Highland Shifter (MacCoinnich Time Travels #4)(43)
Author: Catherine Bybee

Amber lifted the lapels of the cloak and shrugged her shoulders. “It doubles as a blanket. I slept a full night. I can’t remember the last time that happened.”

“Oh, Amber, that’s wonderful.”

“But you? You don’t look as if you slept at all. Where were you?”

Helen stole a glance at Myra.

“Well?”

Myra saved Helen some of her embarrassment. “I found her and Simon walking down the hall. Together.”

Amber’s eyes grew wide. “Together?”

Myra nodded.

“Oh for crying out loud. We’re both adults. Consenting adults.” Helen wasn’t a teen in need of scolding. Not that these women were scolding. “This is awkward.”

“Really? Why?” Amber asked.

“Because…” Helen crossed the room to the washbasin and poured water in the bowl. “Simon is practically a brother to you,” she said and pointed at Amber, “or a cousin at least. And a nephew to you.”

“We’ve both known Simon since he was just a lad,” Myra pointed out.

Helen brought a washrag to the water and wrung it out. She scrubbed her face and neck with more force than necessary. “Yeah, well, he isn’t a lad anymore. He is very grown up.” With grown up parts that worked well. Very, very well.

Helen felt her cheeks heat up again.

Someone behind her chuckled.

“Very grown up,” whispered Amber.

“Relax, Helen. We’re happy for you, truly.”

When she turned around, Myra and Amber were standing side by side. The two of them looked so much alike with their long black hair touching their butts, both the same size and height, and eyes the perfect shade of chocolate brown. Back home, Hollywood would would’ve snatched them up in an instant.

“You are?”

“Aye.”

Myra cocked her head to the side and her grin slid. “But you’ve met my father, right?”

Is this a trick question? Of course she’d met Ian. “Yeah?”

Amber glanced at Myra and her smile fell as well.

The hair on Helen’s neck started to tingle and her skin started to pop with sensations. The same energy she experienced when her gift manifested. Her own personal indicator that information was about to arrive. “What?”

Myra motioned to one of the chairs in the room, encouraging Helen to sit.

Tendrils of power ran up and down Helen’s arms. Sitting didn’t make it better.

“Well?”

Myra gathered Helen’s hand in hers and patted it like she would a child. Her attempt at calm wasn’t working. “If one of you doesn’t start speaking I’m going to go bat-shit crazy.”

“My father is um…. Well, he takes his role as leader of this family very seriously.”

Fine, Helen had seen that. “So?”

“He takes in everyone who travels here with the stones as if they are his own. He offered his full protection to Tara, Lizzy, and Simon…even Todd.”

Amber sat beside Helen. “He considers you his ward. His responsibility.”

Funny, Helen thought Simon took on that role. But Ian was captain of this ship. She got that. “I appreciate that.”

“He’ll treat you as he would his own daughter. Protect you as such,” Amber said.

“I’m not his kid. He doesn’t have to do that.”

“But he will. Does.”

“He feeds me, keeps a roof over my head. I get it.”

From the looks on Myra and Amber’s faces, she wasn’t getting it at all.

“When Tara and Duncan were found together, our father handfasted them within an hour—”

“And when Todd and I were found kissing, he promised to do the same to us if we continued,” Myra interrupted.

Helen started to see the theme here. “And Lizzy?”

“Well, Lizzy…” Amber’s voice faded.

“If we weren’t risking our lives daily, he’d have forced Fin and Lizzy to marry, too,” Myra told her.

Light flickered behind her eyelids. “So you think if Ian found out about Simon and I, he’d enforce a shotgun marriage?”

“Shotgun?”

Helen shook her head, forgetting these women didn’t understand pop culture. “He’d force Simon to marry me.”

Myra’s mouth formed a perfect “O”. “Aye, ’tis exactly what will happen.”

It was Helen’s turn to laugh. “He can try. But that ain’t gonna happen. Besides, I’ve heard of long distance relationships, but living hundreds of years apart is bound to end in divorce.” As she stood, the hair on her arms still hadn’t gone down.

“You’ve been warned.”

“Well thanks, girls. Message delivered. Now, can someone help me get into one of these dresses so I can go eat? I’m starving.”

Amber and Myra exchanged a look and a knowing smile.

Helen knew she hadn’t heard the end of this.

Chapter Eighteen

“So McNeil is after our women,” Ian mused aloud.

“I didn’t hear the name McNeil. In fact, I had the distinct impression a different leader led this band of warriors.” Simon sat among the men and explained what he’d learned.

“Are you sure?”asked Ian.

“I’m not sure of anything. I’m relaying the information I heard. But—”

“But what?” Fin sat his ale down.

“Something didn’t feel right.”

“How so?” Duncan asked.

“Everywhere I perched I heard the same mantra. Almost like the practiced lines of an actor. Like a jester telling the same jokes. They’re practiced and stale after a while, which was how these men spoke.”

Todd stood and started to pace. “Brainwashed? Drink the punch, my children, and follow me.”

Simon shook his head but uttered the word, “Maybe.”

“Manipulated. Like Grainna did to hundreds?” Ian’s voice held a degree of concern.

“Grainna’s dead. We all saw her die.”

Duncan nodded. “It’s not Grainna. We’d know if she’d managed to escape. But who could it be?”

“Someone who knows about us.”

Ian tapped the edge of his desk with his fingertips in a slow, steady rhythm. “If a Highlander who wasn’t Druid knew of us, he’d spread the word and all of Scotland would come to our doors to brand us as evil.”

“So we’re dealing with a Druid.”

Simon nodded. “I think you’re right, Fin.”