Page 18

A s they rode away from Maggie's Crystal noticed that it had gotten much colder. The sun was making its descent into the horizon and could barely be seen through the trees of the forest on their left. She turned to look at the lake and wondered again about it. "Jamie?"

"Aye?"

"Maggie said that if Gavin hadn't found me, Nessie would have. What did she mean? Who is Nessie?"

"Nessie is more of a what, not a who," he answered.

"She meant the Loch Ness Monster," Elena said from next to her.

Crystal's eyes widened in fear. "I was in there with a monster?" Panic filled her as she began to shiver.

Jamie tightened his arms around her. "You're fine, lass. The monster is somewhat friendly."

"At least she's friendly to us. Not so much to the ones who wish to harm her or us. She's a very good ally to have patrolling the Loch," Elena added.

Crystal continued to shiver out of both fear and cold. She was very wary of the huge lake now. Her eyes kept straying over to it, thinking she'd see the monster's long neck sticking up out of the water at any moment. "Does she look like how she's portrayed back home?" she asked.

"Yes, she resembles an aquatic dinosaur, long neck, looks kind of like a Brachiosaurus but she has fins," Melanie answered.

"She helped Mary get to shore when she got here. She's the one who arrived just before you," Elena said.

"The one who had her identity stolen?"

"Aye, that's the one. She's married to Hamish now," Jamie answered.

Crystal shivered again and Jamie moved the reins to his left hand as he reached down and opened the saddle bag on the right. He pulled out a plaid wool bundle and as he shook it out, Crystal realized it was a blanket.

"Can you hold the reins for a moment?" he asked.

Crystal hesitantly took them, keeping the same slack that he'd had. "Why? What are you doing?"

"It is getting cold and I do not wish for you to take a chill." He swung the blanket around his shoulders and brought the edges forward. "Scoot back against my chest more," he directed.

Crystal did as he asked, moving her body until she was flush against him and felt the warmth of him seep into her back.

He pulled the blanket around the two of them and tied the corners in front of her.

She handed him back the reins and gripped the edges of the blanket, pulling it tighter against her to keep the warmth in.

"There now, that will keep us both warm, keep our heat in together," he said. "It gets cold once the sun starts to head toward the horizon. We will need to be out of these woods soon."

"Why is that?"

"Goblins come out at nightfall," Jamie answered.

"They can even be in the shadows of the trees as long as they don't have the direct sunlight on their skin," Rory added.

"Someone mentioned that before about the goblins. About the sun hurting them. What about Darter though? He had been outside in the sun while we were there, how come it didn't hurt him?"

"Aye, Darter is a Glashtyn, they are able to withstand the sunlight better than most, but Glashtyn are generally not the kind that cause us trouble," he said.

"So you still think there might be a band of goblins out there, looking to harm people?" Crystal's gaze was drawn to the trees as she tried to peer into the forest depths to find the creatures that might harm them.

"Aye, tis possible."

"I think I want to get back to the village as quickly as possible now." She pressed even closer to Jamie's front in her fear. She could feel his hard abs against her back and it calmed her some to have him so close.

"Aye, we are making good time and we should see the entrance to the village in just a few minutes," he said.

Jamie was right. Within two minutes she could make out the outskirts of the town.

They returned to the village safe and sound and without incident.

Supper and whisky was eaten at the tavern and Crystal actually enjoyed being there because it was comforting to her.

It was a place that she knew and she liked that there were many people around so that the goblins didn't suddenly show up to attack them.

As she ate, Crystal couldn't stop thinking about what Maggie had told her just before leaving.

What could she have meant by her words? She considered asking Melanie and Elena what she meant, but she was almost afraid to find out.

She suspected that Maggie could tell that she was attracted to Jamie and that was why she'd said what she said, but forever?

Who could predict that? And Crystal wasn't even sure that Jamie liked her in that sense.

Crystal slept restlessly and with good reason.

She had managed to convince Jamie to let her stay another night in Courteney's cottage, with Rory and Shaw taking turns on watch.

However, she had a rude awakening as Shaw pounded on her door in the early morning hours, before the sun had even fully risen.

Wrapping a blanket around her, she hurried to the door and opened it.

"Shaw, what is it? Is there a fire?"

"No, lass, there's been another murder."

"What? Where?"

"Get yourself dressed, we must go. Rory came to inform us that we must meet them as soon as possible at the tavern."

"All right give me just a couple minutes," she said.

She closed the door, tossed the blanket onto the bed, and stripped out of the nightdress.

It took her only a few minutes to put the blouse and dress on.

She pulled the stockings up her legs and shoved her feet into her boots, then grabbed her cloak and headed out the door.

They walked with quick speed toward the tavern. The place was quite busy with people and very loud, as a man was shouting from inside the depths of the building.

"I suggest you stay behind me, lass," Shaw said, putting his arm out as he stepped into the doorway.

Crystal did as he asked, staying behind him, but tried her best to catch a glimpse of what was going on inside. Before she even saw him, she recognized that the shouting was from the man who had grabbed her before. Cameron Gilroy.

"Tell me where those demons are, Jamie. I will hunt them down myself and kill every last one of them for what they've done," Cameron belligerently shouted.

This was followed by the sound of glass breaking as he threw items across the tavern.

"Now calm down, Cameron," Jamie said.

Crystal moved under Shaw's arm to get a better look. Cameron was roaring drunk, teetering in his boots. His face was flushed red and his eyes were bloodshot. It looked to her like he had been crying.

"Calm down? They killed Billy. I'll wring their necks. Those bastards," Cameron shouted.

"I understand your anger, Cameron and I am sorry for your loss. We will catch them, but I need your cooperation and to ask you a few questions," Jamie said. His hand was out with his palm up, trying to calm the man.

Cameron slapped his hand away and in the process, fell back onto a bench. Then the man began to sob. "I found him— I went to fetch him an hour ago from the house. I had passed out in the stables and never made it inside. When I came to…"

"Yes, go on," Jamie said softly.

"When I woke, I headed into the cottage and found him dead, slashed and shredded something awful. His throat slit with a blade," Cameron said. "He…he…" he tried to continue, but he couldn't finish his sentence. Instead he put his head down on the table and sobbed into his elbow.

Crystal listened to this information and processed it.

Now the murderer had gone after a man. This was important because she had assumed that whoever killed Maeve was a past suitor and that her murder was done out of jealousy.

That didn't match up with this new murder of Billy Gilroy.

There was something very strange going on here.

This time, from Cameron's words, it sounded like a blade was used when he said that Billy's throat was slit.

That was different from Maeve's murder in which she had been found with multiple stab wounds and bruising from a beating of some kind.

"Wallace, get Cameron a whisky," Jamie said. Then he moved closer to Wallace and whispered, "Best he pass out in his cups than keep on raging like this."

Wallace nodded his head in agreement and went to fetch a full bottle of whisky and set it in front of Cameron not bothering with a cup.

Cameron took a swig straight from the bottle.

He leaned his back against the corner wall and continued to drink.

Jamie saw her and Shaw in the doorway and approached.

"Outside," Jamie said.

Shaw turned and saw Crystal eavesdropping, grabbed her arm, and pulled her away from the tavern and into the courtyard of the inn. Jamie and the others joined them.

"Lass." Jamie nodded and gave her a small smile. "You are well?"

"Good morning, Jamie, I am." She smiled back. It was nice that he asked after her, even with everything going on. "So Billy Gilroy has been murdered as well?" she asked.

"Aye. This is bad, very bad. We must send word to the Laird," Jamie said. "We're going to need more guards to scout for the goblin pack, if it tis them that's done this."

"Aye," Rory agreed.

"Also, we must go to the Gilroy cottage straight away before anything is changed and others come to take a look. Once word spreads of this, there will be many who will come to have a look. They live just on the outskirts of the village to the north," Jamie said.

"I want to come," Crystal said.

"No, it is not safe," Jamie said automatically.

Crystal frowned and put her hands on her hips. "The man is already dead and the killer is long gone, or else they would have gone after Cameron as well. Besides, you said I could help and this is a major break in the case. I must come with you," she replied.

Jamie sighed and looked at Rory andShaw. They both shrugged.

"If we are needed to investigate, we'll have to leave the lass on her own. Probably best she stay with us," Rory said, looking at her and giving her a small wink.