“I overheard your mother talking to Cearnach about Elaine and how she wanted him to mate with her.”
Ian frowned. Not because she’d overheard his mother and Cearnach’s conversation, but because of the gist of it and that Cearnach hadn’t said a word to him about it.
“What did she say?”
“Something about stolen goods that would be part of your pack’s holdings instead of Kilpatrick’s.”
“Stolen goods?” Ian rode on, pondering that. “What did Cearnach say?”
Julia scowled at Ian. “You can’t be serious, Ian. Cearnach can’t take Elaine as his mate based on such a thing.”
“Julia, sweeting, you must realize that none of us listen to my mother when she’s on one of her crusades. I still want to know how Cearnach responded.”
“He didn’t stand up to your mother!”
“That’s not his way. He might appease her, smile sweetly, act as though he agrees, and try to talk some sense into her, but he’ll ultimately do what is right.”
Julia didn’t say anything as the horses’ hooves clip-clopped on the leaf-littered ground.
“So what did he do?”
“He did just what you said he would do,” Julia retorted.
Ian gave a muffled laugh. “Cearnach is a diplomat. He always does what’s right, even if it doesn’t seem so at the time.”
“You mean like attending Calla’s wedding?”
“Aye. See what a mess that’s become? Yet he had to do it for Calla’s sake. Now she’s seen the light and left Baird McKinley. Cearnach did what was right, what he had to do.” He glanced at Julia and studied the way the breeze caught her red hair, the way it caressed her cheeks, and was ready to take her back to bed with him.
He drew close to Julia’s horse, leaned over, and lifted her from her saddle. She gasped in surprise. He set her on his lap, and she smiled up at him. “You should have warned me you were going to do that.”
“You should have been listening to me. I am the laird, you know.”
“A sexy one at that.” She kissed his mouth with tenderness, then longing and passion.
“We return to Argent Castle.” He took her horse’s reins and rode back toward the keep. Had it not been for the recent trouble with the McKinleys and Kilpatricks, he would have made love to Julia in the woods. “They will be all right, Julia. Both Elaine and Cearnach,” he reassured her.
“I hope so. I like her. I don’t think I’ve seen anyone stand up to your mother the way she did. And Cearnach is more than fond of her.”
Ian sighed, knowing just where this was headed with his brother. He approved, but he wished Cearnach would tell him that it was done. The sooner, the better.
Before Cearnach and Elaine walked through the outer bailey heading toward the kennels, Elaine asked him, “What do you mean I have properties in Scotland? How do you know?”
“I did some checking into Senton Castle’s ownership some years ago. A man by the name of Hans Hawthorn III, owned it. You mentioned to Robert McKinley that Hans was your father?”
Her lips parted as tears welled up in her eyes. She nodded. “My father,” she choked out. Then her eyes widened as realization dawned. “My father owned it?”
“Aye. So that is why you’re the owner of the castle. Not the Kilpatricks and McKinleys, though they lived there for many years.”
“It’s now in ruins.” Then she added wistfully, “But so beautiful. I can’t believe it’s mine. I wonder why he and my mother left there.”
“I don’t know. It’s something we can check into. As far as the other properties that are in your name, we don’t have the details yet.”
He quickly told her what he knew, which was very little. “We haven’t any idea of their value. Ian is contacting your solicitor about them, and we’ll learn the details as soon as we can.” Cearnach changed direction on the subject, still concerned about Kilpatrick’s bid to meet up with her. “What if Kilpatrick learned of these properties and thought somehow to take them from you?”
Frowning, she walked with Cearnach outside. “It’s possible, I suppose. It would make sense as to why he wanted me to meet with him. That it was about more than a treasure that might not be all that valuable.” She continued walking in silence for a few steps, then asked, “Why didn’t I know about the properties all these years?”
Before Cearnach could speculate, she shook her head and answered her own question. “I changed my identity after I sold off my parents’ estates. Some of Rafferty’s pirate crew still thought to make me part of the bounty that they received after murdering Rafferty. I knew Rafferty was dead, yet I kept looking over my shoulder, worried that he’d come back for me.
“He did, you know. Not after he died, of course, but before that. His ship would be a month late in returning, and I’d be so hopeful he’d died, and then when I thought I might be free, he’d return. So that’s the way I felt. That I’d be shopping at market, I’d turn, and there he’d be, that menacing, cruel grin on his face, his eyes locked onto mine, telling me to get home before he even spoke a word.
“I kept moving, reinventing myself over the years. I had to anyway since I didn’t have a wolf pack that could hide my longevity from others. Humans would begin to ask what my secret was to looking so young when they were aging and I was not. So moving was essential.” She frowned up at Cearnach. “Do you think Kilpatrick wanted me at the castle ruins to somehow force me to turn the deeds over to him?”
“It’s possible.” Cearnach wasn’t about to tell her otherwise. He didn’t trust Kilpatrick.
She shuddered and he wrapped his arm around her shoulders and pulled her close. “Then it was good that you ran off the road, and I met you first instead,” she said.
He smiled down at her. Someday, he supposed they’d tell their children how they’d met—her version and his.
Cearnach caught the eye of Logan, the blacksmith’s sixteen-year-old son. Logan was practicing sword-fighting with another young man, but he lowered his sword and looked hopefully at Cearnach as if he wanted to join him and Elaine in the kennel.
Full of the devil at sixteen, Logan reminded Cearnach of himself at that age. Logan loved animals more than anything else and didn’t care for working in the smithy like his father did, to his father’s disappointment.
Cearnach nodded and Logan raced toward them.
“Don’t run with the sword, lad,” Cearnach cautioned him, continuing on his way with Elaine to the kennel.
“It’s not real. Just a play sword.” Logan frowned. “Laird said if you were too busy protecting your girlfriend…”
Cearnach gave the youth a quelling look meant to guard his words.
“We all know she’s kin to our enemy, the McKinleys and the Kilpatricks, but lots of people say you’re protecting her from them. So doesn’t that make her your girlfriend?” Logan glanced at Elaine and gave her a big smile, then frowned when he saw her bruised face.
“She is a friend,” Cearnach said. Mate.
“They say Vardon McKinley hit Elaine. Are you going to kill him?” Logan asked.
“No, he’s not going to kill Vardon,” Elaine said firmly.
“Someone ought to. Oran was saying that Vardon has beaten women before. He doesn’t deserve to live.” Logan swung his sword at a fake opponent. “Some of our kin said Flynn’s bothering Elaine. Do you want me to talk to him? Not that I haven’t already. I told him to leave the lass alone… or else.” He cast Elaine another big grin.