Devil of the Highlands Page 0,83

back. "Yer more than welcome to open up this room. 'Tis well past time 'twas done, but I'll no likely be using it much meself."

Biddy's gaze shifted to the corner where a wooden chandelier hung by a chain from the ceiling. It was very simple, two pieces of wood crossing each other with prickets at each end of each piece of wood so that four candles could be fixed on them. Evelinde peered at the chandelier, wondering if it was what Jenny had hanged herself from, then decided it most likely was. She could see no other choices within the room.

Her gaze dropped back to Biddy, only to find that the woman had slipped away while Evelinde was examining the chandelier, and Tavis had stepped back into the hall and was staring after her. A troubled expression on his face, he glanced back to Evelinde.

"Doona mind her," Tavis said as he stepped back into the doorway. "She was very fond of Jenny."

Evelinde nodded solemnly, finding herself torn between guilt at obviously upsetting the woman, and frustration that she hadn't learned anything from it.

"We came to tell ye that Cullen called Rory and Gillie away and set us to watch ye," he announced, when she remained silent, caught up in her thoughts.

"We?" Evelinde asked, glancing up curiously.

"Fergus and I," Tavis explained. "He came above stairs with me to find you, but I think he's hied himself off to the kitchens to find something to eat."

Evelinde smiled faintly, and said with amusement, " 'Tis not food that draws him to the kitchens all the time."

"Nay. But food is all he will get," Tavis said.

Evelinde tilted her head, eyeing him curiously. It seemed obvious he, too, suspected Fergus had feelings for Biddy.

"Are his feelings so hopeless then?" she asked curiously.

Tavis shrugged and moved forward, his gaze shifting curiously around the filthy room. "Me mother loved me father dearly. Forgave him all his sins, and has shown no interest in any other man since his death. In truth, she has shown little interest in anything but cooking. His death changed her."

"His death or her sister's?" Evelinde asked.

"His," he assured her solemnly. "Oh, she was broken-hearted when Jenny died. Wept and wept she did. My father spent a deal of the two weeks before his death just holding and comforting her. But after he died." Tavis shook his head. "She retreated into herself, started disappearing all the time, either to the cliffs to sit by Jenny's grave or into the kitchens and away from the rest of us. I think her heart was broken, and she just couldna bear to love anymore. Not even me," he added with a wry little smile that was both sad and charming.

Evelinde frowned, her heart twisting for the young boy Tavis would have been at the time. At the tender age of ten years old, he'd found himself orphaned by one parent and abandoned by the other. "Who looked after you? "

Tavis shrugged. "Uncle Liam did what he could for me. And the rest of the ladies around here offered comfort as they could."

The wicked grin on his face suggested that comfort wasn't always just hugs, and Evelinde frowned, wondering just how old the boy had been when he'd been initiated into manhood.

"Do you remember Jenny?" she asked abruptly, wishing to change the topic.

"Aye." Tavis smiled faintly. "She was great fun the first time she was here. Happy and gay, always laughing. Cullen and Tralin used to run off all the time. They thought they were too old to play with me, but not Jenny. She let me trail her about all the time." He frowned suddenly, then admitted, "Well, at first she did, then she took to sitting out on the cliff, looking out over yon valley below, and she started sending me away more often than not. I could follow her anywhere but the cliff."

"Why?" Evelinde asked curiously.

Tavis grimaced. "She said 'twas because it was dangerous and that she wished to be alone to think."

"But you didn't believe her?"

Tavis shook his head. "I followed one day. There is a door in the outer wall at the back of the castle. There is a trick to opening it, and I didna ken the way back then, but I could climb the tree and did…" A wicked smile came to his lips again. "She wasna alone, and they werena thinking."

Evelinde's eyebrows rose. "Who was she with?"

"I doona ken," he admitted. "I couldna see very well. All I saw were