Read Online Spellbound by Michelle M. Pillow - Free Book Online

around his ears.” She looked around, vaguely recalling the room while having raced through it to get away from Iain. The house had sat empty for so long that she imagined it would have been covered with dust and cobwebs before they moved in. The woodwork looked as if it had been installed yesterday rather than over a hundred years ago. The marble staircase and oak banister were polished to a gleam, uncracked by time and abuse. The wide tread had a red carpet down the middle to create traction. Otherwise, the slick stone would have easily sent people to their death.
    She stumbled to a stop in the doorway, hesitated, and then started to back away. Her eyes scanned the open railing of the second floor for the old woman.
    “I found a wife!” Raibeart announced, stopping her retreat as he pulled her arm to bring her into the middle of the foyer. Someone closed the door behind her with a heavy thud. “And she’s not a bean nighe , she just smells like one!”
    “Um?” Jane looked around, not seeing who he yelled to.
    “Not again.” A woman’s voice chided from a door to her left. “Does this one know ya exist?”
    “Aye, she knows, and she’s crazy about me,” Raibeart yelled. He grinned and winked at Jane. “Don’t listen to her, love. Those others meant nothing to me.”
    “Oh, well, I—” Jane tried to answer.
    “Come meet Shelly,” Murdoch said in the direction of the voice. “Shelly, this is my Cait.”
    “It’s actually—” Jane started to correct her name.
    A woman appeared through the doorway wearing a cashmere sweater set, tweed skirt, and pearls. She looked like something from a 1950s homemaker magazine with her blonde-brown hair pulled back—though she hardly looked old enough to remember being a housewife during the era. Heck, she hardly looked old enough to be a baby in that era. “By all the stars, put some clothes on!” Cait inhaled sharply. “What must the poor girl think of us?”
    “She’s not been looking,” Murdoch defended. “She’s been that shade of red since we came across her in the woods.”
    “We caught her stealing the water,” Raibeart added.
    “She didn’t steal the water,” Angus corrected. “Raibeart got us lost again.”
    “We scared the poor thing and she cut herself,” Murdoch went to his wife. “Would ya mind, my Cait?”
    “Find your kilts!” Cait ordered. Then, in a more docile tone, she said, “Come, child, this way. Shield your eyes.”
    Jane found herself obeying.
    “Ya must forgive the old fools,” Cait said as she led Jane through the formal dining room to a library. A large window showcased the outside gardens. The woman gestured for Jane to take a seat in one of the oversized leather chairs in front of the fireplace. “Let me see the damage.”
    “They seem harmless enough.” Jane sat and held out her palm. The blood had started to dry.
    “It will be nothing at all to get that cleaned up.” Cait motioned that Jane should remain seated as she stepped out of the room and then back in. Wherever she’d gone couldn’t have been too far. “Oh, they’re harmless until they get into the ale. I think all that celebrating they did at the pub earlier with the townsfolk sparked the naked revolution ya were party to.”
    “There are worse things in this world than streaking through the dark,” Jane said.
    “That there are,” Cait agreed. She lifted Jane’s hand and began cleaning the wound. The woman had a gentle touch, so gentle Jane could barely feel it. Suddenly, Cait stopped as a tiny smudge of Jane’s blood touched her hand. She rubbed her finger over it as if to smear it away, and then studied Jane. “Right…”
    “Excuse me?”
    “Ya poor lassie. Ya know a thing or two about those others things, don’t ya?”
    Jane curled her fingers and pulled her hand away. “I don’t know what you mean.”
    “Ya don’t have to be worried. Ya can tell me,” Cait said.
    “I’m sorry. I’m confused. Tell you what?”
    “Who ya really