Devil of the Highlands (Devil of the Highlands 1)

"We came to tell ye that Cullen called Rory and Gillie away and set us to watch ye," he announced, when she remained silent, caught up in her thoughts.

"We?" Evelinde asked, glancing up curiously.

"Fergus and I," Tavis explained. "He came above stairs with me to find you, but I think he's hied himself off to the kitchens to find something to eat. "

Evelinde smiled faintly, and said with amusement, " 'Tis not food that draws him to the kitchens all the time. "

"Nay. But food is all he will get," Tavis said.

Evelinde tilted her head, eyeing him curiously. It seemed obvious he, too, suspected Fergus had feelings for Biddy.

"Are his feelings so hopeless then?" she asked curiously.

Tavis shrugged and moved forward, his gaze shifting curiously around the filthy room. "Me mother loved me father dearly. Forgave him all his sins, and has shown no interest in any other man since his death. In truth, she has shown little interest in anything but cooking. His death changed her. "

"His death or her sister's?" Evelinde asked.

"His," he assured her solemnly. "Oh, she was broken-hearted when Jenny died. Wept and wept she did. My father spent a deal of the two weeks before his death just holding and comforting her. But after he died. " Tavis shook his head. "She retreated into herself, started disappearing all the time, either to the cliffs to sit by Jenny's grave or into the kitchens and away from the rest of us. I think her heart was broken, and she just couldna bear to love anymore. Not even me," he added with a wry little smile that was both sad and charming.

Evelinde frowned, her heart twisting for the young boy Tavis would have been at the time. At the tender age of ten years old, he'd found himself orphaned by one parent and abandoned by the other. "Who looked after you? "

Tavis shrugged. "Uncle Liam did what he could for me. And the rest of the ladies around here offered comfort as they could. "

The wicked grin on his face suggested that comfort wasn't always just hugs, and Evelinde frowned, wondering just how old the boy had been when he'd been initiated into manhood.

"Do you remember Jenny?" she asked abruptly, wishing to change the topic.

"Aye. " Tavis smiled faintly. "She was great fun the first time she was here. Happy and gay, always laughing. Cullen and Tralin used to run off all the time. They thought they were too old to play with me, but not Jenny. She let me trail her about all the time. " He frowned suddenly, then admitted, "Well, at first she did, then she took to sitting out on the cliff, looking out over yon valley below, and she started sending me away more often than not. I could follow her anywhere but the cliff. "

"Why?" Evelinde asked curiously.

Tavis grimaced. "She said 'twas because it was dangerous and that she wished to be alone to think. "

"But you didn't believe her?"

Tavis shook his head. "I followed one day. There is a door in the outer wall at the back of the castle. There is a trick to opening it, and I didna ken the way back then, but I could climb the tree and did…" A wicked smile came to his lips again. "She wasna alone, and they werena thinking. "

Evelinde's eyebrows rose. "Who was she with?"

"I doona ken," he admitted. "I couldna see very well. All I saw were a man's legs entwined with her on the ground. The branches of the tree I was in were in the way. I barely caught a glimpse before I leaned out too far and fell out of the tree. " He smiled wryly, and admitted, "I didna want her to ken I'd been spying on her and be angry, so I took myself off back to the castle for my mother to tend me scrapes and bruises. "

They were both silent for a moment, then Tavis said, "It wasna long after that she left. A couple of days, mayhap. Mother w

as out hunting rabbit to make some of her stew to give Cook some ease, and Aunt Jenny disappeared to the cliff, only to come running back sobbing fit to die. I thought she'd hurt herself, but she didna appear to have an injury. When I tried to ask her if she was all right, she yelled at me to leave her alone and pushed me out of her room. She came out a few minutes later with just a small sack with a few gowns in it and hurried down to the stables. " He shrugged. "She rode off, just like that, without even a word to me mother, or anyone. "

"By herself?" Evelinde asked with amazement.

"Nay, three men escorted her. "

"Who?" she asked at once, thinking that Jenny's lover mayhap have been among the trio.

Tavis considered the question, but then shook his head. "I am no sure. I was standing on the keep stairs. 'Twas too far away to see more than that there were four in all riding out of the stables. "

"Well someone must have arranged for her escort," Evelinde pointed out. "Your father, perhaps?"

Tavis considered the question, then shook his head. "I doona remember seeing him about. He had ridden out on his horse before Jenny went for her daily walk to the cliff. "

Evelinde was frowning over this when Mildrede entered. The maid was lugging several items with her; a besom, a pail of water, rags, and other cleaning items, and Evelinde rushed forward to take the besom and a bundle of rags as Tavis took the pail from her to prevent everything from tumbling from her hold.

Tavis set the pail aside, then straightened and moved toward the door. "Well, I'd best go below and get out of yer way. We'll be in the great hall if ye need us. "

He then slipped from the room before she could ask any more of him. She supposed he was afraid he'd be asked to help clean, something the men were more likely to do now, but only in exchange for pasties and she had none with her. She could have sent for some of the women to help, but the room was small enough the two of them could manage. Evelinde turned her attention to beating away the cobwebs overhead while Mildrede began sweeping the rushes toward the door.

As she'd feared some wee beasts had taken up residence. Both she and Mildrede were sent squealing a couple of times when the mice were disturbed and sent running. That brought Tavis and Fergus running each time, until Evelinde got the pair to help remove the rushes she had drawn together in one huge pile by the door. Both balked at the very suggestion, but after some promising to ask Biddy to bake a whole batch of pasties just for them, it was decided that one could help while the other continued to act as guard. It fell to Tavis to help Mildrede cart the rushes away while Fergus remained in the great hall and watched the solar door as they'd been doing. Evelinde, they insisted, was to continue about her work in the solar. Neither man thought it would be good to annoy Cullen by letting her leave the castle.

Supposing that was better than nothing, Evelinde watched Mildrede and Tavis gather as much of the old rushes as possible. As they left the room, she considered the dent they'd put in the pile and guessed it would take the pair at least two more trips back and forth to get it all out.

Turning back to the chandelier she'd lowered to clean, Evelinde continued digging away the candle wax that had accumulated over the years, her mind going over what she'd learned from Tavis.

She wasna alone, and they werena thinking.

It sounded like young Jenny had a lover. A foolish mistake when she'd known she was going to marry the Campbell, a man known for cruelty. The only thing Evelinde could think was that the girl had hoped her lover, whoever he was, would marry her and save her from the Campbell. It would have taken a powerful lord to be able to do that and withstand the retribution that would have followed from the Campbells. But the only powerful lord at Donnachaidh was Darach, and he was already married, in no position to marry and save her. As far as Evelinde knew there hadn't been any other powerful lord visiting at the time… Though, she thought suddenly, there had been the son of a powerful lord who had come to the keep back then and still did. Tralin.

Evelinde slowed in her work on the chandelier as she considered that. Cullen had said Tralin had thought Jenny the prettiest lass he'd ever seen. What if she had liked him in return? Jenny had obviously been meeting her lover at the cliff for privacy. Could it have been Tralin? Could she have hoped he would marry and save her from the Campbell?

Evelinde blinked and straightened as she realized there had been another powerful man… Cullen's father, Liam.

Nay, she realized in the next moment and bent back to her work right away. Liam had not been powerful in his own right until after his brother's death, when he'd taken on the title and position of laird… and that left her considering Tralin again.

Jenny's leaving in tears could only mean that whoever her lover was, they'd had argued. Evelinde wondered briefly who he might have been, but there was something else troubling her. Tavis said Jenny had left without a word to her sister. If so, then who had arranged the three-man escort for her? Darach?

Evelinde chipped away another large piece of wax, wrinkling her nose as the acrid scent of smoke wafted to her. It was as if the scent was embedded in the wood itself, she thought with disgust, then frowned as she realized that the smell was not of burning tallow, but—

She glanced around sharply, eyes widening in dismay as she saw that the torch Mildrede had set in the holder by the door had somehow fallen on the rushes piled in front of the door, and they were aflame.

Evelinde snatched up one of the damp rags she'd been using to scrub off the window ledges and moved toward the fire with some vague intention of beating it out, but dry and ancient as the rushes were, it was spreading quickly, the flames shooting up and out with a hunger that was alarming. She would not be able to beat them down, and she could not go for help, the fire blocked the door. Evelinde was trapped.

Cullen's expression was grim as he rode into the bailey. The incident with the arrow in the tree had bothered him since he'd begun to suspect some of his wife's accidents might not have been accidents at all. Finally, today he'd ridden out to the woods to find the tree his wife had been climbing and climb it himself to get a look at the arrow. One look had been enough to tell him that the arrow had not been long in the tree. It hadn't rained since the incident, and the fletching was pristine. Also, the wound in the bark around the arrow was new, not old and healed. Someone was trying to kill his wife.

Cullen had tried to pull the arrow from the tree, but it had sunk in deep enough he'd had to give up. He'd then examined the shaft and fletching to see if there was anything unusual about it that might lead him to the person who had loosed it, but the fletching was of common goose feathers. Most used goose, and some, very rarely, used swan feathers when making arrows. Some used a combination to make them more distinctive, but this was very common fletching and could have belonged to any number of Donnachaidh people.

Disappointed that the arrow wouldn't tell him anything about the person who had shot it, Cullen had climbed back down the tree and headed straight back to the castle. He'd suspected someone was trying to kill his wife since Hamish had spoken up at the bull's paddock, but having it confirmed like this made him anxious for Evelinde. Seeing her and assuring himself that she was well was the only thing he could think of to help put him at ease.

Cullen was debating whether he shouldn't put four men on her rather than just the two as he slipped from his horse and entered the keep, but all his thoughts scattered when he spotted Fergus seated at the great hall trestle tables alone.

"Where is Tavis?" he asked, his gaze sliding toward the chairs by the fire in search of his wife. When he didn't see her there, he frowned, and added, "Where is me wife?"

"Tavis is helping Mildrede cart dirty rushes out to be disposed of," Fergus answered slowly. "And yer wife is in the solar. "

"By herself? Yer supposed to be guarding her," Cullen snapped.

"Aye, but she said she did not want us standing about getting in her way, and we can see the solar door from here," Fergus p

ointed out. "No one could get past us down here to trouble her. "

Cullen scowled at the words, his head swiveling toward the bit of landing visible from here and the only door one could see from below. The solar door. His heart leapt into his throat when he saw that it was ablaze.

"Evelinde!" The name tore from his throat in a roar of agony as he bounded up the steps two at a time. Cullen recognized the fear and pain in his own voice but hardly heeded it. His ears, his mind, his whole body was straining for some answering call from his wife to tell him she yet lived. However, it brought him little relief when he heard her answering call as he reached the landing. Her voice had come from the solar, and now he knew for certain that he had something to fear.

Cullen charged to the door, then came to an abrupt halt as he found himself confronted with a wall of flame. It was as if someone had built a giant bonfire right in the doorway. The flames were nearly as tall as he, and what he could see of the room was full of smoke.

"Water!" he roared, turning on Fergus as the man reached his side.

The soldier turned away at once to charge back down the stairs. Cullen glanced back to the room, his heart twisting as he saw a dark shape he thought was his wife, bent over and coughing by the window. She could die in there from the smoke ere Fergus managed to return with water.

Cullen ground his teeth together and backed away from the door a few steps.

"I'm coming, wife. Get out of the way," he roared.

Cullen heard her shout something in response, but was already running forward, charging the flames. He would not lose Evelinde. He could not lose her. He loved the silly, talkative, sweet woman.