My Cursed Highlander (40 page)

Viviana shook her head in disbelief. "When? When did this happen?"

"Only minutes past. I watched her kill him. She snapped his neck with one arm." Taveon's eyes slammed shut, he swallowed an audible gulp.

She denied his words. It couldn't be true. The image he'd painted caused a churning in her gut. "Sister De Rosa would not kill a man of God."

"Nay, but the evil that lives inside her would." The muscles in Taveon's forearm tightened beneath Viviana's hand. "I know not how to fight her. I would run Elise through with my own sword if I could get to her."

"You are wrong. Elise was here with Makayla and I."

"Ouish."

"While I do not doubt there is evil inside Sister De Rosa, that evil does not answer to the name Elise."

"Damn-it-to-Hell, Viviana. If it is not Elise, then who?"

"Her name is Gillian," Makayla said from behind.

Taveon whirled, sword raised. "I told ye to—"

"Shush, husband." Viviana stepped around him, frustrated with his warrior instincts as well as his lack of faith in his own daughter. "How do you know this, Makayla?"

"Lily told me."

"When?" Taveon demanded.

"Yestereve."

"Yestereve?" Taveon practically growled.

Viviana pressed her back to his chest, holding him and his temper at bay. "Do you know where Lily is?" she asked in a soft, controlled voice meant to soothe.

Makayla's eyes cast downward presenting them with the crown of her head. Her hands became a balled mass in her tiny kirtle as she nodded.

"Take me to her," Taveon shouted in a gruff tone that would gain the fool nothing.

Ever-defiant, Makayla wiped her eyes and raised her chin high. "Nay. I promised Lily I would—"

"I will hang ye by your braids and—"

Patience depleted, Viviana ripped a cluster of hair from Taveon's forearm.

"Shite, woman!"

Viviana spun on her heel and pointed in the direction of the keep. "If what you say is true, a man of God lies dead in your home, murdered by a woman who devoted her life to the Church. You cannot fight a hundred-year-old curse with a sword and idle threats to children. Now cool your temper, Goliath."

Though silence fell among them, Viviana could hear the grating of Taveon's back teeth. "This has naught to do with ye."

He had no idea how wrong he was. She should tell him here and now that he'd cursed her with his seed. The words dangled on the tip of her tongue, and it was there her secret remained. "I am your wife, the lady of Clan Kraig, not just a woman who came with the amulet." Anger and hurt heated the blood in her veins as she stomped up the hillock.

"Viviana, I..."

She ignored whatever apology he might offer and blew a breath when Makayla's icy fingers sought Viviana's hand.

With Miocchi beside, the child jogged to keep up with Viviana's angry strides. "Who is Goliath?"

"He was the champion of the Philistines. A giant warrior who defeated leagues of men in battle," Viviana answered without thought.

"Like Dadi?"

"
Sì.
" Viviana told the ancient story of David and Goliath as it had been recited for centuries.

"Dadi tells me similar stories. Stories of gods and goddesses. I was born in the month of April. Aphrodite's month. Do ye know who that is?" Makayla gave Viviana no time to answer. "She is the goddess of love and beauty."

"Your father is oddly enamored with the ideals of Greek mythology."

"Those are big words."

Viviana squeezed Makayla's hand and walked back to the keep wishing Taveon possessed just a small portion of the romanticism he seemed to have instilled in his daughter.

Ravenhurst was cold and barren save for a handful of servants who evaded direct contact with either of them. Their avoidance felt oddly familiar.

Taveon followed, but at a distance. Viviana heard his footfalls behind them as they climbed the steps of the north tower toward Makayla's chamber. She didn't want to talk to him and give him the opportunity to hurt her with his callous words. Instead, she focused on gaining Makayla's trust. Lily might very well be their only salvation.

Viviana stopped just outside the arched door and stroked Makayla's drenched locks. "We should get you out of your wet clothes and into a bath. Mayhap the next time you speak with Lily, you could ask her what else she knows about the woman who lives inside her mother."

"Mayhap ye should ask her yourself." The little pixie swung the door wide and looked inside her chamber.

Lily sat cross-legged atop the unmade bed writing in the wax tablet Taveon had brought home from their journey. Two brown braids poked out of her head at odd angles, and her cheeks were smudged with dirt. Makayla had no doubt been harboring her little friend while half the clan's warriors searched for her in the wood.

The child's green eyes rose and stared at her for long moments before her sweet cherub face—so full of sadness, so full of fear—puckered and then she began to cry.

Viviana nigh ached with the need to race across the chamber and embrace the girl. She wanted to tell her all would be well, but she fought the urge to proceed with such haste and simply stepped inside the chamber, pulling the door closed behind them.

Makayla released Viviana's hand leaving her with only her senses to guide her. While she listened to Makayla's booted feet pad in the direction of the bed, she breathed in the scent of food, both ripe and rotted.

"Dinnae take her to her mum. Lily is afraid of the woman who lives inside her."

Viviana found her way to the edge of the bed, cautious not to proceed too quickly for fear she would frighten the girl. "Is this true, Lily? Are you afraid of Gillian?" Viviana set her hand atop the bedding, but landed on a half-eaten loaf of bread covered in jam. At least Lily had not gone hungry.

The bed bounced, but Viviana couldn't decipher whether the child shook her head or nodded. Lily's mute tongue was going to make Viviana's task most difficult. "Can you write your answer in the tablet?"

"Mum is blind, remember?" Makayla said and moments later Viviana felt the tablet slide beneath her palm.

She touched the carved wax.
Sì.

"Do you know what Gillian wants?"

Again, Lily wrote in the tablet.

Viviana fingered the word,
Me,
and tried to hide the horror shaking her limbs.

A small hand flattened over Viviana's fingers and her darkness passed into light, but the hand didn't belong to Makayla. Viviana should have been surprised she could see through Lily, but she wasn't. Somehow they were all connected.

"Lady Kraig," Lily spoke in a tiny voice that cracked from lack of use. "Will you save my mama?"

The child trusted her enough to speak, yet the question Lily asked was most difficult to answer. "I will try, but I need your help. I need to know about the woman inside your mother, and I have little time."

"Auntie Cora is going to die if we dinnae break the curse," Makayla added.

Lily stared at the tablet and carved a series of deep lines into the wax.
E-V-I-L.
"Gillian makes Mama do things. Bad things," she whispered the last two words.

Viviana swallowed a bout of nausea. If what Taveon said was true about the priest, she couldn't begin to imagine what Gillian had made Sister De Rosa do in her past. In fact, she didn't want to imagine it, nor would she ask this child to recount such heinous events.

Viviana ached with the desire to push the demons out of her innocent mind, but knew she must proceed slowly. She cupped Lily's damp cheek and held her small hand in an attempt to gain her trust. "Lily, do you know why your mother came to Scotland?"

Hesitant now, Lily's gaze shifted to Makayla, then slid to the floor.

"Tell her, Lily." Makayla's encouragement brought Lily's gaze back to Viviana.

"Mama came to save the women."

* * *

After seeing the silhouette of a child atop Makayla's bed, it took every ounce of willpower Taveon possessed to remain fixed in the dimly lit corridor. He felt like a thief in his own home, lurking outside his daughter's bedchamber, waiting.

"Damn-it-to-Hell!" He began to pace, but the sound of his weaponry clinked and clattered like a damn war. He pressed his ear to the door.

Nothing.

Of course, what had he expected? Lily was mute. And after seeing what Marea had done to Father Cambry he began to understand why.

He rubbed the back of his neck in a vain attempt to ease his tension, all the while trying to ignore the regret that nigh consumed him. The walls of his home were barren, void of paintings of whimsical fairies. Not one portrait hung above the hearth in the Great Hall, no fountains graced his courtyard, nor sculptures of nymphs frolicking with their lovers. He shouldn't have brought Viviana here.

Ravenhurst was a cold, ugly place to live.

The click of the door jerked him out of his musings. Viviana stepped into the corridor first, followed by Makayla and Lily, both of whom were tucked tightly inside his wife's skirts as if her cloak was a shield of protection.

He strode toward them, but Viviana held up a hand. "You will divest yourself of weaponry and keep your distance, husband. Do not place threats on either of these children, and if you so much as raise your voice, I will deny you the pleasure of my company for a sennight. I've a task to tend. If you can control your temper, you may accompany me." The trio floated through the corridor and disappeared down the curved stairwell.

Taveon felt the shock on his face; brows raised, eyes round, jaw dropped. Who did she think she was? The damn queen? The bark of his own laughter caught him off guard, but was a welcome emotion given the turmoil he'd already suffered this day.
Deny me the pleasure of her company will she?
God, he loved that woman.

He tossed every blade that hung on his person to the floor, except the one hidden at his back, and raced down the stairwell to catch up to them. His wee wife was on a mission, and he would abide by her rules until he felt it necessary to intervene.

Keeping yards behind, he followed them out of the keep into a late morn threatening more rainfall. The sky had darkened and the winds snapped at Viviana's cloak as she led them to the stable where they waited for Remi's eldest to prepare two mounts on Viviana's orders.

"Makayla, you will ride with your father." Viviana's instructions were delivered with cool indifference.

Poppet bobbed her head and skipped toward him, arms outstretched. He propped Makayla into the crook of his arm and kissed her nose. "What are we about?"

"We've a task," she repeated Viviana's words with a toothy smile.

"What kind of task?"

Poppet shrugged. "I dinnae know what a task is, so I cannae say for certain."

He blew a heavy sigh. "Do ye know where we are going?"

"To Lily's. We are going to save her mum and Auntie Cora and break the curse, and then I can love you and Mum and My Eyes and the wee kitten I have hidden in my chamber."

Taveon scowled. His daughter needed to be reprimanded for hiding a kitten she was not allowed to have, not to mention harboring the child his kinsmen were still searching for. He opened his mouth to do just that, but Makayla smashed her fingers against his lips.

"Nay, nay, Dadi. Ye must hold your tongue, else Mum will deny ye the pleasure of her company for a sennight." The ragamuffin giggled.

Taveon exhaled and accepted that he'd been defeated by little women. "Mayhap I will force ye into a bath as punishment. Ye smell like a pile of soggy peat."

"Think ye Lily can bathe with me? She smells like a pile of soggy peat, too."

"Aye," he answered simply and watched Brodie set Lily in front of Viviana on the saddled steed. He couldn't imagine what life was like for her. The evil that lived inside of Marea terrified him. He could only assume the child lived in constant fear.

He mounted with Makayla at his back and took the reigns of Viviana's steed from Brodie. They passed through the aisle of tall oaks just as a rumble vibrated overhead. The approaching storm promised to be mean. He could have forced Makayla to stay behind, but suspected Viviana wanted her along as a comfort to Lily.

The sky pulsed with lightning.

'Twas foolish to leave the safety of the keep and with bairns in tow. Taveon held his opinion between his teeth and rode in controlled silence to Marea's cot-house.

Five of his kinsmen emerged from the wood led by Monroe. At their approach, Lily's eyes rounded. When Viviana raised a hand and shot his kinsmen a threatening glare, Taveon realized she could see through Lily's eyes.

Why? Why Lily? Why could Viviana see through some and not others?

Questions. There seemed to always be an abundance of questions to baffle his mind, and he grew weary of never finding answers.

A crash from the heavens issued a warning, then a chunk of the thatch roof shot upward. He dismounted and assisted Viviana off her steed, hoping she might supply some answers. "The weather is not improving. Why are we here?"

"Please, for once, will you trust me?" Teeth chattering, she raised her skirt and led Lily inside, leaving him no other choice but to follow.

He filled the entrance, nearly touching the sides of the doorframe with his shoulders. A cauldron hung above a layer of ashes in the hearth, and most likely contained the last meal Marea had cooked. The cot-house was cold and reeked of mold and another odor he now associated with Marea—the scent of death.

Another crash of thunder jarred him physically. Makayla hugged his leg.

"'Tis just a storm, Poppet." He cupped his hand over her damp head to protect her ears and peeked over his shoulder at the black cloud growing overhead. The horses grew agitated, nickering and pulling against the reins binding them to the single birch outside the cot-house.

Worry surpassed his curiosity. Whatever his wife sought here would have to wait until the storm passed. "Viviana, we need to return to the keep."

She nodded her agreement, but instead of leaving, she squatted in front of Lily and tucked a strand of brown hair behind the child's ear. Her demeanor showed calm on the front, but the tremble of her hand betrayed her. "Show me the writings."