Page 67 of Highland Spirit

Alana ran to the secret passageway, reaching out and pulling the veil from over the woman’s head. “Kirstine!” she said and started laughing.

“I wanted to help, too,” said her sister. “I’m glad ye’re all right.”

“Faither is dead,” said Finn, coming over to his sisters.

“Where is Isobel?” asked Alana, suddenly frightened for her daughter.

“Dinna worry. She is in my chamber with the bairn,” Kirstine told her. “Slink and Trapper are there, too.”

“Take the prisoners and lock them in the dungeon until we decide what to do with them,” commanded Ethan.

Hearing a moaning noise from the floor, Alana realized Murdock was not yet dead. She ran to him and dropped to her knees, using her tartan to try to stop the flow of blood from his chest.

“I’ll help ye, Murdock. I’ll sew ye up,” she told him. “Dinna worry.”

“Alana.” He reached out and took her arm. “I’m about to die, and I need ye to keep the treasure safe now. Ye are the only one who can do it.”

“Me?” Her heart jumped into her throat. “Nay, I dinna want to be the guardian. Please, dinna make me do it.”

“Ye have to. If no’, someone will turn in the treasure to the king. It canna fall into the wrong hands. These scrolls have valuable knowledge and belong to the Templars.”

“So what am I supposed to do?”

“I have waited for years . . . but no one has come for it. Last night, I had a vision. Someone will be here . . . very soon. Ye will . . . ye will ken them by their ring. It looks like mine. Take it.”

“Nay, I couldna,” she said, looking at the ring with the Templar cross engraved upon it on his finger.

“Ye must. They will now . . . contact ye.”

“What? How do ye ken that?” she asked. “They havena come for the treasure in all these years. Even with yer vision, how do ye ken it is true?”

“They will come,” he said, his eyes closing. “It will be . . . soon. Now take . . . my ring.”

She did as he asked, and then he smiled.

“Yer family would have . . . been proud of ye. Ye . . . helped to keep . . . the treasure . . . safe. And now . . . I can . . . die.” With that, he closed his eyes and drew his last breath.

“Murdock? Murdock, please dinna die.” Panic filled her. “Dinna put this responsibility on my shoulders.” Tears streamed from her eyes. Then she felt a hand on her shoulder and looked up to see Ethan, bruised and bloodied but still alive.

“Come, Alana,” he said. “I want to feel my wife in my arms to ken ye are still alive.”

Chapter 17

Ethan downed a swig of Mountain Magic, looking around the great hall of Blackbriar Castle the next morning, after having spent the night with Alana making love and holding each other all night long. The great hall was filled with people now, most of them being the MacKeefes who had come from the mainland at Ethan’s request so they could decide what to do with the smugglers in the dungeon.

“Ethan!” called out a man.

Ethan turned to see his father, Onyx. “Da?” he asked, getting off the bench to greet him. “What are ye doin’ here?” He embraced his father in a half-hug.

His father, although he was really English, was raised by the MacKeefes. Onyx ended up marrying an Englishwoman and lived in England, but he continued to act and dress like a Scot, never wanting to let go of the fact that he was a MacKeefe at heart.

“I was passin’ through the Highlands, Son. Storm told me ye might be in trouble. What happened here?”

“Nothin’ I couldna handle.”

Onyx looked up with his two-toned eyes, one of orange and the other of black. “I hear ye’re married now and ye have a daughter.”

“Aye,” he said with a smile. “I am married to my sweetheart from childhood, Alana Chisholm.”