The man was afraid of Montgomery. But why?
She narrowed her eyes and asked him, silently.
In answer, he gave her a frighteningly vulnerable look, squeezed his eyes shut, then turned away.
The pizza did a somersault in her stomach and she looked around for Juliet. They exchanged a thought.
“Something is wrong here.”
And from a strange, inner distance, she heard another thought from the Muir sisters sitting outside.
“You must keep the dragon away from the tomb!”
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
“Isobelle,” Jillian said loudly, drawing the young woman’s attention away from Morna. “Lorraine and Loretta, our own set of Muir sisters, told us you’d be bringing a dragon with you. We were prepared for just about anything to come out of the hole. I think some of these guys were a little disappointed you didn’t bring a small scaly pet along.”
Everyone chuckled, then waited for Isobelle to reply.
She smiled wide and shared a glance with Gaspar. Then she nodded at him. “This is my dragon. Gaspar Dragotti?—”
“God’s Dragon!” Monty’s voice boomed around them as he strode menacingly in Gaspar’s direction. “Surrender your sword!”
Ivar and Quinn jumped to their feet and moved quickly to surround Gaspar. James reappeared, looking both sheepish and angry. His right hand was tucked behind him and Jillian realized he kept his gun there. But they’d dealt with the man when rescuing Juliet from a 15thcentury Gordon chieftain, and Jilliantrusted him to keep a level head, even though Monty was over-reacting. After all, James was familiar with Monty too.
Poor Isobelle’s mouth hung open, and she shook her head as Gaspar pulled his hand from hers and rose to his feet. Then he gave a heavy sigh and removed his sheath and sword from his belt. Ivar took them and glanced at Monty for some explanation. But her husband’s attention was on Gaspar and no one else.
Isobelle reached up to Quinn and he helped her to her feet. “Until you hear the entire tale, brother, I insist you hold your judgment.” She gave James a disappointed look.
The tall one shook his head. “He didna give me the chance to say much. Only what I learned before I found ye on the island, aye? Only who he was and that he’d taken ye. For all I knew then?—”
“He is one of them, Isobelle.” Monty choked on his emotion, then growled past it. “He tries witches, puts them to death. Deny it, Dragon!”
Gaspar’s eyes narrowed. “I do not deny that I have put women to death?—”
Isobelle stepped closer to Gaspar. “Only when there was no way to save them, Monty. He saved as many as he could.”
“Is that what he told ye, mavournin’? To win yer…affection?” Monty hissed the last word.
Tears washed silently down Isobelle’s face, but she stood proud. “He saved me, brother. He saved me from myself, then he saved me from the kirk’s men. Just as ye did. Was it so long ago?” She looked at her tomb still perched on the dais. “I remember the last stone ye placed there, brother.”
There was a long silence while both of them stared at the aging structure.
“Blow us a kiss,”Monty whispered.“And douse the light…”
He often mumbled those words in his sleep. It meant he was stuck in the nightmare again, and he never came out of it easily.Jillian just hoped that Isobelle’s arrival might mean the end of those long, horrible nights.
“Gaspar sacrificed himself,” Isobelle said, bringing Monty’s attention back from the tomb. “He offered himself in my place so James might bring me home to you. But we got him away as well. The man he thought of as a father planned to torture him, perhaps kill him, and he accepted it gladly if James was allowed to take me away. He was a powerful man and he lost everything for loving me, Monty.”
“And now he will lose a little more, I think, for locking my sister in a cage. I cannot bear to think what else ye have done to her.”
Gaspar’s arm whipped around and the back of his fist connected with Monty’s cheek. “How dare you do her the dishonor!”
Jillian wanted to run to Monty, but she stood still with the stone image of her husband at her back. Constant as that stone image—that’s what Monty was. He fiercely loved everyone who belonged to him, a true laird of his clan. And he was clearly in Hell at the moment because he hadn’t been there to protect Isobelle yet a second time.
“We will let our blades decide who has dishonored my sister,” Monty snarled.
James pushed past Ivar to get in Monty’s face. Jillian hoped Scotland’s James Bond could stop the fight, since she wasn’t able to breathe, let alone speak.
