Highland Vampire. Hannah Howell
Ne’er return to Cambrun?”
He shook his head. “Nay, I willnae live a lie nor scorn my kinsmen.” He sat up a little straighter. “I want to wed Mistress Fiona, and it appears her family welcomes my wooing of her. I have begun to carefully prepare the way for the truth, though it may need to be hidden from her kinsmen, at least for a while. Howbeit, I cannae hide all that I am from my wife, can I?”
“Nay, ye cannae. Especially if ye feel the need to, weel, mark her as your mate.”
David nodded. “I feel it. That will be the hardest thing to explain. I fear I could lose her because of it, but I will have to tell her ere we wed. I but hope to make her love me enough to accept it all.”
Thinking of how the dainty, brown-haired Fiona looked at David, Efrica smiled. “I think she does care for you.”
“I think so, too, but it needs to be deep and strong. Father warned me that some women cannae accept it all. Aye, my mother couldnae. Tis why she wouldnae marry him. That and the fact that she foresaw how he would look as she aged, that he would soon look more like her son than her husband.”
Efrica knew that feeling. “That could also cause ye some trouble, I suppose.”
“I dinnae think I am of that ilk. I have aged as I should thus far. I dinnae heal as easily or as fast, either. Most of us who are bred of both worlds do live long lives, but nay so long as to raise much more than admiration in others.” He started to stand up, smiling when Efrica moved to help him. “My strength is returning. Since meeting Fiona, I have occasionally cursed my heritage, but there are some verra good things about it, too.”
When he took a step, he was a little unsteady, and Efrica quickly linked her arm through his. “Do ye want to go to your father now?”
“Wheesht, nay. I just need a bed to lie on, and mine suits as weel as his. He isnae in his chambers now, anyway, but in the ledger room, or whate’er it is called. He has been hard at work in his search this last sennight.”
Efrica ignored the curiosity in the look he gave her as she walked with him. “He said something about researching his heritage, but exactly what does he search for? I thought the MacNachtons had already gathered all that was kenned about their heritage yet he apparently has some questions about his own.”
“He does. We dinnae ken it all. Tis difficult for a MacNachton to travel in search of information, aye? Dangerous, as weel. Not long afore our laird wed Lady Bridget, one of ours was caught whilst aroaming and brutally executed. The priest of a village declared him a demon, ye ken.”
“Ah, of course.” It was yet another reason to tame her infatuation with Jankyn. If they wed, when she traveled to see her kinsmen, she would undoubtedly do it alone or risk losing her man to a hastily built pyre in some village.
“Father has discovered a few missing pieces in his lines, a few mysteries. He looks for answers. He begins to wonder if he is truly as pure-blooded as he was told. One thing that stirred his curiosity was how I am—more Outsider than Pureblood. Tis true that a mating of the two produces varied offspring, but I am more akin to my mother than my father in too many ways. That is unusual.”
Efrica was unable to stop herself from being intrigued. Was Jankyn not a full MacNachton? Could he be more akin to his laird than to the ones who spent most of their long, long lives in the caves beneath Cambrun? It did not matter, she told herself firmly. He was more one of the cave dwellers than his laird was. More feral, more a creature of the night. There may be more Outsider blood in him than he thought, but it had obviously been well cowed by that of the pure-blooded MacNachtons. David may be more like his mother, but he still suffered some beneath the sun and still had a taste for blood, even a need.
Once she had left David at his chamber, Efrica sought her own. She was a little surprised to find Barbara there. Although they shared the chamber, Barbara was more often out than in.
“Looking for me?” Efrica asked as she moved toward the basin of water to wash her hands.
Barbara turned a little in the chair she sat in, warming her feet by the fire. “Nay, although I did wonder where ye had gone. I but grew weary of listening to the gossip of women, useful though it can be.”
“I think ye begin to miss your husband.” Efrica poured herself a tankard of cider and sat in the chair facing Barbara. “We can leave, ye ken.”
“Nay. I do miss him and my bairns, but we shall linger here for a while longer. The finding of a husband for ye isnae something one can do quickly. Ye have stirred interest. Best to give it more time.”
Efrica grimaced and drank some of her cider. “I could weel do without some of that interest.” She brushed a clinging rose petal from the skirts of her elaborately embroidered blue gown. “Those two swine who attacked me are out of hiding again.”
“Have they troubled ye?”
“Nay, save that they make my skin crawl. They humbly begged my pardon, blaming drink for their crimes against me, and I gave it. A quick exchange of lies and polite smiles. E’en Lady Eleanor has begged my pardon, proclaiming herself appalled that her innocent, friendly suggestion caused me such trouble.”
“How did she ken it caused ye trouble?”
“A good question. I ne’er told anyone save ye and ye would ne’er tell. Nor would Jankyn.” Efrica stared into the fire. “I believe she aided those two, was fully aware of their intentions.”
“Best to avoid all three.”
“I try. Lachlan and Thomas I can avoid without raising questions. Tis a little more difficult to avoid Lady Eleanor if she doesnae wish to be avoided. Whore she may be, but she is a verra highborn, rich whore who has many a powerful friend. Most of them men, of course. She willnae trick me again, howe’er.” Thinking of how the woman had questioned her about Jankyn and the MacNachtons, Efrica frowned. “Her interest in Jankyn is verra keen.”
“I believe they were lovers for a brief while, but nay since we arrived. Indeed, nay since a long time before.”
That was something Efrica wished her cousin had not told her, although she had suspected it. “She obviously doesnae consider the affair over. Judging by some of her questions, she is also wondering if I am to blame for Jankyn’s sudden loss of interest. Then again, from what ye say, ’tisnae sudden.” She shrugged. “It doesnae matter. She need but look about and she will see that I have naught to do with it.”
“I dinnae like the sound of that. Be verra careful around the woman, Effie. Verra, verra careful.”
“Oh, I intend to be. She chills my blood. I had the passing thought as to how she would react if she saw Jankyn at his most feral, and got the feeling that would stir her lusts.”
“Because of his strength?”
“Oh, that is astonishing and it can be, weel, exciting to see him so. What woman wouldnae be stirred to see a mon so valiantly and impressively deal with her enemies? But nay, I was thinking she wouldnae have stopped him from killing those two pigs, even though it could have put Jankyn in serious danger. Nay, I think she would have encouraged it, reveled in it, had her lusts roused by the bloodiness of it.”
“Oh dear.”
“Exactly. I think that, within Lady Eleanor, is a beast more feral, more bloodthirsty, than any MacNachton e’er was. They at least can be excused because of their nature, their need, their breeding. One they have worked hard to control. Lady Eleanor has no such inclination. As we cannae completely shed the nature of the cat bred into us from that ancient Celtic priestess, thus the MacNachtons cannae completely shed that nature of the predator, the wolf, from their bloodlines. Ah, but Lady Eleanor holds a true darkness of the soul, I think.”
Barbara slowly nodded. “It would explain a lot. And ye are right. As with us, what is within the MacNachtons is the spirit of the beast. It has naught to do with morals or inclinations. It is what it is. But if what ye sense in Lady Eleanor is truly there, that is a sickness of the soul, a dark, hellish