“Just tell me if I humiliate you, MacKerrick. You—”
“Stop!” he shouted. He stood and took her elbow gently, leading her to the box bed before he helped her to sit on its edge. “Wait.” He addressed her frown, then fetched the stool to sit before and slightly below her.
Conall plucked the blade from her fingers and sat it aside on the ticking, then pulled her hands from their clench. He kissed each of her fists and then gave her fingers a squeeze.
“I am nae shamed of you, in the least,” he said solemnly. “In truth, there is nae more prideful man in all of Scotland. And I will be fair to bursting with pride when I take you to my town.”
He paused and Eve continued to frown at him. A knot had begun to form out of his guts.
“But Iamshamed,” he said. “Of meself. There is another reason why I must go to the Buchanan town, Eve, and why you must go with me. I am shamed of the fact that I have kept it from you these many months.”
Evelyn’s frown shifted into wary curiosity. “What is it, Conall?”
He took a deep breath. “Do you recall the night I first came to the hut?”
Eve’s brow quirked. “How could I forget? You wanted to toss me and Alinor to the grays.”
“I did,” he admitted somberly. “And sorry I am for it. But once you made mention of Minerva Buchanan as your kin—”
“You changed your mind, quite abruptly,” she supplied, her expression growing more worried. “What are you about, MacKerrick? Get on with it.”
Conall nodded. “The MacKerrick town has been in dire straights indeed these some thirty years, Eve. And our relations with the Buchanans strained for as many.”
“And?” Eve demanded. “What has this to do with me?”
“Everything,” Conall whispered, and tightened his grip on her slender hands. “It has everything to do with you, Eve.
“Over thirty years ago, Ronan MacKerrick, my uncle, and Minerva Buchanan, your aunt, began an affair that neither family approved of. Minerva and Ronan sought to marry and, against my father’s wishes, Ronan planned a secret meeting to beg favor from Angus Buchanan.”
Conall began stroking the backs of Eve’s hands with his thumbs. “My da found out about the meeting—an act of treachery against the MacKerricks on Ronan’s part. Da organized a raid and surprised Ronan and the Buchanan clan heads here, at this hut.”
Eve’s eyes had slowly widened as the tale unfolded and her lips parted slightly. “What happened?” she whispered.
Conall swallowed. “A great battle. Many Buchanans died, including Angus’s own wife.” He paused. “Ronan died protecting Minerva.”
“I still don’t understand,” Eve said. “Why—”
“When Ronan fell, the battle stopped,” Conall forged on. “’Twas never my da’s intent for his own brother to die. Indeed, I believe the guilt of it is what drove him to the drink, to his own death. But he was to pay an even greater price for his actions on that terrible day.
“Minerva Buchanan laid a curse on the MacKerricks, over Ronan’s still-warm body. She tried to kill us all, Eve, and she was slowly succeeding, until you came along.”
Conall took another deep breath. “But ’tis over now. You’ve put an end to the curse and, pray God, the entire feud. I would have Angus Buchanan’s blessing on our union, to put this terrible past behind us, once and for all.”
“The curse is ended because we married? But then why—?” Eve had paled to the color of the long-melted snow. Her lips barely moved when next she spoke, and her words were no more than a whisper. “What was the curse, Conall? Exactly—tell me the words.”
Conall grimaced. “Eve—”
“Tell me.” She did not raise her voice, but the intensity of the request frightened Conall more than any gray wolf ever had.
“Very well.” He cleared his throat and recited each damning word, slowly, clearly, honestly. He only hesitated before the last few lines, the ones that had sealed Eve’s fate. “‘Only heartache and toil shall you reap until a Buchanan bairn is born to rule the MacKerrick clan. And then I will take what is due me. When you are on bended knee will I have my revenge.’”
’Twas Alinor’s insistent scratching at the door that broke the heavy silence hanging in the cottage. Evelyn’s eyes were blank, her expression stony and unreadable. Alinor scratched again and added an impatient, high-pitched whine to Bonnie’s bleat.
“Not now, Alinor,” Conall said over his shoulder.
Eve pulled her hands free from Conall’s grasp. “Let them out,” she ordered quietly. “Shut the door after them.”
Conall frowned but rose to do her bidding, thinking Eve had no wish for the animals’ distraction.
