Page 61 of Highlander’s Evil Side

Hamish’s head bobbed up and down. “Aye, I was, my laird. Yer father was hardly a man when I came to tend his family and those within the walls.”

“Were ye here for my birthing, Hamish?”

Fraser watched Hamish’s hand still, his body stiffen. His grasp tightened on his beard while he stared unblinkingly at Fraser. “Nae, I was not, my laird. I’m afraid I was away that night, and the midwife would have tended to yer mother, not I.”

“Do ye know of the midwife’s name?” Fraser regarded Hamish, noticing the tension in his back and his stark pallor. The man knew something, yet whatever it was, he did not wish to say.

He watched Hamish shake his head, his gaze lowering. “I fear not, my laird. It was so long ago, and my mind has grown feeble with age. Memories are hard to come by these days. ”

Fraser didn’t believe that. Hamish was hiding something. He wondered why he wasn’t curious by his questions. Wouldn’t he wonder why Fraser was asking?

“Is that all, my laird? I’m afraid I am quite busy this day. The villagers have need of me.”

Fraser smiled thinly. “But, of course, Hamish. Ye may go. Thank ye for taking the time to meet with me.”

“I apologize for not being of much help.”

“None at all.”

Fraser felt Scott’s gaze boring a hole in his face, yet he kept his attention fastened on the elderly man. He had never seen Hamish move so quickly. The man practically ran from the room as if there was a ghoul hiding within the study’s walls. Scott closed the door behind the healer and leaned against it, crossing his arms.

“Do ye think he was there? At yer birthing?”

Fraser shrugged. Even he did not know, but there was something very wrong with the idea of a nearly identical man running amuck on the MacClery lands. “I don’t know,” said Fraser.

Scott wrinkled his nose in distaste. “I suspect Hamish knows something.”

“Aye, I do, as well.”

Fraser’s gaze darkened as he thought of the man with his face, with his smile, with his eyes. It was easier for him to believe it was a changeling, but now, with the thought of having a secret brother, he wondered why he would come to Fraser now. Perhaps it truly was nothing but a suspicion. His mother would have said something, wouldn’t she? For Laird Douglas was right, his father would do anything to keep the peace, but Fraser knew his mother. She would never willingly give up a child.