“Indeed, please, it has been a long ride,” Hawk said.
They assembled themselves at the table, Hawk at one end of it, Shawna facing him, her cousin and uncle to her left, Skylar and Sabrina to her right. Conversation flowed freely enough, with Shawna asking questions about America and the sea voyage and Skylar and Sabrina describing their trip, while Hawk gaveGawain and Alistair more serious queries regarding the estate and the mines. Shawna was very grateful then for the presence of both Gawain and Alistair, for although they might have designs on the Douglas lands, they were both being honest and sincere tonight, and keeping the homecoming for Laird Douglas all that it should be.
“Hawk,” Shawna asked at last, “how is your situation at home?”
His smile faded, and he glanced briefly at his wife before turning back to Shawna.
“The situation at home is extremely difficult, and I fear it grows worse daily.”
“I’m truly sorry to hear that. I wish that there was something I could do to help.”
He smiled at her from his distance down the table, a grim but accepting smile. “You do well for me here, Shawna, you and Gawain and your MacGinnis kin. You leave me free to attend to matters in my mother’s country. I’m grateful. As I said in my letter, I’ll not be here for long. I have to return home very soon.”
“How soon?” Gawain asked quickly. He cleared his throat and added politely, “You’ve just come.”
Hawk nodded. “We’ll stay just past the Night of the Moon Maiden, then we’ll have to head back.”
“The Night of the Moon Maiden…” Skylar repeated, offering Shawna a beautiful smile. “It sounds wonderfully romantic and mysterious.”
Shawna laughed. “Ah, yes! Just three days away now! It’s wonderful that you have come in time for it, but remember, it’s just an ancient custom. Like dancing around a maypole. It’s harvesttime here, you see. And I suppose in the olden days, that meant surviving the winter to the Highlanders, so they celebrated, and they thanked their gods. It all began way beforeChristianity came to the Highlands, of course, yet some things do linger. It’s a charming night,” Shawna supplied.
“And to the lairds of old, it was a prosperous night,” Alistair interjected, “for many bairns to work the land in times to come were conceived upon that night.”
“A madness with a reason behind it,” Skylar commented.
Her sister choked slightly on her water.
“I’m sure you’ll enjoy it.”
“At one time, of course, a Moon Maiden was sacrificed,” Alistair said.
“That practice ended many, many years ago,” Shawna said firmly.
“Well, that’s quite a relief,” Skylar said.
“You would have been quite safe as the laird’s lady,” Alistair told her with a mischievous grin. “Now, the lovely Sabrina, an innocent foreigner…she might have done well. But…”—he turned to Shawna—”the perfect sacrifice would have actually been my fair cousin.”
“Alistair!”
Alistair laughed. “In fact, when we were younger, and Shawna proved to be too great a pest to us older boys, we did upon a time or two determine to tie her to the altar known as the Druid Stone—those standing rocks are known as the Druid Stones, plural—and pretend that we actually might get permission to offer her up to the gods.”
“Alistair!” Shawna protested.
But Hawk was laughing, and even Skylar’s sister seemed amused at last.
“Actually, I do remember an occasion when they did have you on the Druid Stone. You were spouting away furiously, ready to draw blood, and I think David came along and suggested that you must be let up before your father came out and saw to it that we were all switched for good measure,” Hawk told her.
“Aye, and thank God you taught them about playing cowboys and Indians instead,” Shawna said, turning to Skylar. “In your husband’s games, my lady, the cowboys always lost.”
“Knowing my husband, I’m quite sure anyone who went against him lost,” Skylar said with a wry smile. She caught herself then just before yawning. “I am so sorry…I guess…if you’d be so good as to show us what sleeping arrangements have been made for us, I’d appreciate it very much.”
Shawna glanced down the table to Hawk. “I’ve vacated the master’s chambers for you and your wife, and Sabrina shall have the room to the left of them.”
Hawk frowned, glancing from Shawna to Gawain. “I wrote that you were not to disturb your own living quarters, that I could not stay that long.”
“I did not have my niece make changes, Hawk. Indeed, it seems I have little enough influence over the lass these days.”
“I’m old, Uncle,” Shawna said sweetly.