“One cannae show too much weakness here.” Fiona crossed to the tub, knelt and swirled her hand through the water. “This is the perfect heat. Come and bathe afore the water gets cold.”
“One moment.” She finished her stew then on her feet, unlaced the front stays of her burgundy gown, wriggled her hips and allowed the velvet to slither to her feet. With the cream under-tunic hauled over her head and damp slippers kicked off, she stepped into the tub and sank into the water. Down, she dunked, head and all then emerged and picked up the bar of soap the maid had left beside the tub. She worked the soap into a lather and with vanilla scented suds in hand, washed her hair while Fiona paced before the crackling fire. “How goes your empath ability, Fiona?”
“Since Matthew and I arrived here I’ve sensed naught but evilness in this place. Certainly a deep bitterness brews within Jeremiah, which became even more obvious when Coll arrived and sought his hospitality. At times I could barely breathe through the resentment bubbling from him. Jeremiah detests the way Colin sent him to his mother’s MacLennan clan to be fostered, all while favoring Coll and Duncan and allowing them to remain at Loch Alsh with him. ’Tis why he sailed to see his father this week, to confront him about it all.”
“He did, that confrontation ending in his discovery about me. I fear one day Jeremiah will learn the truth about Coll and Duncan’s birth as well, then all hell will surely break loose.” She more than feared it.
“I fear such a thing too.” Fiona shuddered, her hands twisting together. “Jeremiah certainly detests being the third-born son, and even though Coll and Duncan were born from a handfast marriage, Jeremiah would still take every advantage of that and attempt to overthrow them.”
A chilling horn shrilled outside and Fiona hurried to the window, her red locks streaming behind her as she flung the shutters open and wedged sideways out to get a better look.
“What is it?” Out of the tub, she splashed, wrapped a drying cloth around her and dashed to her friend’s side. Beyond the window, the darkened night skies churned and thunder rumbled somewhere out at sea.
“The point watchman has raised the alert, the signal that a vessel approaches Rhue. One blast means ’tis only a passerby, two blasts for the enemy.”
“Then let us hope for a second blast, for my chosen one will never be my enemy, only my very salvation.”
Ronan joined Duncan where he sat at the stern, the stormy black clouds high above obliterating the stars and allowing only a sliver of the moon to peek through. Thunder boomed and lightning slashed the skies while up ahead, the entrance to Loch Broom rose as they cruised toward Jeremiah’s stronghold on the headland overlooking the western coastline of the mainland. Their sea crossing had taken far longer than he wished and as they rounded the point, a horn sounded with one long and eerie blast, then a second shrilled even louder.
“Our arrival has been noted, no’ that I expected otherwise.” Duncan adjusted the rudder, his gaze narrowed on the stretch of rugged shoreline and the boulders surrounding the sea-gate landing. “Rhue Castle is impenetrable, has never fallen to another. It might be best if we begin by asking Jeremiah to honor the Highland code of hospitality, to request lodging for the night and pray he takes the bait.”
“What if he does no’?” Ronan plucked his satchel out from under the bench seat and removed his steel-studded war coat, shrugged it on and lifted the collar higher over his neck. “Are you prepared for a battle?”
“Always, yet I am still his elder brother and if Jeremiah has laid even one finger on my sister, I’ll skewer him where he stands.”
“Then you’ll need to get in line behind me since I intend to skewer him first.”
“Ronan?”
“I’m here. Duncan and I have arrived.” He straightened on the seat, Kyla’s presence in his mind easing a touch of his anxiety. The castle’s massive stone walls rose out of the misty dark with forbidding height into the night sky, the windows lit by candlelight and his chosen one ensconced somewhere deep within that stronghold. “How did your conversation with Fiona go?”
“Fiona wishes to leave with me. She’s widowed now, has been these past two months and has no desire to remain behind.”
“Then we’ll take her with us.” To Duncan, he muttered, “Kyla speaks to me along our merged link. Fiona wishes to leave too, is now widowed.”
“Fiona and Kyla used to follow Coll and I around constantly as children. Fiona’s a spritely lass and due to her empath ability, has a great deal of love to give. Certainly never a day passed that I didnae catch her sneaking food from the kitchens for a hungry child. She also tended the wounds of our injured kinsmen, right alongside Kyla.” Duncan searched the rocky entrance where the waves splashed in hard against the boulders and sprayed high. “We willnae leave either of them behind when we leave.”