Jeannie’s gaze stole to the door. “Is that possible?”
“It is.” The Dowager rang the bell at her side. When the servant whom Jeannie recognized as Marie came, she bade the woman, “Please ask Mistress Deirdre to step in.”
Jeannie got to her feet when, a few short moments later, a woman entered. It had crossed her mind while waiting that the Dowager Avrie—obviously a cagey old vixen—might have fed her a tale. But she could not mistake the woman she now beheld for other than Finnan’s sister.
Tall she was, slender, with a head full of auburn hair worn simply in a braid down her back. Her face—beautiful, severe, and undeniably feminine—yet carried the set of Finnan’s features in the cheekbones, nose, and eyebrows. Had Jeannie needed further confirmation, her gaze met Jeannie’s in a fierce stare; the tawny eyes might have been Finnan’s own.
“Deirdre, my dear,” the Dowager said brightly, “I wanted you to meet our neighbor, the Widow MacWherter. She is going to help us bring your brother to justice.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Finnan MacAllister edged out from under cover of the sentinel pine on the slope above Rowan Cottage and narrowed his eyes to peer through the gloaming. A perfect day it had been in Glen Rowan, warm and with fair winds chasing white clouds like sheep across a field of blue. Now the light lingered late in the west like a benediction, but he knew all too well it held no blessing for him.
Two men in Avrie colors stood guard on the trail at the rise that led to Jeannie’s gate. He cursed softly as he watched them settle in for the night and felt Danny move up to his side.
“What is it, Master Finnan?”
Finnan did not answer at once. Anger, dismay, and, were he honest, alarm pounded up through him. Why would the Avries feel it necessary to post watchers there? Had he been seen going or coming? Had he placed Jeannie in danger?
And how was he to reach her now? He choked back his desperation and, without looking at Danny, said, “Trouble for those two lasses below, if not us. Careful,” he warned as Danny took an incautious step forward. “Do not let yourself be seen.”
Now it was Danny’s turn to whisper a curse. “I never should have gone there, sick with fever or not. Now Aggie is in danger.”
Finnan slanted a cool look at his companion. “Aggie, is it?”
Danny’s expression turned grim. “She is a sweet lass with a kind heart. I would not like aught to happen to her, especially because of me.”
“The two of you grew friendly, did you, whilst you lay ill?”
“More than that. She is the sort of woman a man could get used to staying with for good.”
“Oh, aye?” Surprise made Finnan withdraw all his attention from the scene below and bestow it on Danny instead.
“Does not seem to mind the places I ha’ been or the things I have done—nor the loss of the arm. Never thought I would find anyone like that.” Danny sucked in a breath. “But I am in no position to do aught about it, am I?”
“And that is my fault, lad. I have brought you to all this.”And her. Only look at the danger in which he had placed Jeannie. Finnan caught himself up harshly. What matter—he wanted only to destroy her, did he not?
Nay, that was not all he wanted. He ached to taste her lips again, plunge himself into her heat, or even just gaze into her eyes.
“I do not mean that, Master Finnan,” Danny avowed. “You know all my loyalty is yours, no question.”
“I do know that, lad, and I am grateful.”
“Only, what are we to do? Chased we have been over the rocks of this glen for days, and with your arm refusing to heal… Your gey big house stands guarded, and the cottage below. How are we to defeat them all?”
Finnan MacAllister gritted his teeth. “’Tis time we fought back, Danny my lad.”
“But how?”
“By turning into shadows—spirits, if we must. By enlisting the help of the glen itself.”
Danny shivered. “You ken fine I do no’ like it when you begin talking of magic.”
“’Tis the only thing that will save us now.” Finnan gazed seriously into his friend’s eyes. “You do not have to stay, you ken. No dent in your loyalty if you go. ’Tis my fight, this.”
“And since when has one of us had a fight without the others?” For a moment, Danny’s open face clouded. “I am that convinced we—the three of us—should never have parted ways in the first place, nor let Master Geordie go off by himself.”
Finnan shrugged uncomfortably. “He’d had his fill of killing, could stomach no more. Should I have dragged him into this slaughter?”
