by Amanda Scott
“Perhaps Maggie Malloch or someone like her has cast a spell over them,” Molly said matter-of-factly.
Fin shot her a look, then cast another, more speaking one at Nell, but he did not dispute Molly’s conclusion.
“Who is Maggie Malloch?” Nell said.
Although Fin gestured to Molly to keep silent, she ignored him and said, “Did you ever hear of fairies or other wee folk at Dunsithe, madam?”
Instead of scoffing, as Fin clearly expected, Nell chuckled. “Dunsithe means ‘hill of the fairies,’ ” she said. “As a result, the whole area abounds with tales of the wee folk, and I certainly heard many of them when I lived here. I cannot say I believed them, but many folks hereabouts swear they are true. Can you really see a bunch of keys on that wall, sir?”
“I can, madam, and since I can, perhaps I am meant to reach for a particular key. Can you describe the one you used to burn—?”
Nell raised a hand in protest. “Pray, sir, do not remind me again of that horrible moment! I thought I was doing right, protecting her, but I have heard her shrieks in my dreams ever since. Truly, I do not recall which key I used.”
“Try, madam. Try to remember.”
Her grimace was visible even in that dim light, but she said, “Try as I will, I see only a key that seemed small till I pressed it to Molly’s flesh and she screamed.”
“The ones on the wall all look larger than what you describe,” he said, frustration clear in his tone.
“I wish I could see them,” Molly said.
He looked at her speculatively. Then, as if he were speaking his thoughts aloud, he said, “It is your fortune, lass. I can claim it only through you. Mayhap that fact is the true key to the treasure. When I touch you, touch your…”
He hesitated, looking at Nell. Then he seemed to give himself a shake, as if to clear his head.
Turning back to Molly, he said, “When I touch your breast, I feel an odd tingling sensation. It is not merely sensual, although I’ve told myself that’s all it is. Indeed, I believed it was a simple reaction to my intense physical feelings for you, feelings I have experienced since the night we first met. However, that particular sensation remains significantly different from any other I’ve felt, ever. Perhaps, just as any claim I have to your fortune comes to me through you, my ability to touch what I see also lies in you.”
He said no more, letting his gaze lock with hers as if he willed her to come to a similar conclusion but was content to let her do so without further urging.
“You think that if you touch the mark on my breast,” she said, following his reasoning easily, “you may also be able to touch what you see on the wall.”
“Perhaps,” he said. “Art willing to try it, sweetheart?”
“Do you want me to leave?” Nell asked. “I own, I am dying to know what will happen, but if you would prefer to be alone whilst—”
“No, madam,” Molly said, smiling at her. “You must stay.” She turned back to Fin and, gazing into his eyes, opened her bodice and loosened her shift for him.
“Touch the mark of the key,” she said. “See if it will help you choose the right one.”
His expression softened, and she felt a jolt of longing. She wanted to be alone with him, to send the rest of the world away. Except insofar as Dunsithe’s treasure meant a great deal to him and to the people of Kintail, it meant little just then to her.
Gently, he reached out and touched the mark on her breast with two fingers. She looked down at them, long and slender. The fingertips felt chilly for that first instant but warmed at once. Her gaze met his again, and he smiled, then turned to face the wall where he had seen the keys.
She closed her eyes, waiting, savoring the touch of his fingers on her breast, a feeling she had feared she would never experience again.
When she felt him reach for the keys that only he could see, Molly opened her eyes to see his hand leaving the wall, empty. The keys had not moved.
Fin sighed in disappointment, and let his hand fall away from her breast.
“Wait,” she cried, realizing in that instant what she had seen. “I could see them! Oh, touch the key mark again!”
He did so at once, and the keys reappeared, just as he had described them to her, a large ring such as many women wore clinking at their kirtles. One key glinted like silver, brighter than all the others.
Without a thought, she reached for the ring and found herself holding the silver key. How it had leaped from the ring to her hand, she did not know.
“Faith,” Nell exclaimed. “How did you do that?”
“Try it in the lock of the chest,” Molly said, offering the key to Fin.
“Nay, lass, it is your fortune and your key.” With a smile, he stepped back, gesturing toward the two chests.
Molly moved to the first one, knelt beside it, and inserted the key in the rusty lock. It went in easily, but it would not turn. Disappointed, she moved to the second chest and repeated the attempt. Again, it went in, but this time the key turned easily. She lifted the lid, and although the light in the tunnel was dim, they could see all they needed to see.
The chest was empty.
Chapter 23
Fin knelt quickly beside Molly when she sat back on her heels, unable to hide her disappointment. Putting an arm around her to comfort her, he reached into the chest with his free hand, sweeping it to touch every side and the bottom, in case the contents might be proving elusive in some fashion, as the keys had earlier.
“Can you see anything there?” Molly asked. “Am I just unable to do so?”
“Nay,” he said. “The chest looks and feels empty to me, too. Although…” As the new thought struck him, he reached for her arm and turned her to face him. “Let me touch the key mark again,” he said, slipping his hand beneath her shift to touch her warm breast. “Mayhap…”
But when he touched the mark, he felt no tingling sensation, so he was not surprised when she shook her head. The chest was simply empty.
“I don’t understand,” Nell said. “There ought to have been something in it, certainly, but what did you expect to find, sir? It might have contained money, I suppose, if my husband had hidden some here before his death, but both of these chests together are much too small to contain all that was lost.”
“They are not too small to have held gold coins, jewelry, or other small items of great value, however,” Fin said. “You told me yourself that a vast quantity of jewelry disappeared. In any event, it is unwise for us to linger. My men passed through this tunnel, you will recall, and I’d as lief none but the three of us know about this. Lock up the chest, sweetheart. It can keep its secret for now. We’ll decide what to do about it after I figure out how to deal with Donald and his lot. I certainly can’t carry these chests home in a boat full of Macdonald prisoners.”
Molly had already moved to close and relock the open chest, and he saw now that she was having difficulty with the key.
“What’s amiss?” he asked.
“It won’t turn.”
He took it from her and tried it himself, only to find that she was right. It would go into the lock, but no matter how hard he twisted it, it would not turn.
“Let me try the other chest again,” Molly said. “Perhaps one has to open them in a certain order.”
Fin stepped aside to give her room, and Nell moved closer to watch.
“It’s useless,” Molly said. “It goes into the lock, but it still will not turn.”
“It seems to me that your wee folk are the wicked sort,” Nell said, shaking her head. “They gave you the secret but have stolen the treasure.”
Molly shook her head. “I do not believe Maggie Malloch would do such a thing. We simply have not yet solved the whole puzzle.”
“Can you not summon this Maggie Malloch?” Nell asked.
“She has never come at my behest,” Molly said. “Moreover, if Kintail saw her earlier, I’d expect him to see her now if she were present. I think we must solve this puzzle ours
elves.”
“But what else can we do?”
Fin said, “If that key won’t open the other chest, it won’t, but we may think of some other way after we’ve given it more thought. In any event, I mean to take both chests back to Eilean Donan until we can solve this mystery.”
He reached for the empty one and found that it was light enough for one man or certainly two men to carry. Glancing at Molly, he said, “I thought you said this chest was too heavy to move.”
“I thought it was,” she said. “Try the other one.”
The second refused to budge an inch.
“I’ll have some of my men collect them both,” he said.
“And what if my key disappears again?”
“It won’t,” he said confidently. “Now that it is in your possession, I think you will find that even if someone else manages to take it, he will be unable to use it for anything. At all events, we’ll do some thinking and confer with Thomas and Tam. I do wish Patrick were here, though.”
He led the way back to the castle, and the women followed, emerging from the tunnel into the stone corridor. But the corridor was no longer bleak or bare. Rich arras draped its walls, candles burned in silver sconces along the way, and a long, magnificently colorful carpet covered the floor.
The three of them exclaimed aloud, and then stood and gaped for a long moment, but when they forced themselves to move on, it was to find that the great hall, too, was transformed. Splendid arras cloths draped all but one wall, and on both long walls, colorful banners on gilded poles lined the chamber’s length.
The high table was no longer battered and plain but highly polished and decked with silver and gold plate. Carved and cushioned chairs surrounded it, and carpets more magnificent than the one in the corridor were scattered over the flagstone floor. Weapons and shields hung from the undraped wall, all polished and gleaming, many bejeweled or boasting gilded hilts and decorated sheaths. Plush velvet cushions graced exquisitely carved benches along the walls.
“It is as it was the night Angus came,” Nell said, clearly still in shock.
“I remember it now,” Molly said. “But why has no one else noticed this miraculous change? It is far too quiet. Where is everyone? And what, pray, did they do with Donald’s body?”
“I expect Thomas and Tam carried it outside,” Fin said. “Recall, sweetheart, that most of my men were with our prisoners in the courtyard.”
Again, he led the way, and when they passed through the anteroom, they saw that it, too, had changed. Arras draped the walls, and a long, carved and cushioned bench stood along one wall that earlier had been bare.
Outside, they discovered the greatest change yet.
“Where the devil are my prisoners?” Fin demanded as he opened the door.
As Molly peeped around him to see only the fifty men from Eilean Donan, lounging at their ease in the courtyard, a familiar voice spoke from the anteroom.
“Ye ha’ nae prisoners the noo, Kintail.”
Fin and Molly whirled around as one.
Nell started at their sudden movement but otherwise seemed only bewildered to see so few men where she had expected to see many.
“She canna hear or see us,” Maggie said. She perched on a cushion atop the carved bench, arms folded across her chest, her pipe cupped in one hand.
“Us?” Molly exclaimed. “You mean she cannot see Kintail or me either?”
“Dinna be daft,” Maggie retorted.
Fin said gently, “She means that Lady Percy cannot see the man sitting beside her. He’s the same man that I saw before, tending her when she was hurt.”
“But I cannot see him!”
“Nay,” Maggie said. “Claud hasna the power tae render himself visible tae most folks o’ your world. Ye can see me, because I do ha’ the power. I thought I explained that tae ye long since, but we didna discuss Claud much. The laird can see us both, because he has the sight, but ye canna see my foolish Claud.”
“Who are you talking to?” Nell demanded. “I do not see anyone!”
Maggie gestured slightly with her pipe. “Now she canna hear ye when ye speak tae me, either,” she said, “and she’ll ask ye nae questions after, for when she speaks again, it will seem tae her that nae time has passed.”
“What happened to my prisoners?” Fin demanded.
“Since the spell be broken, they never were here,” Maggie said. “Ye’ll note that your lady’s gown be nae longer ripped, and your shirt o’ mail be gone.”
Fin clapped a hand to his chest, and Molly looked down at her bodice. Not only did it no longer show damage where Donald had ripped it, but it looked clean and fresh. So did Fin’s clothing. She noticed something else, too.
“My mother’s dress is not torn or bloody where Donald’s dirk stabbed her.”
“Aye, sure,” Maggie said. “All is as it would ha’ been had my Claud no interfered on the day Donald the Grim attacked Eilean Donan. Donald should ha’ died then, ye see. Now, as far as anyone will recall who were concerned in the attack, or in any o’ the events that followed, Donald did die on that day, and Dunsithe appears as they remember it when ye arrived. The laird’s men-at-arms believe they escorted ye both tae Dunsithe from Kintail merely so the laird could inspect his fine new property.”
“But others know that her fortune has been missing for years,” Fin protested. “Many have seen the bare walls, and many have searched under every stick and stone. What do we tell them?”
“Tell them naught,” Maggie said with a twinkle in her eyes. “It be your own business, be it not, and none o’ theirs.”
Fin looked at her for a long moment and then grinned. “Aye,” he said. “That might work.”
“You have only to fly into a temper, sir,” Molly said sweetly. “No one dares to question Wild Fin Mackenzie.”
He raised his eyebrows. “No one?”
“Well, almost no one,” she answered, smiling at him.
“Cheeky lass,” he retorted. Then, turning back to Maggie, he said, “You say that your Claud interfered the day Sleat attacked Eilean Donan?”
“Aye, ’twere Claud stopped Donald’s bleeding, thinking our Maid wanted the vile creature tae survive when fate had deemed otherwise. Nae one can say now if he acted out o’ poor judgment or stupidity, nae more than they can say one way or another about him causing the pair o’ ye tae meet on Skye, or causing James tae transfer her writ o’ wardship and marriage tae ye from Donald the Grim.”
“Claud did all that?”
“Aye. He meant well all along, o’ course, but it seemed tae him and tae others, too, that each thing he did proved a mischief and did nae good. He faced dire trouble within our clan for his actions.”
Molly said hastily, “But if he did all that, Claud is responsible for our coming here and finding my fortune, is he not?”
“Aye,” Maggie said with a grimace. “Truth be told, a body canna ken what energies be set loose when she casts a magic spell. It be clear now that poor Claud and others, too, may ha’ acted under the spell that protected your portion. Only ye could remove it, ye see, for only when ye came back tae Dunsithe and took the key from the wall wi’ your own hand could ye open the two chests.”
“I could open only one of them,” Molly told her. “Is there another key somewhere, or should the one I have open both of them?”
Maggie frowned. “Ye could open only the one?”
Molly nodded.
“Then ye ha’ nae right tae the other,” Maggie said, still frowning thoughtfully. “The spell allows only the rightful heir tae open it.”
“But if I am not the rightful heir, who is?”
“Your father had but one other child,” Maggie said.
“Bessie?”
“Aye.”
“But Bessie’s dead! She’s been dead since soon after they took us away! Angus said so. Everyone said so!” A chill shot up Molly’s spine. “Do you mean to tell me that’s not true— that Bessie is alive?”
“I dinna mean
tae tell ye anything,” Maggie said. “I believed the bairn had died and that ye’d inherited her portion. But if ye canna open yon chest, I’m thinking there be wickedness afoot, and the rightful heir tae the other chest lives.”
“Mercy, then, where is she?”
“That I canna tell ye, for I dinna ken,” Maggie said. “Truth be told, even if I did, our rules wouldna let me tell ye, any more than they permitted me tae tell ye how tae claim your portion. Although I set the spell, I canna undo even a part of it. That be its greatest protection, since I canna tell anyone else how tae meddle with it, either. A secret shared be nae secret at all, ye ken.”
“I must speak with my mother,” Molly said. “She must know something that will help us find Bessie.”
“Aye, I’ll release her,” Maggie said, “but ye should ken first that just as other folks’ memories ha’ altered with the breaking o’ the spell, so too will her ladyship’s memory o’ what transpired these past days fade and change. Only ye and the laird will remember, and if ye try tae explain what happened tae anyone else, ye’ll find your memories o’ this day dimming, too.”
Alarmed, Molly said, “We won’t forget that Bessie is still alive, will we?”
“Nay, I’ll leave ye that,” Maggie said. “And I’ll allow her ladyship’s memory tae fade more slowly than the others’, so that if she kens aught o’ this wicked business, she can tell ye. Farewell now. Ye’ve work tae do.”
When Maggie faded from sight, Molly said, “Did Claud say anything?”
“Not a word,” Fin said, “but he looked quite pleased with himself.”
“I’m glad that he helped my mother,” Molly said, adding as Nell stirred, “Can you hear us now, madam?”
“Of course, I can,” Nell said. “Why should I not hear you when you are standing right here beside me? You have not answered my question, either. To whom are you speaking?”
“We have been talking to Maggie Malloch,” Molly said. “When you asked your question, she did something so that you could not hear any more, and she said that when you did hear us again it would be as if no time had passed. And so it is.”
“Mercy, do you mean that you said more than just that bit I heard?”