Raonaid sat back and stared at him with a wrinkled brow. “Who told you this? Your wife? She’s just trying to divert your attentions, so that you will send me away. She’s afraid you will make me your mistress.”
“Nay, she was not the one who informed me. I was the one who delivered the news to her.”
Raonaid grimaced. “And you believe this is true?”
“Of course I believe it. It was my own man—a trusted and dependable MacDonald—who found Murdoch on his deathbed in France.”
Raonaid stood up and stalked to the river’s edge. “Your wife throws rocks at my visions!” she said. “She makes me doubt what I see!”
Angus rose to his feet and spoke firmly. “That’s because the future is always changing. Everything we do makes a difference from one minute to the next. What existed in the stones when I left Calanais no longer exists now. Gwendolen despised me when I invaded, but her feelings have changed. Her actions would no longer coincide with what you saw in the stones all those weeks ago.”
He realized suddenly that everything had come spilling out of his mouth before he’d truly pondered the truth of it. But there it was.
Raonaid regarded him with a hellish fire in her eyes. She was shocked, and in some ways, affronted, for he had found fault with her special gift—the one thing that set her above the rest of the world. It was what separated her from the common man, and removed the necessity of interaction. It provided her with a reason to live alone.
He moved closer. “You can change your own future, too,” he said.
She was not willing to listen, however. Her mouth twisted wryly. “You’re only sending me away becauseshetold you to do it. She’s jealous of me. She fears me.”
“Most people do,” he replied, “and I can hardly blame them.” He turned away. “I’ll take you back to the castle now and provide you with supplies and enough coin to get you anywhere you wish to go. But you must leave in the morning, Raonaid, and never return.”
“You’ll regret this,” she snarled. “One day soon, you’ll wish you had kept me.”
Angus reached for the reins to untie his horse. “It’s time to go.”
“Wait!” Raonaid stalked after him, and the harshness in her voice softened. “Please don’t send me away. At least let me stay in the village. You can come to me secretly whenever you wish. I’ll use the bones and potions in my basket to read your future, and you can use me in bed, however you like.”
“I don’t want touseyou!” he replied. “You deserve better than that.”
Her eyes clouded over with dismay, and she backed away from him. “Mark my words, that bony wife of yours is going to dirk you in your sleep.”
He untied the horse’s reins. “You’re wrong, and that’s why I want you gone from here. I will not let you poison my head with evil and falsehoods.” He faced her. “Now get on the horse, Raonaid. We’re going back. You’ll leave in the morning.”
She glared up at him with malice. “You may pretend to be sure of yourself and your wife’s affections, but I see the fear in your eyes.”
“You see nothing.” Anger pulsed through him as he helped her into the saddle.
A moment later they were cantering through the woods toward Kinloch, while Angus strove hard to banish her poisonous premonitions from his mind.
***
The following morning, when it was time for Raonaid to leave the castle, Lachlan stood just inside the open gate. He was there to ensure she left without incident.
“That dirty MacEwen wife will betray him,” Raonaid said, slinging her basket of bones and potions over her shoulder as she mounted the horse she had been given. “And when she does, you’ll wish you had kept me here.”
Lachlan escorted her across the bridge. “I don’t reckon I’ll ever wish that.”
“You could have had me for yourself, you know, if you were clever. Instead, you turned him against me. I blameyoufor this, Lachlan MacDonald. You’re the one who took him away from me, and it’s your fault I am being sent away. I know what you said about me. You called me a lunatic.”
He led her off the bridge and tapped the rear flank of the horse, sending her galloping across the meadow. “Safe journey, now, and try not to ride off any steep cliffs.”
She reined in her mount and watched him enter the bailey. He gave the final signal for the gate to be closed.
“He’ll soon be dead!” she shouted. “And when that happens, it will be all your doing! I will curse you for this! I will hunt you down and make you regret the day you set foot on my island!” She wheeled the horse around and galloped toward the forest.
Lachlan watched her until the gates closed in front of him.
“I’m not sorry to see that one go,” the young sentry said, as he barred the doors shut. “She was fetching, no doubt about it. I’ve never seen such a chest on a woman, but there was something wicked about her. The lass gave me chills.”
