Amanda Scott (47 page)

She returned her attention to Lady Percy. “Please do not die, madam,” she murmured, stroking her cheek. “All will yet be well.
The bleeding is slowing, so mayhap the wound is not as deep as I’d feared, or it missed vital organs.”

The stertorous gasping continued.

The sudden clash of steel on steel startled her even though she had expected it. She turned to watch, fearfully.

Both men were strong and quick, wielding the cumbersome weapons as if they weighed half what they did. Each time the swords
crashed together, Molly held her breath, but she was certain from the first what the outcome would be. Fate would not be so
cruel as to take Fin Mackenzie from her just when she had come to appreciate him, to admire him—nay, to love him with all
her heart.

That thought startled her as much as the first clash of swords had.

Fin slipped on a slick flagstone, and she tensed as Donald leaped in for the kill, but even as Fin was going down, he managed
to parry the stroke and recover his footing. After that, the end came swiftly with no quarter asked or granted. A final, slashing
stroke from the shoulder, ending in an upward cut to the neck, and the thing was done.

Molly turned from the awful sight as Donald crumpled to the floor, his head nearly severed from his body.

Fin flung his sword aside and rushed to her, and she was on her feet before he reached her, throwing herself into his arms.

“Oh, thank the Fates that you are safe, but how did you get in?” she cried.

“I found a secret tunnel,” he said. “Are you certain he did not hurt you?”

“I’m sure. He threatened to make me tell where my fortune lies hidden, and that frightened me, because I could not tell him
what I do not know. But then you came, and he—” She broke off, burying her face against his chest, not minding in the least
that her cheek pressed against the hard chain mail under his baldric.

His arms tightened around her, and they stayed like that for a long, satisfying moment. Then his hand clasped her chin and
gently tilted it up, and his warm lips claimed hers.

She responded at once with a sigh, but the kiss was all too brief, for she remembered her injured mother and stirred to pull
away.

At the same moment, he released her, saying, “We must tend to Lady Percy.”

Thomas MacMorran was already kneeling beside her, and when Fin spoke, he looked up at them and said, “She’s been stabbed,
laird.”

“Aye,” Molly said, “and it was all my fault. I took Donald’s dirk whilst he argued with her, and when he grabbed it and tried
to twist it from my hand, she leaped in to help me and he stabbed her. Is she going to live, Thomas?”

“I canna say, my lady. She’s bled a great deal, but the bleeding ha’ stopped now. Time will tell the rest.”

“Where is the lad who was tending her earlier?” Fin asked.

Thomas looked at him and shook his head. “I saw nae lad, laird.”

“Nor I,” Molly said. “Well, I saw him,” Fin said firmly. “A small man, quite small, in fact.”

A prickling sensation stirred along the back of Molly’s neck. “How did you find the tunnel, sir? I did not know that Dunsithe
boasted such a thing.”

“There was a plump little woman,” he said. “She beckoned to me, and I followed. Then, somewhere in the tunnel, she disappeared.
I feared we might be walking into an ambush, but we came to a door that opened into a corridor, and from there, we were able
to steal up on Sleat’s men from behind. After that, it was quick work, but I never saw that woman again. I don’t know where
she went.”

“I think you must have seen Maggie Malloch,” she said quietly. “She has told me that because you have the gift of second sight,
you can see her people but only if you allow yourself to do so.”

“Maggie Malloch is the name she gave me, lass, but who is she?”

“She is the same Maggie who told me the mark on my breast will fade away in time,” Molly said. “She calls herself a household
spirit, a sort of benevolent fairy. She and her son, Claud, have followed me since I left Dunsithe. The ‘lad’ you saw earlier,
tending my mother, may have been Claud. They seem to have some special healing power, so perhaps she will live, as you did
when you fell from your horse, and as Thomas did after the arrow struck him, and Donald after I shot him.” She frowned and
then added thoughtfully, “If you can see Maggie and Claud, perhaps they can help us find my fortune.”

“I am not sure that, even now, I’m ready to believe in fairies,” Fin said, smiling. “As to your fortune, though, perhaps I
do know something about that.”

“But how could you?”

“Coming through the tunnel, we passed two large chests. I’ll wager we’ll find that they contain what everyone has sought here
for so long. Would you like to see them? Thomas can watch over your mother. He can help her as much as anyone can, and Tam
will return any moment.”

“I’m here, laird,” Tam said from the doorway.

“Help Thomas carry Lady Percy to the settle and see if you can find some blankets to cover her,” Fin ordered. “My lass and
I are going to see if this fortune of hers is mythical or real.”

Molly said, “Find her a pillow or some cushions, Tam, and see if you can find someone who knows about healing. In truth, sir,”
she added to Kintail, “I’ll not feel right leaving her just to look for that blighted treasure. I know you want to find it,
but—”

“Nay, lass, it can wait. I suggested it only—”

“The treasure? Molly’s fortune?” To their amazement, Lady Percy sat up on the settle as soon as Tam and Thomas set her down
on it.

“Mercy,” Molly exclaimed, running to clasp her hand and peer anxiously into her face. “Have you recovered so quickly, madam?”

Smiling lovingly at her, Lady Percy said, “I remember flinging myself at Donald to keep him from harming you, and then feeling
a sharp pain.” She looked down at herself and fingered the bloody rent in her gown where the dirk had pierced it. “His blade
cannot have done much damage, though, for I feel no pain now, I promise you. What’s this you were saying about the treasure?”

Fin said, “My men and I entered this castle through a tunnel. Do you know aught of such, madam?”

“A tunnel? Nay, sir, I do not, but they say that Dunsithe conceals many secrets. Do you think you can find this tunnel again?”

“Oh, aye,” he assured her. “If you have truly recovered, we’ll look now.”

“Indeed, sir, I must see this, and pray, call me Nell, for we are all family now.” To their surprise, she got to her feet,
shook out her skirts, and seemed to be completely healthy again.

Her swift recovery delighted Molly and told her that whatever Fin might think to the contrary, Maggie and her minions had
taken a hand in the game.

Fin led the way out of the great hall and down a corridor that appeared to end in a wall of solid stone. To her astonishment,
he walked up to the wall and reached around the side of the largest stone. Gripping it, he pulled, and like a door, the whole
stone wall swung silently toward them, revealing a gloomy tunnel, like an extension of the corridor. It led into eerie darkness.

“Will we not need torches?” Molly asked.

“We’ll send for some later if we do need them,” Fin said. “First, though, I want you to see it the way we did, if you can.
The walls seemed to glow, but everything here has been so odd that I do not know if they will do so now or not.”

Pulling the great stone door shut behind them, he said, “Wait until your eyes adjust. If it is as it was before, we’ll see
our way easily.”

“I never even heard rumors that this tunnel existed,” Nell said. “In sooth, I do not remember that stone corridor approaching
its entrance.”

“It has been over a decade since you were here,” Fin reminded her.

“True, and the whole castle looks different now that it is no more than stone walls and floors and a few rough benches and
tables.” She sighed.

Molly had been staring into the distance ahead, scarcely heeding their conversation. “Look,” she said. “The walls and floor
do
glow.”

“Follow me,” Fin said, taking the lead. “The chests lie not far from here.”

In minutes, they reached the two large, dusty, ironbound chests. Molly bent swiftly to the first one.

“It is locked,” she said. “Since we do not have a key, we’ll have to break it open, and it is too heavy for us to carry back
into the hall. I cannot even shift it.”

“Likely, the key is one of that bunch on the wall above it,” Fin said.

“Where?” Molly and Nell said as one. “Here,” Fin said, reaching past them to touch a place on the wall.

Molly saw nothing but the rough-hewn stone of the passage wall. “There’s nothing there,” she said as he pulled his hand away,
looking bewildered.

“But I can see them,” he protested. “It is a large bunch of keys like a chatelaine that one’s wife or housekeeper would carry
at her kirtle. I see them, but when I try to touch them, I touch only wall.”

“Perhaps Maggie Malloch or someone like her has cast a spell over them,” Molly said matter-of-factly.

Fin shot her a look, then cast another, more speaking one at Nell, but he did not dispute Molly’s conclusion.

“Who is Maggie Malloch?” Nell said.

Although Fin gestured to Molly to keep silent, she ignored him and said, “Did you ever hear of fairies or other wee folk at
Dunsithe, madam?”

Instead of scoffing, as Fin clearly expected, Nell chuckled. “Dunsithe means ‘hill of the fairies,’ ” she said. “As a result,
the whole area abounds with tales of the wee folk, and I certainly heard many of them when I lived here. I cannot say I believed
them, but many folks hereabouts swear they are true. Can you really see a bunch of keys on that wall, sir?”

“I can, madam, and since I can, perhaps I am meant to reach for a particular key. Can you describe the one you used to burn—?”

Nell raised a hand in protest. “Pray, sir, do not remind me again of that horrible moment! I thought I was doing right, protecting
her, but I have heard her shrieks in my dreams ever since. Truly, I do not recall which key I used.”

“Try, madam. Try to remember.”

Her grimace was visible even in that dim light, but she said, “Try as I will, I see only a key that seemed small till I pressed
it to Molly’s flesh and she screamed.”

“The ones on the wall all look larger than what you describe,” he said, frustration clear in his tone.

“I wish I could see them,” Molly said.

He looked at her speculatively. Then, as if he were speaking his thoughts aloud, he said, “It is your fortune, lass. I can
claim it only through you. Mayhap that fact is the true key to the treasure. When I touch you, touch your…”

He hesitated, looking at Nell. Then he seemed to give himself a shake, as if to clear his head.

Turning back to Molly, he said, “When I touch your breast, I feel an odd tingling sensation. It is not merely sensual, although
I’ve told myself that’s all it is. Indeed, I believed it was a simple reaction to my intense physical feelings for you, feelings
I have experienced since the night we first met. However, that particular sensation remains significantly different from any
other I’ve felt, ever. Perhaps, just as any claim I have to your fortune comes to me through you, my ability to touch what
I see also lies in you.”

He said no more, letting his gaze lock with hers as if he willed her to come to a similar conclusion but was content to let
her do so without further urging.

“You think that if you touch the mark on my breast,” she said, following his reasoning easily, “you may also be able to touch
what you see on the wall.”

“Perhaps,” he said. “Art willing to try it, sweetheart?”

“Do you want me to leave?” Nell asked. “I own, I am dying to know what will happen, but if you would prefer to be alone whilst—”

“No, madam,” Molly said, smiling at her. “You must stay.” She turned back to Fin and, gazing into his eyes, opened her bodice
and loosened her shift for him.

“Touch the mark of the key,” she said. “See if it will help you choose the right one.”

His expression softened, and she felt a jolt of longing. She wanted to be alone with him, to send the rest of the world away.
Except insofar as Dunsithe’s treasure meant a great deal to him and to the people of Kintail, it meant little just then to
her.

Gently, he reached out and touched the mark on her breast with two fingers. She looked down at them, long and slender. The
fingertips felt chilly for that first instant but warmed at once. Her gaze met his again, and he smiled, then turned to face
the wall where he had seen the keys.

She closed her eyes, waiting, savoring the touch of his fingers on her breast, a feeling she had feared she would never experience
again.

When she felt him reach for the keys that only he could see, Molly opened her eyes to see his hand leaving the wall, empty.
The keys had not moved.

Fin sighed in disappointment, and let his hand fall away from her breast.

“Wait,” she cried, realizing in that instant what she had seen. “I could see them! Oh, touch the key mark again!”

He did so at once, and the keys reappeared, just as he had described them to her, a large ring such as many women wore clinking
at their kirtles. One key glinted like silver, brighter than all the others.

Without a thought, she reached for the ring and found herself holding the silver key. How it had leaped from the ring to her
hand, she did not know.

“Faith,” Nell exclaimed. “How did you do that?”

“Try it in the lock of the chest,” Molly said, offering the key to Fin.

“Nay, lass, it is your fortune and your key.” With a smile, he stepped back, gesturing toward the two chests.

Molly moved to the first one, knelt beside it, and inserted the key in the rusty lock. It went in easily, but it would not
turn. Disappointed, she moved to the second chest and repeated the attempt. Again, it went in, but this time the key turned
easily. She lifted the lid, and although the light in the tunnel was dim, they could see all they needed to see.

The chest was empty.