“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 family—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.