by Terry Spear
“Only to keep it out of Kilpatrick’s hands because he wants it so badly.”
“Why, after all these years, would they want the treasure? For me, I wanted to see what my uncles thought so precious that they risked their lives to obtain it. Like you, I agree that Robert doesn’t deserve it. So if anything, I want to keep him from having the spoils as much as possible.”
“I understand. The MacNeill merchandise might not have been hidden in Scotland, though,” Cearnach said. “It became my duty to learn why your uncles had sailed to St. Andrews when I witnessed what happened to them and to see if that shed any light on where you’d vanished to. Had they had business there or elsewhere? We assume that was just where they docked. Beyond that, they could have had business at some other location.”
She closed her gaping mouth, and he realized she really hadn’t known what her uncles had planned for her. Perhaps they had wanted to see their relations, ensure that one of them would suit her as a mate, and leave her with the family to give her a chance to be with someone other than Kelly.
“The Kilpatricks and McKinleys were in the city of St. Andrews when your uncles arrived, as if the meeting had been planned. Had your uncles intended to rendezvous with them? But circumstances prevented it?” he continued.
“They said nothing about what they intended to do,” she said, then studied the ceiling as if trying to recall the voyage and everything that had been said between them. “Yet they seemed… disquieted. I thought it was because I was aboard ship.”
“Some believe a woman on a ship can bring disaster.”
“So I’ve heard.” She cuddled against Cearnach, idly stroking his naked chest while he brushed his fingers over her silky hair, delighting in the feel of her molded against his body.
He took a deep breath and exhaled. “You said you thought Kelly Rafferty might have murdered your parents. Did you ever learn the truth?”
“I believed he did. I questioned everyone I could, even his men. They told him I had been looking into my parents’ deaths and what I suspected. He took it out on me—for questioning his honor. I even asked him when he was in a drunken state if he’d done it, figuring he was too inebriated to realize what he was revealing to me. He hadn’t been drunk enough, and I paid dearly for it with a broken jaw and wrist.
“Even after word reached me that he’d died, no one would tell me the truth, as if his ghostly person would come back to haunt them. I admit that for years I feared he’d return and take up where he’d left off. I had nightmares about him forever, about his brutality, both physical and emotional. I know he had my parents murdered if he hadn’t actually done the deed himself.”
Angered that anyone could do violence against her, he caressed her arm, her body pressed against his, wishing he could take away all of her past pain.
“The whole scenario was a little too convenient. My parents’ carriage suddenly veered off into the river when they had been on their way to a party that night. For what reason? No one ever knew. The carriage sank so fast that they were unable to get out. But the horses were saved. The horses, as if they were the only thing of value and not my parents’ lives. That’s partly why I believe he had something to do with the carriage accident. The horses were safely returned home, and neither was wet.”
“My God, Elaine.” He took her hand in his and found that her fingers were ice cold. He held her hand against his chest and rubbed it to warm her. Again he regretted having lost her all those years ago and felt sickened that he couldn’t have protected her. “What about the other half of the details that would lead to the loot? Isn’t it with your suitcase or purse?” The game would be lost, but why would Robert still want Elaine to meet with him?
“In here,” she said, tapping her head. “He won’t get it from me.”
“I wonder if the stolen goods could be hidden on one of the properties you own.”
Elaine frowned. “Wouldn’t Robert have learned of them and already investigated?”
“Possibly.”
“Then he wouldn’t need me for finding the treasure.”
She snuggled closer to Cearnach, loving the sound of his heartbeat beneath her ear and the way he was caressing her hand. She hoped Cearnach wasn’t condemning her too much for not standing up more to Kelly Rafferty. She’d always felt she was a caught animal, unable to get free of his men when he was away and terrified of him when he was home, yet she had tried to show him her alpha side.
Sometimes he loved bullying her to show she wasn’t as alpha as he. Other times he seemed to love that she’d stand up to him and he would leave her alone.
“I’m sorry for letting you get away from me the first time,” Cearnach said, hugging her tight.
This was where she belonged. With him. Like this.
“I ought to get up and get dressed before Logan returns,” Cearnach said, not sounding like he wanted to let go of her.
“Yes,” she murmured.
Before they could leave the small bed, Cearnach turned his head in the direction of the door.
“Someone’s coming,” Elaine whispered, hearing the sounds of footsteps.
“Logan,” Cearnach guessed.
“Have you seen Cearnach?” Ian asked beyond the drying room, the door still locked.
Ian.
Chapter 21
Someone pounded on the kennel’s drying room door. “Cearnach, Elaine’s solicitor is here. She needs to speak with him. You and I will also listen to what he has to say,” Ian said.
“Hell,” Cearnach said, running his hand over Elaine’s hair. “Guess we’ve got to face the world.”
She groaned. Then she sat upright and whispered, “Ian said my solicitor is here?”
“Aye.” He hadn’t thought the solicitor would show up this quickly, either. Ian must have made the man fear the wrath of the pack.
She wrapped the towel around her and pushed at Cearnach. “Go, get the dry clothes Logan brought for me. Mine are still wet.”
Cearnach put his damp clothes on.
“Why would a lawyer be here to speak to me?” Her eyes were wide.
“It probably has to do with your properties and the management of them. I’m sure that’s what the solicitor is here to talk with you about.”
“Did your mother know about this before she suggested you mate with me?” she asked. Then she shook her head. “She didn’t. We had only just met. I bet that would have been an even greater incentive for you to mate me.”
Cearnach sighed. “You are priceless to me, lass. With or without your holdings. With or without the treasure.” He smiled in a much too predatory way. “With or without your clothes.”
He sighed. “Let me get the dry clothes.”
He left the room and stalked through the drying room where the dogs had left their beds to crowd around the door, desperate to greet Ian. Cearnach unlocked and opened the door. The dogs rushed out as Cearnach came face to face with Logan and Ian, both giving him accusatory looks. The dogs eagerly greeted them, bouncing around and jumping up in a wild frenzy of doggy love.
“The clothes?” Cearnach was not about to explain himself in front of Logan. Well, to Ian either.
Logan handed him the clothes.
“We’ll be right out, Ian.” Cearnach shut the door.
“How’d they take it?” Elaine took the borrowed pale-pink sweater and jeans from him and hurried to dress.
“I’m certain they knew it was coming.”
“I’m not getting married.” She pulled on the light sweater and looked up at Cearnach, who was staring at her in surprise. “Wolves don’t get married. I don’t have any family and…”
“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 fam
ily—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.”
