“Good Lord! Was that a lie as well?”
He hesitated. “It was partly true, but it’s a long story. All you need to know is that you tried to lure him back to your bed when he was happily married and expecting a child, and you were the one who told his enemies that they should hang him. You were responsible for the near fall of Kinloch Castle, and another Scottish rebellion—when all Angus ever wanted was peace.”
God in heaven… She swallowed hard, trying to manage her composure. It was a lot to take in, and if she truly was Raonaid, the oracle, she would not be proud of these things when she recovered her memories. How would she ever live with herself?
“Did I do these dreadful things because Angus jilted me?” she asked. “It sounds like I was very jealous of his wife.”
“Aye, you were, and you were bitter toward me for the loss of him. That’s why you cursed me.”
She turned in the saddle. “What part did you play in it?”
“First, I was the one who found him with you in the Hebrides, and encouraged him to return home and reclaim his castle. That’s when he left you. And when you followed, I helped convince him that you would wreak havoc on his marriage if he let you stay, and that he should banish you from the castle for good.”
Evidently, she had been jealous and spiteful on more than one occasion, if she had further retaliated by placing a murderous curse on Lachlan.
“You don’t suppose I have purged all my memories because of an overwhelming sense of guilt? Perhaps I could not bear what I had done, and therefore tried to erase it, or block it all out.”
“That would make sense, I suppose, if you felt the least bit guilty, but I’m not sure you are capable of that.” The deep scorn in his voice left her shaken. “I never met anyone more vengeful than you.”
She could not accept this. She simply could not.
“And yet, your powerful clan chief lived with me for more than a year,” she argued, “and we were lovers. Surely, Raonaid—or ratherI—must have hadsomeredeemable qualities.”
He considered that. “Your ability to predict the future, I suppose. And you’re a beautiful woman.” He spoke the words in a velvet murmur and rubbed his nose across her hair. “Not even I, who hate you most, can deny that, Raonaid.”
Their tempestuous kiss in the stone circle came flashing back at her suddenly, and she experienced another persistent spark of arousal, deep and heavy in her belly.
She should have been angry with herself for such a response, after he just admitted how much he hated her, but instead, she decided to accept these sensations, for at least they were proof that she was alive. She existed as a passionate being.
A light breeze blew through the canopy of autumn leaves overhead, and the moon shadows rippled like waves across the ground.
“Perhaps Raonaid is not all bad,” she suggested, grasping for some hope that she could somehow redeem herself. “Did you ever really talk to her, like we are doing now?”
He laughed. “Nay! You and I despised each other with a passion. And stop calling yourselfher. You are one-and-the-same, and when you say things like that, you sound a bit mad.”
“Like a lunatic. Isn’t that what I am?”
He paused. “I don’t know. But I don’t like it, lass, because it makes me forget who you really are.”
She considered that. “I rather wish youwouldforget. Then perhaps you would be gentler with me.”
“Gentler?Me?Withyou?”
Just then, a light drizzle began, which quickly turned to a heavy downpour.
Lachlan uttered an angry oath and steered them deeper into the forest. “This curse of yours knows no mercy,” he growled.
“You can hardly blame the weather onme.”
He grumbled something in Gaelic, then kicked in his heels and told her to hang on.
Chapter Six
Lachlan raised his tartan over his head, but nothing could keep the water out, nor could anything be done for Raonaid, who was seated in front of him, dressed in heavy silks and velvets that were quick to soak up the rain.
Her hair—piled on top of her head in a great mountain of curls and powder—tumbled onto her neck and shoulders in a hopeless avalanche of chaos.
Not unlike what was going on inside his body at the moment.
