Page 39 of Devil’s Highlander (Clan MacAlpin #1)

She raced up the quay, thoughts careening wildly in her head. She’d done it again. She’d made a dreadful decision, a deadly decision.

A low keening sound escaped from her lips, and she bit it back. The boys were waiting for her at the head of the dock, terrified. She needed to be strong for them. Cormac would want her to be strong.

A loud crack sounded at her back. She’d never heard gunfire before, but the menace and the power of it was unmistakable.

Her legs pumped faster. She reached them and, barely slowing her pace, snatched Davie’s hand and another of the smaller boys.

“Marjry!” Davie cried, his tiny fist damp in hers. She clutched it even harder, terrified he might slip from her grasp. “You’re hurtin’ me, Marjry.”

She shushed him, and panic made her voice stern. “Run! We must run!”

Run. It was the last thing Cormac had told her to do. Would those final words echo forever in her mind, haunting her? Go . . . run. This time she couldn’t stop the short, sharp cry that tore from her throat.

Cormac was the one who should’ve run—from the sight of her.

He’d known it that day on the beach at Dunnottar.

He’d wanted nothing to do with her, but she’d forced herself back into his life.

He’d been wary, skittish, as though only he had been able to see the clouds of tragedy looming over her shoulder, just on the horizon.

Cormac. A sharp cramp in her side stole her breath. She embraced it and ran harder. What pain was Cormac enduring even now, for her?

She’d impetuously demanded all the boys. They hadn’t discussed it before. She was sure he would’ve done her bidding, had they only discussed it, planned for it. Instead, she’d made the decision for them rashly, and it was costing Cormac his life.

She could see no way out of his situation. She’d gotten away with the boys and the money. All the fighting talent in the world wouldn’t save him from a shipload of furious smugglers.

He had no way out.

She stopped, leaned over, a hand on her knees. Gasping for air, she clutched at her belly, feeling like she might be sick right there in the street.

She felt a small hand stroking awkwardly at her hair. Davie. Wee Davie. She had to get him to safety. It wasn’t about her now, nor Cormac. He’d known that; it was why he’d forsaken his life to save theirs.

Convulsively swallowing back the bile in her throat, she looked up. The boys were staring at her expectantly, alarm and confusion furrowing their poor, filthy faces.

She glanced around to get her bearings. The docks were far at their backs now, and in her panic, she’d led them down a warren of side streets. She needed to gather her wits, or it’d mean the death of all of them. Not wanting to invite too much attention, she forced herself to walk again.

Fiona. Cormac’s last intention had been that she find her maid, Fiona, and that was exactly what she would do.

Pulling her shoulders back, she picked up her pace, but not so much as to raise suspicion. “Come now, boys.”

One of the younger ones was crying silently. She gave a perfunctory pat to his head. “Steady on, lad. You’re safe now,” she assured him, wishing she spoke the truth.

She racked her mind, trying to get her bearings and recall where exactly Fiona lived.

How could it be that the maid had been in their employ for over a decade, and yet Marjorie had never once been to her house?

She scolded herself. All her talk of the importance of charitable living, and here she’d never expressed enough of an interest in Fiona’s life to pay her family a single visit.

She remembered the lass had once told her of life in the vennel, a narrow lane off Huckster Row and one of the poorer spots in Aberdeen. Marjorie girded herself, hoping Fiona still lived there. Braving the vennel was bad enough; she prayed it wouldn’t be in vain.

They came to the head of the alley. Buildings hovered close together, casting the place in cold shadow. The boys edged away, outright panic on their faces.

“Come on,” she urged, tugging at Davie’s hand.

One of the older boys came to a full stop, his arms crossed over his chest. “No, mum.”

The pose reminded her of Cormac, and a needle of pure anguish pricked her chest. Marjorie pursed her lips.

She had no time for boys’ nonsense. They were in grave danger, and doubly so now that they were standing exposed and unprotected before who knew what manner of unsavory elements there were to be found in this neighborhood. “No, what ?”

“I’ll not go there.” His face took on a look of utter indifference, as if he had something better to do, and Marjorie were merely the pest keeping him from it.

“You listen to me.” Every ounce of fear and regret poured into her voice, sharpening her tone into something that’d tame even the most headstrong of Saint Machar lads.

“I’m saving you, if you haven’t noticed.

You will do as I say, you little wretch, and right this instant.

And what I’m saying is that you will”—she let go Davie’s hand to tweak the older boy’s ear—“follow”—she stepped into the lane, dragging him close behind—“me.”

Marjorie herded them along, feeling more alone than ever.

The vennel matched her despairing mood. Dilapidated houses crammed the alley cheek by jowl, each shoddier than the last, all listing walls and windows stuffed with rags.

But it was the silence that struck her the most. The place was silent and menacing, as though people skulked behind closed doors hiding and scheming.

This was where the blushing Fiona lived? Marjorie shivered. It was a horrid place. She took in one appalling structure after another, wondering how she would ever find her.

A few of the boys apparently felt more secure, though, because they split off from the group, scuffling and running along the lane, shouting threats at each other.

Her face flushed hot with anger and fear. The boys were innocents who had no idea what they were dealing with. Little did they know, if overheard by the wrong person, they’d find themselves back on the Oliphant , but this time she’d be trussed up right alongside. “Get back here now.”

But it was too late. There were sounds of murmuring and of creaking shutters, and the hard scuff of warped wood against stone, as folk looked out their doors to see what the ruckus was about.

“Miss Marjorie?” The voice was tentative, and hearing it, Marjorie nearly crumpled in relief.

Turning around, she spotted a linen-capped head peeking out from a doorway behind her. Fiona. Once this was all over, she vowed she’d double the girl’s pay. “I . . . we need your help.”

“I imagine you do at that.” Fiona darted a look up and down the alley. If she had any questions, she held her tongue, and Marjorie was grateful.

“My da’s out.” The maid paused, a peculiar look flickering across her face. “But you’ve come in perfect time. I’m about to put supper on.” A few of the boys hesitated at the sight of her cramped, one-room dwelling, but Fiona shooed them in. “In you get, then. So many of you . . .”

“Quickly now,” Marjorie added, cramming them all inside and following close behind.

She pulled the door shut behind them and cringed, fighting the urge to put a handkerchief to her nose and mouth.

Not because of the filth, for a single glance told her that Fiona kept a spotless home, but because of the cook fire.

The room was cramped, and the fireplace not well ventilated, and the charred odor of woodsmoke gave a twinge in her lungs.

“Not what you’re used to,” the maid muttered matter-of-factly. She began bustling around at once, leading Marjorie to a small washbowl in the corner, arranging the smaller boys around the hearth, and pointing the older ones to a corner. “But we’ll all fit in, we will.”

She went to a table along the side of the room and, hands on hips, contemplated the food spread before her. She snatched up a skinned hare, holding it by its hind paws. “I’ve a fresh-caught mawkin.”

“A rabbit?” Davie popped up to marvel at it. “He’s so pale and wee without his coat.”

“Aye, wee indeed.” Fiona laid the rabbit out along a modest table, its wooden slab top scarred from years of use. She took up a knife and set to dressing the meat. “Too wee for all these bellies,” she noted, scanning the room. “But I’ve a bit of barley . . . mayhap in a broth, ’twill stretch it.”

Marjorie was amazed that, with nary a question, the young woman determined she’d give up the full bounty of her family’s supper, sharing it instead with a houseful of strange children.

Yes, she decided, she’d insist they begin paying Fiona more.

Much more. “I’ll not take the food from your table, Fiona. ”

“I’ll pretend I didna hear that, and you can pretend you didna say it.”

She continued to prepare the meal with deft hands, and eventually the smell of rabbit soup filled the room.

The rich aroma had a calming effect on all of them.

The boys gradually relaxed and began to chatter quietly among themselves.

Marjorie’s panic had dulled, and all that was left were thoughts of Cormac and a thick ache in her throat.

Wiping her hands on her apron, Fiona turned her focus to a meager pile of vegetables. “So, then.”

“So.” Marjorie sighed, preparing for an onslaught of questions.

“Does this have aught to do with that Cormac fellow?”

Marjorie blanched, unable to speak through the grief thick in her throat. Cormac.

Fiona hesitated, a faint blush pinking her cheeks.

Meeting Marjorie’s eyes, she said, “I seen him, you know. Cormac was rifling about in your room, mightily bothered he was, and quite keen to find you.” She focused on her food once again, chopping turnips with great intent.

“Trouble follows them MacAlpins,” she mumbled. “Like smoke from fire.”

Marjorie sat up straighter. “What did you say?”