“ ’Tis not wise to laugh at the misfortunes of others,” Tearlag said, “especially when ye will be facing worse ones yourself.”
Hugh’s smile disappeared. “What are ye saying, old woman?”
“I see your death, Hugh Dubh MacDonald.”
Hugh’s face drained of color, and he took a step back.
Tearlag reached into a small bowl on the shelf above the hearth and threw what looked like dried herbs on the fire, making it spit and smoke. Then her good eye rolled back into her head, and she began making an eerie high- pitched sound as she shifted from foot to foot.
“I see it clear as day,” Tearlag said in a distant voice, as if she were speaking to them from the other side. “Ye are laid out on a long table, and the women are preparing your body for the grave.”
“Don’t say it, witch!” Hugh held his hands up as he backed up to the cottage door.
“I see your death, Hugh Dubh MacDonald,” Tearlag called out, waving her arms. “I see your death, and no one is weeping!”
“Damn ye, woman! Ye know nothing. Ye see nothing,” Hugh shouted, then turned and left the cottage. The other men stumbled over each other in their hurry to follow him out the door.
As soon as the men had gone, Ian turned blazing eyes on the old seer. “Why did ye find it necessary to tell them lies about my manhood, Tearlag? All the men on the island will be having a good laugh at me by this evening.”
“The women, too.” Tearlag’s three good top teeth showed in a wide grin.
“Her story did divert them from looking for Connor and Duncan,” Sileas said in a soft voice, as she tried to hide her own smile.
“Ah well,” Tearlag said, waving her hand. “Ye deserve it after what ye done to Sileas.”
“What?” Ian said, banging his fist on the table. “I’ve done nothing to deserve being humiliated.”
“Do ye not suppose the entire clan discussed how ye left Sileas the morning after ye wed?” Tearlag said, shaking a nobby finger at him.
Ian sat down. After a long moment, he turned to Sileas and took her hand. “Did the women tease ye, then?”
“Oh, aye,” Sileas said with a dry laugh. Pitching her voice high, she imitated their voices. “ ‘Can ye no keep your man at home, Sil?’ ‘What do ye suppose is keeping Ian?’ ‘If ye had given him a child, perhaps your husband would want to come home.’ ”
Ian brought her hand to his lips and kissed it. “I’m sorry. When I was in France, I still thought of ye as a young girl who would have no use for a husband.”
“Ian, go get the other lads now,” Tearlag said, taking the bowls down from the shelf. “They haven’t finished their dinner.”
It amused Sileas to hear Tearlag order Ian about as if he were a boy of ten and not a man three times her size. Her amusement faded as soon as Ian had gone and Tearlag focused her single eye on her.
“So why have ye no taken that fine-looking husband to your bed yet?” Tearlag said. “I know it isn’t for the reason I gave that devil Hugh Dubh.”
Sileas felt her cheeks go hot, and she dropped her gaze to the floor.
“Give him time,” Tearlag said, covering Sileas’s hand with her gnarled one. “Ian has it in him to be the man ye want him to be. Do ye have that pouch I made for ye?”
Sileas nodded.
“Ye sleep with it next to your heart?” Tearlag asked.
She nodded again.
“Then ye know what to do, lass.”
CHAPTER 15
Ian feared for his health.
Sileas was driving him near witless with lust. It could not be good for a man to want a woman this much without satisfaction. Collecting the kisses he said she owed him only made the torture worse.
He lay awake at night imagining her creamy skin in the moonlight. Every time he heard her voice in the next room or caught a glimpse of her across the yard, he hoped she had come to seek him out, to tell him she was ready.
He imagined her walking toward him, slowly, with her hips swaying and a sparkle in her eyes. Then she would rest the flat of her hands on his chest and say, “I’ve made up my mind. I want ye in my bed, Ian MacDonald.”
Ian shook his head and set down his hammer before he did damage to himself. Every time he backed her into a corner to steal a kiss, someone would come in and distract her. A few times he got his hand on her breast—ach, he was hard just thinking of that—but no further.
He could not take much more of this.
And he didn’t have time to waste. With Samhain just over a fortnight away, they needed to do something dramatic. He had discussed it with Connor and Duncan when he went to get them from the cave that day at Tearlag’s. All of them agreed that the best way to sway their clansman into backing Connor was to take Knock Castle.
To justify attacking the MacKinnons, Ian needed to remove any question as to his right to Knock Castle as
