Page 93 of A Rogue in Moonlight
“What other sort?” Patrick asked.
“Nicholas, please listen,” Fiona implored. “We admired you so when we were all young. You were such a kind boy, and a fine young man. But something changed. I know that, but I do not know what it was. Still, you have always been good to me and my brothers. So this,today, I do not understand.”
“Perhaps he is eager to inherit Grandmother’s fortune,” Patrick said.
“Ah. Eldin, the cousin who could claim it all,” Dougal said, remembering what Fiona had explained days ago.
“She told you about that?” Patrick asked. “She trusts you.”
“I hope so.” Dougal did not look at her. Could not, or in the next moment he might go after Eldin and Hugh both in an ugly way.
“So you know Eldin inherits if we do not find fairies and such,” Patrick went on.
“Then by all means, you must find fairies,” Dougal murmured.
“Quiet, both of you,” Eldin snapped.
“Nicholas, I never thought you capable of real harm,” Fiona said. “It borders on evil, what you are doing.”
“My dear, so harsh!” Eldin said. “I have good reason to do this. Kinloch refuses to sell his whisky to me. I have little time, and little choice but to act thus.”
“You are just a wicked man!” Lucy stood by the grate, staring up at him.
“Shut up, child,” Eldin hissed.
“Do not,” Dougal growled in warning, raising his palm to Eldin.
“I have no interest in harming children,” Eldin said. “Once I have what I want, you are free to go. With some exceptions.” He stared, flat and cold, at Dougal. “It depends on what you want to do.”
Dougal looked at Hugh. “Reverend, what is your part in this?”
“I did not know all of this. Sell the whisky to Eldin and be done with it,” Hugh said. “Do not take it to the ship.”
“It is a cutter, not a ship,” Jamie corrected.
“Shh,” Fiona said. She huddled with the children. “Hugh MacIan, I hope your grandmother does not know about this.”
“She does not,” MacIan answered. “Though she might agree if she did. Kinloch could make a great profit if he would sell his whisky toEldin. I tried to tell him so. He could gain more, and faster, than by selling to the French or Irish by shipping it out. Those funds could save this glen. That is my concern—the glen and its people.”
“Then you had better save the glen from me, Reverend,” Eldin snarled. “I hold the deeds to Glen Kinloch now. I do not have all the documents yet, but enough to control the glen—and its whisky distilleries.
“There will be tourists and hotels here,” Eldin said, “and barges going up and down the loch taking them to Glen Kinloch. But you could stop that, sir,” he told Dougal. “With the profit you make from selling that whisky to me, I will allow you to buy back some of the deeds. You could keep part of the glen.”
“So generous,” Dougal drawled. “After this assault is reported—you will not walk away free from this, I guarantee it—we shall see how the Court of Session views your claim on the deeds to the properties in Glen Kinloch. Land in Scotland belongs primarily to the Crown, so the decision ultimately lies there.”
“We shall see,” Eldin muttered, holding his pistol steady.
Under his plaid, Dougal rested his hand on the butt of his own gun. He could only pray Eldin would not fire his weapon in this confined space, with a woman and children nearby and the threat of rockfall very real in this ancient cavern. Yet if he had to fire his own weapon, he would risk it to save the ones he loved.
“Dougal, listen,” Hugh said. “We can all profit from this. Sell him the whisky.”
“Hugh, did you not hear? Eldin does not want the cache of aged whisky,” Dougal said. “If he did, I would have sold it to him and made the profit already. He wants something more valuable, more rare even than Highland gold.”
“That is so,” Eldin said. “I want what no one else can have.”
“If you did not want this whisky supply, why did you bring us here?” Hugh rounded on Eldin. “I agreed to your scheme becausebuying this stock would benefit the glen more immediately than other means. You never mentioned another whisky. What is it?”
“The fairy whisky,” Dougal said quietly.
