the cottage. It was gone.”
Sarina sat back, a saddened mood overtaking her demeanor. “Blown away by the wind, like Mariah’s cottage.”
“Aye. All that remained was the stack of diaries. Ye father was nowhere around. Nae even a piece of his shirt or trousers.”
He reached for Sarina’s hand. “I am verra sorry that ye father died. And even more sorry for the way he died.”
“It’s not your fault, Campbell. No one could tell my father how to live his life. I just don’t understand why he kept what he’d discovered so secret, or why he brought the diaries to the big house last, or even what Nevan’s damn teeth have to do with any of this.”
It was all just as much a puzzle to him. “We need to think on this. Ye said Elsbeth was Scottish, but also had Roman blood, aye?”
“Correct.”
“And yer brother’s teeth were bequeathed to yer father who passed them on to Nevan.”
“Also correct.” She paused. “There is one thing more. My father told Nevan, in the letter that he wrote accompanying the teeth, that the box and its content were my brother’s inheritance. At the time I had no idea what he meant by the statement, as even together, the teeth and box didn’t amount to any value. But perhaps Father was not alluding to a monetary sum.”
Campbell ran this newfound information through his thoughts, his mind adding it to everything else he kent about the curse, Lycansay Hall, and Mariah. But even with Sarina’s added information, he was still coming up short.
“Did you say Tacitus was stationed at the Vallum Antonini?” Sarina asked.
“Aye. Why?”
“What if the teeth are his?”
“Tacitus was a man, nae wolf.” Campbell turned away from Sarina, fear rising in his soul.
She reached for his arm. “In my dream I saw a wolf. A wolf who loved a woman who had just died in childbirth. A wolf who suffered the pain of that loss and the loss of knowing the son he sired with that woman, would never be his to bring up.”
Campbell held his head low, covered his eyes with his hand. He loved Sarina, of that he was certain. But sharing the truth of his shadowed lineage stood to tear her away from him.
Sarina leaned in. “You’re keeping something from me.”
Dropping his hand from his eyes, Campbell turned to her. “There are three factions of my family line. We are all related by blood, but we dunnae all suffer the same affliction.”
“It’s okay, Campbell, you can tell me everything.”
He nodded. “Verra well. First, there are the MacHendries of South Dundaire who live life no different than the average person, save for their love of our family and our lands. In my opinion, they suffer the most as they are our first shield against the outside world, and they have nothing preternatural about them. And yet every one of them would give his life for us.”
Sarina rubbed his arm, a soft touch that sent his soul spinning. He hated having to go on, but she deserved to ken the truth. “Then there are those who are like Tacitus. They are scattered throughout Dundaire, but are verra private souls.”
“They’re shifters, aren’t they?”
“Aye. They are humans who can change to wolf form. But how do ye ken this?”
“My father’s letters.”
He should have kent Charles would eventually reveal some of his findings to his daughter, even if the man never said as much to him.
“And the third faction?” Sarina gave him a pleading look, one that begged him to tell her more about who he truly was.
“My branch of the family. We are nae wolves, nor are we wolves. We fall in betwixt the two. Men and women who are wholly human, but who sense and suffer as did Tacitus. It’s the madness that stalks this place, the chaos of being not one thing or the other. Pure turmoil.”
By the warm look in Sarina’s eyes, Campbell kent she understood him.
“And that is your curse.”
“Aye. That is what yer father was helping me overcome. We were both certain that somewhere on these grounds was the answer that could free Mariah and in doing so, free all of us.”
“Free Mariah? How so?”
He didnae want to tell her about the underbelly of Lycansay Hall, but at this point, he kent there was holding back. “Mariah is nae dead nor alive. She too, lives betwixt two existences.”
A look of concern veiled Sarina’s face. “Where is she now?”
Campbell hesitated, tried to find the right words. “After her son was saved from