A priestess.
A high priestess of some kind, if not the
highest
priestess, he thought suddenly. He had known there was more to
Cait’s
parentage than he had been told, and now it was explained. As he thought all this the woman glared back at him balefully, looking down her nose at him with a frown. She was dressed in a plain, unassuming gown, but exuded such a strange and affecting power that she might as well have been garbed in the richest, most rare of dress with bedazzling jewels. He blinked, breaking her stare, suddenly certain that she tried to
bespell
him. Perhaps, he thought belatedly, he should not have met with her alone.
“I have been on a merry chase about Scotland looking for my daughter,” her voice rang out, “and I find her here at Inverness Keep, in the Devil’s own hands.” She glowered at him as she spoke the last words.
“I am no devil, madam,” returned Duncan, “but I have some words for what you are, to have cared for your daughter as you have.”
Her eyes narrowed, sizing him up. “You might do better to address me with respect. Do you know to whom you speak?”
“I have an idea of your high station, but I speak to you as the mother of my wife. The absent, careless mother,” he added with a scowl.
Her sudden peal of laughter surprised him. “Oh, cry and wail. My daughter was well cared
for,
better cared for that I left her alone. You understand me, Devil?”
“My name is Duncan of Inverness.”
“And my name is
Edana
, high priestess of the Isles, lest we both get confused. Now that the introductions are out of the way perhaps we can speak plainly and clearly.
If you are finished criticizing my maternal capabilities, that is.”
Duncan stood and watched her with his lips pursed in a frown. “Plainly and clearly sounds fine to me. What is it you want?”
Edana
lifted her chin and stared at him as lightning flickered in the darkened hall. “For all you imagine I have no maternal feelings for my daughter, the truth is I have traveled here to see that she is well.”
“She is well,” Duncan said. “For all that I am named a
Devil,
I am a loving husband to your daughter
Cait
.”
“Love?” said
Edana
, her brows lifting. “Is it so?
My lucky daughter, then, to know that which her mother has not.”
“Yes, lucky,” Duncan agreed. “We live very happily here. She is safe and content and much loved.”
“I am happy to hear it,” said
Edana
, her voice finally softening. “Based on your unfortunate moniker, I must say I expected the worst. But she is not completely safe here. You must hear this and know it, and take it to heart.”
“What do you mean? She is very safe here. She has a guard. She is always supervised. I know she is not one to be careless with. She has the blood of the king...and you...”
“Yes, me.
Wretched pagan blood.
The blood of a priestess who bore her with a king from the Beltane fires.
I’m a poor mother, but I do have some worth to her. I have seen danger for her and I come to warn you. There is danger in a man—”
“I promise you, lady,” interrupted Duncan indignantly, “she is in absolutely no danger from me.”
“I know it,” she snapped. “I know much more than you can ever hope to know. I tell you only what comes to me, and what comes to me is a vague feeling that my daughter is not secure. There is a sinister specter I can see just in the corner of my thoughts.”
“The king.
It’s the king you see. She claims that he hates her, that he wants her dead.”
Edana
laughed.
“The king?
No, I know the king. I hold his soul in my hands and I feel what he feels and know what he knows. She is in no peril from him. No, this threat is unknown to me and as such, I come to warn you to look after her carefully.”
“Madam, I already do. I do everything I can, everything in my power to protect her.”
“Do you?” she said, looking at him with a searching look that set his hair on end.
“Yes, I do,” he replied with a little less conviction. “I protect her better than you have, at any rate.”
“Do you dare to judge me, bastard earl, Devil, living here at the edge of the earth?”
Duncan’s eyes flashed fire, accented by a deep sudden boom of thunder. “I’ll thank you not to insult me in my own home, madam. I am your daughter’s husband.”
“And I am her mother! And despite your judgments and accusations, I care very much for my child.”
The weight of guilt was apparent. Even her priestess powers and attitude couldn’t hide the sadness behind her eyes.
“Why then?” he asked suddenly, softly. “Why did you abandon her? Let her grow up unwanted and alone?”
“Why? You might as well ask me why the sun rises in the sky and the waves fall on the shore. It is the way of my world. Her father’s blood taints her, as much as I wish it wasn’t so. I had high expectations for her, but she is too cowardly and retiring to come after me and
reign
as high priestess.”
“
Cait
is exceptionally brave,” protested Duncan over the din of the suddenly violent storm.
She frowned.
“In some areas, perhaps.
But not in the areas that matter. She has no power, no insight,
no
inner or outer strength. For those reasons I am sure she is quite the biddable wife to you, but she is completely useless to me.”
“Useless. What endearing terminology for a mother to use to describe her own daughter. Perhaps it is best that she knows you not at all.”
“I hid her away because I couldn’t stand for a daughter of mine to be raised at court. That was a mercy done for her, for her protection. It was a kindness above all kindnesses.”
“Kinder still to know her mother’s love.”
“Ah, but she knows a husband’s love now,” she mocked. “Is that not enough?”
As if on cue,
Cait’s
voice, soft and plaintive, sounded from the doorway. “Duncan?”
“
Cait
, don’t come in here.”
She rushed to him and threw herself into his arms before Connor could stop her.
“Duncan, the storm!
Please let me stay with you. I’m afraid!”
Duncan looked over her shoulder to where her mother watched, hunched down, almost completely obscured in the shadows of the corner. How had she gotten there so fast? How could she make herself disappear in plain sight? She watched him, and watched her daughter too, far too avidly.
“
Cait
.”
He felt suddenly desperate to have her away from
Edana
. “Go to Henna. Henna will sit with you through the storm.”
“I’m sorry!” she whispered. “I’m so sorry. I’ll kneel for you. I’ll please you. I’ll do whatever you want. Please! Please give me another chance, Duncan. Don’t make me sleep alone! I’m sorry!”
His face grew hard at her words. In any other circumstance he would have taken her to his room and not let her go for hours, but right now, right now...
“I...you... I told you why we must sleep apart tonight. If the storm frightens you, you must go to Henna. I’ve duties I must see to tonight. Now go,” he said, throwing a look at
Edana
. He didn’t care for the way the woman watched her. “Go, now. Obey me. This is for your own good.”
With one last sob she let him set her firmly away.
“Connor,” he snapped, guiding her to the door. “Take her to Henna, and have Henna take her to her room and keep her there.” He emphasized the last three words.
When
Cait
was gone,
Edana
emerged from the dark corner, once again the haughty high priestess.
“How happy and content she looks,” she said acidly.
“She does not like the storm.”
“And how kind and affectionate you were when you pushed her away.”
“I didn’t want her to see you. I was trying to get her away. I do not trust you at all.”
“Perhaps it is best if you do not.” She looked thoughtful then, tilting her head at him with a puzzled expression.
“How long have you been married? She does not breed?”
“No,” said Duncan tightly. “She is not yet with child.”
“You have not even had her,”
Edana
scoffed, her suspicions confirmed by the flush of his cheeks. “Why is that? Are you a catamite, perhaps? Do you have difficulties with your organ? I can offer some herbs and remedies if you wish.”
“I have no difficulties, madam.”
“She is not
so
biddable then as I thought,” she said in surprise. “Well, perhaps she has some of my blood in her after all.” She looked thoughtfully at the door through which Duncan had sent her away. “If she is still a virgin, if you’ve no use of the girl, I’ll take her. I’ll harbor her at
Canna
Isle and she’ll come to no harm.”
“No,” said Duncan. “She is mine and you will only remove her from me if you put me, and every man who fights for me, to the sword. But long before then, lady, I will destroy you, if you think to take that which is mine.”
Edana’s
eyes widened. “I do not fight with swords, I assure you, Duncan. And these are strong words from a man who cannot even be bothered to bed the woman in question.”
“In due time,” was all he replied.
Edana
fell silent then, and pensive.
“There is no time. You must make her your wife in truth. Only this can subvert the danger that threatens.”
“You speak nonsense.”
“I speak truth!” she insisted. Her face changed, became so stark that Duncan grew alarmed.
“What is it? What do you see?”
“I do not know.
An incomplete vision.
An unexpected direction that must be avoided.
You must get her pregnant with all haste.”
“I don’t believe you. I don’t believe in your pagan visions and lies.”
“Why are you frightened then, if you don’t believe? Let me take her if you can’t or won’t see to this. Let me take her to a safe place where she can be protected and hidden away.”
Protected.
Hidden away.
How much did he love her?
Enough to let her go?
Was
Edana
telling the truth about
Cait
being in danger? Or was she only trying to
prise
her daughter away from him using vague veiled threats?
“If I make her pregnant, this mysterious ‘danger’ you speak of will be averted?”
“I can’t say. It appears to me that it is so.”
“My first wife died,” he blurted out. Why on earth had he said that to her?
Edana
looked at him sharply. “Died?
In childbirth?”
For a moment, a soft expression of sympathy flitted across her face. “And you think to protect my daughter from the same fate?”
“Yes. I hoped to.”
Edana
drew a deep breath, and her gaze met his. She stared at him for a long while.