“Remember that. Test me tonight, and you will spend the evening tied to the Druid Stone,” he said, his eyes hard on hers as he held her wrist.
“You are so certain that something is going to happen tonight!” Shawna cried out. “What if—what if the night is uneventful, what if we learn nothing? Do we just go on, forever suspicious of one another?”
“Something will happen tonight.”
“But if it doesn’t…David, I want Danny back!” Shawna cried.
He swung on her. Suddenly he had her shoulders in a rugged grip as he stared down at her. “Don’t you understand? I took him away because it’s not safe for him here, Shawna! Damn it, it isn’t safe.”
“I want—my child!” she whispered.
“I have told you, after tonight, everything will be different.”
She pulled away from his grasp.
“Excuse me, Laird Douglas, the night does draw near!”
Shawna escaped his touch. She hurried up the stairs, aware that Sloan lounged at the landing to the second floor—and James McGregor kept watch when she entered her tower room.She stared at him balefully, then slammed her way into the bedroom.
She came back out. “James, I’m quite sorry about last night.”
“I know, m’lady. You wanted to wander on your own.”
She frowned. “Aye. I am sorry.”
“Apology accepted. And now, m’lady, don’t be trying to shake me this evening, eh?”
“I shall be an angel. I promise.”
She hurried back into her room. She had beautiful long woolen skirts in her own colors—and in the Douglas tartan. She hesitated, then swore, and dressed in a white laced blouse, the Douglas skirt, and her black vest and jacket.
Dusk was falling.
Already, out by the Druid Stones, bonfires had been lit. She heard the sounds of pipe-playing, laughter. She turned to exit the room and went still when she saw that David had come for her.
David, Laird Douglas.
He was kilted in his full dress tartan, black velvet jacket over his white cotton shirt, Douglas crest upon his chest.
“It’s time,” he told her.
She took his hand. His touch upon her still felt cold and hard.
“I should be wearing my own colors,” she told him, as they went down the stairs.
“Soon you’ll understand why you’re clad this way,” he told her.
“My mode of dress is going to help us find those who attempted to kill you?”
“Your mode of dress will serve as a warning that we stand together,” he said.
The castle’s great hall was already empty. Myer stood outside the main doors with horses for them. Though the Druid Stoneswere an easy walk from the castle, as laird of Castle Rock, David needed to arrive on horseback.
“Are you ready, my lady?” he inquired.
“For the night that we will meet our devils?” she inquired.
“Aye.”