“Your father must have been trying to protect you,” Jeannie said. She could well understand the lengths a parent would go to protect their child. Duncan’s father’s lie had deprived his son of an inheritance while hers had given one.
She could see the anger burning in Duncan’s eyes and her heart went out to him. No matter his father’s reasons, it was a horrible betrayal.
“That might explain why he lied initially,” he said. “But not why he let it continue.”
“To claim you, he would have had to disinherit another son. And there was my mother to consider,” Jamie said.
“He must have changed his mind,” Argyll broke in. “I only realized the significance when Lady Gordon brought me the document, but Auchinbreck had told me the night before the battle that he’d decided to make you histanaiste.”
Jeannie could feel the muscles in Duncan’s arm bunch under her fingertips as he waited for Argyll to continue.
“It wasn’t unheard of to make a bastard an heir, but I told Auchinbreck there would be trouble. He said not to worry about it, that he would explain everything when the time was right.” Argyll shrugged. “After he died and you were accused of treason, I was glad he hadn’t made his intentions known.”
“Do you think he’d told Colin?” Lizzie asked.
Duncan thought for a minute. “He might have—after I went to him about marrying Jeannie. I sensed that he and Colin had argued about something.”
“Colin had to have found out something,” Jeannie said. “He went to Dunyvaig not long after Glenlivet and started asking questions.”
Duncan looked at her, suspicion in his gaze. “Kathrine?”
“I don’t know, but Mary MacDonald thought so. The church where your parents were married burned down a week before Kathrine disappeared—only days after Colin supposedly left the island. Were it not for the page Mary had ripped out of the registry to prevent your MacDonald grandfather from finding the truth years before, we might never have known.”
“Why didn’t Lady MacDonald tell us that first day?”
“She was scared. Colin didn’t know that anyone other than the nurse knew. Given what had happened, I can’t blame her.”
Duncan looked to his cousin. “And even without Colin’s confession, you are satisfied that I did not take the map and sell it to Grant?”
Argyll winced a little. “I’m satisfied that you were not the only one with motive.”
Duncan cocked his brow, holding his cousin’s gaze. It was Argyll who eventually conceded. “Very well. I wasn’t exactly in the most generous frame of mind at the time, but I shouldn’t have been so quick to find you guilty.”
“Careful, Archie,” Jamie teased. “That almost sounded like an apology.”
Argyll shot him a black frown, murmuring something about insolent henchmen.
“What will happen to Colin?” Lizzie asked.
Jeannie winced. Duncan and Argyll exchanged a look.
Argyll looked at his cousin, and Jeannie was surprised to see how much fondness was in his gaze. “Come, Lizzie, I’ve something to tell you, but I think your brother would like some time alone with Lady Gordon.” He glanced at Duncan. “If I were him, I’d be thinking of ways to thank her.”
Lizzie nodded solemnly, perhaps sensing what her cousin was going to say, and followed him out of the room with the others.
“It’s not like Archie to be so perceptive,” Duncan said wryly. “He’s gone soft in his old age.”
Jeannie snorted. There was nothing soft about Duncan’s powerful cousin. It was Lizzie who had the soft heart. She bit her lip. “Do you think she’ll be all right?”
“Aye. Lizzie’s strong. But it won’t be easy. It’s hard to believe the brother we knew as a child could have changed so much.”
“I’m sorry,” she said, realizing how difficult it must be for him as well.
“It’s a lot to take in.” He shook his head. “Married. God, I can’t believe it.” He gave her a wry smile. “I guess you were right to believe in faerie tales.”
Jeannie smiled. “I’d like to take credit, but I could never have imagined such a story.” She paused. “I feel sorry for them.”
His face hardened for an instant. She knew his feelings for his father must be horribly conflicted. But then some of the tension seemed to dissipate. “Aye. They must have loved each other greatly to risk so much.”
