Luna held out the coin to him.
“I do not want your coin. You have something else we want—information. Give us that and I will see you safely to your destination.”
She nodded, agreeing.
Brogan stoked the fire, the morning having dawned with a heavy chill, then helped Luna to sit close to the heat of the flames. She wasted no time in stretching her slim hands out to the warmth.
Annis draped a blanket around the woman’s shoulders after seeing her shiver, then sat with her husband opposite her. She cast a curious glance over her, trying to determine if she had ever seen her before. Gray had devoured the few long, curly strands of red hair left, but surprisingly her face held few wrinkles. She had no stoop that came with age, though her limp was heavily pronounced. No memory recalled ever seeing her yet somehow, she seemed familiar to Annis.
“You are both kind,” Luna said with a nod. “Now tell me what you want from me.”
Annis spoke up and bluntly. “Information on the MacWilliam bairn whose life was to be taken about twenty years ago—but lived.”
“Why would I know anything about that?” she asked innocently.
Again, Annis was blunt. “Because the witch in the hills sent me to find you.”
That Luna did not respond with shock or denial, told Annis that she was no innocent.
Luna’s glance shifted to Brogan. “If I share what I know, will you offer me protection, my lord?”
“There is a village by the hills not far from where the witch lives where you will be safe,” he said.
“How can you be sure?” Luna asked.
“It is my village, and I will see no harm comes to you,” he said. “But what of your destination?”
“It matters not. I will go where I will be safe,” Luna said and turned her attention back to Annis. “First, I must make you aware of Fenton. He is not a merchant of wares, but of information. He would pay dearly for what I am about to tell you.”
“I thought the same myself and put my theory to a test.” Annis glanced quickly at her husband. “That is why I sent you to fetch the blankets last night. I told him I had information and wondered if I could get coin for it. He paid me one coin.”
“I had thought that myself,” Brogan admitted and did not ask what information she gave Fenton. She obviously did not want to say in front of Luna. Something Fenton said suddenly came to mind.
I stop often at Clan MacRae.
Had he stopped to learn information, or had he delivered information? And if so, to who?
Annis took hold of her husband’s hand as she said, “Please share with us what you know of the MacWilliam bairn.”
Luna cast leery eyes around the surrounding area.
“Fenton does not linger,” Brogan said confidently. “He was anxious to leave this morning, which means he is eager to sell the news Annis has shared with him.”
Luna nodded and her shoulders visibly relaxed. “I can tell you what was told to me recently. The MacWilliam bairn lives. Lady Aila’s servant, Gunna, got the bairn to safety, but knowing they would be after her, she gave the lass to a childless couple. Lord Lochlann and your father, Lord Balloch, claim they killed the lass and possibly Gunna, since she was never seen after that,” Luna said.
“Who told you this?” Annis asked.
“That is the strange part. A woman crippled with age approached me one day and told me.” Luna shrugged. “I do not know why she chose me to tell. I have shared it with no one, fearful if I did—I would suffer for it. Meeting you and having you ask me about it, I see the information was meant for you.”
“Is there anything else you can tell us?” Annis asked, disappointed, having believed the woman with the limp would have had more information concerning the MacWilliam lass for them.
“Aye,” Luna said with a nod, though appeared reluctant to say.
“Tell us,” Brogan ordered.
Luna nodded. “The woman says that Gunna lives and has returned to save the lass from the three lords one last time.”
21
They made it home without incident, a gray sky having followed them all the way.
Annis was more surprised to see that much work had been accomplished in the short time they had been gone, but that was thanks to the added men sent from Clan MacRae. She was more than pleased to see that her instructions on where and how the various dwellings were to be built had been adhered to. Her surprise grew when she spotted several young women who must have come with the MacRae men. What pleased her the most, though, were the smiles and laughter that were heard upon entering the village.
Cheers went up and people hurried toward them as soon as Annis and Brogan were spotted. Men hurried to assist Luna off the horse and to take and tend Belle after Brogan lifted Annis off the mare.