“I admire yer stubbornness, Cooper. Look,” he pointed to the edge of the village in front of them. “We are almost there. I’ll ride beside ye to the village edge, where we will dismount and tie up our horses.”
“Okay,” Cooper lifted his chest, testing out his balance now that someone was there to aid in the case of a fall. “If you insist.”
*
The young witch Jinty watched with disbelieving eyes at the group of men approaching the village. She remained shaded amongst the trees. The men wouldn’t know who she was or what role she’d played in the destruction of their family. Still, better not to be seen.
She wasn’t interested in the Conalls, she knew them well enough—the tall dark headed Scot and the blonde one, both formidable as always, but utterly unimportant to her. The young boy she’d never seen before. There was only one that caught her attention, only one that sent rage rushing through her very fingertips, morphing into hatred as it settled inside her heart.
Eoghanan, the red-headed demon who’d taken from her the one man who could have delivered her from a life of solitude. She’d thought him dead. No one had seen the bastard McMillan brother in many moons. Clearly death had reached for him, the scar running the length of his body showed her that much, but he’d survived. Perhaps death was too much a kindness for him. He deserved to be subjected to the same lonely life he’d forced her to live.
When her beloved, Niall McMillan, had come to her the first time she’d been a young girl lost—left alone after the death of her grandmother, forced to survive with only her powers and the knowledge of herbs her grandmother had left her with. He’d given her a purpose and his heart.
One task in exchange for a life spent together—to help him gain his place as Laird. Years she’d worked for him, dutifully producing poisons, never asking questions, waiting for him to come to her, only accepting his love when he offered it.
They’d come so close to victory. Then Eoghanan had turned Baodan against Niall, and her beloved had met his death. No matter who ran the blade through him, Eoghanan was to blame. Once again, she was alone in the world—the witch in the woods, shunned until one wished bad fortune to fall upon another.
Soon, that bad fortune would reach Eoghanan. She would make sure he was as lonely as she.
She watched the group of men closely, following a short distance behind them as they made their way through the village, stopping to gather men and supplies. There would be a gathering at the castle and all were invited. It would be the perfect time to act against him, but first she needed to find his greatest weakness, the thing he loved most in the world, and rip it from him.
It would be a difficult job. The mysterious McMillan brother had no family of his own, no one had ever seen him in the company of a lass. But everyone cared about something. Jinty would find it in time.
Infectious laughter drifted from the direction she watched, and Jinty’s eye’s rested on the child once again. Eoghanan had the boy in his arms, and the look in his eyes was unmistakable. He cared for the child.
She couldn’t imagine why or what role this young boy now played in Eoghanan’s life, but there was no denying that he adored the child. He watched over him with cautious eyes, stood near him at all times. Whatever the reason, today the child was in his charge.
There was still much she would have to learn, but the gathering would be the perfect place to do so. If the child was now a permanent fixture in Eoghanan’s life, she could think of no greater revenge than to change that for him.
Chapter 31
As Eoghanan predicted, there was plenty of chaos the next morning as the group of women—Mitsy, Kenna, Rhona, Mary, Adelle, Bri, Blaire, and myself—tried to direct everyone to specific tasks for the day. However, after a few hours of disagreements and power struggles, we all fell into a nice routine, each of us setting to our tasks with a dogged determination to have our jobs completed before the men returned.
I’d been paired with Mitsy for the day and found myself with the very easy and enjoyable task of overseeing Jeffrey, Adelle’s husband, Hew, and a handful of other men as they set up tents for the other arriving guests.
“Are you sure I’m not needed anywhere else? I feel a bit guilty, watching these guys work when all of the other women are busy working inside.”
Mitsy placed a hand on my arm to keep me from getting up. “I am absolutely sure. Believe me. Kenna, Rhona, Adelle, and Mary each have control over a quarter of the castle, which is just how they like it. They feel like they’re playing boss, but they won’t be in each other’s way. Bri is busy with baby Ellie, and I’m too hot and pregnant to do much of anything. And I don’t want to be alone, so that’s where you come in.”
“Okay, but are you sure you don’t want to hang with Bri and the baby? I could help with the work that way.”
“No,” she said the word quite urgently.
I realized that her impending motherhood had her scared to death. She didn’t want to be around babies just yet. I understood completely. I’d been much the same way.
“Okay, I’ll stay. It will all be alright, you know?” I relaxed, leaning back against the side of the castle, realizing that it was rather foolish to argue myself into more work. “It’s scary, especially when you didn’t grow up dreaming of being a mother.” She looked surprised that I would infer this about her. “I didn’t either, but I promise, you just take it one day at a time. It will be the best thing that ever happens to you.”
Her lip suddenly quivered, and I reached out to rub her shoulder, understanding all too well the swell of emotions pregnancy hormones could bring.
“I know that…it’s just…gosh, I look at Bri and she was born for this. I wasn’t.” Her chest started to shake as she struggled to hold back tears.
“Oh, Misty. That child…” I pointed to her belly, recreating the very words that Jeffery’s father had said to me once, during my pregnancy with Cooper, “you were handpicked to be its mother. There’s no one else in the world that can raise that baby the way you were meant to. You’re already a perfect match for one another, because that little soul was placed with you instead of someone else. Do you know how many millions of mothers it could have been sent to? But it was sent to you. So just love it, and do your very best every single day, and everything will be just as it should be.”
She leaned against my shoulder, soaking my sleeve with tears. “Oh my God, Grace. That was sooo,” she paused to sniffle and sob, “good.” More sniffles. “Really. You should put that on a card or something. Thank you.”
I patted her back gently and, looking at the camp that was slowly being assembled off the back of the castle, decided it best to change the conversation to help pull her out of her sulk. “So tell me a little bit about who will be here. It’s all pretty hard to keep up with.”
She laughed and nodded, wiping her eyes as she lifted herself off me. “Yes, it is. You don’t need anything to explain your family’s appearance here, or mine. Everyone will think we talk funny, but I’ve found if you just say that you grew up far away from here, people don’t seem to question it too much. It’s really with the Conalls and MacChristys that things get complicated—seeing as Bri and Blaire are uncanny look-alikes.”
They truly were. “How so?”
“Well, Blaire is Donal MacChristy’s real daughter and, until Bri’s appearance, everyone thought he had just one. But they look so much alike that they couldn’t very well say they weren’t twins. No one would believe it.”
It seemed a very tricky situation. “So how does one go about making everyone who’s known the family their whole life believe that Donal had a secret daughter?”
“Good question. You don’t. I mean, they’ve created a story, but anyone with half a brain questions it. Luckily, no one is apt to question Laird Conall, Laird MacChristy, or his brother, Lennox.”
“There are two MacChristys?” Sheesh, I needed a notebook.
“Donal has a brother, you see. Here’s how they now explain Bri:
Donal’s wife died giving birth to Blaire, but now he says that she gave birth to twins, and he was so worried about raising two daughters on his own that he sent one of them away to live with his brother, Lennox MacChristy.”
“Of course.”
She laughed, appreciating my sarcasm. “Yes. Naturally. Anyway, Lennox MacChristy is a perpetual nomad. He’s moved his three sons all over the globe their entire lives, so it’s not as if many people could prove that he’d not raised Donal’s secret daughter.”
“Ah.” Slowly, it made more sense.
“Yes. Anyway, that’s who is coming to the gathering. Donal’s brother hasn’t been in this part of Scotland in a long time. Since Donal and all of the Conalls are already here, it seemed the perfect time for one big ass family reunion.”
“Okay. Anybody else I should know about?”
“The Camerons will be coming as well.”
“The Camerons?”
Mitsy nodded, pointing into the woods. “Yes. Pretty small group, but still, they’ll be here. Kenna’s sister Nairne,” a shadow of the still new wound crossed Mitsy’s face but she masked it well, “she’s dead now and so is her son, both by Niall’s hand. Her widowed daughter-in-law, Wynda, still resides at Cameron Castle. She will be here with her children.”
I couldn’t imagine such loss or such evil. Niall had torn so many lives apart, lives that were still struggling to heal.
Mitsy must have been able to read my thoughts, for she echoed just exactly what I’d been thinking. “He was an evil bastard. I hope he rots in hell.”
“I don’t blame you.” Eoghanan’s scar flashed before my eyes, a permanent reminder of all the destruction Niall had caused. “I’m glad he’s dead, too.”
Chapter 32
“Look at him.” Eoghanan’s arms came around me and I leaned into him, taking his hands in mine as I pointed in Jeffrey’s direction.
The gathering was now in full swing. The castle had been turned into a constant bustle of activity. The grand dining hall was filled with people visiting, laughing, dancing, and, in Jeffrey’s case, flirting rather obviously.
“Aye, I see him. What about it?”
I couldn’t pull my eyes away from them. The way he fawned over the widow Wynda Cameron, smiling and lingering, it was like watching a zoo animal. “I’ve never seen him like that. He really likes her.”
“Wynda?” Eoghanan’s voice echoed surprise.
I jerked my head to the side as he spoke loudly into my ear.
“Yes. Wynda. Someone just offered him food, and he dismissed it. I think he’s quite taken with your cousin, Eoghanan.”
He nipped playfully at my ear, while he thumbed the bottom of my breast that lay hidden beneath his arm. “Aye, well I doona think she’s taken a liking to him yet. She looks verra…distressed.”
I nodded, my sympathy for Jeffrey building. For all his proclamations that he was an expert in such areas, he was as out of practice as I was. “Yes, I can see that, too. Should we maybe save him from embarrassment?”
“No, I doona think so. I’ve need of ye at the moment.” He pressed his hips subtly against my backside, and the hard rod lodged between us showed me what he meant.
“Are you crazy? Not here.”
He laughed. “No, o’course no right here. I am no an animal, Grace. Come with me.”
“Wait. Where’s Cooper? Jeffrey’s clearly distracted.” I had a hard time pulling my eyes away from the train wreck.
“Last I saw him, he was torturing Lady Blaire. He’ll keep himself occupied, Grace. I havena seen ye in days. I only wish to steal ye away for a few moments.”
I faced him and wrapped my arms around him. “You’ve seen me every day. I’ve been sleeping right next to you.”
“Aye, but we’ve truly been sleeping, ’tis the problem. Readying for visitors has exhausted us all far too much. I am no so tired this night.”
I was ready to spend some time alone with him as well. Though I’d gone years without male companionship, it was as if once awakened to it, I couldn’t go long without him before I started to feel a bit empty. I reached around and playfully cupped his rear end. “Neither am I. Let’s go.”
He groaned as he pulled me away, but we only got a few steps before we walked right into Lennox MacChristy and his three sons.
“Eoghanan, what a fine man ye’ve turned into. Do ye remember me, son?”
Eoghanan pulled upright and moved so that I stood in front of him, hiding his lower half.
“Aye, o’course I do. It has been a long time.”
The old man laughed and his round stomach continued to shake after he stopped laughing. “Aye, I think ye were no older than seven the last time I passed through these parts, and me sons werena with me then. Let me introduce ye.”
“I’m sorry.” Eoghanan held up a hand to stop him.
I glanced up at him confused. It was very unlike him to be so abruptly rude.
“I’m afraid ’twill have to wait. There is something I must attend to right away.”
He nodded at the group of men and quickly pulled me away, dragging me across the room toward a small alcove draped in darkness.
“Eoghanan, what’s the matter with you? I think you could’ve waited the five minutes it would have taken to introduce yourself.”
He nodded in the direction we were headed. “No, ’tis Cooper.”
It was then that I noticed him standing with his back pressed against the side of the archway, looking up at the tall young woman standing in front of him. At first glance, there was nothing menacing about the situation. He chatted with the woman just as comfortably as he did everyone else. It was Eoghanan’s urgency that unnerved me.
“Do you know her?”
“No. I havena met her. I know all who should be here, and she is no among them.”
He approached them, and I didn’t miss the look of alarm in the woman’s eyes as he did so. Eoghanan might not have known her, but she knew him well enough.
“Is this yer son? We were just discussing our shared love of partridge.”
I looked at Cooper who locked eyes with me and subtly shook his head. I immediately stepped forward to grab his hand, answering before Eoghanan got the chance. “No, he’s my son. I’m Grace.” I extended my hand. “You are?”
“Just a traveler. Me name is no important.”
“Aye, lass. I’m afraid ’tis. Do ye no live in the village?” Eoghanan took one step in her direction, placing himself between me and Cooper.
“Mom, I don’t even know what partridge is. Is that like a bird, because I never said I liked a partridge?” He whispered it quietly to me.
I squeezed his hand and nodded. “I know.”
Taking in our exchange, the woman realized she’d been caught in a lie and slowly backed away. “No, I doona live in the village. I am only passing by and noticed the gathering.”
Eoghanan held his arm out and moved with her toward the outside doors. “Then, I think it best ye be on yer way. Safe travels.”
Cooper and I stood waiting as Eoghanan showed the woman outside. I bent to pick Cooper up, trying to get a read for how he felt.
“What did she say to you, Coop?”
“Umm…” he lifted his shoulders in a shrug. Clearly the encounter had freaked me out much more than it had him. “She just asked me if E-o was my dad or something. When I said no, she asked me who was and then you guys walked up.”
He squirmed in my grasp. No matter how much I didn’t want to admit it, he wasn’t going to allow me to keep picking him up very much longer.
“Can you put me down, Mom? I don’t want people to see you carrying me around. Besides, I gotta go find Dad.”
“Why? What are you and Dad doing?”
“He said for the next dance he’d carry me on his shoulders.”
I lowered him to the ground, and he danced off in his father’s direction as Eoghanan walked back toward me.
“What the hell was that?”
“I doona know for
sure, but I believe ’twas the witch Niall went to for his poisons; a witch who is verra soon to be dead.”
Chapter 33
“I’m sorry. Say that again. The witch who gave Niall the poisons that killed Osla, incapacitated you, and made your mother ill is still alive?” It seemed unlikely that even with Eoghanan gone, that Baodan wouldn’t have gone after the woman with a vengeance.
“Aye, Baodan had her cottage raided soon after they sent me forward but she was gone, and no one has seen her since. I hoped Niall had killed her before the end. He would have, had he succeeded.”
I ran my hands up and down my arms to rub away the cold that had crept over my limbs. “Why would she come back here?” It didn’t make sense to me. It seemed like an accomplice to murder would flee and never come back.
“I doona know. It worries me. I have no laid eyes on the lass until tonight, and I dinna like to see her with Cooper.”
“No.” I shook my head as Eoghanan, pulled me in close to him. “I didn’t either. Cooper said she wanted to know if you were his father. Why would she ask that?”
His chin rested on the top of my head, and he twisted in gently. “I doona know. When the gathering is over, we will find her again. We canna do it now, for there are many here from the villages who have used her services before. She may have unlikely friends.”
*
The search of the grounds took longer than he’d hoped, but it was worth it to ensure that everyone was safe. Eoghanan expected Cooper and Jeffrey were already abed, but he couldn’t bring himself to wait another night to speak with them both.
He heard Cooper’s voice on the first knock and breathed a little easier knowing he wouldn’t be responsible for waking the child, especially when the little lad slept so little to begin with.
Morna's Legacy 04 - Love Beyond Measure Page 15