The Condemned Highlander (Highland Intrigue Trilogy 2)

The witch smiled.

Anger flared in Annis. “If that is so, she will stop me from finding her.”

“You will need to ask Gunna that.”

“Why send me to find the woman with the limp if it is Gunna I must speak with?” Annis demanded.

“The woman with the limp provided you with information you needed.”

“All she said was that the bairn was given to a childless couple,” Annis said. “How does that help me find Gunna or the child when it was near to twenty years ago?”

“Think on it, Annis,” the witch snapped.

Annis snapped back. “Bliss has no time for me to think on it.”

“She has no time for you not to think on it. Need I remind you that if this curse is not broken, Bliss will not be the only one to suffer being wed to a cursed lord—you will as well. And worse, any bairns born of your union.”

“I will make certain I conceive no bairn if that should come to pass,” Annis said with an obstinate toss of her chin.

“Bairns are a stubborn lot. They decide when they will be born, and you will not stop it. So, do what must be done to find the MacWilliam lass.”

Annis repeated what the witch had previously told her. “Find the lass and all will come to pass. It sounds easy and yet—”

“It is not,” the witch said. “Remember there are those who hide in the shadows and want something far different than you. Lies come easily to them. Listen and you will hear it for yourself. It grows late and the hills can be dangerous at night. There is a small dwelling just past the stream where two boulders hug like a loving couple. Seek shelter there tonight.”

“I do not understand,” Annis said shaking her head. “You are a witch. You know things. Why do you not know where the bairn is?”

“You and others may call me a witch, but I am a woman wise with vast knowledge—knowledge that is feared rather than embraced and understood. Even with all the knowledge I have gained, there are still some things I do not know. But that does not stop me from finding out.”

Annis smiled. “So basically, you are sending me to collect knowledge.”

The witch returned the smile. “There are times you do not disappoint, Annis. Embrace the knowledge you collect. All of it will serve you well.”

“There is something that nags at me, that does not seem quite right.”

“What is that?” the witch asked.

“The servant Gunna’s unrelenting mission to keep the MacWilliam bairn safe. What servant would surrender her life for a lord or lady’s bairn? It makes no sense, unless…” Annis spoke with confidence. “I or my sisters would surrender our lives to keep a niece safe or disappear and leave all who I love behind and return when needed. Gunna was not Lady Aila’s servant—she was her sister, wasn’t she?”

The witch stared at Annis for several moments, then she nodded. “You are perceptive, and you unravel secrets quickly. Be careful, for some secrets will bring danger.”

The darkness seemed to reach out and swallow her or had she retreated into it, for the next moment she was gone.

“Annis.”

Brogan stood a short distance from her. “The wolf left.”

“So did the witch,” she said and stretched her hand out to him to steady herself, a tremble running through her legs.

His arms went around her, alarmed at the tremor in her body and relieved when she sagged against him in relief.

“Gunna, the servant who hid the MacWilliam bairn, is Lady Aila’s sister,” she said.

“I never heard my father make mention of that.” Brogan wrapped himself tighter around his wife as lightning flashed in the sky. “We need to get back to the village, the thunder rumbles closer.”

“No one knew of it,” she said and slipped her arm around her husband’s. “The witch said we should take shelter in a small dwelling by the stream. Come, it is where to boulders hug like a loving couple.”

Brogan set a good pace, prepared to scoop his wife up and carry her if the dark clouds got any closer to swallowing the nearly full moon and snuffing out what light guided them.

As the first fat raindrops fell, Annis spied the dwelling and as Brogan rushed them inside, the sky opened up and soaked the earth. Wood sat in the hearth ready to spark to life and a bed was freshly prepared with linens.

“It seems we were expected,” Brogan said.

Annis paced by the bed while Brogan saw to getting a fire started.

“Something is not right,” Annis said.

“What do you mean?” Brogan asked as the fire caught and its warmth was soon filling the room.

Annis stopped pacing. “The witch is keeping something from us, I can feel it. Why not tell me that Gunna was Lady Aila’s sister? And if your father did not know of it, why had it been kept a secret? And who exactly knew about it?”