My Cursed Highlander (41 page)

Lightning blinked.

"Make haste, Lily," Makayla pleaded and squeezed Taveon's leg a little tighter.

The thunder that erupted set Lily into motion. Taveon did nothing save for watch her retrieve a burlap sack beside a wooden kneeling bench in the corner—Sister De Rosa's private sanctum. She dragged the sack across the floor to Viviana as wind shook the northern wall and rippled the ox hide hanging over the single window.

"M'laird?" Taveon recognized Monroe's voice behind him. "The sky is going to break loose any moment."

Taveon raised his hand, an order for Monroe to hold steady. They were on the brink of a discovery. He could feel it.

Lily pulled the tie loose, reached inside the sack, and withdrew a handful of folded pieces of yellowed parchment as well as bits of stained cloth, all covered with black writing.

Lily handed Viviana one of the missives, her small hand trembled with the action. Taveon wanted to coo the child and tell her all would be well, but he remained pinned in place beneath the doorframe, awaiting his wife's instruction.

Viviana held out a shaky hand toward him. "Will you be my eyes?"

Eager to oblige, he peeled Makayla off his leg and set her beside Lily, then cupped Viviana's elbow. He waited with impatience for her to unfold the vellum, but the flowing black letters were written in a foreign tongue. Tuscan he suspected. He recognized some of the words, but struggled to decipher whole sentences. "What does it say?"

She scanned the writings. "Prayers. They are prayers addressed to God." She read a snippet, "Forgive Gillian for killing Noreen."

"Who was Noreen?" Taveon stared at the words, agitated by his lack of ability to read them.

Viviana read further. "They were sisters," she whispered.

"Gillian and Noreen?"

"No. Gillian and Elise." Viviana raised her face to Taveon. "Mayhap we can learn more about Gillian through Sister De Rosa's missives."

Taveon looked at the pieces of parchment stuffed inside the sack, hundreds of them. His pulse kicked up a notch. Did he dare hope the answer to ending the curse lie within Marea's writings? And if so, would he be brave enough to see it through?

A crescendo of pops fell atop the roof.
Shite!
"We need to return to the keep." Taveon knotted the ties safeguarding the answers he'd sought the whole of his life and wrapped the sack with a wool he retrieved from the bed. He bound the bundle with rope and fastened it to Monroe's horse. "Ride quickly, my friend. We will meet ye back at the keep." He slapped the steed's rump and then set Makayla atop his seneschal's horse. "Ye ride back with Gareth." Taveon handed his trusted kinsman the reigns of the second steed then faced Viviana. "Ye and Lily will ride with me."

It was not a request, but an order. One his wife thankfully didn't argue. With Viviana and Lily secured in front of him, he kicked the destrier into a gallop.

"The host," he barely heard Viviana's words over the wind and pummel of hooves. She twisted slightly at the waist to gain his ear. "Sister De Rosa referred to a host. I thought she meant the Communion loaf, the Eucharist."

"And now?"

"Sister De Rosa is the host." She pulled Taveon closer to protect Lily and whispered, "The host must die to end the curse."

Chapter 30

"Gillian and Elise were born twins, but their father believed the second babe to be evil and had his kinsmen dispose of her in a brook. The witch who lived in the cot-house found Gillian and raised her as her own." Viviana squeezed Taveon's hand beneath the desk as she summarized Sister De Rosa's writings to those gathered in a small library.

Cora-Rose stood from her seat beside Keegan and replaced the tallow atop the desk. "And having been raised in the vein of evil, Gillian killed Noreen, then sought out to pay Elise undue vengeance."

Viviana nodded her agreement to Cora-Rose's speculation. For hours they'd sifted through the missives until noontide had turned to dusk and beyond. Bit by bit they'd pieced together information tying Gillian to the curse.

Taveon stared at the missives piled atop the desk, half of them still unread. "Gillian's original intent was to torment her sister, but when Elise cursed Kael and all those who possessed his blood—"

"Gillian seized the opportunity." Keegan finished and gaped at the floor. "The witch thought herself clever to turn her sister's heated words into a curse that would ruin her perfect life."

Viviana couldn't imagine the shock Gillian must have felt upon realizing she'd unknowingly condemned herself. This thought gave Viviana pause for she was currently living in the same state of shock.

Keegan's bark of laughter felt misplaced. "Think ye the stupid bitch would have broken her own curse."

"She is evil." Taveon withdrew another missive filled to its edges with prayers and set it in front of Viviana.

She studied the writings as best she could, but the illness in her head and belly threatened to overcome her. Her task had not been an easy one. Not only was the babe making her ill, but so were Sister De Rosa's words. True, they were uncovering a great deal of information, but Viviana was also learning about the horrid things Gillian forced Sister De Rosa to do. There had been an entire list of the men the nun had fornicated with until she'd conceived Lily—more than one of the men listed were monks from San Marco monastery, and Sister De Rosa prayer for each and every one of their souls.

Viviana chose not to expose the woman's sins unless it was absolutely necessary. She had been Gillian's pawn, and Viviana wanted to weep for her, but she tamped down her emotions and focused on the words Taveon pointed at:
Eseguito per l'eresia.

"What does this mean?"

"Executed for heresy." Viviana explained and rubbed her temples.

"Who was executed?" With every missive, Keegan seemed to grow more impatient.

"Please give me a moment." Viviana snapped. "Not only was I illiterate up until a fortnight ago, I'm reading the information through my husband's eyes." The air in the library had thickened to the point she could barely breathe.

Taveon kissed her hair. "Ye are doing verra well, sweetling. I'm thankful I taught ye the letters."

Pish!
There was that word, again.
Thankful.
Viviana knew he intended his words to be soothing, but they were not. Now pouting, she stared at Sister De Rosa's writing. Long minutes later, she translated, "Kael imprisoned Gillian in the dungeon with intentions of burning her."

"And did he?" Keegan's question left his mouth before Viviana could finish.

She shook her head. "Gillian escaped with the amulet."

"Escaped? How? Where did she go?" Keegan asked.

Caprese.
Taveon's gaze held on the city located east of Firenze. "To Italy," he supplied and then pointed at a name:
Antonia di Tommaso Buonarroti.
"Who is she?"

"Gillian's daughter.
Antonia
di Tommaso Buonarroti," Viviana read further. "Antonia gave birth to another daughter; Evalina di ser Piero Simoni." The list went on. Gillian's descendants married aristocrats who'd held political roles in Italy for decades. Viviana recognized the surnames. They were the same names that succeeded Angelo's.

"
Mannaggia
!" Viviana inhaled deeply as she linked this new information together. "Angelo is a descendant of Kael Kraig."

"Who in the name of Christ is Angelo?" Keegan ripped his fingers through his dark hair.

Taveon stabbed his brother a look. "I grow weary of your impatience. Still your tongue."

"But we are learning nothing of substance. Nothing that will end the curse."

"We are learning about the amulet and its power," he countered. "Angelo was the first to provide my wife with sight."

"Because of his blood." Cora-Rose added from her place at the window in a voice filled with revelation. "'Tis all in the blood. The amulet allows Gillian to transfer from one host to another. 'Tis why she wants the amulet as well as Lily. As long as Gillian's spirit resides among the living, the curse will continue, and I will die."

"No!" Keegan leaned over the desk. His green eyes narrowed to slits on his brother. "Marea must die."

Viviana swallowed hard and wiped the perspiration from her brow. The woman had been like a mother to her and Fioretta, and while Viviana had felt betrayed by her abandonment, she now understood why Sister De Rosa left
Spedale degli Innocenti.

"'Tis Gillian who deserves your anger," Taveon bit back. "Marea brought her to us. Think ye I'm so callous of a mon that I would spill her blood without giving pause to a means to save the woman."

"Her death will save Cora-Rose. Ye have killed men for less in battle. 'Tis no different than—"

"Men," Taveon disputed. "I have killed men. English men who threatened me with a sword or an ax on a battlefield. Not a woman whose only crime is being the body that imprisons my nemesis."

"If it were your wife round with child, would ye be so sympathetic?"

"Keegan." Cora-Rose silenced her husband.

Viviana's heart pounded behind her breast. The blood left her face, making her sway. He knew. Keegan knew about the babe. Part of her almost wished he would just say it. At least she wouldn't suffer Taveon's reaction alone.

"'Tis late." Cora-Rose moved from the window to Viviana's side. "We can finish going through Marea's writings after we break our fast on the morrow. Come, Viviana. I will escort ye to the cistern while our husbands make peace."

Keegan snorted.

"Ouish." Taveon released Viviana's hand when she rose. The blindness and her efforts to move too quickly caused a bout of dizziness to fill her head. She stumbled around the corner of the desk, wanting nothing more than to separate herself from a discussion that involved Sister De Rosa's execution. However, if she made it out of the library without vomiting, it would be an act of God. She resisted the urge to rub her throat and linked arms with Cora-Rose.

"Are ye ill?" Cora-Rose asked quietly in the corridor and increased her pace.

Hand held over her mouth, Viviana nodded. The second she was poised over the privy pot, she vomited.

Cora-Rose rubbed Viviana's lower back and pushed a damp cloth into her hand. "I retched for nigh two months before the illness left me. It will get better."

Viviana drew in several long, shaky breaths before she was able to stand upright. "Does Keegan know about the babe?"

"Aye, but 'tis a woman's place to tell her husband things of such importance."

Viviana damned her trembling hands and the cold that seemed to live inside Ravenhurst.

"Ye must tell Taveon," Cora-Rose insisted. "He needs to know what he is fighting for."

"He is fighting for you. It is enough." Viviana cleaned her teeth with the cloth to avoid the conversation.

"Nay. 'Tis not." Cora-Rose pulled Viviana's hand to her swollen abdomen. "My babe will be here soon. I can feel her pushing her way toward the birth canal. I'm begging ye. Please, tell him. This night."

Viviana marveled at the pink light swirling behind her eyes. She was seeing through the babe's eyes—the tiny life inside Cora-Rose that forced them to make haste with their decision. Taveon sought resolution with a level head, but his brother would have stalked to Sister De Rosa's chamber with sword in hand had her husband allowed him. "Were you afraid to tell Keegan?"

"Terrified," Cora-Rose admitted and led Viviana into the bathhouse.

"Have you any suggestions as to how I might break the news?"

"Bind him."

Surely Viviana hadn't heard her correctly. "Bind him?"

"When I told Keegan I was with child, he destroyed our chamber. He suffered a broken rib from the battle he waged over our furnishings."

"Did he strike you?" The question slipped out of Viviana's mouth without thought, an old concern that should have died with Luciano, but didn't.

"Nay." She sounded appalled. "The men of Clan Kraig do not strike women."

"But they will murder one." Viviana pointed out the irony, now thinking of Sister De Rosa.

Cora-Rose set a towel and cake of soap in Viviana's hand. "Bathe and go to your husband. Ease his needs, then tell him about the babe."

Chapter 31