Highlander Enchanted

Chapter Eight

"I doona like this man," Niall whispered for the third time.

"I ken," Cade replied.

They strode through the halls of his keep towards the bedchamber of Father Adam. The day had been spent with Lord Richard, and every word the arrogant man uttered made Cade despise him a little more. Finally, he and his knights had retired for the night.

At his limit with the noble, Cade was also less clear about what was going on around him than he had been before. Lord Richard spoke as if he and Lady Isabel were already wed and had been for many years. He avoided answering direct questions about why his betrothed had fled and claimed ownership of her father's lands.

Of her.

It doesna matter. She is nothing to me. He had uttered the chant to keep from leaping across the table to slash the haughty lord's head off. He had been able to control his unseillie streak well now for a year or two, but first Isabel, then Richard, made all his work containing the dark, violent streak seem for naught.

The downpour outside left his cousins no doubt what he felt, even if he managed to remain civilized with Lord Richard.

"She is wealthy, if he's t'be believed," Niall said, his bemusement shared by Cade.

"If," Cade echoed. He stopped outside the door of the priest and pounded on it. "Father Adam!"

The muffled sound of something heavy hitting the floor – probably the priest's bible – reached Cade, an indication the elderly man had dozed off while in the middle of his duty.

"Enter, Cade," the priest called.

He did so. The priest's bedchamber was the largest in the hold, save for Cade's. Father Adam kept a trove full of books, scrolls and parchment with which to write letters on Cade's behalf. Brian was leaning over the priest's shoulder to peer at the writs.

"What've ye found?" Cade asked, too irritated by his night to render the proper greeting.

"A delightful scheme!" was the unusually enthusiastic reply.

Cade exchanged a look with Niall. They approached the priest's desk. It was littered with scrolls, and his thick bible lay on the floor. Cade picked it up and then kissed the cover out of respect for the book and his priest.

"Ye forgot t'cross y'self first," Father Adam reminded him.

Cade obeyed and solemnly made the sign of the Christian cross. The priest smiled, a gleam of laughter in his ancient eyes.

Father Adam had tried hard to convert the clan to Christianity and upon failing, had managed to bridge his religion and the nature-focused seillie beliefs by drawing upon similarities between the two. The result was a healthy respect of a religion not entirely theirs among the clan members, and the priest's appreciation of his god's miraculous creation of the seillie and their magic.

"What is it ye found?" Cade asked gruffly.

"These writs are the same," the priest proclaimed, lifting two scrolls.

"That doesna mean nothing," Cade said impatiently. He folded his arms across his chest.

"Och!" The priest appeared annoyed. "If ye listened t'me years ago, Cade, ye'd be readin' by now!"

"I doona wish t'read when I 'ave ye!"

"Are we wee lads again?" Niall interjected with a laugh. "Tell us what ye found, Father."

Cade clamped his mouth closed. His temper was shorter than normal, and he blamed the English nobles in his home for it while forbidding his thoughts from straying to the memory of Lady Isabel in his arms.