Chapter Sixteen
Blue Waters Manor, south of Edinburgh
Same day
Raonaid was just finishing the afternoon milking when the stable door blew open and a strong wind stirred up the loose hay that was strewn across the floor. The hogs squealed and the chickens outside squawked and flapped their wings.
Heart suddenly racing, she stood up and knocked over the milking stool. “Who’s there?” Her gaze darted all around. “I know you’re in here!”
It was a presence she had felt all her life, even as a child, alone and frightened in bed. The spirit had never caused her harm, however, so Raonaid had learned to push the fear away. Over the past six months, however, the spirit had come more frequently and Raonaid sensed its agitation.
It blew around her in rapid circles, lifting strands of hay off the floor.
“Speak to me, ghost!” Raonaid said. “Why do you haunt me?”
I’m not a ghost.
Raonaid dashed forward with surprise, for it had never spoken to her before. She turned in circles and looked up at the rafters. “What are you, then?”
I’ll come for you.
Another fierce gust blew out the stable door, knocking it back on its hinges; then the air went still. The animals calmed and grew quiet.
A second later, the cow lifted her head and let out a raucous, shrieking, Mooo!
Panic like Raonaid had never known before welled up in her heart.
She grabbed the bucket of milk and ran outside, slamming the door shut and lowering the bar.
She ran past the vegetable garden to the house and burst through the back door.
Setting the bucket down on the worktable, she hurried through the parlor to the stairs.
Murdoch was seated at his desk. He looked up from his papers. He was dressed in his kilt today, which was unusual. His dark hair was tied back in a leather cord.
“Raonaid!” he shouted.
She halted at the bottom of the stairs.
“You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
“It wasn’t a ghost,” she replied. “I don’t know what it was.”
His eyes narrowed with curiosity as he rose and stalked toward her. “Was it some kind of vision?”
“I am not certain.”
He grasped her arm and hauled her around to face him. “Well, you best figure it out, lass. Scotland needs a king, and I must know when to act and who to trust. You promised me another vision by now, and if this opportunity passes, there may not be another.”
“Why does it matter so much to you?”
His cheeks flushed with passion and vigor. “We cannot allow the English to continue to subjugate us. If they had their way, they would banish us all to the north, then eventually push us into the sea. You don’t understand anything, do you?”
She wrenched her arm away from him. “Don’t tell me what I do, and do not, understand. I know how it feels to be banished. I’ve been branded a witch all my life, and now I am rejected by you—who will not even be seen in public with me.”
“People fear you, Raonaid. Your gifts make them uneasy.”
She arched a brow and spoke to him with dangerous accusation. “Do my gifts make you uneasy, Murdoch? Does my wickedness make you nervous?”
He took a moment to consider how best to answer the question; then at last, he cleared his throat and stepped back. “You’re my woman. I’ll not cast you out, like others have done.”
She scoffed bitterly. “You only keep me as your woman because you think I can change your future. You want to triumph over the Hanoverians, and you think that if I see it in the stones, it will make it so.”
“You saw a great triumph for Angus the Lion,” he argued. “You predicted his invasion at Kinloch Castle.” When she gave no reply, Murdoch’s voice softened and he laid a hand on her shoulder. “But that’s not the only reason I want you, Raonaid. You know that. You’re a beautiful woman.”
She glanced down at his hand, thought of the mysterious spirit that haunted her, then gave him a spiteful glare. “I don’t know why you think so. I am spiteful and malicious.”
It’s why she had been alone all her life. Everyone feared her. Some believed she was the devil.
Murdoch carefully removed his hand from her shoulder and let it fall to his side.
“There, now,” she said mockingly. “That’s more like it, for I cannot abide lies.” She turned away from him and climbed the stairs to her chamber.