Hamell Anderson shrugged uncomfortably. “Well, if someone deeply believed in his or her religion—not minding what that belief be—he or she would follow it faithfully.”
“Aye, a passionate man follows his religion with great faith,” Brother Damian agreed.
“I don’t ken what you’re off about, boy!” Ioin said, exasperated.
“Perhaps the Lady MacGinnis is not all that she seems.”
Ioin took exception to that as well. His glass hit hard upon the wooden table. “Don’t y’be sayin’ a word against the likes of Shawna MacGinnis. She’s proved herself as fine in spirit as any man in taking to the likes of watching over us all. Why, she is using her own income to see to the welfare of your grandfather, young Hamell. She’s sending him to that special hospital, soon as the arrangements are made. And didn’t she just take your wee brother into the castle?”
“Aye, me brother,” Hamell muttered bitterly.
Old Ioin stared at him. “Then your nephew—if young Danny is your sister’s illegitimate issue.”
“The lad is not me sister’s?—”
“Be that as it may, Lady MacGinnis has cared for you and yours,” Ioin insisted.
“Oh, aye, the great lady, that she be!” Hamell agreed, and he hesitated, still looking unhappy.
“Son, just what are you trying to say?” Brother Damian persisted.
Hamell shook his head. “Just that, well, we’re not always what we appear to be, and that’s that, I’ll say no more?—”
“Ye’ve said nothing!” Ioin snapped in total exasperation.
“Fine, I’ll say this, then! One would assume Miss Sabrina Connor to be an innocent maid. And if strange things have been happening, well, aye, they’ve been happening since the Fire, since David Douglas died. Lady MacGinnis was with David Douglas that night, and it’s my belief that Lady MacGinnis was with the laird’s heir that night in the carnal sense—begging your pardon, Brother Damian. So, if some practitioner of the black arts seeks a sacrifice—an innocent sacrifice—then Sabrina Connor would certainly be a fair choice.”
Brother Damian arched a brow, wondering if the truth regarding Sabrina Connor’s condition might save her life.
“What if Miss Connor is not so innocent a lass?” he suggested. “She had scarcely arrived here before she disappeared. What could any man know of her past?”
“Indeed!” old Ioin exclaimed. And he stared at Brother Damian, then at Hamell. He sniffed once, very quietly. Then he sniffed loudly and rose, walking away from the table to the bar.
Most probably, Brother Damian determined, to make his peace with Edwina. It might be one thing to rue the practice of witchcraft, but it was quite another to suffer through the pain of carbuncles.
“Ah!” Hamell Anderson murmured unhappily. “I should have kept my mouth shut. I’ve offended the old goat. He doestruly love Lady MacGinnis!” He glanced at Brother Damian. “I don’t mean offense to Lady MacGinnis. I don’t. God’s blood—sorry, Brother—but all I say is that she and David Douglas were like sparks flying together. Not a civil word, yet they couldn’t keep apart. I suppose to you, good friar, ’tis sin, but then, like as not y’don’t quite ken what it is between a man and woman that draws them together.”
“I do my best,” Brother Damian said dryly. “As I assume you do yourself.”
“Wait, now there, are you tryin’ to imply that young Danny might be me own lad?”
“I wasn’t implying anything of the like,” Brother Damian assured him. “I just suggested that?—”
“I took no innocent maid and gave her issue!” he said, then lowered his voice, looking around. He was terrified of his father, Brother Damian thought. “Look at the lad, and look at the MacGinnises, will you!” he said and quickly stood. He started to leave, then hesitated and added quickly, “If you seek answers here, Brother Damian, look to the lady herself!”
Alistair stood in the chapel,inhaling, exhaling, staring at the crucifix.
There was no help for it. He was going to have to go down to the crypt.
Because things were beginning to happen. The past was tormenting the living and beginning to eclipse what there might have been of a future.
He didn’t want to go to the crypts. He had to.
Yet even in the daylight, he despised going there.
He shuddered fiercely.
Then the sound of the chapel door opening off the great hall sounded, and he spun around.