Moving carefully to avoid making her head pound, Jenna washed and dressed and then left her room and made her way to the great hall. When she entered the cavernous room, she saw that it had already been cleared and cleaned following last night’s celebrations. It was quiet too, with only a few people in attendance, and they sat quietly, sipping from cups and eating porridge.
Jenna wondered if they were nursing heads as thick as hers.
Arran was already in the great hall, sitting at the place of honor at the high table. Rosaline sat next to him, looking a little more disheveled than usual.
As she stepped across the threshold, Arran’s gaze sprang to her and she felt that familiar warmth coil in her belly. Why did he have to look at her like that? Didn’t he realize that this was hard enough for her already?
“Good morning,” she mumbled as she joined them at the high table.
“Is it?” Rosaline groaned. “Feels like a pretty terrible morning to me.”
Jenna gave her a sympathetic smile, and Arran said nothing as Jenna took a seat. She was sure she could see a spark of amusementdancing in his eyes though. Clearlyhedidn’t have a hangover.
Jenna pulled over a basket of bannocks and began nibbling on the corner of one. She wasn’t sure her stomach could handle anything more—certainly not the porridge, sausages, or boiled eggs that lay in platters on the table. She ate in silence, staring at her plate, but looked up when the door suddenly burst open.
Brother Merrick came hurrying in. His habit flapped around his knees as he rushed over. He was holding a stack of books under one arm and he looked, Jenna thought, a little flustered.
“I’ve found something, my lord!” he blurted. “Ye need to take a look at this!”
Any amusement at Jenna and Rosaline’s condition vanished from Arran’s expression and he scraped back his chair and stood.
“Come with me.”
Jenna stuffed the last bit of bannock into her mouth, muttered an apology to Rosaline, and followed as the two men strode off. Arran glanced at her as she caught up with them, and nodded.
“Find Mal and Edrick,” Arran snapped at a servant as they strode through the keep. “Tell them to meet me in my study immediately.” The servant nodded and dashed off.
Once they’d reached Arran’s study, he gestured to the empty chairs around the table. Jenna sank into hers gratefully, wondering what exactly was going on. Arran was all focused and alert, like he was when he thought danger was near, and Brother Merrick looked apprehensive as he dropped into a chair and laid the books he’d brought with him on the table.
Jenna bit her lip. Mal and Edrick arrived only moments later, both panting as though they’d run all the way here.
“What is it?” Mal demanded. “Dougie said to come straight away. It isnae another attack, is it?”
“Sit down, both of ye,” Arran said. “And listen. Brother Merrick has something he wishes to share with us.”
The two men exchanged glances and then lowered themselves into chairs.
Arran clasped his hands together on the table and leaned forward. His piercing gaze fixed on the monk. “Well? What have ye found?”
Brother Merrick swallowed thickly. “I did as ye asked,” he said. “I’ve scoured everything we have in the library that pertains to Norse settlements or stories about the area ye marked on the map.”
He nodded to the table, and Jenna realized that a map was spread out on it. The map showed the whole of Skye, and there were markers placed all around the island except for an area in the southeast.
“At first I didnae find aught and I thought this might all be a wild goose chase,” Brother Merrick continued. “But this morning I thought I might look at the land records again—after all, that’s where I found our last clue, isnae it?”
Arran’s jaw clenched and Jenna could tell he was working hard to keep his patience with the monk’s roundabout way of explaining things. “And what did ye find?”
Brother Merrick took a scroll from the pile and rolled it out. He leaned forward, running his finger down the parchment until he found the spot he was looking for. “Ah ha! Here it is!” He tapped the scroll then turned it around and offered it to Arran, pointing at the spot.
Jenna leaned forward, squinting. It was a map. She couldn’t see anything particularly special about the spot he indicated, just a small bay on the southeast coast.
Arran frowned. “What exactly are we looking at?”
“It’s not marked on the map anymore because when the Norse were chased out of Skye several hundred years ago and the MacFinnan magic placed to keep them out, it was destroyed. Or so everyone thought.”
“Whatwas destroyed?”
Brother Merrick grinned and unrolled another parchment on the table, laying it flat next to the map. “This is a land grant from aroundthe same time the MacFinnan magic was first constructed. It talks about several settlements in the area we’re interested in, but most of them were abandoned. There’s one, though, that’s of particular interest to us. Here. Nordve.”
