Page 49 of Alec

“’Twillnae matter. His daughter, she’s all he cares for. He even ignores his lady wife when she attempts to reason with him. You’re naught to him.” He stopped only when he reached his chamber, but when he tried to take her inside she jerked free of his grip. “Olivia, he’ll give you to his men. They shall violate you over and again. Only when your body is broken and you’re near death shall they slay you.”

Her expression grew bleak. “You don’t know that will happen.”

The sound of her voice dropping low reminded him that soon he would not be able to argue with her. He would be grateful for the same but being unable to hear her plagued him as much as her reckless impulse to put herself before the MacBren and his murderous lot.

“For nine centuries I’ve kept watch over our enemies as the cycle repeats,” he told her. “I’ve seen a dozen females raped and killed by them. When I tried to stop that from happening, they attacked me. If Rory hadnae saved me each time, I would become part of the cycle as well. Each year I would vanish along with all the others slain on the day of my death, only to reappear when the cycle begins anew.”

She looked so ashen faced now he wondered if she would swoon.

“What if you try to talk to him?” Before he could reply she touched his arm. “The people here at Dun Talamh always listen to you, Alec. The clan as well as the vassals and the outsiders. You command attention and respect.”

He made a contemptuous sound but curled an arm around her. “They stare at my face while I speak.”

“If you try, just this one time, then I’ll stay in the dungeons with the other ladies for the duration, and whenever else you want me to. I promise.” She lifted her head to meet his gaze. “Please, Alec. This may be the only way to put an end to it for good.”

“If we break the curse, Dun Talamh shall return to my time,” he said softly. “We dinnae ken what shall happen to those from your time.”

“Maybe we go back to where we belong, too.” She looked down at herself. “I wonder if I’ll still be like this. I’ve kind of gotten used to being like other women.”

“The trap healed you of the injuries done to you long ago,” he said gently. “To give them back makes no sense. Still, if you should return to how you were, I shall still regard you as the loveliest of ladies.”

Her eyes widened. “Do you really mean that?”

“I very much like you how you are now, Olivia, but your true beauty, ’tis within you.” He pressed his hand to her cheek. “Whatever alters in time, your kindness and sweetness shall never change.”

“Oh, Alec.” Her cheeks turned rosy.

He wanted to kiss her, but a knock came at the door, and the laird entered with his wife.

“Sorry to interrupt,” Ava said as she joined them. “I’d like to take Olivia with me when I go down to check on our girls.”

Alec released her and moved aside the cabinet hiding the entry to the hidden passage. “Go with Lady Ava now, lass.”

She nodded and left with the other woman.

“I shall go deaf in another moment,” Alec told Tasgall. “You may shout at me all you wish.”

“Your lass had the notion to parlay with the MacBren herself,” the laird said, grimacing. “I’m happy she didnae attempt such.”

“’Tis a sound notion.” He explained what Olivia had said to him, and then added, “If we could persuade the laird that he’s caught with us in the time trap, he may choose another path to follow. Instead of repeating his mistakes for eternity, he might even end the cycle.”

Tasgall looked doubtful. “Do you reckon ’twould work?”

“Only one way to find out, my lord.” Alec removed his hip quiver and unstrapped the second from his back. “I must go and try.”

Olivia expected the laird’s wife to leave her in the dungeons along with the other women, but after assuring they had everything they needed she asked her to accompany her upstairs.

“Alec isn’t going to like this,” Olivia mentioned as they walked into an unfamiliar passage just past the guest room. “I don’t mind staying with the other girls, you know.”

“I know, there’s just something I want to show you. My husband has blocked off all the halls to this section of the castle except this back one, so we should be okay.” Ava stopped in front of a door with a guard posted beside it. “Sawney,” she said, nodding to him.

“My lady,” he said, briefly bowing.

“I’ll need your help,” she said as she used a huge key to unlock the door before leading Olivia inside. “This is the clan’s library. Some of the senior chieftains have been keeping records pertaining to the garrison, and I believe Farlan does the same thing for the clan’s vassals. Tasgall has been writing about the clan, the castle and life in the spell trap for nine centuries.”

Inside the room stood hundreds of wooden bookcases, but instead of books they held piles of parchment scrolls—hundreds of thousands, from what she could see. Several worktables with stools, ink pots and trimmed feather quills made it clear that the room was also used regularly for writing. Someone must be coming to read them as well, for there were podiums with slanted tops for mounting the scrolls. Olivia stood looking at everything for a few moments as she tried to imagine the determination the clansmen must have had to create such an archive.

“I would love to sit down and read his chronicles, but that’s not the reason you brought me here,” she murmured to the other woman.