Page 22 of The Highlander's Captured Bride
Yanking away from the lad, Ethan stumbled away, “Dead? How is she supposed to bedead?”
“Moreover, ye look nothin’ like her,” Violet said as she came to his side. “We’ve been told she has dark hair and blue eyes, ye have red hair and brown eyes. How can ye be brother and sister?”
The lad shook his head warily, “Why should I tell ye more, and why are ye looking for me sister at all?”
Because even if she had not wielded the blade herself, she was armed with the potion that allowed the killer to do it.
The words were on the tip of his tongue but he stopped from uttering them. Tugging off his hat, Ethan shook his head, “Because I am Ethan MacFerson, the younger brother of dead Finley MacFerson, and ye are?”
“Davidh,” the lad said after tugging his dropped jaw up but the wary look never leaving his eyes. “Davidh O’Bachnon. Why are ye two looking for me sister?”
“Because she was the last person to see me brother before he died,” Ethan said tightly. “And, again, why dae ye nay look like her?”
“We’re nay blood kin, her maither married me faither three years before I was born,” Davidh wetted his lips. “I grew up with calling her sister and I ken about the scar because I caused it. I was six and she was nearly ten at that time and I begged her to race with me. She dinnae wanted to but I pestered her until she gave in. She tripped and banged her head on a rock. That scar, I always kent it was me fault.”
Calmer now, the lad leaned on the wall. “She went to Perth when I was six-and-ten. She was nearly twenty and had nay choice of a husband as most of the young men had left to find work in the coal mines in the hills beyond. We dinnae ken what she was going to do there, but Ma had died and Faither was beside himself. He let her go while I stayed back to see about our smithy.” He shook his head, and stared out beyond them, visibly gathering his thoughts.
“She went off and nay word came for a year. When we did hear from her, five years ago, we were told she had married a trader who went between Perth and England, and had a child and we were happy for her. Then…three years ago, we heard her husband got ill and died and she had caught the same disease, scarlatina. We never got to bury her at home, even though it was relatively close.”
“But she lived,” Ethan said, shooting a look to Violet, masking his shock that her suspicion about the woman having a child was right. “And with a dead husband and a boy child, she had to find another way to make ends meet. Was yer mother a healer by any chance?”
“Me maither told me she used to work for the MacFerson clan for a while and then she moved away. She might have said she was eight-and-ten, I cannae ‘member.” The lad paused to gather his words. “Then she went to Glasgow for some time, she said, and came back home. That’s when she had me sister. She told me Gavina’s father just up and left and then she found me father and I was born.” His eyes met Violet’s and he continued. “I ken all this ‘cause she told me many times and I heard her tell it to some others.”
He took in a deep breath and slowly blew it out his cheeks. He spoke slowly as he looked down and tried to bury his toe in the dirt. “She might’ve wanted me to find the MacFersons and maybe work there.” His face looked forlorn. “I ‘membered she did tell me she stopped the healing ‘cause she dinnae like being around blood.” He raised his head and faced Ethan.
And Violet was right again…
“If yer maither was a healer, that’s why she survived the ailment,” Ethan concluded. “She kent how to make medicine. But why did she nay save her husband?”
Davidh sighed, “As far as I ken, he was too far gone to be saved.”
Shooting another look at Violet he saw that she had staggered to the side and was leaning on the wall with closed eyes. Her chest was heaving and her face was flushed. He could see, nofeel, that relief rushing through her body. He knew she had been feeling guilty about dragging him to two towns with no result. Her eyes fluttered open and chocolate hues that met him were warm, liquid and unfettered from worry.
His respect for her notched up. She had followed her gut—even when it was daunting— and her suspicion had paid off. Turning back to the youth, he asked, “What’s yer sister’s full name lad, if she had a different faither from yers?”
“Her name is Gavina O’Bachnon, she took me faither’s name instead of Mallory, her birth faither’s.”
“Which means she can go by either,” he said. “Dae ye ken where she would be now? We’ve searched for her for a while, from Clan MacFerson to here and nay luck.”
A resigned look darkened the lad’s eyes and Ethan felt sorrow for his sister, but Finley was dead and she had a part in it.
“Mayhap she went back to Perth,” Davidh shrugged. “She always had a… self-reliant drive inside her. Who kens where she would be, if she got what she wanted, she might be as far as Glasgow or Edina.” He stopped, then looked at them with an endearing look and licked her lips, “But ye have to understand, she is nay a bad person. I dinnae believe she would harm anyone intentionally.”
Shaking his head, Ethan replied, “I feel for ye Davidh, but if she helped in any way, she is going to pay for her acts. Where can we find ye, Davidh, just in case we need ye?”
“In Sellek,” Davidh said rather reluctantly. “I’m still an apprentice smithy there.”
Pinning the younger man with a serious gaze, Ethan dropped his tone. “If we call, dae ye promise to come?”
“If ye need me, aye,” Davidh agreed. “But I dinnae ken how I can help ye.”
“Doesnae matter,” Ethan shook his head. “Just be ready for us if we call.”
“Aye,” he nodded. “I will.”
Stepping away, Ethan allowed Davidh to move. With the younger man gone, he rested his hand on the wall as everything he had just learned began to sink in. Gavina O’Bachnon…a widow…a daughter of a healer. Under all that, Violet was right. She wasrightabouteverything! He felt ashamed about his doubts now, as all she had speculated was now proven right. Utter elation began to eat away at the last lingering strains of doubt.
A hand—Violet’s hand—dropped on his shoulder and he spun. “Ethan, are ye—”
