“I want to be there when you confront Roderick about the evil rumors he plans to spread. And to make sure he does not lay a hand on my son.”
“Our son. And I mean to ensure he keeps his distance. Until then, we have hours of travel ahead of us. So you can tell me about what I have missed over the years,” he said. “I want toknow about Sean’s birth, six years and some now. I do not even know the date. Tell me all of it, what he was like as a baby and a little one. What he said, what he did, what he learned. I missed too much. But no more.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
“Out to thehard place, you say,” Norrie said, “and you just coming in from Tobermory now? Not but a few minutes on the island, and out we must go, hey.” He worked the rudder as he spoke, with full sail unfurled on his fishing boat. A fast wind moved them toward the Caran Reef under a wide sky dotted with soft gray clouds.
“Aye, Norrie MacNeill, straightaway to the hard place,” Dougal answered. “But our Meg should go back to Caransay with you.”
“Our Meg?” Norrie raised a brow, curious.
“We two are…in agreement now,” Meg said with a little smile, reaching to cover Dougal’s hand with her gloved one.
“So I was thinking when you two came together from Tobermory on the hired boat. Your grandmothers will be pleased.” Norrie grinned. “We will all want to know about it.”
“Aye so, and Meg can tell you when she goes back with you.”
“I am going with you to the great rock,” Meg insisted. She leaned toward him, clutching her half cape at its buttoned collar.
“Go back to the island, please, Meg,” Dougal murmured.
She shook her head. She had to be with him now. They were both tired after the long journey from the east by train and carriage, which had taken longer than expected, so that they had spent the night in a hotel in Oban as Mr. and Mrs. Stewart. While the sweet joy of those hours together lingered, she knew Dougalfelt even more pressed to get out to the lighthouse rock. Arriving on Caransay less than an hour earlier, he had learned that his crew had taken visitors out to Sgeir Caran already that day.
“I want to go out to the rock with you,” she said.
Norrie huffed. “I am thinking everyone wants to go out to the hard place today. A steamer came to Mull yesterday,” he continued, “with a group of men dressed all in black, with tall hats. A bunch of ravens, they looked, ready to feast on your lighthouse, is my thought.”
“You might be right,” Dougal said.
“They sailed out to the rock this morning. The one who owns Guga was with them, the one who calls himself your cousin, Margaret.”
“Sir Roderick is my cousin through Strathlin. You know that,Seanair.”
“Aye, but I do not like that he is your kinsman. He and the others were going out to inspect the rock and the stonework there. A good thing I was still on the island, so I could take you over to the hard place quicklike.”
“A very good thing,” Dougal said.
“So, we are together, are we? I am thinking you are good friends now, is it?” Norrie asked mildly, hand on the rudder, eyes twinkling.
“More than good friends, sir,” Dougal said. “And she’s not going out to the rock.”
“I am,” Meg said.
“Well, you will want to fetch wee Sean back, so we may as well all go there and back.”
Meg gasped. “Sean is out there?”
“What in the devil—why?” Dougal asked in a growl.
“Is there aught wrong with it? He asked Sir Roderick, who said he could, and the lad was in the boat before we knew it. Yourgrandmother told me to fetch him back, and then you came in, and so we will all do that.”
“In that case, I am definitely going out to the rock,” Meg said, looking grim at Dougal.
“But straight home with Norrie—and Sean,” Dougal replied, frowning.
Hearing Norrie’s amused grunt, Meg realized that even if he did not like Roderick, he did not suspect the man might scheme to harm the child.
But she knew better. Reaching for Dougal’s hand again, she felt the strength in his answering grip. They sailed on in silence as the waves splashed the sides of the boat and Norrie shifted the rudder to speed them with the current and the wind.
