Under an Enchantment: A Novella by Anne Stuart

Author:Anne Stuart
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Historical romance, Fiction
ISBN: 9780986001871
Publisher: Anne Stuart
Published: 2012-04-08T18:26:55+00:00

Chapter 4

“Dinna ye plan to go to the kirk?” Collis’s accusing voice broke through Malcolm’s reverie.

He roused himself to glance up at the old man. “Sunday, is it?” he replied lazily, knowing full well what day it was. Four days since he’d walked ashore on the island of St. Columba. Two days since he’d last caught sight of Ailie Wallace Spens.

“It would do ye no harm to observe the sabbath,” Collis said sourly.

Malcolm shook his head. “I can’t do that, old man.”

“And why not?”

He smiled with a sweetness that left the old man stonily unmoved. “Because the kirk is no place for faerie craitures,” he said. “Yon minister would doubtless cast me out if I tried to enter.”

“Yon minister might surprise you,” Collis said. “He’s a fine preacher, never bedeviling a man about too much whisky and minor sins such as that. The entire island goes to service every Sunday.”

There was no missing Collis’s message. “Everyone?”

“Even those half-mazed,” Collis said. “Torquil usually takes her.”

Malcolm rose from his perch by the rocky shore. He’d taken to staring at the dark water, so angry and different from the sea near the MacLaren lands in Glen Corrie. “Then it would probably behoove me to go as well,” he said. “I haven’t seen Lady Spens since Thursday. I would have thought she’d be around.” He made his voice sound careless, noncommittal, and he wondered whether he fooled Collis.

“I doubt she’s had any choice in the matter. It’s that family of hers. They moved in on her, and word has it they’re keeping her under lock and key.”

“Why would they do that?”

“To keep her away from you.”

Malcolm looked at him in surprise. “Why would they think I would mean her harm?” They didn’t strike him as clever enough to see beneath the surface.

“It’s not you they don’t trust, laddie. It’s the girl. She’s mazed, you know.”

“So they say.”

“And they’re afraid for her. Afraid she’ll come to harm. That someone might misunderstand her simple friendliness for something more sinful.”

“They’re afraid I’ll seduce her?”

“Aye.”

“A wicked thing to do, Collis. To seduce an innocent lass and then abandon her,” Malcolm said dryly. “Anyone who’s party to such an act should be punished. Don’t you agree?”

Collis stared at him strangely. “If ye say so. Is that what happened to Catriona? Did she find herself with an unwanted bairn and then walk into the sea to escape her shame?”

“No!” Malcolm snapped. He glared at the old man. “You knew her, back then. Was she the sort of lass who’d give in to a man’s lies? Who’d kill herself and her bairn rather than face the consequences? Was she a coward and a whore, Collis?” His voice was low, deceptively dangerous, as if he were waiting for an excuse to vent his fury.

But Collis shook his head slowly. “She was a sweet lass. One who might have made the mistake of giving herself in love to the wrong man.”

“She didn’t,” Malcolm said flatly.

“But she would never have killed herself.”

Malcolm felt some of the tension drain from him.

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