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“Aye. Duncan has asked me to be his wife, and I’ve accepted.

” She took his hand and began to lead him back to where Duncan sat waiting on a bench near the hearth.

“You needn’t look so stern. I’m only going to be married, not disappear forever.

” She spoke the rebuke as if in jest, but she sensed the troubled undercurrent in him.

“I don’t like the lateness of MacRae’s decision. He wouldn’t accept the offer of your hand when I made it at the beginning of all this.” Robert frowned. “Though I suppose as things rest, late honor is better than none at all.”

Aileana felt the flush grow warmer in her cheeks. Until seven days ago, her honor had been intact, no matter what the world had thought true. But now she could no longer deny Robert’s reference to her lack of purity. Shaking off the momentary guilt, she said, “Duncan is a man of his word, Robert.”

Her brother stopped her ten paces from Duncan and stared at her. “His sudden claim to want a wedding isn’t because you’re with child, is it? I’ve heard of rogues who’ll tell a woman almost anything to keep her happy until the babe arrives. Then they take the child and abandon its dam.”

“Aileana isn’t with child, so far as I know, MacDonell.

” Duncan had stood and was approaching them, looking like a thundercloud.

Robert fixed him with a glare, and Aileana shuddered, wishing that her brother had thought to ask such an indelicate question while they were still out of Duncan’s earshot.

A devilish glint came into Duncan’s eyes, and he directed an equally pointed glance at Robert.

“However, I am looking forward to the time when Aileana will bear the future heir to the clan MacRae.”

Irritation lit in Aileana’s breast as she viewed her brother and her betrothed, facing each other down and discussing her like a possession of war.

She stepped up between them. “I do not much like serving as the unseen subject of your conversation. If the two of you cannot speak to each other and to me in a civilized way, I’m going up to my chamber.

Alone ,” she added, as she flashed a sharp look at Duncan, “to leave you both down here wallowing in your foolishness.”

The heat in her chest began to abate with her outburst, and she saw with satisfaction that both Duncan and Robert had stopped still to gaze at her. Robert looked puzzled, but Duncan’s blank stare soon turned to wry amusement.

Finally, he crossed his arms over his chest and rocked back on his heels. “I think if you needed proof that I haven’t mistreated your sister, MacDonell, you’ve just witnessed it. She’s found her temper and the will to voice it in the time she’s lived at Eilean Donan with me.”

Aileana lifted her chin, refusing to let Duncan make her feel the slightest bit embarrassed for what she’d said.

She looked at her brother. “What Duncan means to say is that I’ve learned to defend myself against his oafish behavior.

” She heard his choked laugh behind her and fought the exasperated smile that suddenly tugged at her lips.

She struggled to maintain a serene composure as she slipped her hand beneath Robert’s elbow, steering him closer to the fire. “Come. You must be hungry. I’ll bring you a bowl of stew. We can talk more after you eat.”

Robert nodded, casting a searching glance between her and Duncan, as if trying to read their swift exchange of emotion.

Aileana felt the tension relax from his arm, finally, as he too gave into a smile and allowed her to lead him to the bench.

Duncan came close behind, and Robert slid over to allow him room to sit.

“Come join me near the fire, MacRae,” Robert said, slapping the bench. “We’ve much to discuss.” He gave Aileana a sly wink. “In truth, I’m starting to think that this match between you and my sister might be a good one. A very good one indeed.”

The date of the wedding was set. The ceremony would take place soon, shortly after the passing of Samhain at the end of October.

But for all of the preparations that consumed the days and exhausted everyone by nightfall, Aileana still lay awake, staring up at the stonework of the ceiling.

It was near dawn, already; she could tell by the leaden cast to the light outside the shutter.

With a sigh, she turned on her side in the vast emptiness of the bed, missing Duncan’s warmth and wishing that he’d not had to leave for another of the seemingly incessant raids he’d been forced to lead against some of the rogue clans that kept plaguing them.

He’d said he planned to be home by dark today, though, so she’d resolved to be patient.

But it was for more than just missing him that sleep would not come easily, she knew.

Every time she began to relax and her eyes began to drift shut, it was the same.

The same startling, disturbing image shot through her mind, jolting her to complete, stark awareness again…

The Ealach falling, its golden chain twisting in the speed of its descent.

Then splashing into water, cold, gray and deep, floating down, before disappearing into the murk of the ocean .

Her logic told her that she was only reliving the horror of that day when she’d jumped over the bluff’s edge to elude capture.

But her heart thrummed a different story.

Something deeper inspired this vision; she knew it in her soul.

It was almost the same as the odd tingling she’d gotten the morning she’d realized that the Ealach was in danger.

The morning Father had taken it out to the battlefield.

Only this feeling was even more persistent.

It compelled her. But why? The amulet was hidden in the grotto, safe from harm. Or was it?

Sitting up in bed, Aileana shuddered. What if the Ealach had been taken from the security of its hiding place?

She gripped the blankets tightly to her chest, looking toward the shutter to see the light of dawn peeking through the cracks.

It was enough to see her path back to the grotto; if she set out soon she could be back before supper.

Then she could rest easier about its safety—perhaps even bring it back and make a gift of it to Duncan.

A sign of her faith in him and the rightness of their union…

Scrambling from beneath the coverlet, Aileana hurried to dress and ready herself for the journey.

She needed to do this alone and yet she knew she’d have to tell Bridgid of her plans to take one of the horses and be gone for the day.

Perhaps she could hide her true purposes under the guise of seeking out some mandrake for their herb supplies, she thought, as she hastily plaited her hair.

Likely none would wish to accompany her then, fearing as they did the darker magical qualities associated with cultivating the roots of that plant.

Aye, that was a plan. It would serve to protect her true reason of retrieving the Ealach . Now she just had to hurry to set everything in motion so that she could return to Eilean Donan before Duncan did.

Nora crouched deeper into the shadows behind the cart near the stable, watching through narrowed eyes as Aileana MacDonell led a haltered pony out into the misty dawn light.

A sour taste filled her mouth as she studied her rival, trying to see just what it was…

what gift Aileana could possibly possess that had allowed her to claim such a resounding victory with Duncan.

She was beautiful, aye, but Nora herself had turned many a head in her day.

It had to be more than that. It had to be something powerful enough to entice the laird from Nora’s bed, blinding him to the truth of what the MacDonell traitor was.

Something that would have compelled him to elevate Aileana from the humiliating position of leman to one as his honored betrothed.

Witchcraft .

She’d long suspected it. Aileana MacDonell was surely practicing the black arts, just as Nora had heard her cursed sister did before her. It had to be that. Nothing else could explain the change that had come over Duncan within days of the conniving wench’s arrival at Eilean Donan.

Oh, Aileana had pretended to be innocent, and within a few weeks of coming to live with them, she’d even mastered the pretense of caring about the MacRaes.

She’d lured Bridgid, Kinnon, and many of the others into believing, even going so far as to cleverly using some of her skills to aid the clan when the plague struck.

That she herself had fallen sick after nursing them all was the only fly in the ointment of Nora’s conviction, but she wagered that Aileana had used her ungodly arts to feign symptoms of the illness in order to garner Dun can’s sympathies and attention.

And it had worked, damn her eyes. Her spells were potent.

Now, finally, Nora had a chance to prove it.

Aileana had been up earlier than usual this morn, intending to go off on her own to collect more herbs before winter snows fell in earnest…

or so Nora had overheard her saying to Bridgid.

She sought mandrake, she’d told the bailie , and so she would go alone, to prevent anyone else from becoming tainted if aught went awry as she collected the dangerous root.

But Nora knew that was a ploy; she was sure Aileana was leaving the confines of the castle grounds to practice more spells. Spells to keep Duncan by her side.

Aye, the time was right. She’d follow Aileana this morning to see just what she was up to—and when she caught her at her witchery, then at last she would be able to prove to Duncan, once and for all, that he’d made a terrible and dangerous mistake…

For he would finally see that when he’d asked Aileana MacDonell to marry him, he’d taken a snake to his bosom instead of a bride.