Page 43 of To Win a Highlander’s Heart

Alastair frowned. “I fear our problems once again stem from within our walls not outside of it.” He turned to his brother. “Izzy mentioned a white-haired woman in the note she left for Gwendolyn and myself when she left.”

Rowena’s gaze slid to Alastair’s. “I’m not sure how reliable the words of a traumatised child are, but Emlyn claims to have seen that very white-haired woman at the gates moments before they opened.”

“Did she say anything more?” Alastair asked, holding back the storm of anger growing inside him. He was so tired of traitors hiding amongst the castle residents.

“You’ll have to ask Emlyn. All she said to me was that the woman was tall and pale, with hair as white as snow.”

Alastair turned to Gwendolyn. “You know many of the new residents here, especially the females. Does that description match anyone?”

“Nay,” Gwendolyn replied, her eyes wide. “Had I seen her, I am sure I would have remembered.”

“Rowena, you questioned the reliability of the source of that information, but Izzy saw her as well.” Callum’s features were partly in shadow from the light of the fading fire.

“Or…” Rowena said, stepping up to the men with a furrowed brow. “Do children and the innocent see things that adults do not?”

Alastair scowled. “Are you suggesting a ghost did this?”

“There is a way to find out. Mother.” Callum’s voice rang clear in the silence of the night. When nothing happened, he tried again, “Lady Janet!”

This time a swirl of mist appeared along the shoreline, gathering until a luminous woman’s body appeared in the darkness. She hovered before them. There is no need to shout when you need me. Simply call my name and I shall appear, if I am able.

If she was able? Her choice of words gave Alastair a moment’s pause. Their mother had never mentioned such a thing before. He would have to ask her more when things were not so dire. “The young girl, Emlyn, mentioned seeing a tall woman with white hair opening the gates for the English to invade the castle. Do you know of such a person?”

Their mother’s already pasty complexion turned white and fear shone in the Grey Lady’s eyes. The child has seen her?

“Seen who?” Alastair prompted.

Where is the child? Someone go get Emlyn. There is something you all need to know.

Rowena nodded to Alastair before she hurried towards the sea gate and back to the castle.

“What do we need to know?” Alastair could feel anxiety tightening his shoulders.

“Mother.” Tormod moved to stand beside the ghost. “Please explain yourself.”

We have a visitor at Dunvegan. A fairy woman who is a descendant of Iain Cair. Or at least she was here until she followed Isolde when she left.

“Our ancestor who was given the Fairy Flag by the fairy princess?” Callum asked incredulously. Alastair could almost see the questions forming behind his younger brother’s eyes.

A shiver teased Alastair’s neck. The legend of the flag had come to the MacLeods centuries ago. While he believed whole-heartedly in the power the flag possessed, Alastair had always had his doubts that the flag had originated in the fairy realm. “How do you know who she is, Mother?”

She told me so herself when I sensed her presence and confronted her a few days ago. She entered Dunvegan when Orrick brought Isolde back here.

Alastair’s heart sped with worry over yet another person creeping past his guards. He would never put anyone else through what his own wife had suffered at the hands of an intruder. As soon as they were done here, he wanted twice as many guards posted at the entrances to the castle and on the towers. “Why didn’t you alert us?”

She promised not to harm you. She wanted to get to know her kin better, from a distance, and she had nowhere else to go. She has been alone and wandering since the night of Samhain.

Tormod crossed his arms. “A portal between the human realm and the spirit realm did open on that night. We all felt it, and thought that’s when Mother would leave us.”

“Instead of Mother leaving, the portal allowed something else to pass through to our world,” Callum said.

Alastair’s gaze snapped back to his mother’s. “Where is she now?”

I do not know. As I said, she left with Isolde.

“So is this a fairy woman, or is she more human than immortal?” Callum pondered with a frown.

Tormod’s gaze was severe. “Over the past two weeks since Samhain, the half-fae has proven she can take care of herself.”