“My lady, these broken things—they aren’t what we were looking for, are they?” Jean asked beside her, the same horror in her voice.
Kimberly didn’t answer, she looked at one of the confused castle servants and demanded softly, icily, “Where would Nessa be now?”
One shrugged, the other said, “Where the laird be, most like. The lassie’s always been his shadow.”
“And where would he be?”
Now they both shrugged. Kimberly asked no more questions. She’d find him—and her, if she had to search every inch of the entire castle, inside and out. And there was going to be worse than hell to pay when she did. She was choking with hurt, and so beyond furious that she didn’t know what she was going to do, but murder wasn’t to be excluded.
She found Lachlan first, easily, in an office of sorts. The greetings over, dozens of his kin still required some of his time, for reports, complaints, good news and the like. And there was little formality at Kregora, as she was to find, nor much privacy. Instead of all those people waiting out in the hall to see him individually, they were all of them crowded into that room, which was fortunately a large room.
He smiled when he saw her enter—until he noticed her tears, which she didn’t even realize were still coursing down her cheeks. She barely spared him a glance, though, searching the room for his young cousin, but she didn’t see Nessa and almost turned about to leave. But then she did spot her, and only because Nessa had lifted her head to see what had gained Lachlan’s attention.
The girl had been sitting on a footstool against the wall, unobtrusive, just listening to the proceedings. It was doubtful Lachlan even knew she was there.
“Kimber, what happened?” Lachlan asked with concern on his way to her.
She didn’t hear him. She had Nessa in her sights and all she could think about was getting to her. But Nessa saw her coming and didn’t stay put. She leaped to her feet and ran around the desk there, putting it and about a half dozen people between them.
“You keep that giant away from me, Lach!” Nessa shouted. “She’s crazy!”
“Crazy, am I?” Kimberly said, still working her way around the crowd. “Do you even know what you did? Those were priceless heirlooms you destroyed! All that I had left from my mother, who’s dead!”
“I didna destroy anything! ’Twas all delivered just as you saw it!”
That gave Kimberly pause, until she remembered the ax marks. “I don’t believe—”
“’Tis true,” Nessa insisted, adding quickly, “The wagon driver said he’d lost a wheel, and everything spilled out because it hadna been tied down properly.”
“Falling a few feet wouldn’t account for every single item being broken!”
“’Twas more’n that. It happened at the side of a gully, and everything hit the rocks below.”
It was possible. Completely unlikely, but possible. And just because Nessa had already shown her true colors didn’t mean she was responsible for this too.
Kimberly stopped the chase, deflated that she couldn’t have immediate satisfaction. “I’ll hear it from the driver himself then.”
“He’s no’ here. Why would he still be here? He’s gone back tae wherever he came from.”
Kimberly stiffened. There was simply too much smugness in Nessa’s expression now. She knew she was lying. And then she had it confirmed.
“There’s nae need tae be askin’ the driver,” one of the men said, giving the dark-haired girl a disapproving look. “Yer a liar, Nessa MacGregor, and I’m ashamed tae call ye my kin right now. I helped tae unload that wagon. There wasna a thing wrong wi’ any o’ those goods, and I even asked ye why ye wanted such fine things put down in the cellar.”
Nessa went red in the face. So did Kimberly as her fury returned tenfold. And while Nessa was still glaring at her accuser, she closed the distance between them and brought her hand down sharply against Nessa’s cheek.
It staggered the much smaller girl, whose eyes rounded incredulously as her hand went to the burning area on her face. “How dare—!”
“You’re lucky I don’t take an ax to you, as you did to my treasures. What you did, Nessa, in your vicious spite, is irreparable. And I refuse to live in the same house with anyone as malicious as you are.”
She realized her mistake immediately, in making an ultimatum like that, because pride wouldn’t let her back down from it. But it was too late, she’d said it. However, to her immense relief, her husband was in agreement.
“You’ll no’ have tae, Kimber,” Lachlan said behind her as his arms wrapped around her. “She’ll be packing her bags tonight and leaving in the morn, because I’ll no’ have anyone that spiteful living in my house either. And I swear tae you, I’ll find the finest artisans tae repair your mother’s things, and Nessa will be paying for it herself wi’ the money she claims tae have found.”
Nessa had gone pale, listening to him, then paler still when he finished. “This is my home,” she said with a catch in her voice.
“No’ anymore. Your behavior has lost you the right tae call it so.”
“That isna fair! She should be the one leaving, no’ me! She doesna belong here, I do!”
