“MacKenna blood flows through Gray’s veins, and he carries his ancestry well. He was chosen to be chief.” Tamhas grumbled something unintelligible again as he turned away. “The son born of the chieftain’s legal union shouldha been drowned at birth.”
The bench creaked with a new weight. Coira’s familiar scent of lye soap and dried heather announced her presence. The hushed loathing in the girl’s tone conveyed her feelings clearly. “All of us agree with Master Tamhas. The wicked Fearghal is much younger than the MacKenna and greatly resembles one of Master Tamhas’s dried-up toads that he keeps in his wee jars.”
Trulie mulled over this newest bit of information. “Surely you don’t think Fearghal should’ve been drowned at birth just because he’s a dried-up little pipsqueak?” That didn’t seem in character for anyone she had met at MacKenna keep.
“Nay ...” Coira drew out the word as though keeping her emotions in check was becoming an unbearable strain. “But he is wicked. I know this firsthand. One of the newest girls, a meek young lass, and newly orphaned afore she came to the keep, was one of the poor serving girls unfortunate enough to catch the evil Fearghal’s eye. When she walked by him one evening with a tray full of trenchers, he kicked her feet out from under her and laughed when all she carried crashed to the floor. Then the cur told her he would see to it that his brother banished her from the keep for being so clumsy and wasting food. The MacKenna doesna tolerate waste when so many over the years have died the slow death of starvation.”
“What an ass.” Anger flashed hot through Trulie. She hated a bully. No wonder Granny had been in such a hurry to get back to the past and set things right.
“Aye. And that was not the worst part.” Caught up in her story, Coira squirmed in place until the entire bench shook. “When the poor lass started crying, he told her that if she didna...” Coira shuddered, shaking the bench even more. “He told the lass to service him or he would turn her over to the MacKenna for not only being a clumsy wench but a thief.”
“That is a complete load of crap.” Trulie couldn’t stand it any longer. She scraped the hardening mud from her eyes and groped the air in front of her for water or a towel. “Help me get this mess cleaned off. It sounds like we have been brought here to clean house and we will start with that obnoxious little jerk.” Trulie nodded as a particularly wicked idea dawned. “Maybe I’ll let Karma neuter him. That’ll convince him to keep his man parts to himself.”
A shallow wooden bowl filled with cool water rose up beneath her hands and barely touched her fingers. Trulie leaned over the basin, splashed her face until it felt goop-free, and then batted blindly for a towel. She blinked away the moisture into the folds of the rough cloth and dried the residue off her face. Tossing the rag to the bench beside her, she slowly opened her eyes, then gasped.
Electrifying eyes—those ice-blue irises resembling a lightning-filled sky—stared back at her. The man she had nearly taken out with the truck crouched at her feet. Granny’s primary reason for returning to the past suddenly became very clear.
“You!” Trulie scrambled sideways and sprang up from the bench. A firm knowing settled within her as she remembered Granny’s words from that night:Besides—I know those colors. He comes from a fine, upstanding clan. You won’t find a force on earth able to strike fear into a MacKenna.
Gray MacKenna didn’t say a word. Eyes narrowed and rugged jaw set to a defiant angle, he slowly rose and slid the bowl of water over to the table.
Trulie whirled on Granny, her entire body trembling. “Out with it, Granny. No more games. You’re the only one who could’ve hidden his aura so I wouldn’t know he was here. No more lies about dying wishes or solving murders. I want the truth and I want it now. You hinted at seeing me settled. You said you had a plan for all your granddaughters.” Trulie jerked her head toward Gray. “I suppose you think if I fall for him, I will stay in the past forever?”
Granny’s eyes widened. Her mouth opened and then pressed tightly closed as if she thought better of what she was about to say.
Dammit.Trulie was sick and tired of everyone else’s choices controlling her entire life.She was an adult now. It was time she lived or died by her own decisions. Getting angrier by the minute, she shook a finger at Tamhas. “And what part did you have in all this? I know you have been contacting Granny through the fire portal. But I thought you two were just carrying on an over-the-eras relationship until you could be reunited. Are you in on this matchmaking garbage too?”
With another angry toss of her head in Gray’s direction, she took another step toward the old man frowning down at the greasy bowl clenched between his hands. “Does that poor man over there even know who or what we are? Does he have any idea how you are attempting to complicate his life?”
“Poor man?” Gray’s tensed expression grew darker than a storm cloud. “Do I look like apoorman to ye?”
Trulie spun, then jerked to a stop. The tip of her nose almost touched Gray’s breastbone. Gritting her teeth, she thumped the center of his chest, then shook her finger just inches from the end of his nose. “One stubborn persona at a time. Get in line and wait your turn.”
His eyes flared wide. He looked as though he was about to bare his teeth and snarl.
“And don’t give me that insulted-chief look,” she warned before turning back to Tamhas. “Answer me. Did you set him in the middle of my road that night or did Granny do it?”
“Both,” Granny snapped as she stepped between Trulie and Tamhas. “You refused to listen. We had to do something drastic.”
“I wouldn’t listen?” Trulie could not believe what she had just heard. Granny had completely betrayed her. If they hadn’t lost that truckload of inventory and had to suspend their internet sales, she would’ve never entertained the thought of leaving the shop in her sisters’ care while she took Granny back to the past. But the ruined truckload, the ongoing war with Mrs. Hagerty, and the realization that her personal life sucked finally convinced her to take a little time off from the twenty-first century.
A cold feeling of certainty settled in her bones. They were here because of Granny’s grand plan. “How far were you willing to go to get me back to this century, Granny? What are you capable of doing to get your own way and carry out your plans?”
Granny didn’t answer—just stared at the ground.
Trulie turned to the wide-eyed girl sitting on the bench. Coira was a mere slip of a girl. Her tiny appearance somehow didn’t fit the robust belly laugh and larger-than-life sense of humor Trulie had come to know. “Coira, you have never seemed very surprised by anything I’ve ever told you. Did they suck you into their scheming too?”
Coira’s reddish-blonde curls trembled as she stared down at her freckle-dusted hands clasped tightly in her lap. “Nay, mistress. I swear to ye I know of no plot. I only know I was meant to serve ye.”
“What about the girls back home?” Trulie asked.
Granny shook her head. “No. Your sisters only know what you were told. They think we came back here to get me set for my final leap with Tamhas and that you would then return to them back in the future. They all figured you would never be happy here in this time, so you’d return as soon as I was settled.”
Gray pushed forward, wrapped a strong hand around Trulie’s upper arm, and turned her back toward him. “Ye spoke of a strange night. A dark road. That unholy thing was of yer doing?” Gray grabbed her by the shoulders and pulled her closer still. “Ye controlled the monster with the glowing eyes. Ye tried to kill me?”
Trulie squirmed out of his grasp. “I did not try to kill you. Granny and your sorcerer over there plopped you in the middle of the road just as I drove through. If you want to be angry at someone, be angry at them. I know I am.”
“And ... and ... as for you two,” Trulie sputtered. Dammit!Now was not the time for her emotionally triggered stutter to return. She had finally gotten that irritating trait under control when she’d escaped the stress of high school. She took a deep breath and pointed a finger at Tamhas while at the same time staring down Granny. “It will be a cold d-day in hell before I ever believe a single word out of either of you again. Dammit, Granny! How could you?”
