Devils Highlander (Clan MacAlpin 1)
Cormac was growing impatient with their act. It was too much to make sense of, too overwhelming. But there was one thing he could wrap his mind around, and it was Marjorie, and his sole desire to help her. Thoughts of his goal focused him.
“What are you doing here?” Cormac nodded back to the Oliphant “Please tell me you have naught to do with those men. ”
“I do and I don't,” Aidan said, a snide grin cocking the corner of his mouth. He stopped walking. “And now I'm afraid I'll need to cut this reunion short. I've got business, and my… associates would not take kindly to me having such an extensive parley with a stranger. ”
“Wait, Aidan. I need you to stop whatever this business is. For Marjorie. ” Hearing her name, a strange look flashed in Aidan's eyes. It wasn't pleasure. “So you finally married that brat, is it?”
“It's not like that. ”
“Then how's it like?” Aidan enunciated each word with disdain.
“We're not married. Ree's grown into a good woman. ”
Aidan rolled his eyes. “I'll bet she has. ”
Cormac stepped close. “You'll mind your tone where Marjorie is concerned. ” Aidan exploded into laughter. “Some things never change. Last I saw you, you were in my face about Marjorie. And here you are now, thirteen years later, in my face. ”
Cormac panicked. He'd fantasized for years how their reunion might be, and it was not this. He didn't understand why it was going so awry. “Please, Aid. Let's just start this over. Marjorie works with the poor now. With young boys. She felt your kidnap quite keenly. And now she's come unhinged at the thought that more will be stolen from our shores. That Jack you deal with… he's a smuggler of children. ” Cormac waited, hoping for an outraged reaction at that last revelation.
“Aye,” Aidan replied instead. “I know it. ”
Cormac scowled. He didn't know the extent of what his brother had endured these past years. He thought of all that'd transpired in his own life, knowing he was not one to pass judgment. He could only try to make Aidan understand. And if he refused to understand, Cormac would make certain his brother didn't stand in his way.
“Marjorie wants these men stopped. I plan on being the one to stop them. And I'd ask that you're far from the Oliphant when that comes to pass. ”
“Still saving Marjie, eh?” Aidan sneered. “I've my own objectives to attend, Cormac. My own ghosts to chase. And they don't have to do with you, or your Ree, or any of your callow concerns. ” Conflicting emotions roiled within Cormac. Reuniting with his brother should've been a joyful event. And yet he couldn't help but feel he wasn't entirely happy to see Aidan, particularly under these circumstances.
Aidan turned, hunched from the cold and with hands in pockets. Cormac watched as his twin walked away from him and back into the night.
Chapter 34
Can't leave the room, he'd said. Marjorie rifled through her wardrobe, digging for her warmest wrapper. She'd leave indeed, and get to the bottom of this affair with Archie. She had saved those boys once; she'd save them again. And no man would stop her — not Cormac, not Archie, not even Jack the poor excuse for a pirate.
She felt Fiona rustling around at her back, setting the room to rights, and it made her angrier. Even her accursed maid had insisted she stay inside.
Locked in. No man told her to lock herself away. She'd been independent for years. She'd be independent long after she exorcised Cormac from her system. And that's precisely what she'd do. Exorcise him like the demon he was.
She tugged the long woolen shawl out with a feline growl, embracing her anger as armor against her heartbreak.
Angry. She'd be angry, not hurt. Later she'd let herself feel the hurt. But first she'd do what needed to be done.
“Your Cormac wilna be pleased,” Fiona said under her breath.
“Would you stop that infernal muttering. The Lord preserve me, girl. Say your piece, or shut your mouth. ” Marjorie slammed the door to her wardrobe. “And he's not my Cormac. ” Fiona gaped at her.
Marjorie haphazardly wrapped herself in the shawl, regretting for a moment that she'd snapped so at her poor maid. But then a thought followed fast on its heels. That poor maid had endured more hardship at the hands of a bully father than Marjorie would know in a lifetime. Crossing her arms at her chest, she considered Fiona anew.
“Well,” she said firmly, “you could come with me. ”
And the speed with which Fiona had them whisked down a back staircase and out the door was startling.
Saint Machar glowed yellow in the bright moonlight. Skeletons of trees destroyed in the wars still hovered about the church, casting eerie shadows on the facade.
“Criwens. ” Fiona clung to her arm. “It looks a frightful place at night. ”
“Nonsense. ” Marjorie tugged her maid along. “It's a place of the Lord, whatever time of day. ”
“That doesn't mean it don't make my skin crawl. Like a goose over my grave, mum. ”