“That’s why you bought it? For some kind of twisted revenge on my father?”
“What else did I have t’ do with me life, with Mary gone? And don’t be lookin’ at me so superior, young Jerry. You did the same—got hard and mean and selfish when yer wife crashed in that plane.”
How the hell could Jared argue when he knew what Snib said was true? “My flaws have nothing to do with my father. He was a good man. A decent man. He never let life make him hard like we did.”
“He might as well have been Bonnie Prince Charlie, he was so goddamned perfect. Bonnie Prince Charlie with a shepherd’s crook.”
The historian in Jared couldn’t keep from pointing out, “Actually, Charles Stuart turned out to be a self-indulgent ne’er-do-well who deserted his men at Culloden Moor and—never mind.”
“My point is that your father was so perfect it put me off my feed. I knew Angus would regret losing the farm for the rest of his life. Drivin’ him off it was a pleasure after Mary left him. Gave me hope, don’t ye know, that between faithless Mary and I, we could make him feel what the rest of us felt. Jealousy. Hate. Bitterness. And when I caught him with this bundle, actin’ like he’d found the holy grail, I threatened to call the authorities if he didn’t hand it over. Asked how he’d like it if his boy added a daddy in prison to his whore of a mother.”
“You bloody rotten—”
“I’m tryin’ to make it right before I die, if ye’ll let me, ye damned fool! When I talked my fool head off to Emma about the bundle, she said goin’to the grave with somethin’ this cold on yer heart would be a terrible thing. Humph. Would’ve sworn I didn’t have a heart anymore, until that lass rushed in like a bulldozer an’ knocked all my rocky parts away.”
Jared’s sharp reply died on his lips. He looked away, suddenly quiet. “She’s good at that, Emma is.”
“So, man, the long an’ short of it is this. Ye can dig on my land if it’ll make Emma happy. As long as ye don’t worry my sheep.”
Jared gaped. He should have been elated, his dream of excavating the area around the standing stones coming true. Emma’s gift to him. But even this triumph seemed hollow without her.
She’d given up her own dream to protect him and Davey. Her chance to prove to the world the truth of who she was—a brilliant dramatic actress with a soul so deep Jared’s beloved Lady Aislinn shone through her eyes. God, it didn’t seem fair that she’d gifted him with this and surrendered so much herself.
Snib scowled at him, nudging the bundle in disdain. “This thing—well, it’s a lot of nothin’ if ye ask me. If ye want to find yerself a treasure, ye fecking eejit, go after that lassie with the eyes that love you fierce.”
“Don’t you think I want to?” Jared snapped. “But I can’t leave until the site closes down for the winter and Davey is back on his feet. And even if I do, she may not have me. She’s dead stubborn and she thinks…”
“Thinks she’s ruined yer life, almost killed that boy. Well, from where I’m sittin’, looks to me like she’s waked ye up from one o’those fairy spells, where a man spends his whole life asleep. I don’t know what the devil she sees in ye—scurvy Butler that ye are—but yer a fool if ye don’t go fetch her.”
“What am I supposed to do if she won’t change her mind?”
“A stout highland lad like yerself? Fling ’er over yer shoulder and drag her back here if ye must. Tie ’er to yer bed an’ get a child in her. That’s the way our ancestors did it. A rough wooing.”
“Right, man. That’s a fine idea. I’ll just march up to her home, grab her by the hair and haul her off right under her family’s noses.”
“Can’t see a problem with it. The lass’ll probably be so happy t’ see ye, she’ll beat ye to the bed, once she gets over the mad of it. No man would ever force that prime little ewe to do anything she didn’t want to. And she wants
ye,
Butler. God help her. On that ye can depend.”
Jared stared at the old man who had been his enemy for so long. “Why are you here? Doing this for me?”
“Not doin’ it fer a thievin’ Butler. Doin’ it fer her.” Snib scuffed the floor with the toe of his boot. “Can’t seem to help meself. The damned woman swallowed a worm.”
Jared chuckled wanly.
“Gets a man’s attention, that does. An’ she did even worse before she flew off in that fancy plane.”
“What’s that?”
“Made me promise I’d look in on ye. And then…” Snib shook his head in wonder, his false teeth rattling. “Kissed me, square on the mouth she did, an’ told me I was a gentleman. Snodgrass Begood MacMurray, a gentleman!”
Jared laughed out loud.
“Gives a man somethin’ to aspire to, that McDaniel filly does. More grit in her than sense.”
“That’s the truth.”
Snib patted the bundle again, raining dirt all over the desk. “Tell her this is her wedding present. From me. If yer man enough to win her.”
Snib spun on his worn-down heel and stalked out the door. Paused to glare back at Captain, who was busily sniffing at the contents on Jared’s desk. “I’ll
still
shoot that devil of a dog if he comes on my land. Guess I just can’t shoot you. Can’t have our Emma picking buckshot out of your arse.”
Jared listened as Snib’s truck fired up and the old man drove away. He peered down at the bundle, remembering the day Emma had clasped his hand through the hole in the stone that was supposed to bind true hearts forever. Was it possible, just possible that Craigmorrigan had some magic left…for them?
Chapter Twenty-Three
J
ARED PULLED HIS RENTAL
car into the gravel driveway and looked up at the Civil War era house looming against the horizon. Destination by default. He wasn’t even sure the family would be here at the moment. But he knew eventually at least one of the McDaniels would have to show up at the bed-and-breakfast Emma’s mother and aunt ran.
He remembered the way Emma’s face had shone when she talked about how much her family loved this place with its vast kitchen and treasure-trove attic, its welcoming veranda and the stained-glass window with a peacock displaying jewel-toned feathers. Emma’s smile had warmed with affection as she’d spoken of the ghost she’d believed in as a little girl. But Emma’s eyes, those beautiful dark banished fairy eyes, had shone even brighter as she’d shared the memories she and her mother had made from the time Emma was ten, the six years they’d lived in the private section of the house.
He scanned the grounds. The driveway was empty, late-September breezes riffled the white lace curtains at the open front windows. The garden to the right of the house welled up with fall hues. Jared saw the white gingerbread trim and the wooden spire atop what must be the gazebo where Emma had tried unsuccessfully to seduce Drew Lawson, the fool. Jared wouldn’t give a damn if the whole world caught an eyeful today—if Emma would only let him love her.
He slid out of the car seat, nabbing Captain’s leash just in time as the little dog jettisoned himself out of the car. Looping Captain’s leash over his wrist, he concentrated on avoiding the terrier dodging under his feet while he popped open the trunk and extracted the crate he’d hand-carried all the way from Scotland to L.A. and then to Illinois. The “wedding gift” Snib had sent to the Yank lass who’d eaten a worm, toasting the Bruce and Bannockburn.
Jared’s chest still swelled with wonder every time he thought of what marvels the crate held. A gift that would stun Emma, amaze her. And maybe, please God, maybe give her faith in the power of love and hope enough to change her mind. Trust in loving. In trying. In a dramatic triumph she’d surrendered and a future she didn’t believe they could have.
And just where would that future be?
his old doubts mocked him.
I don’t know,
he answered himself. At least coming here was a start. Seeing her world for the first time—a place that might have jumped right out of the pages of the Mark Twain books he’d read as a boy—he wondered at the courage Emma had shown, facing him down at the castle. He was the outsider here. He hoped when he entered the world that was hers, he’d show half the resourcefulness she had.
Jared started toward the front door, but Captain would have none of it, the terrier straining so hard on his leash that Jared feared he’d drop the crate. Grimacing, Jared surrendered to the hardheaded animal, letting Captain tug him toward the rhododendron bush that marked the entry to the garden. The back door would do as well as the front, he figured. At that moment Captain wrenched his head right out of his collar.
Jared swore as the terrier darted off. A curse erupted from the vicinity of the gazebo, a man of about ninety emerging from beyond the white gingerbread rail. He brandished a garden spade at the yapping dog.
“Back to your own yard, you little fluffy! There’ll be no digging in Finn’s rose beds on my watch!”
The dog stood his ground.
“Not your fault, poor little bugger,” Spade Man groused. “When I find the moron who owns you I’ll take it out on his hide!”
“He’s Emma’s dog.”
The old man looked up, impaling Jared with a vivid blue gaze designed to peel away layers and unearth what a man was made of inside. “Emma’s?” the old man repeated. Good Lord—was that a gold hoop glinting in his left ear?
“That’s right.” Jared stepped to the wrought iron table where a glass of some kind of fizzy drink sat, ice cubes melting in the sun. He slid the crate onto the table. “At least, he used to be her dog. She left him behind for me.”
“Left him where?”
“In Scotland.”
Razor-sharp intellect burned lines in the old man’s leathery face. “You the man who stood by and let my grandbaby eat a worm?”
Bloody hell. Jared should have guessed he was face to face with Emma’s legendary grandfather. The man was hefting the shovel in his hands as if it were an M-16 and he was trying to figure out where to spear Jared with the bayonet. But damned if Jared was going to back down.
“Nobody could make that woman do anything she doesn’t want to!” He grabbed Captain and refastened his collar, then tied the leash to the nearest table leg, well out of the old man’s range. “If you don’t know that about Emma, you don’t know her very well at all.”
Captain McDaniel rocked back on his heels. “Oh, I know her plenty. Right down to her stubborn little toes. What the hell are you doing here?”
Jared’s chin bumped up a notch. Why not say it right out loud? “I’ve come to marry her.”
“Didn’t they teach you to read in that fancy university you went to?” Captain McDaniel’s scowl could have leveled a city like a nuclear blast. “She won’t have you. She said she made her feelings clear in that letter she wrote.”
“I don’t care what she wrote.” Jared stared the old man down. “I’m not leaving here without her.”
The Captain guffawed in disdain. “Emma made up her mind she won’t see you. What are you going to do? You and that fluffy little dog you’ve got there going to howl outside her window?” The terrier showed his teeth in his most convincing I’m-not-scared-of-you growl.
“Show a little respect,” Jared said. “She named this fluffy little dog after you.”
“Did she?” Captain McDaniel eyed the scruffy rat of a terrier with new interest, then turned his attention to the wooden crate. “What’s that thing you’ve got scratching up my paint job on the table?”
Jared crossed his arms over his chest. “It’s for Emma.”
Without so much as a by-your-leave, the old man set his spade aside and wrestled the top off the box. He tossed the lid to the ground. The terrier dodged under the table with an offended yelp.
“Ratty old canvas and a bunch of dirt?” McDaniel complained. “Some gift to bring to a woman. Ever hear of flowers or candy over there in Scotland?” He poked the oiled canvas with his finger. “What is it?”
“That’s for Emma to know. This was buried beneath the standing stones near the castle.”
“That’s just what the girl needs,” Captain McDaniel scoffed. “More old junk to moon over like that stuff in the attic, where she’s been spending all her time. I was just about to haul her out to help me with the garden. All that brooding is no good for the girl.”
So Emma was here! Jared’s heart skipped a beat. She was close, so damned close.
But her grandfather bristled with hostility, looking so much like Captain the dog, Jared might have laughed if the situation weren’t so dire. “I don’t care if you brought her the tail from King Tut’s monkey,” the Captain said, drawing himself up to his full height. “You made my grandbaby cry, you lowdown son of a bitch. Damned if I’m going to let you upset her again!”
Jared’s mouth set in a thin, hard line. “There’s no ‘let’ about this, Captain McDaniel. I don’t want trouble but I’ll go through you if I have to.”
“You can try.” The old man cocked his fists up, ready, blue eyes filling with exhilaration.
Jared groaned inwardly as the old man called his bluff. What the hell was he supposed to do? Emma would hate him if he broke the old man’s hip. He’d just have to grab the old guy carefully and try not to hurt him when he moved Captain McDaniel out of his way.
Jared started toward McDaniel, looking for someplace on that thin body he wouldn’t break. In a flash, the Captain grabbed his wrist. Pain shot through Jared. He dropped to his knees to keep his wrist from breaking. Another flick and SMACK! Jared lay flat on his back, the wind knocked out of him, a boot sole balanced oh so delicately on his windpipe, the
frail
old man beaming down at him in triumph.
The terrier yapped frantically, trying to snap at the old man’s leg, but unable to reach. He set to lapping the bare patch of ankle where Jared’s pant leg had ridden up.
“Now, young man,” the Captain said. “Are you going to go away like I told you?” He took his foot off Jared’s neck so he could answer.
“No,” Jared said hoarsely, gently nudging the dog off him.
“No?” McDaniel echoed, staring.
“That’s right. I said
no.
” Jared rubbed his throat with his left hand as he climbed to his feet. “I hope you’re ready for a very long battle of wills, Captain McDaniel, because I’m not going anywhere until I see Emma.” Jared narrowed his eyes in grim determination. “You do what you have to do, guarding the gates to the citadel or whatever. But I’m just going to keep on coming at you until I get through.”