“Angus, come on!” Brodric called to his friend and paused, batting aside a wind-driven spray of leaves as another gust shook the trees yet again.
With a nod, Angus left the body and joined Brodric. Shona slipped deeper into the forest and shadowed them. She wondered what he’d been thinking, standing over his rival’s body. Did he still hope to gain the laird’s position or would his loss to Colin make him reluctant to accept it now? Or as he stared at the ruined body, had he simply seen another of their clan, dead, like so many others? His expression had been grim and unyielding, giving no hint of his thoughts when he turned to join Brodric. For once, the talkative Brodric held his peace. They’d said nothing as they made their way toward the village glen.
Shona kept watch over them, and listened for an indication of trouble for those who had gone ahead. Since she could move aside anything that fell, she had no fear for herself in the storm. But without her, the rest had no such protection.
* * *
Angus was grateful for Brodric at his side as they joined the other men in the village glen. The women stood off to one side or continued with chores. Their silence and stiff postures reflected their shock. Clan MacAnalen had lost another laird.
Angus looked around their new village. The unfinished hall was the last place anyone should take shelter in the teeth of a gale. Several new dwellings had been built near the trees and might also be at risk, but most stood in the open glen and would be safe enough to shelter within until the storm passed.
It occurred to him suddenly that most of the men were looking at him. Now Colin had been killed, were they waiting for him to take over again? After the clan had voted another to be chief? His wounded pride told him to let them look elsewhere for guidance, but he could not shake the sense of duty consuming him, as much a part of him as his arms and legs. So he stepped forward, as he had done for his brother.
“Get everyone out of the crofts nearest the trees until this storm passes.” He glanced at the sky, noting the black clouds lining up to the northwest. “Get going. We don’t have much time.”
Everyone scattered to do his bidding. With one exception. Shona stood near the hulking great hall, looking bereft. Where was Seamus? Why wasn’t he taking care of his niece?
“Ye’ll come with me,” Angus shouted to her once he got her attention. “There’s too little time before the rain hits to return ye to yer uncle’s croft.”
At first, he thought she’d refuse. Her jaw clenched and her mouth flattened into a thin line. Aye, she was still angry with him. But in the end, she nodded.
Once he made certain everyone got out from under the trees, he escorted Shona into his croft. A small fire, banked from the morning, quickly leapt to life as he fed it dry kindling. Wind whistled at the top of the chimney, sucking air through the cracks around the door and windows, making the small flames dance and grow.
“Brodric will join us as soon as he’s finished rounding up the last few, so ye needna worry about being alone with me,” Angus told her as he knelt before the hearth and worked on building the fire. He carefully kept his gaze off the bed behind him, which, with Shona here, suddenly seemed to dominate the room. When Shona didn’t answer, he decided changing the subject might be wise. “I suppose once this storm goes through,” he muttered, not expecting an answer, “we’ll have our choice of deadfall to keep the fires going.”
Shona, at his back, murmured her assent. “I’m sorry about Colin,” she added, surprising him. But it wasn’t much of a leap from deadfall for firewood to what had happened to their latest laird.
“Why should ye be?” he asked, twisting to face her, then rising from his knees. “Ye made it clear enough ye didna agree with yer uncle’s plans to marry ye with him.”
“I didna wish him dead.”
“I understand that.” For some reason he didn’t fathom, he couldn’t help picking at the wound. “But ye must be relieved.”
Her stillness gave him his first inkling something was wrong. Then she clamped a hand over her mouth, stifling a sob or a scream, he couldn’t tell which, and screwed her eyes shut. He moved to her and grasped her shoulder. “Shona, what’s wrong?”
“I shouldha saved him,” she finally choked out.
Her words were uttered so softly behind her hand, Angus thought he could not have heard her correctly. A cold chill ran down his back as Brodric’s words echoed in his mind.“No’ even Healer Aileana could fix this.”
“How, lass?” Angus objected. “A tree fell on him. The strongest man among us couldna saved him. What makes ye think ye couldha done anything?” What had Shona meant by her whispered words? “Are ye telling me ye have an ability to…what? Keep things from falling? Is that what ye’ve been doing while ye watched the men working on the hall—making certain no one fell?”
She fisted both hands together in front of her chin. “I…nay. Of course no’.”
An image of Aileana bending over his brother suddenly appeared in Angus’s mind, then of a lad stumbling and a tray of apples that seemed to right itself. His fall into the pool of ale. And the time he nearly fell from the roofing beam and suddenly regained his balance as though someone had steadied him. Was he daft? Or jumping to wild conclusions? He must be.
Unless she told the truth.
Angus’s imagination went to work. What if Shona could, like Aileana, do something no one else could do? What if she, too, possessed a strange talent? The ability to move something that took immense strength but did not require her touch? He studied what he could see of her face behind her hands. Nay, such an ability was too strange. Colin’s death rattled them all, much as the storm rattled the roofing on this croft, putting crazy ideas into his head. And hers? She must betetchedafter seeing Colin crushed beneath the tree. She was certainly pale enough.
Angus took her elbow and led her to a seat at the small table. If she was about to swoon, he didn’t want her falling into the fire.
“Ye couldna, lass. Ye must accept Colin is dead through no one’s fault, least of all yer own. A gust from the approaching storm blew down the tree.”
She wouldn’t meet his gaze, but he waited, giving her time.
She took a deep breath. Her color improved, then she faced him.
The tension in her shoulders chilled him. “Ye have been doing…something.”
