A Highland Werewolf Wedding - By Terry Spear Page 0,82
been happier. But he had to get dressed before Logan returned to walk the dogs.
He again considered that bastard Rafferty and his crew. Elaine said she’d killed a couple of them that had been guarding her, but he couldn’t stop wondering what had become of the rest of them.
She kissed his chest and looked up at him. “What are you thinking that has you frowning so?”
“Do you know what happened to the rest of Rafferty’s men?”
“I’d heard that some had died at sea during storms, some due to encountering ships that had more guns, some due to hangings. Three were murdered near where I relocated. I don’t know about the rest. If they didn’t make the newspapers, I had no way of knowing.”
“The stolen goods your uncles had hidden?” He combed his fingers through her silky hair.
“They may be long gone by now,” she warned. “What was the merchandise that my uncles stole from your ships?”
“Pearls, twenty hogshead barrels of sugar, gold dust, indigo, silver plate, emeralds, silk. All very valuable back then. Some just as valuable today.”
“Oh,” she said.
“You had no idea?”
She shook her head. “I thought the joke might be on Robert if the treasure was something perishable, like the sugar. I can just imagine what centuries-old sugar would be worth. Are the goods so valuable now that you still want the treasure that badly?”
“Only to keep it out of Kilpatrick’s hands because he wants it so badly.”
“Why, after all these years, would they want the treasure? For me, I wanted to see what my uncles thought so precious that they risked their lives to obtain it. Like you, I agree that Robert doesn’t deserve it. So if anything, I want to keep him from having the spoils as much as possible.”
“I understand. The MacNeill merchandise might not have been hidden in Scotland, though,” Cearnach said. “It became my duty to learn why your uncles had sailed to St. Andrews when I witnessed what happened to them and to see if that shed any light on where you’d vanished to. Had they had business there or elsewhere? We assume that was just where they docked. Beyond that, they could have had business at some other location.”
She closed her gaping mouth, and he realized she really hadn’t known what her uncles had planned for her. Perhaps they had wanted to see their relations, ensure that one of them would suit her as a mate, and leave her with the family to give her a chance to be with someone other than Kelly.
“The Kilpatricks and McKinleys were in the city of St. Andrews when your uncles arrived, as if the meeting had been planned. Had your uncles intended to rendezvous with them? But circumstances prevented it?” he continued.
“They said nothing about what they intended to do,” she said, then studied the ceiling as if trying to recall the voyage and everything that had been said between them. “Yet they seemed… disquieted. I thought it was because I was aboard ship.”
“Some believe a woman on a ship can bring disaster.”
“So I’ve heard.” She cuddled against Cearnach, idly stroking his naked chest while he brushed his fingers over her silky hair, delighting in the feel of her molded against his body.
He took a deep breath and exhaled. “You said you thought Kelly Rafferty might have murdered your parents. Did you ever learn the truth?”
“I believed he did. I questioned everyone I could, even his men. They told him I had been looking into my parents’ deaths and what I suspected. He took it out on me—for questioning his honor. I even asked him when he was in a drunken state if he’d done it, figuring he was too inebriated to realize what he was revealing to me. He hadn’t been drunk enough, and I paid dearly for it with a broken jaw and wrist.
“Even after word reached me that he’d died, no one would tell me the truth, as if his ghostly person would come back to haunt them. I admit that for years I feared he’d return and take up where he’d left off. I had nightmares about him forever, about his brutality, both physical and emotional. I know he had my parents murdered if he hadn’t actually done the deed himself.”
Angered that anyone could do violence against her, he caressed her arm, her body pressed against his, wishing he could take away all of her past pain.
“The whole scenario was a little too convenient. My parents’ carriage suddenly veered off