Mairi stopped walking and stared at her sister. Had lack of sleep twisted Kenna’s ability to reason? “Tie the knot? Are you crazy? We just met.”
The baby at her shoulder bobbed his unsteady head and growled.
“Sorry, Caedan.” Mairi resumed patting the wee one’s butt in time with her bouncing walk, angling closer to Kenna as she paced. “We just met,” she repeated, emphasizing thejust.Why would Kenna ask such a thing?
“You did tingle. Right?” Trulie asked. She shot Kenna a silencing look then pushed Chloe’s fisted hands down to her tiny lap. She shook a warning finger at her tiny daughter. “If you put those beads in your mouth again, I’m going to take them away.”
Chloe stuck out her bottom lip and clutched the beads to her chest. “No, Mama.”
“Well?” Trulie patted Chloe’s arm and turned back to Mairi. “Tingle. Was it there or not?”
Mairi glared first at Trulie then turned her attention back to Kenna. There appeared to be more than one conversation going on in this room and she was only privy to one of them. “So, you’re telling me you both tingled the first time you touched your husbands?”
“Oh absolutely.” Kenna nodded. “And I never tingled once when I was Ronan’s wife, so he’s definitely meant for you.”
“Kenna!” Trulie stomped her foot and lobbed a pillow at her sister.
Little Chloe’s mouth rounded into a shockedoas she stared up at her mother as though Trulie had just turned into a raging banshee.
Wait . . . what?Kenna had been married to Ronan? Mairi shook her head. Surely, she hadn’t heard that right. “Um. Could you repeat that . . . and embellish it with a few more details?” She stopped walking again, completely ignoring the unhappy wail coming from the babe at her shoulder. Ronan hadn’t said a word about being married to Kenna. When was someone going to let her in on that little tidbit of information?
Kenna suddenly sat much straighter and glanced nervously across the room at Granny.
“You dug yourself into this hole, gal. Best get to diggin’ yourself out.” Granny adjusted her spectacles with a wrinkling of her nose and pulled a russet-colored thread up through the tapestry.
Kenna rose from the bench and scooped her squalling son out of Mairi’s arms. “It was nothing,” she said as she tucked the babe up under the light shawl spread over her shoulder and put him to her breast. “Really. It was a marriage in name only kind of arrangement. Absolutely nothing happened.” She nervously shrugged a shoulder and settled back into her seat. “It was really nothing at all.”
“If it was really nothing at all then why are you having so much trouble explaining it other than repeating,It was nothing?” Mairi struggled to keep from shouting that Kenna sounded as though she were trying to convince herself instead of Mairi.
“It was never consummated. Ronan was searching for the Sinclair woman to marry and break the curse. He just messed up when he thought it was me.” Kenna offered a hopeful smile as though she was a student who just finished reciting her verses in front of the class and was waiting for the teacher’s approval.
Without Caedan’s wails ricocheting off the walls, the sunlit room grew uncomfortably quiet. Mairi stared at her sister, still not believing what she had just heard and struggling to decide which statement bothered her most. Searching for the Sinclair woman to marry to break the curse? Kenna and Ronan. Married.Supposedly, unconsummated. Marry to break the curse. So, did that mean . . . ?
Ronan hadn’t said a single word about his marriage to Kenna or the fact that breaking the curse entailed Mairi marrying him. Mairi sucked in a deep breath and slowly blew it out. She forced herself to remain calm and attack one lie of omission at a time. And then she would kill him.“Just how long were you two married?”
“Only a few weeks.” Kenna kept her voice low as she gently rocked to and fro and continued feeding her son. “I have always loved my Colum. He is the only one who ever made me tingle.”
“Then how did you end up married to Ronan?”
“It’s kind of complicated. I married Ronan as sort of a deal to save Colum.”
Mairi clenched her fists until her nails dug into her palms. This might be no big deal to Kenna, but it was a big-ass deal to her. “I don’t give a damn how complicated it was. Explain it. Now.”
Trulie snorted a disgruntled huff and struggled to heave her ungainly body out of the deep pillows on the bench. “You know how Kenna always plays with fire. She tried to make Colum jealous so he’d swallow his stupid pride and marry her. Her game nearly killed them both and the only way she could save Colum was by agreeing to marry Ronan. Long story short, it was all a sorry misunderstanding. She’s married to the man she really loves now and Ronan Sutherland is meant to marry you.”
“Like hell he is.” Mairi stomped across the room away from the hearth. She didn’t need a fire right now. Her temper had her worked up she was about to burst into flames. “Why the devil would I want to marry a man who is just looking for a way to break some curse? And apparently, is so stupid that he married the wrong Sinclair sister the first time!” She charged back and forth in front of the sunny windows, her fists trembling at her sides.
She’d heard enough to make her ready to jump back to the future this very minute. Both the curse and the Fates could go straight to hell and have a freaking tea party. “And by the way, I haven’t even seen proof of this curse. His mother and friend were apparently healthy enough to travel back to their homes and all of you seem to be doing just fine.” A firm knowing settled deep in her gut. Granny was up to her old tricks. She had picked Ronan out of the blue as the man she wanted Mairi to marry and decided now was the time to do it. When Mairi had rebelled and refused to jump back, Granny had upped the ante and made up a tale about a curse. Well, she had news for Granny. Curse-breaking nuptials weren’t about to happen.
“This is just another of your games, isn’t it?” Mairi pointed at Granny. “Fess up. This is just another of your manipulative games.”
The heavy oak door to the solar suddenly slammed shut with a room-shaking bang. The wall of windows behind Mairi rattled and moaned as a bone-chilling howl raced through the room. The taut membranes of the oiled parchments covering the windows swelled and shifted between the narrow strips of wood, writhing into distorted shapes as though hordes of angry spirits were trying to burst their way through them.
Mairi backed away from the windows, her hand pressed to her pounding heart. “What is going on?” She stumbled back a few steps and shouted to Granny without turning around. “What are you doing?” She stole a glance back and heart fell at the uncharacteristic pallor of her grandmother’s face.
Granny rose from her chair and motioned Mairi closer. “This is not of my doing. Come away from the windows, gal. Slowly.” She held out her hand to Mairi as she eased around the tapestry stand in front of her chair. “Come to me, child. Now.”
Before Mairi could move, Trulie gathered Chloe up into her arms and hurried to the corner of the room farthest from the windows. Oren vaulted from his perch, circling the room with wings outspread, constantly staying between Chloe and the rattling windows. Karma and Kismet eased forward toward the howling energy. Both the massive dog and lithe black cat moved in unison as though stalking the same prey.
