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.
“The properties would still be in Elaine’s name,” Cearnach said, frowning.
“Aye, and he could forge the documents, sign them over to himself, and have someone loyal who worked for him as witnesses to the transfer. But he’d have to get rid of the only one who could prove the documents were forged. The lass herself.”
He’d considered that Elaine might have come to harm in meeting with Kilpatrick at the isolated ruins, especially when Kilpatrick thought to have a chunk of her treasure and wouldn’t want to give up a farthing of it. The properties would add an even greater incentive. “You didn’t know about this before you suggested that I mate the lass, did you?” He had to ask. He had to know the truth.
His mother waved her hand dismissively. “Of course not. What do you take me for? A thief? As for you, you didn’t know either, so she won’t believe you married her for her money. Go,” she said flippantly. “I just wanted to let you know you’re a man of many estates.”
“They will be the clan’s. Ian will control them.” As was usual for a pack that worked together as one big family.
“Oh, I know that our kind normally puts all our wealth into one pool of funds. This is different because she has not lived with a pack. He’ll let her keep them for her own, if she wishes it. He’ll want her to be as happy with being with us as we are to take her into the fold. Oh, and Cearnach, I want to see Elaine soon so that we can discuss the wedding.”
He hoped that Elaine would be all right with his mother getting involved with the wedding planning, but he couldn’t be more pleased that she was so delighted that he had mated Elaine.
Then he considered his bothersome ghostly cousin and wanted to put that business to rest as well. “My lady mother, why has Flynn been bothering Elaine so?”
“You know how he is. He either pesters a woman because he likes her or because he doesn’t. He liked Elaine from the start once he heard her speaking about protecting you from Vardon.”
“He was there when you were talking with her?”
“Aye. He was hovering so close that he was giving me chills, though he wouldn’t show himself. Since you are his favorite cousin, he wanted to know if the lass was the right one for you.”
“He didn’t push the mating for some other reason, did he?” Cearnach couldn’t settle his concern that Flynn had been snooping around and learned something related to Elaine. Something that could harm her.
“Perhaps. If so, he hasn’t enlightened me. If he’s going to speak with anyone, it’s usually you. Although he did confide in me that he truly likes the lass.”
“He’s avoiding me. Which isn’t normal. His absence makes me think he’s afraid that I’ll learn the truth about some matter.”
“Nonsense. He wanted you to be happy. That’s all. He could tell you were taken by the lass and he wanted to see the two of you mated.”
Cearnach growled. “He molested her. If I could get my hands on him, I’d show him just how I feel about his touching Elaine twice last night and again this morning.”
“I understand.” His mother was smiling as she looked back to her correspondence. “Go, keep her company. I’m certain she’s anxiously awaiting your return.”
He studied his mother further. He sensed she felt what he did—that Flynn knew something but wouldn’t tell them what. He didn’t think she knew what it was any more than he did.
He shook his head, hurried out of the library, and went to the sunroom where Elaine was watching out the window. He glanced out to see what she was smiling at. Heather and Shelley walking the dogs.
“The poodles are beautiful,” she said. Then she looked up at Cearnach and smiled. “What would your mother have done if I said I owned a pair of dachshunds?”
He laughed and walked her outside the keep and onto the path to the kennels, pulling her close, trying to keep her warm in the chilly breeze. At least it wasn’t raining today, though dark clouds melded together in a fluffy gray blanket covering the sky. “My mother would have loved them.” He looked down at Elaine. “You don’t really have dogs, do you?”
She laughed. “No. Though Shelley said something about Julia falling in love with the wolfhound pups and having a hard time letting Ian sell them. Maybe I could have one of those for my own?”
Cearnach shook his head. “Ian will have a fit.”
She frowned up at him.
He smiled. “But for you, I will ensure you have your pick.”
She beamed up at him. “What if I can’t choose? And I want more than one?”
He laughed. “That’s why we have so many wolfhounds already.”
Cearnach thought again about Flynn. He couldn’t rid himself of the notion that something more was going on here.
“Lass, I wonder, could there be any other reason Robert Kilpatrick wanted you to meet him here at the ruins? Did you know you have holdings in Scotland?”
Chapter 19
Speculating about how deeply Cearnach was becoming involved with Elaine, Ian took a small force of men for protection as he and Julia rode their horses through the Caledonian Forest. The cool autumn breeze flowed through the pine trees, scenting the air. He glanced at Julia, finally comfortable with riding a horse.
She had wanted to get away from the castle and think about a new scene in the latest werewolf romance novel she was writing. He’d do whatever was needed to please his mate—even wear blue jeans and a black Stetson hat, which still didn’t feel quite right. He thought she was thinking about her book until she spoke.