The Jezebel (Taskill Witches 3)

She felt her heart beat faster, echoed as it was in her twin. “Jessie.”

“If I had to wager on it, I would say you were right.”

Reaching out for his hand, she clung to him, then lifted her free hand and waved.

When her wave was returned, Maisie nodded. “She sensed me coming. She knew.”

r /> They watched as the woman turned away for just a moment and shouted back to the glen beyond, waving her arms, alerting others.

In the distance, a bell sounded.

Then the woman grabbed her skirts in both hands, lifting them in order to run in their direction, disappearing quickly into the mist in the valley below.

“She’ll come up out of the mists, like a bird flying up from the clouds,” Maisie told Roderick, and nodded at the place.

Moments later, Jessie emerged. Grabbing Maisie into her arms, she danced about. “You’re here, you’re really home.”

Maisie laughed breathlessly, remembering that they did that, spun and danced, hand in hand. “Of course I am. I’ve come in time for your handfasting to this Gregor Ramsay I’ve heard all about.”

Jessie’s mouth fell open and she drew to a halt. “You knew?”

Maisie laughed, for it was just as it had been before, as if they had never been apart. “I did, and I will tell you all about it, once we are settled.” She gripped her twin’s hand. “Is Lennox here?”

“Oh, aye.” Jessie laughed. “And he has his own coven. A fine bunch they are, too.”

As if to answer her question, a tall man hurtled toward them, running fast, his long hair flying free, his shirt loose from his belt.

“Let me look at you,” he said, grasping Maisie by the shoulders. “It’s really you.” He shook his head, and his eyes shone with tears of relief.

He’d grown into a handsome man, and she felt proud.

“I hunted for you, for you both. Where did you go?”

“I was taken to England. I’ve been in London until very recently.”

“That accounts for the strange manner of speaking you have,” Jessie commented. “Like a fine lady you are.”

She shook her head. “I am Maisie Taskill from Fingal, and I’m home at last.”

When she said that she found herself locked in an embrace with both her siblings. She pressed her head against them, sobbing with relief. But when they drew apart and her brother encouraged them to head back toward the village, Maisie paused and put out her hand for Roderick, drawing him into their fold.

* * *

The morning before the festival of Samhain in 1715, Gregor Ramsay and Jessica Taskill handfasted to one another.

Gregor refused to put the autumn season to rest without having her as his wife, for he said there was no holding her, and the new season might tempt her to stray.

Jessie laughed at his notions, but Gregor insisted, anyway.

Maisie couldn’t have been happier for her twin.

The bond between Gregor and Roderick was a delight, too. It meant that Roderick settled much more quickly than he might otherwise have done. The men worked together, building neighboring crofts. On a nearby hill, Lennox had done the same.

Lennox and his woman, Chloris, planned to make their vows to one another after yuletide. Chloris said she needed the old Christian year to be left behind so that she might break with her past as the year turned over. Lennox agreed to her request, because it meant that they would be handfasted before their babe arrived.

The handfastening was done by Glenna, a woman from Lennox’s coven, together with the oldest living Taskill, their mother’s aunt Seonag.

Seonag was a wise woman, and peered at Jessie and Gregor for a long while before nodding and stating that they were meant to be together.