A Highland Werewolf Wedding - By Terry Spear Page 0,41
saved you from some horrible business scheme, my dear. Believe me, we’ve been through a financial swindle of epic proportions with an American businessman recently and know just how awful that can be. At least this is a good thing.”
Elaine couldn’t tell them she intended to find a pirate’s stolen treasure. Her uncles had been commissioned to steal from merchant ships loyal to their country’s enemies. So one could rationalize that her uncles had been doing their nation’s work for a grand cause and not that they were… pirating exactly. But whoever they’d stolen from wouldn’t think of them as anything other than pirates.
“How are your kin related to Robert Kilpatrick?” Cearnach’s mother asked, her voice darkening.
“My great-grandfather was his great-grandfather’s brother.”
“Your great-grandfather was Padruig?”
Elaine barely breathed. Cearnach’s mother knew him? This was so not good. “Yes.”
“He was the one who started the war between our clans years ago,” Cearnach’s aunt said, her lips pursed and eyes narrowed. She looked at Elaine as if she personally had advised her great-grandfather to go to war with the MacNeill clan eons earlier.
So much for Cearnach taking her someplace safe until she could get her ID and everything back. But she had nowhere else to go.
“What did you say your name was again?” his mother asked.
“Elaine.”
“Your last name.”
She hoped that her uncles had not accosted any of the MacNeills’ ships.
“Hawthorn.”
His mother seemed to mull that over, then her face turned red. “The Hawthorn brothers. Pirates, both of them. The men who Lord Whittington had hanged in St. Andrews?”
“Privateers,” Elaine countered. “Fighting for the American cause.”
“Och!” his mother said in outrage, her face reddening. “Tell that to the men who lost everything.”
Elaine’s heart tumbled over itself, and she gritted her teeth as a sudden shimmer of tears swam in her eyes. Had her uncles killed the sailors? She didn’t think they were that cruel, but what did she know, living as sheltered a life as her family had given her?
Except for after they died and she had to deal with Kelly Rafferty on her own.
“I’ve got to straighten this out with Robert.” Elaine looked away from his mother’s harsh glower before the woman could see how upset she was. She knew that kind of woman. She would not be moved by tears, taking that reaction as a sign of weakness. “I need to get my things back and talk to him about the… uh… inheritance.”
“That’s what this business arrangement is about? An inheritance?” Cearnach’s mother asked.
“Um, yes.”
His mother looked like she wanted to ask more, but Julia took charge. “Come. Let’s join the men. I’m sure they’ll have a plan of attack.”
Elaine frowned at her. She didn’t want the clans fighting over this.
“Just a figure of speech. After what happened to you and Cearnach, I doubt they’ll want you doing this on your own.”
Elaine wasn’t sure what to think about the MacNeills’ offer of help. In a way, she wished she could have it since at least Cearnach seemed genuinely interested in her welfare. Yet she wondered if they would just create more trouble if she allowed them to get involved. She didn’t want to tell them the whole truth—that she was after her uncles’ treasure. What if some of it belonged to the MacNeills?
She sighed. If she hadn’t met Cearnach’s family, it wouldn’t have mattered. But now that she’d met them, she felt obligated to do the right thing and turn the treasure over to his family if it had belonged to them.
“You… don’t have any dogs, do you?” Cearnach’s mother suddenly asked Elaine.
Elaine was so startled by the question that she didn’t respond right away.
“You know, dogs?” his mother said, impatiently waving her hand as if conjuring up visions of dogs.
“No. No dogs.”
“Good.”
Julia frowned at her mother-in-law, appearing to be surprised by the question, too. Then she escorted Elaine to another room down the long hall and knocked on the closed oak door. The men’s conversation inside the room went silent.
Ian said, “Yes?”
“It’s Julia. Elaine wishes to speak with Robert and get this matter taken care of.”
Duncan opened the door. Cearnach was already moving toward Elaine and Julia, looking grim-faced, a man with a definite mission, like he was ready to do battle on her behalf.
Julia quickly introduced the brothers: Ian, the pack leader and her mate; Guthrie, their financial advisor; and Duncan, in charge of warfare. All eyes were focused on Elaine’s swollen and bruised cheek.
The air was already sizzling with tension when she walked in. When everyone saw her injury,