He doesn’t ask me a question for a moment, but takes his mobile out of his pocket and slides his finger along the screen. He doesn’t tell me what he types, of course, but curiosity is killing me. He slides his mobile back in his pocket, and sits beside me. For the first time, I write something on the pad before he has a chance to ask me another question.
I could do this a lot faster if it weren’t by hand and I could type on a mobile.His face alights with interest.
“You mean like texting me?”
I nod. Even faster than writing.
“Excellent. I’d like that.” He takes his mobile out again and places a call. A second later, I can tell someone’s answered.
“Can you do me a favor?” There’s a pause, then he continues. “I need a burner phone, high quality. Going to text with Cairstina.”
He nods and holds my gaze. “Aye, itisa lovely name.”
My heart does that squeezing thing again. I swallow hard and doodle along the margins of the page. A sun and a moon, a little star, a teeny, tiny Scottish flag.
He hangs up the phone. “We’ll have a phone for you within the hour, but you will not be allowed to communicate with anyone but me until further notice. Do you understand?”
I nod. Of course. He really doesn’t know me at all.
Who on earth would I actually communicate with?
I write on the pad and show it to him.
That won’t be a problem. I have no interest in communicating with anyone else. The only friend I have is Father MacGowen, and I wouldn’t get in touch with my mother or brother if I were dying.
He looks at me curiously after that, this time not asking any more questions.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Leith
The interrogation goeson for over an hour, as the communication is slow and halting.
“Do you know who I am?”
“Do you know what you witnessed in the graveyard?”
“Will anyone come looking for you?”
At the last question, her face falls and she shakes her head.I’m sorry to tell you, but no.She looks so mournful, that I decide to give her a break.
I hate how hot and stifling it is, and decide I need to get out. Islan will be here any moment with the phone, so as soon as she is, we’ll head outside.
I pace back and forth in the study, trying to get my bearings. Trying to understand what to do next. What will I do with this woman? I feel like I’ve rescued a defenseless puppy who wasorphaned or some such shite. If I release her back into the wild, whatever happens to her is on fuckingme.
I can’t let her go anyway, since she was witness to a crime. I know I can’t, and if my father’s reaction was any indication at all, after leading the Cowen Clan for decades, I know he thinks I’ve been far too easy on her. His words from a lecture days before ring in my ears, over and over again.
“If you’re to be a man of this Clan, and the fucking leader, you don’t hesitate to mete out punishment that’s due, nor do you ever back down in the face of taking a life for the protection of the Clan.” I know it, don’t I bloody fucking know it. I didn’t take the job as a damn cobbler or stone mason, or one of the men of the mines. Sometimes I wish I had.
Tavish was fearless. He’d have known exactly what to do. It seems Tavish always made the right decision, the brave decision, the one that made my father proud and strengthened the Clan. I don’t know if it’s something like hero worship or if my memory’s flawed, though. It was his fearlessness and bravery that led him to his death.
I stride to the window at the furthest end of the room, the one that overlooks the small Cowen family graveyard behind my family home. The grave in the furthest corner of the lot is bordered with the hearty purple heather native to our land, sturdy enough to withstand the bitter cold. Mum visits every damn week.
I’ll visit soon. I’ve been telling myself that since he died, but for some reason I haven’t done it.
A gentle knock comes on the door seconds before Islan barges in.
“Here you go!” she says with a grin, holding a sleek white box. “You were damn lucky Paisley was in town when you called, brother.” She rolls her eyes at Cairstina. “We live here in the bloody boondocks, takes ages to get there and back for an errand.” She winks at her. “You’ll thank me later, lass, I had her get a top of the line phone there. Better than my own damn mobile.” She tosses it to me and I catch it mid-air. “Since you were buying, I had her pick up a wee pressie for myself, too,” she says with a grin. In her palm lies a small white box. Of course I’ve no idea what the hell it is, and I don’t fucking care.
