“Good Lord!”Catherine stood up.
“The woman did exactly as she was told, I thought,” Mrs. Silver continued, “as that was the last I ever saw of you. I was instructed never to speak of it again, not to anyone, especially the earl. Your father never knew your mother had delivered twins.”
An eerie silence ensued, and Catherine sank back onto the sofa cushions. No one spoke for a long moment.
“Why me?” Raonaid sharply asked. “Why not Catherine?”
“Because you had a birthmark on your neck,” Mrs. Silver replied, “and the midwife told us that it was the sign of your unearthly power.”
Raonaid drew her hand away from Catherine’s and spoke in a contemptuous tone. “What was the midwife’s name?”
“Her name was Matthea,” the housekeeper replied. “Obviously, she did not end your life as the dowager believed. She took you away.”
“Aye,” Raonaid boldly replied. “She took me to the Hebrides and raised me as her own—and she was very kind to me, until the day she died.” Raonaid shot Catherine a heated look. “I don’t envy you, Sister, being raised by the dowager.” She glanced quickly, poisonously, at John. “Where is she now? Why has she not shown her face? I suspect she fears me worse than she fears her own death. Does she expect me to cast some vengeful spell on her? Change her into a frog or a rat?”
Catherine glanced uneasily at Lachlan, whose expression stilled and grew very grim.
Raonaid scowled. “Well, tell her not to worry. I wouldn’t waste my bones on her. She will simply have to live with what she did to her own flesh and blood. God will judge her soon enough.” She stood up. “I want to leave here. Now. Lachlan, will you take me back to the Highlands? I don’t want to see these people ever again. I want to go home.Please.”
When he did not respond straightaway, her voice grew beseeching. “I am sorry for what I did to you. Ibegof you, Lachlan,please,just take me away from here.”
“It’s not up to me,” he said, turning his eyes to Catherine, waiting for some signal from her.
She reached for Raonaid’s hand and spoke with compassion. “You cannot leave, not like this. Please stay and give us another chance. Our cousin John is a good man. He had nothing to do with any of that. He didn’t even know of it until recently.”
“Indeed, Lady Raonaid.” John rose to his feet. “I wish to make amends. You are very welcome here. It is your birthplace and your home.”
“It isnotmy home!” she shouted. “It never was!”
Catherine stood up, too, and saw that her sister’s face was flooding with color. She looked as if she might suddenly bolt.
“But it could be,” Catherine implored, her heart filling with desperation. “I am your sister, and I want to be a part of your life. My inheritance—half of it is yours. No matter what you decide. I am sure my father would have bequeathed it to you if he had known of your existence. But please, do not go. You have a home here, and a family that wants to know you better.”
Raonaid laid a hand on her stomach and spoke in a shaky voice. “Lachlan, please take me out of here. Away from these people. I cannot breathe.”
Catherine watched in horror as he rose from his chair and held out a hand. Raonaid pulled away from Catherine and crossed toward him. Without uttering a word, he escorted her out of the room.
Catherine and John regarded each other in tense silence before Catherine ripped off her gloves and threw them onto the sofa cushions.
“Where is my grandmother?” she asked in a voice that seethed with fury. “I wish to speak to her.Right now.And God help her when she faces my wrath, John. God help her!” She turned and strode out of the drawing room, calling over her shoulder at the last second, “Make sure they do not leave! Lachlan and Raonaid must stay here tonight! I will not lose either of them! I have already lost enough!”
Chapter Thirty-three
“Was I dreaming?” Raonaid asked as she paced back and forth in the garden outside the manor, her fists perched on her hips. “Did you hear all of that? Or have I lost my mind?”
“I heard it,” Lachlan replied, watching her with some concern. He’d seen this woman tear an entire kitchen apart, and he didn’t want to get in the way if she was so inclined this evening—for he rather thought this estatedeserveda good tearing apart.
“My own grandmother handed me to a stranger with instructions to drown me like a dog! What kind of madness is that? I amgladI was not raised here. I pity Catherine. No wonder she disappeared without a word. She probably ran screaming from the place, and purged it from her mind intentionally!”
“Try to calm yourself,” Lachlan said. “It’s not all bad. You have a sister now, and a cousin who is a powerful nobleman. Neither of them had anything to do with what happened that day, and they both wish to make amends, so you cannot take your vengeance out on them.”
She stopped in her tracks. “Did the earl not shoot you? Catherine told me about how you met in the stone circle, and how they sent you off with the magistrate to have you killed. I don’t see why you are defending them.”
“I cannot blame them for reacting the way they did,” he replied. “I would have done the same. I came after Catherine like a ruthless savage, thinking she wasyou.”
“Oh, and that excuses everything, does it?” she scoffed. “People can do whatever they bloody well please tome, because I am wicked and worthless. I don’t deserve anyone’s respect. According to a certain dowager countess, I don’t even deserve to live!”
“What she did was wrong,” Lachlan agreed, working hard to keep his voice steady and calm. “Everyone else knows it, so you cannot hold the whole world responsible. And surely the dowager feels some remorse in her old age. For that matter, the worst is yet to come now that Catherine knows of it. Your sister was just as horrified as you were, to learn what occurred. Iknowher. She will not let it rest.”
