“He’s going to sell you part of the castle ruins and you can peddle tickets to tourists to see that half of the castle?”
“That’s our castle?”
“Aye. Been in the family for generations. Once you see how much they let the place go…” He shook his head.
Automatically she went on the defensive. “Yeah, like you would do any better if you had the chance to own a castle. Years of wars and the elements beating down on a building ten centuries old, the upkeep, the taxes. I can just imagine how much the place would cost to repair and maintain.”
“They sold off a lot of the ancient stone walls to keep themselves in whisky,” Cearnach said drily.
She stared at him, attempting to see if he was telling the truth. He appeared to be speaking honestly.
“My own castle is in great shape, if you want to talk about taking care of the ancestral home,” he continued.
“Your castle?” Now this was getting interesting. “Don’t tell me you’re the clan chief and a duke or something.”
“No, but I’m the pack’s sub-leader, and the clan chief is my older brother.” He sounded proud of the fact, as well he should, as he glanced at the area where his car should have been on the side of the road. “Son of a…”
Dumbfounded, she stared at the spot in the driving rain as if looking hard enough might make the car reappear.
“It’s gone. Your car. It’s… not… there,” she said, barely breathing.
Chapter 5
Trying to keep his temper under control and figure out what had happened, Cearnach thought back to the younger McKinley brothers. They’d been late to their own brother’s wedding, and they’d been smirking about something when they spied him in the church.
They could have been coming along the same road, seen his abandoned car, and known it was his. He’d bet Argent Castle that they’d have hauled his car over the cliffs if they could have managed. Now he didn’t even have a phone so that he could call Ian.
“We’re driving to the castle ruins,” he said to Elaine, trying not to sound as angry as he felt as he pulled back onto the road.
“You… want to explore Senton Castle in this rain?” She sounded so incredulous that he thought she was beginning to believe he might be a little crazy.
“Aye. I have to take a look at the cliffs. Make sure there’s nothing below them that belongs to me. I can’t get close enough to the edge to see from here. The safest way to get to the beach to see the cliffs from down below is to park at the castle and take the stairs.”
“Your car?” she asked, horrified.
“Aye.”
“Who… who would do such a thing?”
“Take your pick. The McKinleys?”
“But they were at the wedding, weren’t they?”
“Two of them were late.”
Her eyes widened. Elaine didn’t say anything for several moments, then finally looked back the way they’d come. “Why are we going this way?”
“This is the way to the ruins. You must have missed the turnoff, remember?” He glanced at her, noting that her damp hair was still in straggles against her wet dress. Only a small fraction of her dress had dried out.
“The road is kind of hidden,” he said as gently as he could.
The lass would never have made it to the meeting with Robert Kilpatrick on time. Not when she had been lost and arrived way past the time they’d planned to meet. Cearnach wondered why Kilpatrick had left so little time for his meeting with Elaine—the wedding was only two hours later. Robert would have had only about an hour to spend with Elaine, and she clearly had expected to spend much more time. Cearnach was starting to believe that Kilpatrick was up to no good where the lass was concerned.
Without her cell phone, she couldn’t call Kilpatrick, for which Cearnach was grateful. She shouldn’t have any business dealings with the man unless she had someone else with her who could see the situation more objectively and ensure she didn’t get ripped off.
Right then and there, he decided that he’d protect Elaine’s interests until she left Scotland, if she agreed. He had failed with Calla and could do no more for her. Now Elaine seemed to need someone to look out for her. And this was the second time, he was certain.
He thought back to her name, Elaine Hawthorn, and how it could be related to the Kilpatricks and McKinleys. They were pirates. But what about the Hawthorns?
The memories came