“What reason could he have to object?” Lachlan asked. “Who was he—some crofter from the mainland, was he?”
Kincaid slapped Lachlan hard across the face. “Pay attention, lad. Her father was Aegir himself, and he locked Rhona away and banished your father from seeing her again. Your father returned to Duart a broken man, and he married Nessa not six months later. He never saw Rhona again, but no one kenned she was already carrying his child. He’d been married to Nessa less than a year when a crofter from Carsaig turned up a baby abandoned in a little rush basket down on the beach. He and his wife wanted to keep the bairn, but when the Laird got wind of it, your father demanded to see the child. He took one look at it and kept it for himself.”
Lachlan struggled out of his chair. He paced around the room in a ferment of ideas and emotions. “This is impossible. If what ye say is true, then that would make me Aegir’s…”
“Did ye never stop to wonder why your brothers all have black hair while yers is golden?” Kincaid asked. “Nessa had black hair, and so did your father and all his family for generations back. You’re your father’s son and heir to the Chieftainship, but from a different woman than your brothers. Aegir is your grandfather, and ye possess his power or near as much. Ye have only to use it against him to defeat him.”
Lachlan shook his head. His mouth said, “I dinnae believe ye,” but his heart and soul told a different story. This couldn’t be happening. He couldn’t be. Aegir—his grandfather?
Kincaid got to his feet. He leaned one hand on the mantle shelf and stared down into the flames. “Ye have always cherished a kinship for the sea. It’s a part of ye, and ye have always turned your hand to it. If ye look, you’ll find it in yourself to tap your power.”
Lachlan paced back and forth. He shook his head, but it did nothing to clear his thoughts.
Kincaid straightened up and came to stand in front of him. He spoke in a low, soothing voice, all his sharp insults gone. “A week ago, that woman came to me house in Glasgow. She used her power to solve a small problem I had. In exchange, she asked me to help ye, as she wasnae able to at the time. That’s why I’m here. I’ll help ye, and then, when you’re ready to face Aegir on your own, I’ll hurry along home to my own place.”
He walked away toward the door and paused on the threshold to turn back. Lachlan didn’t see him. His mind seethed in a thousand directions trying to understand everything at once. Kincaid’s voice startled him awake.
“There’s just one more wee detail you’ll need to consider,” Kincaid told him. “Aegir—he doesnae ken you’re Rhona’s son. He doesnae ken naught about it. Dinnae fool yourself to think he’ll start to loving ye and wishing ye well if he finds out. If he does find out the truth, he’ll hate ye worse than ever.”
Chapter 13
Ivy walked through the Tower House. She migrated from room to room, but she saw only men everywhere she turned. She was the only woman here. She never sensed the need for other women until she found herself utterly alone and surrounded by strange men. They spoke a strange twist of language and laughed loudly at jokes she couldn’t understand.
Every room she entered repelled her until she fled to the laundry. She had no idea what to do with herself. She read blame and accusation on every face for bringing this misfortune on Clan McLean, but underneath it all, she blamed herself. She never wanted anybody to suffer her misfortune.
Now Lachlan was injured, the Clan dispersed, and the Tower House under siege. All their hopes for survival rested on Kincaid, and even he admitted he couldn’t save them from Aegir.
For lack of anything better to do, she started folding the laundry. She folded a stack of sheets and found a quantity of tartan plaid piled underneath it. She picked up the first length and spread it on the table. She smoothed out the wrinkles.
The soft knap of wool warmed her fingers. These tartans meant so much to their owners. The Highlanders invested all their Clan pride in their tartan, and here she was, touching it and caressing it like a man’s skin.
Whose plaid was this? Was it Lachlan’s? Was it Christie’s or Clyde’s? She picked it up and smelled it. It smelled like soap.
She put it down and started folding it again when the click of a door latch made her turn around to see Martha coming through the hidden door. “Martha! You’re back!”
“Aye.” Martha flushed with excitement. “The others’re all on their way. I took them as far as Kinlochspelve. No one followed us, and Ronald and the others’ll take them on to Duart. So I came back here to see what’s what.”
Ivy slumped. “You shouldn’t have come back. You should have gone to Duart, too. It’s not safe here. We almost got wiped out, but Arch and Aiden showed up with Kincaid at the last minute. Even he says we can’t survive another assault.”
“Oh. Really?” Martha brightened up. “Och, well, that’s that, then. Well, there’s no sense moping around down here. Come on upstairs. I’m hungry as a bear, and I havnae had a bite to eat since I left this place. Come up to the kitchen with me, and ye can tell me the whole story.”
“Wait a minute,” Ivy exclaimed. “How can you be happy about this?”
Martha spun around. “Eh? Oh, well, I’m glad to be back with ye…and Lachlan and all.”
“Oh, I get it,” Ivy replied. “You and Lachlan…you’re…”
“We’re what?”
“You don’t have to pull your punches with me,” Ivy replied. “You’ve got designs on Lachlan, don’t you? I saw it before, and now I see it more than ever. You came back here to be with him, didn’t you? You wanted to share the danger and be near him in case anything happens.”
Martha laughed. “Isn’t that why we’re all here?”
“Don’t turn this into a joke,” Ivy shot back. “You love him, don’t you?”
“Of course I love him,” Martha shot back. “I always have. I’ll love him ’til the day I die.”
Ivy nodded and turned away. “I thought so. I should have known he would wind up with you. He needs someone like you. He needs one of his own kind.”
“One of his own kind?” Martha asked. “What do you mean?”
“A wolf,” Ivy replied. “He should mate with someone who understands him. He probably can’t mate with a human.”
Martha’s silvery laughter filled the laundry. “I’m no’ a wolf, lassie.”
Ivy’s eyes popped. “You’re not?”
“No, lassie,” Martha replied, “and besides, Lachlan doesnae want me. He wants ye.”
“Are you sure?”
Martha laid her hands on Ivy’s shoulders. “Lassie, listen to me. I have tended that man for months. I have lain my heart bare at his feet. I have served him hand and foot, and never in all that time has he taken the slightest notice of me—none to speak on. He has paid more attention to ye in the short time ye have been in this castle than in all the months I have served him and doted on him. He doesnae love me, and he never will. He hasnae stopped thinking on ye since Fergus Cameron first told him ye were under the ocean and Lachlan must bring ye up to break the curse. He has eaten and drunk and dreamed on ye and slept with ye in all that time, even when he had never seen your face.”
Ivy stared into Martha’s glowing countenance. “Really?”
“Come along, lassie,” Martha replied. “We’re both of us hungry and tired. Ye dinnae belong down here folding the laundry, and neither do I.”
Martha took her hand, and the two women mounted the stairs to the kitchen. They found the place dark and cold and empty. No fire burned on the hearth.
Martha set to work. She bustled around getting the fire going and cutting up food. “Is this the way it goes when the women all leave? I darenae think the men have no eaten a bite since then, either. This’ll never do. Come along, Ivy lass. Ye must help me afore the place comes apart about our ears.”
She put Ivy to work, and pretty soon, the succulent aromas of meat and vegetables and bread filled the kitchen. The smell attracted men from all over the castle, and the
y crowded in the doorway. They jostled and shoved.
“Ye lads wait your turns,” Martha ordered. “There’s plenty for all, but ye must keep order ’til you’re all fed, or none of you’ll get your share. “Stand aside, Colin. Kincaid was here first. Ye ken he was, so dinnae give me that scowl.”
She served two bowls, one for herself and one for Ivy, and set them aside where they would be safe. Then she served the men. “Take your food upstairs to the dining room. I dinnae need ye muckle hamshanks glutting up the place.”
Clyde elbowed Christie. “Listen to the tongue on her. Your mother should tan your hide for ye, lassie.”
“Ye find her, and I’ll bend over for it.” She shoved a bowl into his hands. “Now get on with your own business and leave me to tend me own.” She shooed them all out and shut the door.
“Wow, Martha,” Ivy breathed. “I never knew you could curse like that.”
Martha laughed out loud. “Neither did they. A lady saves it for when it’s truly needed, and these men respect anyone who can stand up for themselves—be it man, woman, or child. Just save it for the right moment. If ye use it all the time, it loses all meaning.”
She handed Ivy her dish, and the two women sat down at the table. After a moment of silent eating, Ivy broached the subject again. “I don’t feel right about Lachlan. I mean, I just walked in the door. I shouldn’t…you know, do anything about it.”
“Ye dinnae need to wonder whether or no to do naught about it,” Martha replied. “Ye have only to ask him. If he only brought ye here for the sake of the curse, he’ll tell ye. If he wants more, ye can trust him to make his wishes known. That’s one good thing on Lachlan McLean. He doesnae never say one thing when he means another. He’ll tell ye straight, one way or the other.”
“Did he tell you straight he didn’t love you the way you loved him?”
“He didnae have to tell me,” Martha replied. “He made it clear in every other way possible.”
Ivy lapsed into silence. Martha’s comments gave her a squirrely sensation of excitement in her guts. Was it possible…? Was what possible? Ivy didn’t really believe there could be anything between her and Lachlan, did she?
Ivy fantasized about Lachlan for months when she watched him under the ocean, but she never really let herself believe it could come to anything. After all, she planned to wed Aegir. Lachlan might as well have been on another planet.
Now Ivy sat across the table from Martha. Martha seemed so much more suitable to be Lachlan’s mate. Martha belonged to the Scottish culture. She spoke the same language. She understood the customs and traditions and language that bound this rugged people together. Ivy would never have that. She would always be an outsider.
Martha stood up and took Ivy’s empty bowl away from her. She put the kitchen to rights. “Ye must come along with me, lassie. I’ll show ye a room where ye can sleep tonight.”
Ivy followed without complaint. She wanted to be alone right now so she could think things out. She followed blindly where Martha led. The men laughed and talked in the castle’s many rooms the way they did before. A gentler, more contented rhythm filled the Tower House, now that they’d eaten.
That change was Martha’s doing. She lived and breathed these people, and she knew what they needed. Lachlan needed a wife, a fellow Clan leader who could rally these people to be the best they could be. These people needed Martha. They didn’t need Ivy.
What could a girl from modern America do for a people like this? What could she really do to make Lachlan’s life better? All she did was bring him hardship. He searched for her because he believed she would lift the curse. If she couldn’t do that, what good was she?
Martha showed her into a simple room off the dining room. A plain bed with a straw mattress and woolen blankets sat under the small window. The room didn’t even have a fireplace to warm it.
The dim light of evening came through the window. “Ye can stay here tonight,” Martha told her. “Perhaps in the morning things’ll be different.”
“Thank you, Martha.”
Ivy sat down on the bed and waited for Martha to leave. When Martha closed the door, Ivy lay down on her side and closed her eyes. One more time, she made up her mind. She would go back to America as soon as possible. She would leave this crazy world behind.
Once she got back to America, the curse would be half lifted. Then, if and when Alexis came back, the McLeans could live in peace once again. That was the kindest, most selfless thing Ivy could do for them right now.
Chapter 14
Lachlan woke up surly the next morning, but that was only because his side ached. It got better when he tightened the bandage Ivy tied around his ribs, but he couldn’t shake the pain off. He grumbled when he didn’t really mean to, and he snapped at Christie over breakfast.
To clear his head, Lachlan took a walk up to the roof. Half of it crumbled away at the corner, and he peered down into what used to be the Great Hall where the wounded once rested. Nothing remained of that side of the building now.
Would Clan McLean ever rebuild the Tower House, or would it continue to fall to pieces around his ears? Maybe the whole Clan would crumble to nothing, and all Lachlan’s efforts would become so much rubble scattered on a field.
He made a circuit of the battlements. A few men stood on guard, but not enough. Lachlan tallied up his remaining forces in his head. Twenty-five men remained to defend the Tower House, not only from the forces of the curse but from Aegir’s sea monsters, too.
How long before the curse struck again? Maybe Lachlan and all his people would be dead by then from fighting Aegir.
He still couldn’t accept Kincaid’s story about being Rhona Kirk’s son—not that Lachlan doubted Kincaid’s information. The tale threw Lachlan’s whole world into turmoil. Was it possible Lachlan possessed the power to fight Aegir?
He shook those thoughts out of his head. He was a wolf. He always had been a wolf and a Highlander. He couldn’t think of himself as anything else. He never wanted to be anything else, and he certainly didn’t want to be any kind of sea… whatever.
While he stood there pondering it all, he spied a lone figure far in the distance. Something moved against the shore line where the black land met the sparkling sea. Lachlan frowned. Who could be out there at this time of the morning when Aegir’s forces threatened all their lives? Who would tempt the fates like that? He could think of only one person.
He scooted down the stairs and confronted Christie standing by the entrance door. Christie put out an arm to stop him. “Ye cannae go out there, mon. It’s too dangerous.”
“Stand aside and let me pass,” Lachlan replied. “Ivy’s out there.”
Christie’s eyes flew open. “Eh? She cannae be….”
Lachlan forced his way past and flung the door open. “If I’m no’ back in fifteen minutes, ye and Arch must take over here.”
He charged outside and slammed the door behind him. He marched across the field, all the way out to the beach. He found Ivy standing on a high rock. She gazed out over the sea breathing against the horizon. Pools of still water lay around her feet, and the spray from the breakers sizzled over the rock to join them.
Lachlan paused to watch her. She stood with her back to him and didn’t see him. She stared out to sea, lost in thought. What in the name of heaven was he going to say to her to put her mind at ease? How could he talk to her, now that he knew what he knew about himself?
He was nothing different from Aegir. When all was said and done, he was Aegir. Ivy would never want to give up her life back home to stay here. Why should she? What could he offer her but strife and danger?
She turned aside and started walking along the pools when she caught sight of him. She smiled up at him, and he had no choice but to smile back. The wind caught her hair and threw it across her face. She combed it back, and the sun struck her cheeks. “You’re sneaking up on me.”
“Ye shouldnae be out here, lassie,” he replied. “Ye ken Aegir could come out a
nd recapture ye at any time.”
She gazed out to sea. “I know.”
He studied her profile. He understood exactly what she was doing here. “Is that what ye want? Do ye want to return to Aegir? If ye do, I’ll no’ try to stop ye.”
“I don’t know what I want.” She inspected her hands. “I only wish I knew. One minute I want one thing. The next, I question it and decide I want something else.”
“That makes it a mite difficult to get what ye want,” he observed.
Ivy snorted. “I know that.”
“Can I help ye in any way, lass?” he asked. “Can I help ye find your way where ye want to go? Ye have only to tell me, and I’ll do what I can for ye. Ye ken that.”
“I want to do the right thing for everybody,” she replied. “That’s all I really want. I want everybody to be safe and happy. That’s what I want. If you know a way I can do that, I’ll gladly do it. I would protect your people by going back to Aegir if I thought it would do any good.”
“Dinnae do that, lassie,” he began.
“I would go back to America, too, if I knew how. I just don’t really know what the right thing is. I keep going around and around in circles and I always wind up back at the beginning.”
Lachlan shook his head. “Dinnae think on what’s best for everybody else. Think only on what’s best for ye. If ye could have anything ye wish, what would it be?”
“What would it be? I would lift the curse and stop Aegir attacking you. That’s what I would do.”
“No, lassie,” he murmured. “You’re thinking on others again. Think only that we’re all safe and the curse is lifted and everyone’s happy. Now what would ye really want? Would ye want to go home to your own world then?”
She turned away. “If that was the case, you’d be married to Martha with a dozen kids running around.”
“Martha!”
“You know she loves you. She’s as committed to this Clan as you are. You couldn’t ask for a better match.”
Sea Queen (Phoenix Throne Book 6): A Scottish Highlander Time Travel Romance Page 10
