Page 32 of Wolf Heir (Highland Wolves of Old #3)

Blair entered the kitchen and pulled Aisling aside from cooking a boar. It normally wasn’t done when Aisling was helping to prepare a meal, but she figured something was wrong the way her mother looked so pale.

Cook might have had words with Aisling over it if it hadn’t been that Blair took care of all injuries and illnesses, and no one wanted to get on her bad side.

Besides, it seemed that Aisling and Blair were in the know about a lot of things concerning what was going on with Osmond and Morag, which was piquing everyone’s interest.

“What is wrong?” Aisling asked her mother.

“The chief has ordered that all able-bodied men practice fighting after the meal. Specifically, he wants Aodhan and Coinneach to fight.”

“Each other again?”

“Nay, well, I dinna know. He just wants them to relinquish their duties on the wall walk and focus on practicing fighting. It is rumored that Hamish will be fighting this time as well. They want me to watch the practice session in case anyone gets hurt.”

“Which makes sense since Tristan hurt Coinneach the one time.”

“Aye, but Morag is attending for the first time in forever also.”

“Morag?” Aisling's voice rose a little too high, and she lowered her voice. “Why?”

Blair took hold of Aisling’s hands and tightened her hold on them. “Something is up. Tell Coinneach no’ to remove his shirt during the fight. Morag canna see the mark on his shoulder no matter what.”

“If I arrive after you do, then you can tell him.” Aisling still wasn’t sure her mother was happy she had mated him.

“If Morag sees me talking to him—”

“If she sees you talking to him, she has to know he is part of our family now, and that is the reason.”

“And that he has a wolf mark?”

“Whoever gets there first, talks to him,” Aisling said, feeling anxious now.

“If you must go, go, Aisling,” Cook said, winding one of her unruly red curls around her finger, then poking it back into her plaited hair. “I’m sure many of us will be watching Chief Hamish to see him fight. It’s been a long time since he battled with his men.”

“Aye, thank you,” Aisling said, glancing back at Nelly, who had taken her place to turn the boar along with some of the other women.

She cast a worried frown at Aisling.

Aisling left the kitchen, her mother hurrying after her.

“I think there are hints of a rumor floating around the pack that Coinneach is Hamish’s son,” Aisling’s mother said.

“Who has started such rumors?”

“Mayhap Aodhan. I’ve heard it said he wants to learn the truth.”

“Och. Has Hamish or Collum learned of this?” Aisling asked, heading out of the castle.

“I wouldna know. But Morag has spies all over the castle. So if one of them hears of it, they’ll be sure to tell her.”

“Who?”

“The women who wanted you dead, for one.”

“That’s why Morag stood up for them.”

“Aye. Rupert and Osmond also, though now Osmond is banished from the castle and the pack.”

“Two fewer spies then.” Before Aisling could go to the tower stairs, she saw Magnus, Elspeth, and Tamhas coming into the inner bailey. Was Tamhas going to fight too?

But why call on their parents to be here, who looked glum about the whole thing?

Aisling took her mother’s hand and walked her toward them, wanting to learn what was going on.

Now that she got closer to them, she saw Elspeth had tears streaking down her face, and her eyes were red. “What is wrong?” Aisling hugged her.

“Osmond said he was excommunicated from the pack, but he knows far worse things about Morag. He said she denied she had ever been with him, but we all know they’ve been seen together in the stables.

What business would she have in them when she never rides?

” Elspeth said. “We knew of this before the boys were born.”

“What worse things does he know about Morag?” Aisling asked.

Magnus, Elspeth, and Tamhas shared glances, then looked at Blair.

Aisling had the sinking feeling they knew then about the baby Blair had left by the river, and where it had come from.

“Does Coinneach know about this?” Elspeth asked.

“Aye,” Aisling said.

Magnus wrapped his arm around Elspeth’s waist as if he were afraid she was going to faint.

“And Blair,” Magnus said, sounding a little harsh then.

Blair took a steadying breath and told them what had happened.

“Morag is the devil,” Elspeth said.

“Aye, we all think so,” Aisling said. “But you see the problem? If we tell Hamish what Blair had done at Morag's command, he might want to terminate her. Blair, I mean.”

Elspeth took hold of Magnus’s hand and squeezed. “We could say that Blair brought the babe to us, knowing I had just lost a twin and would take care of both of them. She said the mother had died and she had no one else to care for her.”

“Then my mother would be a liar.”

“It would be worse for her if Hamish learned she had abandoned the baby by the river, hoping a crofter would find him.”

“All right. I’ll tell Coinneach and Aodhan, since they are the other two who know about it,” Aisling said. She raced off before she didn’t have a chance to warn him.

Niven intercepted her. “Morag wants to see you.”

“Why?” Aisling’s heart was beating triple time already.

“Morag wouldna say, and I dinna trust her. She was smiling like a cat that had just caught a mouse.”

Aisling glanced back at the tower stairs.

If she didn’t obey Morag’s command, she could get a lashing.

Then she saw Hamish greeting his men. She did what she normally wouldn’t have done and changed direction to speak with Hamish.

He glanced at her with disdain. She wasn’t one of the men he might challenge to a fight.

She was nothing but a lowly cook. What could be so important that he would speak with her?

"My laird, Lady Morag has requested my presence, but I must discuss a very urgent matter with Coinneach first." Aisling was certain Hamish regarded her as if she were out of her mind.

"What is this about?" Hamish eventually asked, now seeming to believe it could be significant and that she should not be dismissed so readily.

But then she blurted out, “I was going to tell Coinneach not to remove his shirt while fighting the others.”

Hamish raised his brows.

“Because he has a wolf mark on his shoulder and some would want him and others dead if they knew he was…he was…well, if he were kin to you.” She couldn’t say his son.

Mayhap Collum had dallied with a lass and had a child by her; she had died, and the child was given to another family to raise. She hadn’t considered that before.

Though none of that had aligned with anything her mother had told her.

Hamish motioned to his brother, and Collum quickly joined him, glancing at Aisling as if knowing she was the reason the fight was being held up. “Come with me, brother.”

Aisling wrung her hands. She had done it now. As soon as the brothers headed for the tower stairs, Blair joined Aisling.

“What was said?” Blair asked.

“Oh, Momma, Morag wanted to see me. I was afraid she would stop me from telling Coinneach to wear his shirt. And then I had the brilliant, but no’-so-brilliant, plan to tell Hamish I was to see Morag, but I had important business with Coinneach.

Then I blurted it all out. Well, just about Coinneach wearing a wolf mark, and he might be kin to Hamish. ”

“That’s why they’re going up to the tower stairs?”

“Aye.”

Everyone was talking and laughing. A few of the men ready to fight glanced in the direction of the wall walk.

Hamish was talking to Coinneach, and then Coinneach removed his shirt.

Tears filled Aisling’s eyes. She hadn’t had time to tell him the new story that his mother had made up.

Then Coinneach put on his shirt, and he and Aodhan followed Hamish and Collum down the stairs.

Morag and two of her lady friends approached Aisling and Blair.

“I told you to come see me, Aisling. I wished to have you serve me as one of my ladies-in-waiting. I would have done that with Blair, but she’s indispensable as our healer.

Beth and Jane will take you up to my solar and explain what you will do as your assigned duties. ”

Morag glanced at Blair. “You come too so you know what your darling daughter will be doing.”

Aisling knew this wasn’t good. She said, “Aye.” Then she hurried off to the women’s quarters.

“Where are you going?” Morag asked.

“To get something from my quarters.”

Morag eyed her with distrust but finally relinquished. “Jane and Beth will meet you up in my solar. My mate wishes me here.”

“And Blair also,” Aisling said. If Morag had someone on her solar who wished Aisling harm, she didn’t want her mother to get hurt also.

“Aye, she can return to the inner bailey if anyone gets hurt.”

Blair left with Aisling, and she said, “I dinna believe she wants you on her staff.”

“Nay, she wants to get rid of both of us so you canna tell Hamish the truth.”

“But others know about it,” Blair reasoned.

“The crofter family? Morag willna think for a moment that Hamish would believe what they have to say is the truth. You see how the chief did nothing to her even after Osmond accused her of being his lover for all those years. And he probably confessed that he is Rupert’s da.”

The men began fighting, and Aisling paused to see who Coinneach was fighting. Hamish, but Coinneach was at least wearing his shirt. Did Hamish not believe Coinneach was his kin?

“What do you have to get from your quarters?” Blair suddenly asked.

“My bow and quiver of arrows. I suspect someone else is waiting for us in Morag’s solar, no’ her ladies. You see? They are still standing with her while they watch the men battle it out.” Aisling really wished she could watch the fight. But she had another plan in mind.

“And then what?”

“We go to the crofters’ farm, but we’ll go through the back gate.” Aisling motioned to Niven, and he raced to meet up with her. “Tell Coinneach’s family to leave out the back gate and go to their farm. I’ll follow.”

“I will too,” Blair said.

“But dinna tell Morag any of this.”

“Aye, Aisling,” Niven ran to speak to Magnus, who gathered his mate and son to escort them to the back gate.

“I would like to see what they planned to do with us, but I think that would be a foolhardy quest,” Blair said.

“Aye, especially if we had to kill the men to protect ourselves. And who would believe us?”

“If we managed to kill them and they didn’t kill us first,” Blair said.

Coinneach and Aodhan were about to go down the tower stairs when he saw Aisling heading his way, then thwarted by Morag. He didn’t trust the chief’s mate in the least.

But then Aisling had spoken to Hamish, and he called his brother over, and the next thing he knew, Hamish and Collum were joining them up at the wall walk.

Though Coinneach barely heard Hamish’s gruff words, “Take off your shirt,” because he was watching what Aisling was doing—running to the castle, pausing, then waving Niven over to speak to her.

Then Niven went to see Coinneach’s parents.

What was going on?

When Aodhan slapped him on the back to remind Coinneach what Hamish had commanded of him and said, “Remove your shirt as his lairdship says.” The command his lord had given finally filled Coinneach’s thoughts.

Had Aisling given him up because it was too dangerous not to? He pulled off his shirt, and both Hamish and Collum looked closer to see the wolf head. Both men were frowning, looking at Coinneach, then at the wolf mark again.

Hamish touched it as if it would disappear if he rubbed it off. Collum did the same after him. But it was not ink or dirt that could be rubbed off.

“You’ve had this since you were born?” Hamish asked.

“Aye, my laird.”

“Your parents are no’ your parents?”

“I always believed they were so, and I will always cherish them as my parents who raised me. Tamhas likewise is my twin.”

Hamish frowned. “Does he also have the mark of the wolf?”

“No, my laird. We didna think there was any significance to it.”

“If the mother of your blood died and you were given to the crofter family, when did you first shift?” Hamish asked.

“When I was five years old.”

Hamish glanced at Collum. Collum said, “If his mother had died, he couldn’t shift into the wolf until he was old enough to handle shifting in front of others.”

“Aye.” Hamish looked over the wall walk to see his men gathered to fight, Morag standing off to the side, watching him. “You are saying that Morag had someone take you away to live with someone else so that she could have her own son with me?”

Coinneach didn’t say anything, afraid to get Blair in trouble.

“You knew you were…uh, kin to me, and that’s why you wanted to work here,” Hamish said.

“No, only that…that someone didna want me to work here for fear you might realize I was uh, related to you.”

“Who?”

“Morag.”

“And? I will learn the truth, you do ken?”

“Aye.” Then Coinneach told him everything he knew—even about Blair’s part in it. “Blair was young and scared. Morag threatened to kill her. She didna know what to do.”

“I remember seeing Blair take a swaddled baby in a basket and hurry out of the castle, and through the gates at the same time you were getting the news that Orla and the baby had died. I wondered at the time about it since I knew Blair didna have a child,” Collum said.

“God’s wounds, what else has that woman been up to, Morag, I mean?” Hamish ran his hands through his hair. “Come, we will speak to Blair and the other women who were there that day, and Morag last.”

As soon as he reached the inner courtyard, Hamish glanced around, then spied Blair and saw her heading for the back gates.

Aisling and Coinneach’s family were also headed out.

Coinneach didn’t see any sign of Morag, though she was supposed to be watching the fight.

And Rupert, who always managed to get out of fighting, was nowhere to be seen.

Coinneach didn’t like seeing that his family was leaving when he suspected they had been asked to be there. Immediately, he went after them.

But Hamish and Collum did also.

Coinneach thought it might be some trouble with Morag, and they decided to go home, where they would be safer.