Page 90 of Laird of Twilight

“I am aware.” Shouldering his leather pack on its long strap, he walked ahead.

“Why are we here, if not for the lad to find rocks?” Donal called from ahead.

“We are looking for the Goblin Cave. Do you know it, Grandda?” Elspeth asked.

Donal frowned, stopping so that James and Elspeth came closer. “Coire nan Uruiskin? Why do you want to go there? Is it for your rocks, Struan?”

“That,” James said, “and Elspeth and I want to look for the fairy treasure.”

“Here?” Donal asked. “The goblin corrie—I searched it years ago. It is just a corrie near a small cave. You will find nothing but rock. But that may please you.”

“We want to look again. Grandda, we have something to tell you,” Elspeth said.

Folding his hands on his walking stick, Donal looked stern. “I am listening.”

“I have agreed to marry Lord Struan.” She reached out to take James’s arm.

Her grandfather grinned suddenly. “Excellent! Will you take her to Edinburgh, Struan? And soon?”

“We have not decided yet,” Elspeth said quickly.

“Elspeth gave me one condition,” James said. “She asked my promise that we find the fairy treasure today.”

“Good luck to us, then. That gold will not be found here or anywhere, I think,” Donal said. “Do you know what they say of Coire nan Uruiskin? Urisks are small goblin creatures who haunt rocky places and cause mischief. Some say they are fairies, some not. But they are helpful to humans if treated politely.”

“Are the Fey rumored to be up here as well?” Elspeth asked.

“The Sidhe do come up here, so they say. Inside that wee cave, there is said to be a portal to the fairy realm. But I have not found it.”

“It may be good place to search for the treasure, Grandda.”

“Do you think their treasure would be just under their noses, in their own parlor?” Donal asked. “Then it would not be missing. It has to be elsewhere, and we must find it.”

“Grandda, perhaps you should tell Struan why this is so important to you.” Donal MacArthur sighed, nodded.

James reached into his coat pocket and drew out a folded paper. “First, I wanted to show this to both of you. I found it in my grandmother’s manuscript. She wrote of a weaver and his son who met with the fairies. And she mentioned a girl-child who was given into the weaver’s care.”

“Did she now,” Donal said, and did not sound surprised.

“Let me see.” James handed her the page and she read quickly, next handing it to her grandfather. He read it, nodding, and circled it back to James.

“That is the story you have always told me, Grandda,” Elspeth said. “I did not know you have shared it with Lady Struan.”

“I told her some of it. How she knew the rest about Niall, how he was taken, I cannot say. But what she has written here is true. Struan, you must believe.”

“Truthfully, I am not sure what to think,” James admitted. “But if you say it is so, then I will do my best to believe it.”

“Thank you, Struan,” Donal said.

James tucked the page into his pocket. “And Elspeth’s birthday? When is that, exactly?” He looked at her. “You have never said.”

“October the twentieth,” she replied. “Four days from now.”

“I would offer felicitations,” James said, “but I think you will not be happy until you see the twenty-first of October.”

She smiled, then shivered and drew her plaid shawl snug against the chill wind. “Grandda, where are the corrie and the cave?”

“I tell you, the treasure is not there. We should stay away.”