Highland Spirit: Highland Chronicles Series - Book 2

by Rose, Elizabeth

  Trapper jumped up, his eyes interlocking with Ethan’s, waiting for his command. “All right. Go get him, boy,” said Ethan, giving his dog permission to hunt down the little thief. The hound took off at a run, chasing the little weasel through the camp, knocking things over along the way.

  “Nay! Stop yer hound, Ethan,” shouted Caleb. “He’s goin’ to kill Slink.”

  “Slink?” asked Ethan. “I thought yer pine marten’s name was Marty.”

  “Well, it was, but I changed it to Slink. I like that better.” Caleb took off at a run after his pet.

  “If ye’ll excuse me,” said Ethan, nodding to the chronicler and his daughter and chasing after his hound. Honestly, he was glad to get away from them. But now he had to stop his dog before it devoured Caleb’s stupid pet. As far as he was concerned, a pine marten was no good and no better than a skunk or a weasel. It certainly was not a good choice for a pet at all. What had Caleb been thinking? Caleb sometimes made addlepated decisions, and this one had to top them all.

  “I’ve got him,” called out Oliver, hunkering down, and calling the dog to him. The wolfhound liked the boy and ran to him, lying down at his feet. Oliver held on to the dog’s neck while Caleb continued to chase Slink. Since his pet was new, Caleb did not yet have the skill of making it listen to him. Then again, Ethan’s dog had a mind of his own as well.

  “Thank ye, Oliver,” said Ethan, crouching down next to the boy to pet the wolfhound. “I’m sorry that we werena able to find yer sister’s doll.”

  “I want my dolly,” cried the boy’s sister, Sophie, running to them and hugging her brother. Ethan’s heart went out to the little girl. She seemed so sad.

  “It must be a special doll,” Ethan told her. “Did your mathair make it for ye?”

  “Aye, she did,” the girl answered, wiping a tear from her eye with the back of her hand. “My mathair made it out of her own clothes. But now Isobel has it.”

  “Why does Isobel have it?” asked Ethan, trying to calm the girl down by talking with her.

  “I gave it to her, but I want it back.”

  “Well, mayhap we can find ye another doll,” Ethan suggested, managing to get a big pout from her in return. “What did it look like?”

  “Her doll was made of rags and was wearin’ a blue and red dress,” said her brother. “But she has no friend named Isobel. We were the only children on the isle. Sophie made that part up.”

  “I dinna!” screamed the girl, looking furious with her brother for saying that. Oliver gave her a look that said he wanted the girl to stay quiet about something.

  “I see.” Suddenly, a vision flashed through Ethan’s mind of the little girl he saw yesterday at the castle. “Sophie, ye said ye had a friend named Isobel?”

  “Aye,” she said, wiping her eyes. “I did. Honest, I did.”

  “Nay, she’s lyin’,” said Oliver, making Sophie start to cry again.

  “Was the little girl, perhaps livin’ at the castle?” asked Ethan.

  “Aye,” said Sophie. “But she sneaked out to play with me sometimes.”

  “Sophie, hush,” said Oliver in a warning tone. “Mathair wouldna like it if she kent ye were makin’ up stories again.” Just the mention of their dead mother upset the girl and she started bawling once again.

  “Now wait a moment.” Ethan held up a hand to the girl’s brother. “I do believe ye, Sophie.”

  “Ye do?” She looked up and blinked her wet lashes twice.

  “Aye, because I think I saw yer friend, Isobel yesterday,” Ethan explained. “At the castle.”

  “Ye did?” Hope showed in Sophie’s eyes.

  “Aye, and she was holdin’ a doll that sounds very similar to the one ye described.”

  “I want to play with Isobel,” said Sophie. “I want my dolly back.”

  “That’s goin’ to be a little hard to do since the castle is haunted,” continued Ethan. “I, for one, dinna ever plan on goin’ back there again.”

  Sophie released her brother and ran to Ethan, wrapping her arms around him. She sobbed and looked up to him with those sad eyes. Tears rolled down her cheeks. “Please, find my dolly for me. Please, Ethan.”

  Ethan picked up the little girl and stood up, holding her to his chest in a protective hug. She was cold and her little body shook like a leaf. This doll meant the world to her. She needed it to comfort her now that her mother had died. How could he tell her that he wouldn’t help her? He would seem like naught but an ogre if he turned her away.

  “Och, lass,” he said, rubbing her back and looking out over the water in the distance toward the isle. He kept thinking of seeing Alana in the tower and part of him longed to go back to find out if it was true. “Mayhap I can try to find yer doll for ye, but I canna promise ye that I will.”

  “Oh, thank ye,” said the little girl, kissing him on the cheek and looking up at him like he was some sort of savior. Ethan wasn’t a savoir, and the last thing he wanted was to step foot on that blasted isle again. But how could he turn down the request of a poor child who had naught left in life but her brother? Everyone needed a comfort item to make them feel safe, and hers was her doll. It was the last remembrance of her departed mother. Knowing this, nothing else seemed to matter. He had to find that doll for her because he wanted to make the little girl smile.

  “Oh, it’s no’ a problem,” said Ethan, already feeling a knot twisting in his gut. He always thought Caleb was the one who made addlepated decisions. But now, he was the one doing just that. After all, he’d just agreed to purposely go back to Blackbriar Castle.

  Chapter 4

  The sky darkened overhead as Ethan stepped into the boat later that day, preparing to go back to the cursed isle. Part of him wanted naught to do with the wretched place, but he was going for more reasons than one. The first one being to help the little girl so she’d stop crying. The second, because he needed to find out if it truly was Alana he saw in the tower window.

  “We’d better hurry,” said Hawke, untying the boat as Trapper jumped in over the side. “It looks like there is one hell of a storm brewin’.”

  Hawke insisted on going with Ethan to the isle since Sophie was now in his care. Even if the girl wasn’t his by birth, he had an instant family with Oliver and Sophie, being married to Phoebe.

  “Mayhap we’d better wait until the storm passes,” said Ethan, glancing up at the sky. Yesterday was nothing with the light wind and flurry of snow. Today looked like the sky was about to open and a blizzard was going to cover the land.

  “Nay, my ears canna take the wee lass’ cryin’ a minute longer,” grumbled Hawke. “If ye say ye ken where this doll is, then God’s eyes, get it fast!”

  Just as Hawke was about to push off, Caleb came running down the hill to the loch. “Wait!” he called, waving his arms as the wind picked up and the snow started to fall.

  “What is it?” asked Hawke. “Is somethin’ wrong?”

  “Aye,” said Caleb. “Oliver decided he was goin’ to tend to the cows and sheep.”

  “And what’s wrong with that?” asked Hawke. “He’s done it before when he lived on the isle. He kens how to do it.”

  “Mayhap, but the boy is careless. He let half the herd wander off. We need ye back at camp, Hawke. Since most of the men are back at Hermitage Castle, we need ye both to help get the herd into the barn before the storm sets in. It looks like it’s goin’ to be a bad one.”

  Normally, the livestock stayed outside all year long in the hills surrounding the MacKeefe camp. But when it looked like they’d have a lot of snow, they moved them inside so it made it easier to manage when they had to supplement their feedings. This way they wouldn’t have to move them through the snow.

  “All right,” said Hawke with a sigh. “I’m comin’.”

  “Trapper will help round up the sheep as well as any cattle that might have gone astray.” Ethan stood up, half-relieved to be staying instead of going to the isle after all.

  “Nay.” Hawke held up a hand.
“We dinna need ye. Ye go to the isle, get the doll, and get back before the water is too choppy to sail.”

  “But . . . but Trapper can round up the herd faster than us. And I need to be here to give him commands.”

  “Logan’s wolf, Jack, can do the same thing,” stated Hawke. “Now sit back down and get over to the isle and find that doitit doll before my head splits open with the lassie’s cryin’.”

  “Pay my respects to the ghost,” said Caleb as he started laughing and walking away.

  Ethan looked out over the water that was already getting choppy. The wind picked up and was blowing the snow at an angle now. He could hardly even see across to the isle. “It looks like it’ll take two of us to sail the boat in this weather.”

  “Ye’re right,” said Hawke. “Caleb, go with him.”

  “What? Me?” Caleb suddenly stopped in his tracks and turned around. His laughing ceased and his mouth turned down into a frown. “Nay, ye go, Hawke.”

  “What’s the matter, Caleb? Is there a reason ye dinna want to go?” Ethan asked him.

  “Well . . . nay, of course no’. I dinna believe in ghosts if that is what ye’re thinkin’.” Caleb looked down and brushed off his plaid as he spoke. “I just canna go because I need to find Slink before the storm sets in.”

  “Ye’re in luck, because he’s right there.” Hawke pointed down at the ground. The pine marten ran up to Caleb, getting on its back legs, trying to reach up to him. Caleb scooped up the animal and cradled it in his arms. “Fine, I’ll go,” he spat. “But if we lose any of the herd because I wasna here to help ye, then ye are goin’ to have to explain it to our laird.”

  “Dinna worry, we willna lose a single one as long as I’m here,” Hawke assured him. “Besides, Apollo will help by spottin’ them from the air. Now, go! And dinna return without that doll or I’ll wring both yer necks!”

  “Dinna fash yerself, I’ll get the blasted doll,” grumbled Ethan. “And I promise ye, this is the last time I will ever set foot on the isle or inside that castle, so dinna ask again.”

  * * *

  “Faither, please. Ye need to drink if ye are goin’ to get better.” Alana helped her father to a sitting position in bed, holding the cup to his mouth to give him some water.

  “Dinna waste yer time with me, Alana,” said Gil, after taking a sip. “My health is failin’ quickly. I willna live through the winter, and we both ken it.”

  “Nay! Dinna say that.” She put the cup down, fluffed his feather pillow and tried to help him get comfortable. Diarmad and his men had left him behind again, sailing out with the smuggled goods to meet their contact, leaving him chained to the bed. It was a horrible thing to do and it disgusted Alana. After all this time and Diarmad still didn’t trust her father.

  “Alana, take yer sister and brathair and leave this isle. I’m sure Albert and Graeme will help ye make it to the mainland safely if I ask them to.”

  “Nay. Ye ken we willna leave without ye.”

  “I’m too weak to travel. Besides, now that I’m chained to the bed I’ll be goin’ nowhere. Now find them and go. This is no life for any of ye. Especially my granddaughter and grandchild to be. Plus, Kirstine needs a chance to find a man she can love and trust. So do ye.”

  “I’ve never heard ye talk that way before,” said Alana, perusing her father. “It almost sounds as if ye dinna agree that gettin’ married is only for makin’ alliances.”

  “Yer mathair and I wed for alliances, and I canna say she ever really loved me,” he explained. “Then again, I never gave her reason to love me, either. But I fell in love with her the first time I met her.”

  “I loved Ethan all my life, Da. Yet, ye never seemed to like the idea of me marryin’ him.”

  “Once again, I’ve made a wrong choice,” he told her. “If we could do it all over, I’d support yer marriage to him and I would make an alliance with the MacKeefes instead of makin’ them my enemies.” He hung his head. “But it’s too late to change the past.”

  “I wish we could change the past,” she told him. “Then mathair would still be alive and I’d be married to Ethan.”

  “I’m sorry about Ethan’s death, Daughter. Honest, I am. I had nothin’ to do with it. Ye have to believe me. I didna even ken.”

  “I believe ye, Faither. But Ethan is no’ dead. I saw Ethan MacKeefe last night, right here on this isle and at the castle.”

  “Ye did?” Her father looked confused. “But I thought Diarmad said he was dead.”

  “That’s what he wanted us to think,” she explained. “And like fools, we believed it, givin’ him more power to control us all.”

  “Oh, Alana, I am so sorry.”

  Alana went back to the bedstand, cradling the cup. She seriously started to consider the suggestion of leaving without her father. But then she shook her head and turned to face him. “Nay, Faither, we willna leave without ye. We are in this together to the end. That is what family is for.”

  “Ye dinna deserve this kind of life, Alana. I’ve ruined all yer lives and killed yer mathair. I dinna deserve to live.”

  “Stop that kind of talk.” She hurried over to the bed and sat on the edge, taking her father’s hands in hers. He looked so frail and gaunt. Ever since her mother died, he had lost his will to live. “Mathair’s last words were to forgive ye, and so I have. I understand ye’ve made some poor decisions in life. We all have. But we canna live our lives in regret. It’ll get better soon. I ken it will.”

  “How can ye say that, Daughter? It’s been five years that we’ve been prisoners of Diarmad. He’s forced us to help him smuggle and he’s taken yer sister for his wife against her will. We are trapped and doomed to live this life forever.”

  “Nay, we’re no’, Faither. We’ll find a way to leave now that we’re back in Scotland. But we’ll do it together.”

  “None of us are welcome here anymore. Because of me, ye will all be rejected. And when it is discovered that we all had a hand in this deceitful ring of smugglin’, we’ll be killed or imprisoned for the rest of our lives.”

  That was the thought that had been running through Alana’s mind for quite a while now. They were in too deep to ever get out.

  “Mayhap Ethan can help us,” she blurted out, testing her father’s reaction.

  “Nay!” her father bellowed, taking all his energy to do it. “The MacKeefes are our enemies now, just like the MacDougals, the Chisholms and many others. Ye canna ever tell him about this. If so, he’ll be sure to tell the others and that will be yer downfall. Ye must keep quiet about all this and tell no one. Do ye understand?”

  “But Da! We are talkin’ about Ethan. He is the faither of my baby. Certainly he willna do anythin’ to risk our lives once he kens he has a child.”

  “Nay, Alana. Ye must never tell him he’s the faither of yer child either,” her father said in a strong voice. “He’ll take Isobel away from ye, and ye’ll hang by the neck or spend the rest of yer life behind bars.”

  “Nay, Ethan is no’ like that. He would never do anythin’ to hurt me. I was supposed to be his bride.”

  “Exactly,” said her father, sadness filling his eyes now. “No man will accept that kind of treatment from a lassie. He will hate ye forever for leavin’ him at the altar.”

  “Nay!” Alana dropped her father’s hands and sprang to her feet. “He must ken that it wasna my idea to leave him. It was yers, Faither, if ye havena forgotten.”

  “Aye, it was my idea. And that is why ye and yer siblin’s must leave me and go far away. Try to make it to France where no one kens ye.”

  “France? We dinna have any relations in France and neither do I want to go.”

  “Ye’ll need money,” he said, his eyes closing partially. “God kens I’ve tried to work with Diarmad to pay back my debts and provide a guid life for ye, Kirstine and Finn. And even little Isobel. But I failed, Daughter. So now it is up to ye.”

  “What do ye mean?”

  “I saw yer mathair give ye somethin’ b
efore she died even though ye deny it. And I’m sure it has somethin’ to do with the hidden treasure.”

  “I – I dinna ken what ye’re talkin’ about.” She had never told her father. Her hand subconsciously caressed the key hanging from a string around her neck, under her clothes.

  “Dinna lie, Alana. It doesna become ye. And I dinna have enough strength left to look for the treasure myself. I ken it is here in the castle, just as ye do.”

  “What makes ye think that?”

  “It only makes sense,” he told her. “I was a fool no’ to think of it before. One day, yer uncle told me that when he was a boy he used to come to Blackbriar Castle often in secret.”

  “Uncle Freddie came here? Why?” she asked, not knowing why anyone would do that on purpose. The place was eerie and she didn’t even like being here although it was now her home. Still, hearing this confirmed her suspicions.

  “I believe he befriended the madman, Murdock who used to live here. I saw them together once or twice. That got me thinkin’ lately, that he might have had Murdock hide the treasure. Ye’ve go to find it, Alana. With it, ye and the others will be able to start a new life far from Scotland.”

  “Da, I ken very little about this treasure. What can ye tell me?”

  He let out a sigh, his eyes still closed and his head back on the pillow as he spoke. “When yer mathair and I were first married, she and her brathair, Freddie, confided in me about the treasure. But through the years when my – bad choices came more and more often, they kept things from me.”

  “Why do they have this treasure? And it has somethin’ to do with the Knights Templar? How can that be? That was so long ago.”

  “I dinna understand it all, but from what I ken, there was a relative of yer mathair’s down the line that once had somethin’ to do with the Knights Templar.”