Beyond A Highland Whisper (24 page)

All the people who mattered gathered around the table. Her friends and future family surrounded her. Finally betrothed to the man of her dreams, Nessa sighed with contentment. Life just didn’t get any better than this. She’d been drawn to Scotland, some would say obsessed, for the better part of her life. Now she knew why. The land of her heart and the birthplace of her love, she’d been drawn here because she belonged. She’d never dreamed she’d ever be this happy.

With a disappointed jolt, Nessa decided her happiness was too tempting for the demons of discord to ignore. Their icy fingers tightened around her throat as trouble walked through the door. Nessa elbowed Trish and nodded to the archway where the hostess chatted to none other than Gabriel Burns. Cowering at his side trembled a mere slip of a woman stealing glances about the room.

“Just ignore him, Nessa. Maybe he won’t see you,” Trish instructed under her breath. Trish smiled and talked behind her glass as Latharn cast a curious glance at her and Nessa in the middle of his conversation with Brodie. No sooner had the words left Trish’s lips then Nessa heard Gabriel’s voice boom across the room.

“Nessa! Trish! It’s good to see ye. Ye’ve not been back to the pub in ages.” Gabriel ignored the meek woman scurrying behind him and headed straight for their table.

Latharn dropped his conversation to Brodie and rested a possessive hand across Nessa’s wrist. His eyes narrowed to piercing slits as he honed in on his prey.

“Hello, Gabriel.” Attempting to keep her tone as cool as possible, Nessa forced her politest smile across her face. Surely, he’d take the hint and leave. No one could be that dense. “Who’s your friend?” Nessa leaned around and softened her smile in the direction of the quiet woman’s downcast face. Her heart went out to Gabriel’s latest victim.

Gabriel’s eyes never left Nessa’s face as he shrugged a shoulder in the woman’s direction. “Oh, that’s just Maery. We’re old friends, she and I. Maery, this is Nessa Buchanan.”

A shadow of a smile flickered across Maery’s face and she ducked her head to each person at the table. She held her chin slightly tucked, as though afraid to speak. Nessa clenched her hands in her lap. Poor Maery. Nessa knew exactly why.

Latharn rose, flexing his muscles to ensure Gabriel received the full effect. He looked at Maery with one of his warmest smiles and bent his head in her direction.

“’Tis good to meet ye, Maery. My name is Latharn MacKay. I am Nessa’s betrothed.”

“Betrothed?” Gabriel spit out the word as though it tasted bad in his mouth. “Did you just say you are Nessa’s betrothed?”

“I did. Nessa and I are to be joined upon the next full moon. She has gifted me with the rest of her life. A gift I am most grateful to accept. I will also be most happy to accept your congratulations.” With a triumphant leer, Latharn waited, as if praying for Gabriel to make a stupid move. Latharn’s hands clenched, and Nessa reached out and touched his arm, afraid of what ran through her beloved’s mind.

Gabriel’s face purpled; his lips trembled as he shook beneath Latharn’s stare. Gabriel flexed his fists, swallowed hard, and with a jerk, finally extended his hand. With a curt nod of his head, he growled his words through gritted teeth. “Then I must congratulate ye, Latharn MacKay. It would seem the MacKays always get the finest women in the end.”

Latharn held off long enough for everyone at the table to start shifting in their seats. Then he reached out and crushed Gabriel’s hand in his own, squeezing his own unspoken fury into his grasp. “Thank ye. Now if ye’ll excuse us, we’ll be getting back to our
private
celebration. Don’t let us keep ye from your own plans.”

Gabriel’s face darkened further at the obvious dismissal. He bared his teeth in a parody of a smile. He grabbed Maery’s arm and spun on his heel, but not before looking Nessa square in the eye. “Good luck to ye, Nessa. If ye should ever need me, ye know where I can be found. I promise ye, I willna forget what could’ve been between the two of us, you and I.”

His words laced with unspoken meaning, Gabriel pulled the stumbling Maery from the room. Nessa shivered, rubbing the tingling skin at the back of her neck as Gabriel stormed out between the tables.

“There is a darkness about that one.” Latharn leaned closer to Brodie. “Did ye notice? Can ye sense it?”

Brodie’s hand tightened around his glass. “I’ve always sensed evil around that one.”

“No.” Latharn shook his head. “Now ye’re feeling your hatred. Ye must concentrate, Brodie, and listen with your senses not your rage.”

Nessa flinched as Gabriel’s roar and slamming doors echoed from the outer cloakroom. Chill bumps rippled down her spine.

“You didn’t have to provoke him,” Nessa scolded as Latharn settled back into his chair. She didn’t like all this talk about darkness or evil. All she knew for certain was Gabriel was a jerk. “Now poor Maery will catch the brunt of his anger. It’s pretty obvious she’s been abused by him before.”

Latharn shrugged and picked up his knife, slicing into his steak with an unconcerned nod in the direction they’d left. “The meek lass will be safe. If he touches her in anger, his heart will constrict within his chest.”

“You’re gonna make him die of a heart attack?” Trish leaned forward in avid interest. She tapped her wineglass, eyes wide as she awaited Latharn’s reply.

Latharn shook his head, brandishing his fork in the air before he brought a bit of steak to his lips. “Nay. He willna die. But he’ll think he’s about to meet his maker if he touches her in anger.”

Brodie leaned forward, his voice lowered to a whisper as he glanced about the room. “Can ye teach me any of these fine tricks of yours? Or has all the magic been bred out of our DNA and lost with modern civilization?”

Latharn looked at Brodie with just the hint of a smile. “The magic is in all of the MacKays, Brodie. It lies dormant, just waiting to be found. ’Tis our legacy. A gift from my parent’s union, and a blessing from the goddess Brid. Ye have but to learn to connect with the energies of the universe to watch the mysteries unfold.”

Fiona squirmed to the edge of her seat and laid a hand on her waist. “Are ye saying all the MacKays will be gifted with powers passed down from the mists of time?”

With a knowing wink, Latharn answered, “Aye, Fiona. Your twins will also be blessed with all the gifts running through the bloodline of our clan.” He lifted his glass and sipped.

“Our twins! Fiona?” Brodie stared at his wife and dropped his fork to the table.

“Aye, Brodie. I’ve been trying to find the right time to tell ye. Things have been in such an uproar of late. I wanted to wait to give ye the news at the perfect time. But even I didn’t know I was carrying twins. I just knew I was carrying our child.” Fiona giggled as Brodie swept her into his arms, laughing as he spun her around the table.

Nessa laughed and clapped her hands. “That’s wonderful! Then this is a double celebration. I wondered why you toasted us with water earlier and tonight you weren’t drinking any wine.” Twins. Gabriel’s poison left her mind, wiped away by Brodie and Fiona’s happy news.

“This day just keeps getting better,” Trish added with a smile. “Things are finally falling into place and I’m proud to say...it’s about damn well time!”

Brodie pounded the table in complete agreement. “The MacKay castle will soon be filled with little MacKays running about the halls.”

“Aye,” Latharn agreed, pulling Nessa into his arms. “Ye had best be thinking of a few names yourself,” he whispered next to her ear.

Trish’s jaw dropped as she read Latharn’s lips. “Are you saying you want Nessa to get pregnant or is this something you already know has happened?”

Latharn rubbed his jaw, gazing off across the restaurant. “I’ve had six hundred years to hone my skills. Ye would be surprised at what I’m able to do.”

Nessa almost choked. Her hands flew to her stomach as she realized she hadn’t refilled her birth control pills. But she couldn’t be pregnant already. She had been taking them for years.

Her gaze swiveled to Latharn’s knowing look and her heart nearly stopped as the smile widened upon his face. “Are you serious? Are you telling me I’m already pregnant?” Nessa had never dreamed of having children. What would she do if she was pregnant?

“Ye don’t carry my child just yet. But if the future plays out as I have seen it, we will be blessed with many gifted bairns.” Latharn almost hummed in satisfaction as he held out a glass of ice water to her to help her manage the rising knot in her throat.

“I…I cannot be a mother. I’ve n-never been around children. I won’t know what t-to do,” Nessa stammered as the hysteria sucked the air out of her lungs. She didn’t like not being in control. Then his words took root just as she’d taken a sip of the water and she almost spewed the mouthful over everyone at the table. “And just how many gifted bairns are we talking about here? And how close together?”

Latharn’s jubilant expression slowly faded from his face. “I fail to understand why ye are no excited about the possibilities the future holds. I am one of triplets. Multiple births run in the MacKay family. Brodie himself is a twin.”

Trish leaned closer, rubbed Nessa’s shoulder, and gave her a reassuring smile. “It’s going to be all right, Nessa. You’ll be fine. You told me you’ve been in love with Latharn since he appeared when you were eighteen years old. Didn’t you ever dream about having his baby any of those times you sat around with that dazed look on your face?”

Nessa’s voice cracked with her rising sense of panic, her mouth dried up as though filled with cotton. “No! My parents were so lousy. I didn’t want to become like them. Why would I want to take the chance of warping some innocent child the way they screwed me up?”

Latharn exhaled explosively. “Now I understand. I promise ye, Nessa. You’re nothing like your parents. I watched what they did to ye with their cruel, spiteful words. Our bairns will be happy and they will love ye deeply. Maybe as much as I do.”

Nessa’s lower lip trembled as a tiny tendril of hope sprouted deep within her heart. The churning in her stomach lessened as she searched Latharn’s face. Knotting her napkin between her damp palms, she heaved a shaking breath. “So, you promise you’ll help me when it comes time for us to start a family? You’ll make sure I don’t turn into some kind of wicked beast and end up scarring our babies for life?”

Leaning forward, Latharn planted a kiss on her forehead and placed a loving hand across her womb. “Ye won’t need my help when it comes to kindness. Ye’ve not got a cruel shadow in your soul.”

Nessa hugged his arm close and ducked her head with an embarrassed glance around the table. Her cheeks warmed when she realized she’d dampened the mood by bringing up her troubled past. “Please forgive me, Brodie and Fiona. I didn’t mean to spoil your news.”

Fiona waved her words away and reached across the table to squeeze her hand. “There’s nothing to forgive. But there’s a great deal to be done if we’re to have a handfasting upon the next full moon. Since Latharn appears to be all-knowing, exactly how much time do we have to prepare?”

A rich chuckle rumbled from deep within his chest as Latharn hugged Nessa close to his side. “We’ve got but two weeks before the moon is fully waxed. Our ritual shall be at midnight on that night.”

Fiona propped her arms on the edge of the cluttered table, tracing a finger across the top of an empty glass. “Midnight? Are ye sure Latharn? This time of year ’twill be quite cold standing beneath the stars.”

With a mysterious smile, Latharn raised his glass to his lips. “Midnight upon the night of the autumnal equinox, the full moon shining in the sky. ’Twill allow all of our guests as well as the Auld One to gather with us to witness the joining of our souls.”

“Wouldn’t ye have more guests during the early evening, before the midnight hour?” Brodie motioned for the waitress to return to the table and refill their empty glasses.

Latharn drained his glass and settled it in the midst of the rest of the empties before fixing Brodie with a reproving look. “Before that night, we must start your training, Brodie. Ye must stop thinking as though nothing else exists other then the physical aspect of this world.”

Remaining silent, Nessa eased back in her chair, too much wine and too much news taking its toll on her mind and body. Her head pounded and her stomach rolled. She thought she understood what Latharn meant but decided to wait until another time to find out for sure. She’d had enough surprises sprung on her during dinner. Swallowing uneasily, she still grappled with the news of her possible future as the matriarch of the next MacKay herd.