Devil of the Highlands Page 0,66
title of laird even back then, , they'd murmured.
Despite the rumors, as Liam Duncan's son, Cullen had been named laird. Weighed down by his grief for a man who had been both a fair leader as well as a good father, and busy with his new position, Cullen had not addressed the rumors. He had tried to sort out whether his father's death really was an accident, but there was no way to know. Liam's horse had wandered back to the stables, a search had been started, and the laird had been found at the foot of the cliffs. There was nothing else to tell what had happened, and while the rumors had said someone had seen Cullen riding away from the spot, he had never been able to find out who the witness was supposed to be. No one seemed to know who it was, just that' "it was said"' someone saw him.
Knowing he hadn't been there, and how rumors started and grew and twisted as they traveled, Cullen had decided there really was no witness and gave up his search for the truth to concentrate on the task of running Donnachaidh. And then he'd married little Maggie, a betrothal his father had arranged when they were but children. She had been a fine woman, cheerful and kind, and he'd grown an easy affection for her. They would have passed a life of peace and contentment without the highs and lows brought on by his passion for and worry over Evelinde, but two years after fulfilling that contract, she, too, had been found at the foot of the same cliffs.
That had been beyond any possible coincidence for Cullen. Unfortunately, it had been too much for a lot of people at Donnachaidh, too, but while he was looking to them for the culprit, they were all looking to him. No answers were found.
Cullen sighed and ran one hand through his hair in weary frustration. While everything seemed fine on the surface at Donnachaidh, there was actually a division among the people. There were those who believed none of the three deaths was an accident, but that they were murders and that Cullen was responsible for them all. Then there were those who thought the "accidents" might have been murder but were sure he was not the culprit, and, finally, there were those who were not sure either way. It made leading his people a tricky business at times, for while they followed his orders, with some it was slowly and with resentment. Being laird for the two years since Maggie's death had been like being the captain of a ship on the brink of a mutiny.
Unable to prove his innocence, or even protest the unspoken accusations when they were mere rumor and whispers, Cullen had been forced to ignore them and hope they would fade in time. However, every time it appeared to be doing so, something or someone seemed to stir it up again. And then the marriage contract with Evelinde had been offered to him. Cullen needed a wife to bear his bairns, but he'd also hoped her presence would help people forget the past and let it lie. Instead, Evelinde was now having accidents, Cullen thought grimly, considering the events since meeting her. Her fall from the horse on the first meeting had definitely been an accident, as had her being given the wrong medicinal on their wedding day. He was even sure that her first adventure in Angus's paddock had been an accident. However, he was almost certain today's was not. Someone had opened the door and let Angus out while she was searching the paddock, and he had nearly lost a second wife.
Cullen frowned and glanced around the bailey, his gaze sliding over the people milling about. If the previous deaths and Evelinde's present accidents had been perpetrated by someone, it would have to be one of his own people, for a stranger could not move freely through the gates without his men stopping them. One of the people he was looking at right now may have tried to kill his wife, he realized… and, perhaps, not for the first time. That thought came as he recalled the incident when he'd come upon Evelinde in the woods on the way back from Comyns.
Cullen was suddenly recalling her mention of an arrow in the tree she was climbing. He'd assumed that it was an old arrow, but something about her troubled look as she'd said she