Tempest Heart - Paula Quinn Page 0,56
all these years, lighting his home on fire, lighting his carriage on fire? Or were the two incidents completely separate?
She finally slowed her horse and dismounted to walk the animal down.
Tristan repositioned himself on the branch. He looked around. He wanted to climb down and touch her, hold her. But how would he get back up into the trees? Was he ready yet to face her father? Aye, with Jones, not with the captain and two other men. He had to be patient and return to his horse. She was safe here—except if her enemy knew how to climb trees.
He wanted to call to her when she returned her horse to the stable and headed back for the castle. He found himself longing for her to look at him. To smile at him. Rose.
But she would not be happy to see him here. She was afraid for her father. She didn’t trust Tristan. Why should she? She’d seen him kill twelve men. She’d seen him murder Governor Walters and his guard. Why should she trust him to curb his bloodlust and stop killing now?
He remained silent and watched her disappear through the doorway.
He would do it for her. He would do anything for her.
He turned to move on the branch. He put too much weight down. He was distracted by her. The branch cracked.
“No,” he breathed. And fell.
Chapter Sixteen
Neill de Caleone was born to Eunice, the Callanach’s seamstress—among other things in the servants’ quarters outside the manor house of the Earl of Dumfries, Thomas Callanach.
When Neill was seventeen, he burned the house down.
He’d been unaware at the time that Rose, the earl’s wee daughter was still inside. He’d heard her screams and rushed into the flames, burning one side of his face. He found her alone and carried her out to safety—to where her father waited.
After the fire, Dumfries let Neill visit her in her temporary sickbed in the first home of her uncle, Richard Callanach.
Her legs had been severely burned. Her pain was too intense, so she was given medicine to make her sleep. She had a physician at her bedside day and night.
And Neill had been there as well, watching over her.
She had been a beautiful child, gentle in nature, with thick, chestnut waves spreading outward over her pillow, a stark contrast against her pale white skin. She had opened her eyes once while he stood watch over her bed. He smiled at her. She began to smile back but she cried out in agony instead. The physician was there to put her back to sleep.
He left soon after and traveled to Wales and France, but her large, dark eyes had haunted him for the next six years, no matter where he traveled. He wanted to be away from her so that she could not veer him from his path.
When he returned at the age of twenty-three, Neill joined her father’s guard and was immediately made second-in-command under Captain William Harper. Harper had been friendly to him and was very protective of Rose. Neill liked him for it. He’d known Harper for six years before the gates of the castle had been shut to him. He knew Harper was the only man beyond the walls who sorrowed over his absence.
His exile came after the death of the earl’s wife and a young servant girl, called Jonetta. A girl who sometimes played with Rose. Neill knew the earl’s wife, Christina Callanach, was on her way to Lockerbie to visit her family. On the way, he’d stopped the carriage and after killing the drivers, he looked inside to make certain Rose was not inside, for he loved Rose with all his heart.
When he saw that she was not one of the two screaming females, he killed them despite the earl’s wife recognizing him and thinking he was there to save them. He burned them and watched for an hour, then he went and drank until he passed out.
When he’d returned to the castle the next day, the gates had been shut to him. He had been exiled, sent away, and forgotten.
He left Dumfries and worked at gathering a small army. He would come back and take over Callanach Castle and kill everyone in it, save for Rose.
Now, he waited on his horse with twenty of his men around him for the gates of Callanach Castle to open. His heart beat rapidly against his bones. He wanted to go in, he ached to go through those gates and step inside again.