“Aye, calm down, Ethan,” said Caleb jumping to his feet. Trapper got up and stood next to Ethan. “All that matters now is that we help Alana and her family.”
“Well, if we’re goin’ to do somethin’, we’d better hurry,” said Kirstine, looking miserable, laying both hands on her belly now. “My husband will be returnin’ any day now. And when he does, if he finds Ethan and Caleb here, he will kill them.”
“Ethan, mayhap ye and Caleb should leave,” said Alana. “Take Isobel with ye.”
“And leave ye here?” Ethan let out a breath. “No’ on yer life. Ye are my wife now and the last thing I would ever do is leave ye in the clutches of someone like Diarmad.”
“Well, what are we goin’ to do?” asked Caleb.
“Ye take the lassies and Finn back to the MacKeefe camp where they’ll be safe,” instructed Ethan. “When ye return, bring Logan and Hawke and anyone else who has forgiven Alana’s faither enough to want to help.”
“Ye’re plannin’ on goin’ up against Diarmad and his men?” asked Gil.
“That’s exactly what I plan to do. We’ll capture them and also the smugglers and turn them in to the king.”
“I’ll help ye,” said Gil, sitting up and rattling the chain on his shackles. “Help me out of this and I’ll fight at yer side.”
“Nay, I canna do that,” said Ethan.
“Ethan? What are ye sayin’?” asked Alana. “Ye arena goin’ to leave my faither in chains, are ye?”
“Alana, I’m sorry, but he has to pay for his mistakes. He’s a thief and a smuggler and I canna allow him to go free.”
“Let me loose,” Gil tried to convince him, tugging on the chain. “Help me out of this and I swear I’ll help ye fight Diarmad. I’ll even turn myself in when this is all over.”
“Da, what are ye sayin’?” asked Alana.
“He’s right,” said Ethan. “He should turn himself in. It’s the proper thing to do.”
“Then I’m stayin’ to fight off Diarmad, too.” Alana crossed her arms over her chest. “And when this is over, I, too, will turn myself in for bein’ a part of all this.”
“Stop it, Alana. Ye ken ye arena guilty except by association with scum like him.” Ethan’s jaw clenched as he nodded at her father.
“I thought ye said ye were goin’ to help me,” said Alana.
“Ye, yes. Him, nay,” answered Ethan.
“We are family,” said Alana. “And family sticks together. Please, Ethan. Help us.”
Ethan thought about it for a moment and finally nodded. “All right. I’ll help ye and I’ll even set yer faither free. But I swear, Gil Chisholm, if ye dinna turn yerself in and tell the truth that Alana and her siblin’s had nothin’ to do with this, I’ll hunt ye down and kill ye myself.”
“I told ye I would. Now get me out of this.” Gil reached over and rattled the chain.
“It’s against my better judgment and I’m sure I’ll regret it, but I’m only doin’ this for Alana.” Ethan drew his sword and with one swipe, he managed to hit the lock. The shackle fell open and Gil quickly moved his leg.
“Bid the devil, ye nearly took off my leg,” snapped Gil.
“Dinna complain. If ye’re tried and convicted for smugglin’, as well as all yer other crimes, ye’ll be losin’ more than just a limb.”
“Enough of this talk.” Alana rushed over and picked up her daughter. “We probably have a full day, mayhap two before Diarmad returns, but no more. We’ve got a lot to do before then.”
“We?” asked Ethan. “Ye mean I do. No’ ye.”
“Nay. If we’re goin’ to clear our names and, hopefully, the reputation of my faither, we’re goin’ to have to present more than just a few smugglers to the king.”
“What do ye mean?” asked Ethan.
“Right after the meal, we’ll start our search for the treasure.”
“Alana, a little family treasure is no’ goin’ to sway even a king’s decision,” Ethan told her.
“Perhaps no’. But I think if we hand over the Templar treasure, we might have a little more to bargain with.”
“Templar treasure?” gasped Caleb. “Like the Knights Templar?”
“That’s the one,” said Gil, rubbing his leg.
“Alana?” Ethan looked at her from the corners of his eyes. “Ye dinna say this is Templar treasure that ye are guardin’. That is a whole different story.”
“So, it might be a bigger bargainin’ tool to secure my faither’s future.”
“Well . . . I suppose it would,” answered Ethan. “But I’m no’ sure our king or any king should own it. Many Templar knights died because of people who didna understand their purpose.”
“So what are ye sayin’?” asked Alana. “There is a treasure here and ye dinna want to find it?”
“Ethan,” said Caleb in a low voice. “Findin’ a Templar treasure would surely get ye mentioned in the Highland Chronicles.”
Ethan felt confused about all this, and needed to think before he acted. But either way, if there was a treasure in this castle, they could not leave before it was found.
“I’ll keep this for now,” said Ethan, looking at the key that had a small Templar cross engraved in the center. “First thing in the mornin’, I’ll start lookin’ for the treasure with yer faither while Caleb takes the rest of ye back to the MacKeefe camp.”
“I’m no’ goin’,” said Alana stubbornly. “The treasure has been guarded by my family for generations and I’ll be the one to find it or it’ll no’ be found at all.” She snatched the key away from him and left the room with her daughter, followed by Kirstine waddling behind her.
“Here’s Slink,” said Finn, handing Caleb the pine marten and rushing out of the room after them.
“What just happened?” asked Ethan, feeling very confused.
Gil started laughing. “Ye have a lot to learn about bein’ married to my daughter, MacKeefe. But I’ll tell ye right now that no Chisholm, laddie or lassie, is ever goin’ to want to be told what to do.”
Chapter 15
“So when, exactly, will Diarmad and the others return?” Ethan asked in a low voice as they ate their meal in the great hall. The only two guards that had been left behind, Albert and Graeme, were eating near the fire with the servants, far from the dais.
“It willna be for a day or two yet, I’m guessin’,” said Alana, balancing Isobel on her lap as they ate. “No one kens for sure. Still, ye will need to be gone before they arrive or there is no tellin’ what Diarmad and the others will do to ye.”
“Alana,” said Kirstine from next to her. “The guards are askin’ when Ethan and Caleb will leave. Graeme wants to kill them now, but I’ve convinced him that they dinna want to harm us but help us instead.”
“I understand their concern. It wouldna fare well for them if the men came back to find Ethan and Caleb here. I’m sure they are gettin’ anxious.”
“I’m surprised they havena already tried to kill us,” said Ethan, taking a bite of food.
“Albert and Graeme will listen to me,” said Gil, happy to be sitting at the dais instead of being chained to the bed. “Dinna worry about them. I’ll handle it.”
Caleb loaded a heaping helping of fish on his trencher and handed the platter to Ethan. “Here ye go, Ethan. I saved some for ye,” he said.
Ethan’s stomach turned just smelling the fish. “Ye ken I dinna eat fish. I hate it. Save me some of the food I like and get that stinkin’ mess away from me.” Ethan pushed Caleb’s hand away.
“Well, if ye dinna want yer share, I’ll give it to Slink.” He started to give it to his pet that was sitting on the table, but Ethan grabbed the platter and put it on the floor instead.
“Trapper can have my share,” he said.
“Yer dog eats fish?” asked Alana in surprise.
“In case ye havena noticed, my dog is huge,” answered Ethan. “He’d eat one of those guards if I told him to.”
“Dinna let yer doggy eat my dolly,” said Isob
el, looking at the dog right below her with frightened eyes.
“Dinna worry, Isobel. Trapper would never harm ye.” Ethan reached out and ran his finger along the girl’s cheek. Such a gentle, caring motion made Alana realize that she had done the right thing in telling Ethan about Isobel. He would do anything to protect his daughter and that made her sigh in relief.
“So what’s the plan?” asked Caleb, ripping off a hunk of his trencher and gnawing on it.
“The plan stays the same,” said Ethan, finding meat and root vegetables on another platter and loading them onto his trencher. “Gil and I will search for the treasure and wait for Diarmad and the others to return.”
“I’ll talk to Albert, Graeme, and the servants,” Gil told Ethan and Caleb. “I’m sure I can convince them to work with us against Diarmad now that ye two are here.”
“Caleb will be leavin’ with the lassies and the children at dawn,” Ethan reminded him, biting into his food.
“Och, Ethan, I want to stay and help look for treasure,” said Caleb.
“Nay. I need ye to protect the lassies and Finn and bring back some of the MacKeefes with ye. We are goin’ to put an end to all this.”
“I dinna want to go back with the lassies,” protested Finn, overhearing them as he walked by. “I’m a man now and want to help with findin’ treasure and fightin’ off smugglers.”
“Finn, ye need to listen to Ethan,” said Alana. “Besides, Isobel will feel more at ease if ye are with her since I’ll be here.”
Ethan groaned. He could see there was no use telling Alana she wasn’t staying. Like Gil said, she didn’t like to be told what to do. He supposed he shouldn’t try to fight it.
“If ye insist on stayin’ then we’ll start searchin’ for the treasure as soon as we are finished with the meal,” Ethan told her.
“Where are we goin’ to start lookin’?” asked Finn anxiously. “Mayhap the treasure is down by the cove.”
“I’ll help ye look there,” offered Caleb, throwing his crust of bread to Trapper and brushing his hands together. “Let’s leave now before the sun goes down.” He jumped to his feet.
“Wait, I’ll go with ye,” said Gil, pushing up from the table.
“Nay, Faither, ye are too weak to go down to the cove,” remarked Alana.
“Daughter, I’ll take a horse if I have to. But nothin’ is goin’ to stop me from findin’ this treasure, because I am doin’ it for ye and Finn and Kirstine. Even for little Isobel and Kirstine’s unborn bairn. I want to make certain ye are taken care of for the rest of yer lives since I willna be here to do it.”
“Da, dinna say that,” said Kirstine, looking very pale. “We’ve already lost Mathair and we willna lose ye, too.” She put down her goblet and held her stomach. “Please, stay here. I might need ye since I am no’ feelin’ well.”
“All right. I’ll search the castle for the treasure instead,” agreed her father.
Ethan was shocked by the way Alana’s family had chosen to stick together, no matter what happened. He admired that. It also made him feel a little left out since he’d grown up never knowing his father until he was already a man. Ethan was naught but the result of a tryst between two young people experimenting in the act of lovemaking. This had made him feel unwanted through the years. He looked over to his young daughter, feeling sad he’d missed out on so much of her life, but also feeling blessed because he would be here for her as she grew up. He wouldn’t give this up for anything. It meant more to him than any treasure.
“I’ll start searchin’ for what the key opens, startin’ in the tower,” said Ethan. He held out his hand to Alana. “Give me the key.”
Her head snapped up and she slowly swallowed, licking the crumbs off her lips with her tongue, about driving him mad. All he could think about was kissing her right now.
“I’ll go with ye,” she said.
“Me, too,” added Kirstine, trying to get up from the table, and then sitting back down. “Och, I dinna feel too guid.”
“Really?” Alana rushed over to her sister. “Are ye still feeling cramps?” she asked.
“Aye. I think the baby wants to get out.”
“It’s too early,” said Alana. “Ye need to rest so nothin’ happens to this one, Sister.”
“Mayhap ye’re right. I think I’ll go to our chamber and lie down.”
“I’ll take ye and Isobel there,” offered Alana.
“Nay, Mama,” said Isobel. “I dinna want to go to our chamber. That scary man comes out of the wall. He is tryin’ to get Olivia.”
“Ye’re just imaginin’ things, Isobel,” Ethan told her. “There is no scary man and neither is there anythin’ to be afraid of. Now, stay with Kirstine because she might need ye. Yer cousin will be born soon, and ye are goin’ to have to help with the bairn.”
“Me?” Isobel’s eyes opened wide.
“Ye’ll be the big sister in a way,” he chuckled. “Do ye think ye can do it?”
“As long as Olivia can help, too,” she said, kissing her rag doll on the cheek.
“Olivia can help, too,” said Alana, taking Isobel by the hand. “Ethan, I’ll meet ye in the tower. But why do ye want to start there?”
“It’s just a hunch,” he said. “Since that is where the lassie died, I figured somethin’ else might have happened there many years ago.”
“That’s where I saw the ghost,” whispered Alana, trying not to scare Isobel.
Ethan chuckled. “Enough with the ghost stories. Ye arena goin’ to scare me off. Ye are the only ghost around here.” Ethan started across the great hall with Trapper leading the way. As he headed to the tower, thoughts filled his head of the time he was a child and frightened out of his mind by what happened there.
Ten-year-old Ethan climbed out of the small boat with the burning torch gripped tightly in his hand. He eyed up the gloomy Blackbriar Castle that stood enshrouded in a thick fog in the night. His friends waited for him in the boat. As soon as he’d stepped foot on the Isle of Kerrera, he wished he hadn’t been so gullible as to be tricked into coming here because he could already feel it in his bones that this was a big mistake.
“Go on, Ethan,” his friend, Bram, coaxed him from the boat. “Or are ye a wench and too afraid to enter the castle?”
“I’m no’ scared,” retorted Ethan, really shaking in his boots but not wanting them to know. He’d heard the rumors of the crazy old man who lived here. Mad Murdock was a murderer, killing his bride on their wedding night, throwing her from the tower. Since that day so long ago, her bloodcurdling scream could be heard every night as she fell from the tower over and over again. In anger, the ghost of the bride of Murdock was said to walk the battlements in waiting, wanting revenge on the man who killed her.
“Remember, ye need to go all the way up to the tower and wave yer torch out the window so we ken ye are there,” his other friend, Clyde, reminded him.
“I understand,” he answered, looking at the castle and then back at them sitting safely in the boat. “Ye’ll be watchin’. Right?” he asked, not wanting them to trick him and leave before he returned.
“Aye, of course we will,” Bram assured him. “How else will we ken that ye really did it?”
“All right,” said Ethan, taking a deep breath and heading up the hill. The night was so foggy that it was hard to even see the castle until he was upon it. He stopped just under the open gate, looking around. By the light of the moon, he saw the empty courtyard. There, across the baily stood the infamous tower that was the scene of the murder. No one even knew that man’s poor wife’s name.
“I can do this,” he said, feeling his body tremble. He’d heard the scream of the murdered woman just as everyone else in his clan had, the cry carrying on the wind all the way back to the mainland. All he had to do was to climb the spiral staircase and wave his torch out the window. Then his friends would see that he wasn’t a milksop and they’d stop teasing him about being frightened of a ghost.
Wanting to get it o
ver with as quickly as possible, he ran to the keep and down the corridor, using the light of his torch to guide the way. Tall shadows moved on the walls as he got to the foot of the spiral staircase, making him feel as if he were being watched. Or perhaps followed.
With a shaking hand, he held his torch in front of him, climbing the crumbling spiral stairs, wondering how far it was to the top. He stopped in front of the door to the room, looking back over his shoulder once more before slowly reaching out. But before he even touched the door, it creaked open on its own.
He froze. Was it the ghost of the bride of Murdock? Or was it perhaps old Murdock himself who did that? Waving his torch back and forth, he called out to the empty room.
“I have fire,” he said, as if that made a difference. “And I have a dagger, too.” He reached down to his waist and plucked his dagger from his waist belt, holding that out in front of him with his other hand. “Did ye hear me?” he called out, hearing the echo of his own voice in the room. “Ye canna hurt me so dinna even try.”
As he took a step into the room, he saw a bed near the window but, other than that, the room was empty. Something squeaked from behind him and he spun around, stabbing his dagger in the air and waving his torch wildly. A mouse disappeared into a crack in the stone wall next to what looked like an empty old hearth. He walked closer, using the fire to light the wall. “Odd,” he said, not seeing a crack big enough for even a mouse where the rodent had disappeared. It must have gone into the hearth.
He turned back and headed for the window, his knees still quaking and his legs starting to feel as if they were going to give out. “Wave the torch,” he repeated the directions aloud, walking up to the open window to do it and leave. But just as he approached the window, a huge gust of cold air blew in, extinguishing the flame.
“Nay!” he cried, because now he’d never be able to signal to his friends that he truly was here. He turned around quickly, meaning to run, when a wispy form of a woman went right through him, taking his breath away. She floated out the window, and once again he heard that bloodcurdling scream. “Bid the devil!” he cried, running for the door. But when he got to the door, the dark image of a man in a cape stepped in front of him, holding up a halting hand.
Highland Spirit: Highland Chronicles Series - Book 2 Page 17