The Legend Mackinnon (29 page)

Her throat tightened at the bald, rawly stated admission.

He moved in even closer. “Tell me this, Cailean lass, did ye honestly believe I was tae be the only one caught in these deadly ties?”

“No.”

“What di’ ye say?” he goaded, cupping one hand to his ear. “I canno’ hear you?”

She shoved the chair back, suddenly fighting to control her own rage. “I said no,” she shouted. “No. You’re not the only one bound. Okay? There, I said it. I’m falling in love with you, John Roderick MacKinnon, and I’m not any happier about it than you are.”

They both stood there staring at each other, speechless as the echo of her words faded between them.

“But there is more to deal with in all of this than just us,” she said hoarsely.

“Like what?” He was rounding the table.

“Your brother, Duncan.”

That stopped him. His eyes narrowed. “What of Duncan?”

“I met him. And my cousin Maggie. In North Carolina. Last week.” She slumped back down into the chair, weighted down by his incredulous expression.

“But he’s—”

“A ghost.”

R
ory stared. “A ghost,” he repeated.

“What, you don’t believe me? Mr. Immortal?”

Actually, it was the exact opposite that had left him speechless. “Do you know,” he said quietly, “that I have never told another human being the truth about what I am?”

Her expression turned thoughtful and her shoulders lost some of their defiant stance. “No, I didn’t know that.”

“I have spent my life evading any long-term contact with another person. If I’m around long enough, people start to notice things. Like they age and I never seem to. Oh, I could get away with it for five, even ten years. But eventually …” He walked toward her. “And then there is the problem with having to leave people you’ve grown to like. Over and over, again and again. It’s simply easier to avoid the relationships in the first place.”

She reached up and stroked his face. It was a simple gesture of comfort, yet it almost brought him to his knees.

“I chose long ago to never let myself get close enough,” he said, his voice vibrating with emotion, “to allow even the simplest of caresses.” He trapped her hand to his face
when she would have pulled it away. “If I cannot share my life, my experiences, then why tempt myself? Oh, there were many who would have been fascinated, perhaps even believed my fantastical tales. Not one would have truly understood. Until you.”

“We are not so different, Rory. Maybe that is why I knew, somewhere inside, who and what you are. I, too, have spent a life cutting myself off from those very same connections. When I begin to care, the visions start increasing. The pain and frustration is—” She broke off when he slipped her hand down to his chest and covered it with his own. She stared at their joined hands laid over his heart. “You understand that pain. It became easier not to get close.” She looked up. “Until you.”

“Then we understand each other.” He dropped a soft kiss to her lips, then led her over to sit in the soft furs. “Tell me about my brother.”

“It will be easiest to explain from the beginning.”

He nodded. “I want to know it all.”

“I was on a dig in Peru when I heard about my inheritance. This was the first I’d ever heard of Lachlan.” She went on to relay the story, and in doing so, she talked about her past, her childhood, about her visions. She ended up telling him, with his encouragement, more about herself and her thoughts and ideas than she’d ever shared with anyone. It shouldn’t have been so earth-shattering, yet it was. To share like this, to sink into a deeper relationship, to allow intimacy of an entirely different sort to blossom between them, was simply profound.

When she was done, Rory sat back, dropping her hand for the first time since she’d begun.

“Are you okay?” she asked.

He waved off her concern. “This is all beginning to seem too … real, I suppose,” He turned to look at the fire. The flames flashed shadows across his face. “I suppose I
thought you’d merely seen an apparition of him, a haunting of the place where he died.”

Cailean hated hearing him sound so desolate. She didn’t know what else to do except tell him the rest. “Duncan had saved Maggie’s life and by then I’d read all of Lachlan’s journals and realized that my path lay in this direction.”

Rory suddenly sat up and gripped her arm. “Is Duncan still in North Carolina? Haunting this cabin?”

“I don’t know, Rory. Maggie was certain he’d reappear after I left. But I’m not as sure.”

Rory rose immediately. He grabbed a leather satchel and began shoving clothes in it.

“What?”

“We’re going to North Carolina.”

“Just like that? What about … what about your sheep?”

“They mix in with a herd in the valley beyond from time to time. The beasties will be fine. We canno’ waste time. He could already be gone by now.”

If he is there at all, Cailean thought. “Wait a minute. We?”

“Of course. We’ll drive to Portree and check you out then head to Glasgow. If we’re lucky, we should be able to fly out the day after tomorrow.”

“I guess you have a passport.”

He looked at her and grinned. It was silly, but her heart flip-flopped. He looked so young. For the first time, he looked like the twenty-seven year old man he was … or would have been, three hundred years ago.

“I have gone through more passports than you could pack in Lachlan’s fabled trunk. There are very few places on this planet I have no’ been.”

She was struck again by the reality of his existence. “What of the curse, Rory? What of my role in it?”

“We can deal with that after I see my brother. It’s not like I’m running out of time.”

“I am. I can’t stay away from my work, from my life, forever. I can’t just put everything on hold.”

“If it’s money yer worried about, have no fears. I’ve mastered many a trade and spent one decade teaching myself finance and the laws of inheritance. I’ve been inheriting my own money, a steadily increasing amount, many times over, for well over a hundred years now.”

“It’s not about money—it’s my career. I’ll lose my place on this team for good if I don’t return soon.”

Rory flipped the heavy leather flap over the top and buckled it in place, then slung the satchel over his shoulder. “Can ye spare me another week, Cailean?” His eyes were hard, demanding. “Or am I askin’ too much of ye?”

She wanted to tell him to go to hell, she wanted to wipe the arrogance from his face. But she couldn’t. “I’ll go with you. But then we have to figure out where the key is.”

He frowned. “You’re talking nonsense now. You’re the Key.”

“I mean the key to the curse. I may be a Claren Key and yes, I guess I possess the ‘sight’ but I’ve told you I do not have any other ‘special powers.’ ”

“We will find a way. You are the answer, Cailean Claren. I feel it. I know it.”

“I feel it, too. But Lachlan was convinced that the beginning of the Legend MacKinnon dealt with some talisman or something that the Claren women must have used. He spent his last years looking for it.”

“I have no idea what you are talking of.”

“Did Kaithren use something when she cursed you? Maybe something of Edwyna’s. Was she holding something?”

His eyes flared. “Ye mean besides me?”

Cailean flushed, but she didn’t back down.

“I canno’ remember if there was a talisman. We were no’ completely undressed, so I dinna know wha’ she might have been carryin’ on her.” He took a moment and made a
visible attempt to calm down. “And what if she was? Are ye saying we are to look for some small talisman held by three women over three centuries ago? How in hell do you expect us to find such a thing, even if it does exist?”

“The Clarens took over Stonelachen right after the curses were cast, and you said the castle was abandoned a few years later. Maybe it is here, somewhere. Maybe that is why we are both here, now. I feel it, Rory. I understand why you have to go, but I can’t shake the feeling that it’s wrong.”

Rory stood silent, seeming to ponder all she said. Then he swore. “Are ye sayin’ ye want to stay here and search for it while I’m gone?”

It had occurred to her that having him away from here and from her, as much as it was the last thing she wanted, might in fact be the wisest thing she could do. But wisdom was a tricky thing. “It would be easier with you here to direct me.”

“Then I propose this. Come with me to America. Then we will come back here and begin our search.” He gentled his voice. “As for your job, there will be other digs, will there not?”

She nodded. “It’s not just about that, Rory—”

“I know,” he said. “But your career will not live or die with this one operation. True?”

“It was an important project to me, Rory. One I fought to be involved in for a long time.”

“Then I will give you another one.”

“What do you mean?”

“I told you. I have been many places, seen many things. Just because I don’t choose to form ties with others does not mean I don’t learn, or that I don’t listen. I can give you locations that will yield discoveries you and your colleagues would likely find quite interesting.”

“Name one,” she challenged.

“There is an ancient Aztec community in Mexico, almost
intact but buried by centuries of jungle growth. Far bigger than anything previously recovered.”

She gasped. “Really?”

“I’ll lead you to it personally, if you wish.”

“That would make my career for life.” She noticed an odd emotion flash in his eyes, but she was too overwhelmed by his offer to pay it close attention.

“Then have it you shall,” he said almost curtly. “Now that we’ve settled on a price, can we go? I have a reunion to attend.” He didn’t wait for an answer, yanked his bag to his shoulder and went to the door.

“I did not ask for payment,” she warned.

Rory turned at the door. “But we have settled the matter, have we not?”

Cailean had already grown used to his domineering ways and would be lying if she said she’d really want him any other way. But it gave her a great deal of satisfaction to say, “You might want to do one other thing before we go.”

With his patience obviously at an end, he sighed and said, “And that would be?”

“You might want to get dressed first.”

C
ailean waited, toe tapping, as the stone slid to one side and they stepped out into the back corner of the cemetery.

“I can’t believe you made me climb that mountain, then hike down all those passageways.” Their trip out had been far more direct to say the least.

“I thought the scientist in you would appreciate the full tour.”

She wanted to wipe that smile off his face. She wanted to drag him back to that bed of his and forget about the world, for say, a year or so. Instead she said nothing, stepped carefully past him and walked directly to her car.

He shut the door and the weirdest feeling washed over
her. It felt strange being in a twentieth century vehicle with him. She cast a quick glance at him, wondering, not for the first time, what it must be like to have hundreds of years of memories to account for.

He was looking at the rear view side mirror as she backed out. The impatience to be on the road and on their way fairly vibrated from him. They remained silent as she made the descent from the Quiraing, back to the narrow main road. She couldn’t deny that seeing Duncan was more important than anything else, yet she couldn’t shake the feeling that this wasn’t the right thing to do.

“I’d love to hear about some of your travels.” She caught his quick glance and smiled. “The scientist in me is interested.”

“I’d rather hear more about my brother. And this cousin of yours.”

Cailean sighed inwardly. She knew he’d opened up to her in ways he likely never had before, but he was still a tough man to penetrate. But then, he’d had centuries to erect some pretty strong walls.

“Okay,” she relented. She spent the remainder of the trip to Portree filling him in on all the details.

When they pulled up in front of the hotel, a light rain had begun to fall. She turned to him, leaving the motor running. “If you want to wait, it will only take me a minute to get my things together and check out.”

He was already opening his door. “I’ll help you carry your bags down. We’ll get away faster.”

She didn’t argue and let him hold the door for her to enter the small foyer. When the young desk clerk looked with great interest from her to the man stepping in behind her, she actually felt her cheeks begin to heat.

For heavens sake, she was pushing thirty years old! No need to explain herself or the company she chose to keep to anyone.

Cailean wondered if the young man knew he was having
a close personal encounter with The Remote. He could dine out in the pubs for months on that one. But he remained silent, finally shifting his attention nervously to her when Rory cleared his throat.

“Are ye wantin’ to check out, miss?” he said, his soft accent relaxing her a bit.

“Yes, please,” she said. “I’ll go collect my things and pay you when I come down, is that okay?” She was already turning to the stairs when the clerk spoke.