by Terry Spear
“We didn’t know who you were,” Baird growled. “You don’t side with our enemy if you know what’s good for you.”
“Are you threatening me?” Her tone of voice had darkened, she-wolf in battle mode. “You didn’t believe I was related to Cearnach, did you?”
Robert shook his head.
“So then why would you have stolen my car?”
One of Baird’s older brothers spoke up. “We thought you were Cearnach’s new girlfriend. His bringing you to the wedding was an insult and upset Calla.”
“I see. Instead, I was part of your extended family and had every right to be at the wedding. Did my being at the church truly upset Calla?”
Baird huffed out an annoyed breath, folded his arms, tilted his head up in an arrogant way, and didn’t speak.
Elaine straightened and clarified her situation. “Cearnach had a little accident. I gave him a lift to the church. I didn’t know him before this. Then again, I didn’t know who you all were, either.”
“Okay, so we start over. You come with us, and you can have your car and belongings back,” Baird said, his voice dark with annoyance.
Cearnach didn’t trust Baird. The man had to recognize that Cearnach felt protective of Elaine, and he suspected Baird would use that vulnerability to get back at him for Calla standing him up at the wedding if he could.
“Where’s that brother of yours, Baird? Vardon? I demand an apology from him,” Elaine said.
He was standing beside the second car, looking angry, his hands fisted at his sides. Cearnach imagined that Vardon wanted to punch her again, except not by accident this time. He’d kill him before the wolf ever got close to her again.
Baird glanced at Kilpatrick and the irritated looks they shared said that no way in hell was Vardon going to apologize.
“You got in the way,” Robert said. “He didn’t mean to punch you. He was aiming for Cearnach.”
Cearnach growled under his breath. Vardon was a bastard for not apologizing to the lass, and her cousin Robert just as much of one for defending Vardon’s brutal behavior. Cearnach opened his mouth to tell him so, but Elaine was running the show.
“That doesn’t excuse what happened. Accident or no accident, he missed Cearnach and struck me. I’ll have an apology. He doesn’t have to get down on bended knee, unless of course he wants to, but a sincere, heartfelt ‘I’m sorry’ will go a long way,” she said, her voice cold with fury.
Robert and Baird’s faces couldn’t have hardened any further. Cearnach and his kin were grinning. Cearnach heard a few snickers from his own people. He could just imagine everyone envisioning Vardon on his knees in front of Elaine, pleading with her to accept his apology.
No one said anything for a moment.
“You can’t stay here,” Robert reiterated. “It’s an insult to our name. Beyond that, they’ll tell you that the stolen goods came from their ships and that you have no right to keep the goods.”
So the matter was no longer private? Good.
“If they had belonged to the MacNeill clan?” Elaine asked.
Robert scowled. “Don’t tell me the scoundrel has already set you against your own kin. You can’t mean to give him the goods.”
Rapid feminine footfalls echoed on the stone pavers behind Elaine and Cearnach and the others with them. They turned to see his mother and aunt approaching. Cearnach frowned at them, not wishing their interference. What now?
“Robert Kilpatrick.” Cearnach’s mother’s voice was sharp. She sounded like she was scolding a small child as she stood on the other side of Elaine, close, protective like a mother wolf. “I thought your mother raised you better.”
His eyes narrowed. “This is between Elaine and me and no one else.”
“Seems you made it our business when you stole the lass’s car. Be off with you. She’s with us now and perfectly content to enjoy our hospitality. Whatever financial dealings you had planned to discuss with her are over. Do you understand?” She turned her sharp eyes on Elaine, who quickly closed her gaping mouth and smiled a little.
Cearnach liked it when his mother was giving someone else hell.
“What part of ‘I’m not going anywhere with you’ did you not comprehend?” Elaine asked Robert. Then she did the unexpected—slipped her arm around Cearnach’s waist and said, “I’m ready for breakfast and a walk in the gardens.”
Every one of her kin looked as though they wanted to thrash her soundly. Even though they didn’t know her, they would expect her to remain loyal to them through kinship, no matter the circumstances.
Cearnach was proud of her. “You heard the lass. When her wishes are met, she’ll grant you an audience.”
The looks on their faces said they could kill Cearnach right this very minute.
Standing beside Cearnach, Duncan gave a murmured, “Aye.”
Before anyone could say a word, Cearnach wrapped his arm around Elaine’s small waist and headed her back to the keep. His brother and cousins hung around the gate, waiting for the McKinleys and the Kilpatricks to vacate their lands.
“You know they’ll test your resolve,” Cearnach said to Elaine. “They suspect you’ll want to return home before long and need to finish your business here. They’ll try to force you to come to them on their terms.”
“Too late for that,” she said, giving him a wicked smile. “Seems I’ve made my bed and I’m staying in it.”
He chuckled low, planning an early night for both of them.
Chapter 18
Cearnach escorted Elaine back to the keep for breakfast, and she was hopeful that everyone was away working at their jobs so he and she would have some privacy.
“I do have a question for you.” He led her through the great hall.
He sounded so serious that she looked up at him expectantly.
“I never considered how my bedchamber would look to a prospective mate.”
“It’s fine,” she said dismissively. She really didn’t care as long as he was part of the scheme.
“Nay, it’s not. It’s a warrior’s haven. You decide how you want to decorate it.”
“The guest room isn’t mine any longer?” she asked, a teasing laugh in her voice.
“Nay, it is not.” He was smiling, but he had a possessively dark tone to his voice. “You belong in my bed. Our bed, now.”
“Hmm,” she said, snuggling closer to him as he walked her through the dining room. “How about purple? Lavender and thistle purple.”
He groaned.
She laughed. “So much for my input on redecorating.”
He chuckled. “Hopefully we can agree on something, but if we can’t, I’ll be man enough to deal with it. Purple sheets, purple floral paintings. As long as you’re wrapped up in the sheets with me, that’s all that matters.”
She sighed. “My room back home is like a garden.”
Brows raised enquiringly, he looked down at her.
She smiled up at him. “Not all floral. But I love plants. So it has green walls, a mural of a garden, and a large window with plants hanging from it.”
His eyes sparkled with humor. “Aye. So we’ll take over the garden room, and that will be our new bedchamber.”
She laughed. “I’m sure your clan would love that.”
“Anything for you, Elaine,” he said, kissing the top of her head.
She knew then he was the right man for her.
When they arrived in the kitchen, the smell of sausage and baked bread still permeated the air, and the room was toasty warm from all the cooking. Heather was talking with Shelley about her poodles. Both quickly turned speculative gazes their way. So much for everyone being off somewhere else, busy with their chores.
“Good morning,” Elaine said, the yummy scents making her stomach growl.
“Morning,” both the ladies said in greeting, smiling broadly.
Elaine suspected they had purposefully hung around to see her and Cearnach. She loved the way they made her feel at home with the pack.
“I made sure Cook left you both something to eat. You know how she is. If you don’t come down to the meal on time, you fix your own meals. I told her that Elaine was a guest.” Heather looked from Cearnach to Elaine as if she knew Elaine was more than just a guest. “I mentioned to her that you had to rescue her from Flynn half the night. You know how much trouble Flynn’s given Cook.” Heather pulled two plates out of the fridge. “She’s broken so much clay crockery that she’s resorted to plastic.”
“What does he do to her?” Elaine asked, frowning.
“Startles her. She used to scold him something fierce when he stole food from the cellar as a lad. So now he gets her back.”
Elaine glanced at Shelley, but she just shook her head. “He hasn’t bothered me at all. Duncan keeps saying it’s because Flynn knows he’ll do something drastic and Flynn’s spirit will be put to rest. So he’s left me alone.”
“He pesters me,” Heather said. “He used to when we were kids. He still does. Nothing naughty. Just scares me when I’m in the kitchen. He rescued Ian’s mate, Julia. He reacts differently to people, depending on who they are and how he relates to them.”
Elaine hoped now that she was mated with Cearnach, Flynn would leave her alone.
Heather put out silverware for them and Shelley brought them a small pitcher of milk. “Coffee? Tea?” she asked.
“Tea,” Cearnach said, “the Scottish whisky one.”
“Coffee for me, thanks.” Elaine wrinkled her nose at Cearnach. “Scottish whisky tea?”
“It’s made of China tea marinated in Scottish malt whisky,” Heather said. “He can breathe in the rich aroma of the whisky from the freshly brewed tea, but the tea itself is nonalcoholic.”
Cearnach winked at Elaine. “You might try some, lass. They say it grows hair on your chest.”
Shelley and Heather laughed. Cearnach smiled and buttered his bread.
“Ian said you were planning to wash the dogs today, but if you don’t have time…” Heather said.
“I do have time. I planned to do it after Elaine and I had breakfast.” And mated. And talked with her hostile kin.
They both smiled at Elaine, then headed out the kitchen door.
Once the door snapped shut, Elaine let out her breath. “Is it just me who thinks so, or are your clansmen really that interested in what you do with your time?”
He laughed. “Let me put it this way. You’re the first woman I’ve ever brought home. The rumor about us having met before has spread, and the gossip is that we had planned this meeting all along.”
“That I would run you off the road for a clandestine meeting?”
He reached over and took her hand and squeezed. “All part of the master plan.”
She sighed. “Here I thought I was only coming to Scotland on a treasure hunt. But you know what? I don’t need the treasure any longer.”
Cearnach studied her expression. She looked so sincere that he realized she meant what she said.
She sighed. “Everyone in my family took risks. I was the one wolf who usually only ventured into what I considered safe territory. I’d thrown caution to the wind when I’d ventured coming to Scotland the first time with my uncles, to escape from Rafferty. And now this time, wanting to find my uncles’ treasure.
“Some of it was because I figured they owed me for agreeing that Rafferty could have me as a mate. Some of it was plain, old-fashioned curiosity. What had they hidden and what was its ultimate value? I hadn’t wanted my cousins getting their hands on it. Now? It really doesn’t matter. But as to your family, nothing’s going to change the fact that I’m kin to the McKinleys and Kilpatricks, Cearnach.”
“What do I care of that, lass? You are not truly one of them, except by blood. Not by actions.”
She humphed. “Your family will not see it that way.”
“It won’t matter to them, Elaine.”
She chewed on her bottom lip, her gaze locked on his. Then she seemed to trust in what he said and nodded. “Okay, if you say so.”
Well, maybe she didn’t believe him all the way. “I’m serious.”
She took a deep breath. “What if Ian objects?”
She didn’t have faith in Cearnach. He reached out and took her hand in his and held on tight. “He won’t, lass. Believe me. He knows we’re meant to be together.” Everyone else probably knew it, too. “Tell me what you know concerning the location of the treasure.”
“Uncle Tobias said that he had an uncanny fondness for buttered and salted porridge and sweet Scottish shortbread. He was referring to both himself and his twin brother, Samson. They did everything together.”
Cearnach raised a brow, wondering how that had anything to do with the hidden treasure, but he kept quiet.
“It was his way of saying the bounty was in Scotland.” She looked so sincere that he tried to keep from commenting or laughing at what he didn’t think could be real clues to where the goods were hidden. More likely it was the lass’s very vivid imagination.
“He said the loveliest loch he ever swam and fished in was surrounded by mountains with a picturesque waterfall nearby.”
“That narrows it down a wee bit,” Cearnach said, “but it still could be hundreds of places, if this refers to the treasure at all. Even if we could pinpoint one particular loch, the goods could still be buried anywhere in the surrounding area for miles around.” From what she’d offered as clues, he figured there was no chance she’d ever find what she was looking for.
She forged onward, sounding as though she didn’t think it would be that difficult a task once he knew the rest. “A mound of rocks covered in moss and surrounded by a stand of Scots pine was his favorite place to sit for a while and commune with nature.”
“I didn’t think he and his brother ever left their ship except to board another and take the merchandise.”
“They must have at some point in their lives.”
Cearnach nodded. “All right, but moss-covered cairns are everywhere in Scotland. Oftentimes, particularly that long ago, they could have been gathered up and used to fortify some castle’s walls or some other building. Large-scale pilfering of the ruins of castles to use on clans’ own castles was quite the thing in centuries past.”
She pondered that for a moment as she stirred her spoon around in her nearly empty bowl of porridge.
He finally asked the question he was trying not to ask. “What made you think you could find it, lass, from the clues you have?”
“I have only half the clues. Robert has the others. Or so he says.” She looked steadily into Cearnach’s eyes. “My uncle said he left the key with a woman who was the only one who could unlock his heart and find the treasure hidden within.”
Cearnach folded his arms. “What if he was being poetic? And his words had nothing to do with treasure?”
She gave a ladylike snort. “Neither of my uncles were the poetic sorts.”
“Okay, then let’s say it is about a treasure. The woman could be dead, for all we know. Even if she wasn’t, do you have any clue as to who she was?”
“Me,” Elaine said quietly, her eyes shimmering with tears. “He told me that right before we disembarked from the ship that day in St. Andrews. It was me.”
Cearnach rose from the chair and helped her to stand, then hugged her tightly. “I love you, Elaine. You are the key to my heart.” He didn’t want her to be sad. She’d had enough of that with losing her close family members, enduring a forced mating with a wolf bastard, and losing other wolf suitors. He meant to make her happy.
She gave him a teary smile. “I can’t express how much being here with you and your family means to me, Cearnach.”
“Aye, you’ve shown me how much it means to you. You are my joy.” He kissed her and gave her one last heartfelt hug as she squeezed him tightly back. “Come on. I’ve got to bathe the dogs, and then we’ll tackle the mystery of the treasure further.”
Before Cearnach could escort Elaine to the kennels, his mother sent word via a lad that she wished to speak with him. She rarely made a summons, and when she did, they always were important.
What was his mother about this time? “Sit in the sunroom for a minute, Elaine, will you? I’ll be but a moment,” Cearnach said, taking her there instead.
Cearnach briskly walked to the library where his mother was sitting at a small writing desk. “Is it done yet?” his mother asked.
This was why he had been summoned? To learn if he’d truly been mated with Elaine? This was too much.
“My lady mother,” Cearnach said, exasperated more than he’d ever been with her meddling ways. “Aren’t you off to London with Aunt Agnes to shop for new dresses or some such thing?”
Her brow wrinkling with annoyance, his mother waved for him to be quiet. “You know how Agnes loves to do research? How she has volumes of history concerning our family’s past and everyone related to us or that we’ve had dealings with?”
Not good news, he suspected. “Aye.” He folded his arms and frowned. “So what has Aunt Agnes dug up?”
“The lass is truly wealthy, Cearnach. Your lass. Which could be trouble. We’re worried about her association with Kilpatrick.”
Feeling the same unsettling concern for the lass, Cearnach nodded.
“She has four estates she manages here in Scotland. Has she told you about them?”
His frown deepened. “Nay. What do you know of them?” He suspected the lass had not known of the estates or she would have mentioned it.
“She owns Senton Castle, two manor houses, and a keep. I’ve told Ian and he’s contacting her solicitor. He wants to ensure that Kilpatrick isn’t trying to steal her properties away from her. Why did Kilpatrick want to meet her at Senton Castle? It’s so isolated that no one in the world would know she was going there, just him. The cliffs below the ramparts are deadly. It would be easy to drag a much slighter woman across the broken wall and toss her to her death.” His mother’s brows rose.
