the old fox knew. Cearnach nodded. “Aye, that’s what I mean.”
“Nay. Several warehouses full of stolen merchandise were captured and sold to pay off those whose property had been taken at sea. Some of the merchandise had already been moved before the authorities learned of the locations.”
“None of the merchandise was left at the manor houses?” Elaine asked, glancing at the documents, then passing them to Ian, who began to study them in earnest.
“Nay.”
“Did my uncles leave me a key?”
“To the manor houses and keep, aye. Several. To the warehouses, several more. But those I didn’t bother to pay the rent on. No need when they held no more goods and the storage space wasn’t being used. I turned the keys over to the owners of the warehouses years ago. Most of the buildings don’t even exist any longer.”
“So no merchandise that my uncles might have stolen is left,” Elaine said, sounding both disappointed and relieved at the same time.
“That we know about, nay. That doesn’t mean they didn’t hide some in another location that I don’t know about. I brought you the deeds and wished to offer my services to continue to manage your properties, should you so desire.”
“Why didn’t you contact me about this? As soon as you could?” she asked, her cheeks growing flushed, her whole posture stiff.
“We couldn’t locate you.”
“Maybe early on,” she retorted. “But my cousin found me. Why couldn’t you have?”
Mr. Hoover sat even more rigidly in the chair, his jaw tightening with tension. “He hired someone to locate you and told me you were coming here to meet with him. I asked how he had located you. He said he had friends in low places, laughed, and wouldn’t say anything further. Even so, it took him ten years after he…” Mr. Hoover paused, glanced at Ian and Cearnach, then focused again on Elaine and hesitated to finish what he was going to say.
“He… what?” Elaine asked, her voice terse.
The solicitor ground his teeth. “Your uncles had told me never to contact your relations in Scotland, but a renter offered a substantial amount of money to buy one of your manors ten years ago. I didn’t know what to do. He decided to keep renting. If you were no longer living…” He sighed. “I had to find you, to let you know you had properties and learn what you wanted to do with them. I thought maybe one
of your cousins might know your whereabouts.
“I contacted Robert Kilpatrick since I handle his estates also. I didn’t tell him about your properties, although I’m certain he assumed that the only reason I would try to learn where you’d gone was because you had an estate. He said since I couldn’t find you, he’d have someone else search for you. It wasn’t easy. He had several false starts, and then finally you changed your name back to Hawthorn and returned to Florida a month ago. As soon as Mr. Kilpatrick could verify it was you…”
“How did he confirm it was me?” she asked warily. “I’m certain there are tons of female Hawthorns in the state.”
“Aye. I don’t know for sure. He wouldn’t say. I assume he used a wolf living in the area to check on you and substantiate that you were one of us, for one thing. You were the only Hawthorn she-wolf in the area.”
“But once you learned she was living in Florida, you didn’t contact her,” Cearnach said. “We contacted you once we discovered she had estates in Scotland. You didn’t bother to try and speak with Miss Hawthorn before this.”
A bead of sweat broke out on the solicitor’s upper lip. Matching beads appeared on his forehead. “Aye. Mr. Kilpatrick said the lass was coming to Scotland, and he would tell her I wished to speak with her. She vanished after she had arrived, and he was trying to locate her again. He said he didn’t know where she’d disappeared to.”
Elaine folded her arms. “All right, so what if I wanted to sell the properties? Not that I’m saying I want to, but if I did?”
Mr. Hoover cleared his throat. “You can’t.”
Her eyes widened.
He glanced at Cearnach as if he was afraid the alpha would take him to task. “I mean to say that not all the properties can be sold. The keep and Senton Castle must go to your heirs, Miss Hawthorn. No one is permitted to sell off the properties as long as they’re supporting their upkeep. The manors are a different story.”
“Have they incurred any profit? If so, where has the money gone?”
“A bank, Miss Hawthorn.” He stiffened. “You’re quite a wealthy woman. All the money is there. You can have your own accountant verify that the expenses and receipts all are correct.”
She raised her brows, showing a slight upward tilt to her mouth.
Cearnach stared at Elaine as the beautiful she-wolf sat straighter, her lips parted. Her uncle had told her she was the key to his heart, to the treasure. Not in goods, but in land holdings.
She took a deep breath. “Had my uncles planned to settle down here? In Scotland?”
Mr. Hoover shook his head. “They were seafarers. The ocean was their bloodline. They wanted this for you. For the child that neither of them had.”
Tears reappeared in her eyes, and Cearnach took her hand and squeezed it.
Mr. Hoover watched the intimacy between them and pulled out a handkerchief and dabbed at his brow.
“Why did they want me to mate with Kelly Rafferty, then? Did you know about that?”
He swallowed hard and gave a jerky nod, his gaze settling on hers.
“Then why?”
“You were so young. You needed protection.”
Cearnach snorted.
“Something to fall back on,” Mr. Hoover hastily said. “After your uncles died, you disappeared. Four months later, word reached us that pirates had attacked the ship you’d been traveling on. It was nearly a year before we learned you had become Rafferty’s wife and then that he had died. If we could have located you, you would have had the income to use as you saw fit all these years. Did… did you want us to continue to maintain your estates, ma’am?”
“I will have Guthrie MacNeill verify the accounts,” Elaine said. “I’m certain he will manage them from now on.” Then she looked at Cearnach as if she realized that since she was a mated wolf, it would be his business also.
She took a deep breath and Cearnach bowed his head slightly to her, acknowledging that he was in agreement, knowing what she was about to say and wanting her to know he was behind her on this. “I’m mated to Cearnach now. So we’ll need to make the deeds out in his name also.”
Ian let out his breath. “Hell, Cearnach.”
Everyone looked at Ian.
He shook his head and folded his arms, but didn’t say anything more. Cearnach knew he’d hear an earful as soon as he was alone with his brother. He should have told his brother that he and Elaine were mated before anyone else—particularly someone not of their pack.
Frowning deeply, the solicitor cleared his throat. “Do your kin know about this?”
“The Kilpatricks and McKinleys?” Elaine shook her head. “No one else officially knows here, either. I don’t plan to tell my kin. It’s none of their business. After the way they treated me, I don’t claim them as my own clansmen.”
“Can I… speak with you privately?” Mr. Hoover asked Elaine, looking more than concerned.
“I’m mated. So whatever you have to say can be said in front of my mate.”
The solicitor looked a little gray.
“What is it that you wished to speak to me about in private?” she asked when he didn’t say.
“Nay, Miss Hawthorn. I will have to confer with your cousins as to whether they wish for me to share this information with more than just yourself.”
“Who’s paying you for your services, Mr. Hoover?” she asked, her back and tone of voice stiff, alpha-like.
“For the management of your properties, you are, miss. Uh, I guess, I’m no longer managing your properties if the MacNeill clan will be responsible for them in future. For this other matter, your cousins are.”
“My cousins,” she said.
Cearnach was about to rise from his chair to force the solicitor to say what he had wished to say, but Elaine stayed him, a hand on Cearnach’s arm. “If you can’t share the information, it really doesn’t matter,” Elaine said. “I want to see each of these places. Would it be possible?”
“Aye. The occupants of the two manors are human. I’ve told everyone that you have arrived in Scotland and might wish to see your properties. One of the buildings is an ancient keep. One of our kind lives there.”
“A kinsman of mine?” she asked, her brows furrowing.
The solicitor hesitated to say, then shook his head. Lying? Hiding some truth?
“Can I see them today?”
“They’re spread out over Scotland. One of the properties is located about three hours from here.” He pointed to one of the manor houses on the sheet of paper Ian was looking at. Mr. Hoover closed up his laptop. “I’ll see about changing the names on the deeds.” He rose from the chair.
Cearnach and Elaine stood.
Mr. Hoover bowed his head a little, looking like he wished nothing more than to leave immediately. Why? Because of the news about Elaine and Cearnach’s mating?
Cearnach suspected her kin would be furious, and the little man did not wish to be the bearer of ill tidings.
“Aye. Good day, ma’am, sir, my laird.”
“Will you show him out, Cearnach?” Ian asked.
Cearnach felt torn. He didn’t want to leave Elaine alone with Ian, afraid of what he might say to her while he was gone.
“I’m not going anywhere,” Elaine promised Cearnach, giving his hand a squeeze, her smile a promise that everything would be okay.
He kissed her cheek. “All right.” Then he gave Ian a warning look, which made his brother give him a raised brow in return. Cearnach reluctantly escorted the solicitor out of Ian’s office and shut the door.
Elaine retook her seat.
“My mother didn’t force this on you, did she?” Ian asked, his eyes narrowed as he studied her response.
“No. Not Flynn, either. Cearnach said I forced it upon him.”
Ian didn’t say anything for a moment as if he was taking that in, then nodded as if he agreed. She’d expected him to laugh or smile or something. Not just seriously agree.
“You were the one we were trying to track down fo
r weeks in the St. Andrews area. Cearnach was certain someone evil had taken you hostage, and he needed to rescue you.”
“I’m sorry he worried about me for so long.”
“We all did.” Ian leaned back in his chair and folded his arms. “What do you think the Kilpatricks and McKinleys want with you?”
“If no merchandise is hidden anywhere, or if it was discovered years ago, then I don’t know why they would want to have anything further to do with me.”
Ian shook his head. “They wouldn’t want you to be mated to one of us. Certainly not to Cearnach, of all people.”
“Why him?”
“His friendship with Calla. Now she’s called off the wedding between her and Baird. They wished to speak with you about some matter, and now you’re here and siding with us.”
She made an annoyed little huff under her breath. “That was easy to do after all they’d done to Cearnach and me.”
“Aye, but they won’t see it that way. They’ll feel justified in everything they’ve done.”
Cearnach stalked into the solar. “Was anything important discussed while I was gone?” He took a seat next to Elaine again and put his arm around her shoulders.
Ian laughed. “You must have run the solicitor out of the building.”
“Duncan met me on the stairs and is giving him the royal escort out.”
“Not only have you created ill will with Elaine’s clan over Calla but now also concerning Elaine,” Ian said.
Cearnach shrugged. “Couldn’t be helped. That clan is bad news.”
Ian nodded. “I’ll ask Guthrie and Duncan to see if they can learn anything about what the solicitor alluded to. I suspect we will have more trouble.”
“They won’t give back my ID and the rental car and all,” Elaine said.
“I suspect not. But we have our ways,” Ian assured her.
“By force, you mean?” she asked.
“If we have to, aye.”
“What do you think this is all about, Ian?” Cearnach asked.
“I believe that Elaine’s kin know where more of the stolen goods are hidden. Or maybe not exactly where, as they would have already procured them. Somehow Elaine is the key.”