Conall’s brows lowered.
Duncan sighed and rolled his eyes. “Eve’ll think she and her bairn mean just as little. Especially once she learns of the curse.”
Conall could see his brother’s point. “But what am I to tell her, Dunc? That I wasna in love with my first wife? That she died giving birth to my stillborn child, that she never wanted? How, pray tell, would that give her any comfort?”
“’Tis the truth of it, though,” Duncan insisted. “She’ll know eventually, any matter. Lance the boil, Conall.”
Conall thought on his brother’s advice for several moments while he and Duncan passed the jug between them again. Duncan was right, of course. ’Twas Conall’s responsibility to see his clan cared for, and from what Duncan had told him, that task was well on its way to fruition. But now Eve was part of his clan, too—Eveandtheir bairn. He owed her the truth.
About everything.
“I’ll tell her,” Conall said at last. His gaze sought his brother’s. “Once you have gone and we have our privacy, I’ll tell her of Nonna and the bairn.” Conall winced. “Eve has…a temper. I’d not have you caught in the crossfire.”
“You’ll tell her of the curse, as well?” Duncan prompted.
“I will, but not yet.” Conall held up a palm to ward off his brother’s imminent lecture. “From what you’ve told me of our townfolk, I need to put the past to rest for us all. Before I bring Eve home, I’d go to the Buchanan and make peace. I would have his blessing upon me and mine to carry back to our town.”
Duncan’s eyes rounded. “You’d have a stave in your ribs, is what you’d have.”
“I think not,” Conall said mildly. “Eve and the bairn she carries are direct descendants of Angus Buchanan—he’d nae harm his kin. Which, unfortunate for him, now includes me. I’ll tell Eve of the curse there. Or better yet, the old goat can tell her himself.”
“Yer mad,” Duncan grumbled.
“I’m certain Eve’ll wish to stay on a bit, visit with her kin before we set out for home,” Conall said as though Duncan hadn’t made the disparaging remark. “Once we return, I’ll tell the town I’ve broken the curse and our land will at last know peace.”
Duncan looked at his brother for a long, quiet moment. “A hero you’re thinkin’ to be, eh?”
The contemptive tone stung. Was that really Conall’s ulterior motive? To arrive at the MacKerrick town after single-handedly banishing an ancient demon? To prove he had accomplished what his father, Dáire MacKerrick, had been unable to do? Conall didn’t want that to be so, and so he told himself that it wasn’t. Surely he was more noble than that.
“’Twill be over,” was his only reply to Duncan.
Duncan sighed and rose from the bucket, jerking the jug from Conall’s hand. He took a healthy glug and then kicked the bucket to his brother. “You’d better go fetch your wife her water, you great, heroic ass.”
Conall set off to the chore, not hearing his brother’s parting whisper.
“I hope you’re right, Conall. Glory, do I hope you’re right.” His eyes flicked to the wall of trees surrounding the clearing. They seemed to shiver with a malignant secret, one that Duncan could not begin to understand, and one he wanted no part of.
“The wolf in me dream wasna your black, brother. And the woman wasna Eve.”
Conall watched Eve watching Duncan as they all sat around the peat fire, lingering over their meal. Duncan was regaling Conall’s wife with tales from their shared childhood and Conall could tell from the enraptured look on Eve’s face that she was thoroughly enchanted by his brother. Her eyes sparkled with entertainment as she listened to Duncan’s animated—and exaggerated—retelling of how Conall had once gotten his arm stuck down a snake hole.
“He was a-screamin’ an’ flailin’ an’ kickin’ his legs,” Duncan said, throwing his own self about in a wild and unflattering manner. “‘Mam! Mam! It’s chewin’ me arm off!’”
Eve brought her fingertips to her lips over a gasp and her head swiveled to Conall. “Itbityou?”
Conall opened his mouth to answer, but Duncan beat him to it.
“That hole was as empty as the MacKerrick’s fat head,” Duncan scoffed. “Got his arm caught between a root and a rock, ’sall.”
Eve’s delighted laughter soothed some of the sting from Conall’s heated face.
“We were but six, Duncan,” Conall defended himself. “And I’d nae had to go into the hole at all had you nae tossed me sling down it.”
Duncan whirled on him. “You wouldna let me have a go with it! Bad enough you bullied me with your great mass, but you wouldna share our single toy!”
“You kept aiming it at me!” Conall cried indignantly.
Duncan’s face split with a wide, proud grin and he threw a rouguish wink at Eve.
