The Sinner

Alex saw the outline of the upper half of a figure with long flowing hair above the water line. Her legs—or tail —were beneath the water.

“Hold on,” he called out. “We’re coming for ye.”

“She’s just there!” Glynis said.

“Get in the back of the boat.” Knowing Glynis was not the sort to follow orders without an explanation, he added, “I need ye to keep the boat steady while I pull her in.”

But if Alex saw a tail, he was dropping this creature back into the sea.

He brought the boat up next to the rock. When he leaned out to lift her, she kept her arms wrapped around the rock. Ach, this was no selkie. The poor thing was shaking like a newborn lamb.

“Ye can let go now,” he said, using the same soft tone he would use with a riled horse. “I’ve got ye.”

Only two feet of the rock remained above water, and the tide was still coming in. Another hour or two, and she’d have nothing left to hold on to. How long had she been here, clinging to it as the water rose around her? No wonder she was afraid to let go.

“Don’t worry, lass,” he said. “You’re safe now.”

“Alex?” the woman asked in a hoarse voice. “Is that you?”

God in Heaven, the woman clinging to the rock was Catherine Campbell.

“Aye, it’s me,” he said. “Put your arms around my neck. I promise I won’t drop ye.”

Catherine’s skirts were heavy with water as he lifted her into the boat. Moving quickly, he loosened his plaid and wrapped it around them both, then he set to rubbing her back and limbs to get her blood moving. She was so cold her teeth were chattering.

Glynis found a blanket and draped it around Catherine’s shoulders.

“What happened, Catherine?” Alex asked. “How did ye get out here?”

“Sh-sh-aggy did it.” Her teeth chattered as she spoke. “He-he brought me out here and left me.”

“Are ye saying Shaggy meant for ye to drown?”

She nodded against his chest.

The saints have mercy! Alex had seen a good deal of violence in his life, and he knew of instances when men murdered wives or lovers in a rage. But the cold ruthlessness of this shocked him. Shaggy had wanted his wife to watch the water rise for hours, knowing all the while that she would drown in the end.

“We’ve got to go to shore and get a fire going for her,” he said to Glynis. “Then we’ll need to get her to her family.”

“What do ye want me to do?” Glynis asked. “I can row.”

Thank God Glynis wasn’t the sort of woman to lose her head in a crisis.

“I’ll row,” he said. “Just keep her as warm as ye can.”

A second woman had asked for his help.

*  *  *

Glynis tried to lift Catherine Campbell to the back of the boat as Alex took up the oars, but the woman slid from her arms like an eel. When Glynis tried again, Catherine wrapped her arms around Alex’s waist from behind and clung to him, just as she had to the rock.

“It’s all right. Just tuck my plaid around her,” Alex said. “My body will give off plenty of heat while I row.”

As he rowed, Alex calmed Lady Catherine with a steady, low murmur, as if he were soothing a babe in his arms. Glynis felt useless.

She bit her lip against her own disappointment. After what Lady Catherine had suffered, it was small of her to think about how her own plans were ruined. Alex would insist upon seeing Catherine safely to her brother’s castle, as well he should, and Glynis would never make it to Edinburgh.

The Campbell chieftain would send word to Glynis’s father. And she would go home in worse shame than before.

“The fog is lifting, and the wind is picking up,” Alex said to Glynis after a while. “We can put the sail up now, and we’ll be on the Campbell side of the loch in no time.”

After Glynis helped him raise the boat’s small sail, Alex gathered Lady Catherine in his lap and sat with one arm around her and one guiding the boat.

“Catherine, if ye feel well enough to talk,” Alex said, “can ye tell us why Shaggy left ye on that rock?”

“He wanted to be rid of me without earning the wrath of my brothers,” she said. “He wanted me dead, without blood on his hands.”

“Who else was involved?” Alex asked.

“Shaggy rowed me out to the rock himself—he didn’t want to risk any loose tongues,” Catherine said, anger strengthening her voice. “While he had me trussed like a pig for roasting, he took considerable pleasure in telling me how the water would creep up until I’d have no rock to hold on to.”

Glynis thought Lady Catherine sounded sufficiently recovered to sit on her own. Catherine did not, however, remove herself from Alex’s lap.

“Shame I didn’t succeed in poisoning him,” Catherine said. “I tried twice, but Shaggy is a tough old bird.”

Glynis exchanged glances with Alex, but he showed no surprise at this remarkable confession.