Hero of a Highland Wolf

“I want to thank you for rescuing Ollie,” he said.

“He needed help. I was the closest one who could reach him,” Colleen said matter-of-factly. She would have done it for anyone.

She took a deep breath and exhaled, wanting to discuss another matter. “I’ve been pondering over some of what you told me earlier about your father’s drowning. Do you think my dad was responsible for Robert MacQuarrie’s death? And your mother’s?” Colleen asked, needing to know the truth.

“I believe Theodore Playfair had the most to gain from my father’s death. Or he thought he did. He resented that Neda doted on my brothers and me. And he fought with her over wanting to manage the estates.”

“His drinking, I’m sure, contributed to the way my grandmother felt. I imagine that the news didn’t go over well with my father,” Colleen said, dipping a spoon into the stew.

“Aye. You are right on both accounts. I don’t know about my mother. Maybe Theodore felt if Eleanor was gone, my father would be so distraught that he couldn’t continue to manage the properties. My father was in bad shape for quite a while. My mother would never have been on the cliffs during a storm or at any other time.

“She had three toddlers to care for. She adored us and was very happy. My father was terribly depressed when she died. The whole clan pulled together to watch out for him. If he had died on the cliffs closer to the time my mother drowned, we might have assumed he did so out of grief. But years later? Nay.”

Colleen agreed with Grant’s assumption. She watched as he buttered his bread and waited until he’d finished eating the slice to pose another question. “I hate to ask, but was my father around when your dad was so depressed?”

Grant scooped up some of his stew. “Nay. Many believed Theodore was responsible for my mother’s death. No one could prove it. But he was not welcome. When my father didn’t take his own life shortly after my mother died, Theodore left for America and mated with your mother.

“Theodore returned every so often to ensure his mother left the property to him and didn’t give it to my father, I’m certain. Great animosity existed between the two men. And he hated me and my brothers. When my brothers and I were away at university, my father drowned on a blustery, cold winter’s night, just like my mother had many years earlier. Again, no witnesses. It seemed too easy to dismiss as mere coincidence.” Grant finished off his meal.

“It wasn’t the anniversary of your mother’s death or anything?” Colleen guessed, fingering her buttered slice of bread.

“Nay. My father had been talking to me about my brothers and me coming home for the holidays. He was so proud of us. When my father died, I couldn’t believe it. Neda called me home, and I took over management of the pack and the estates. And Theodore was still there. He was outraged, so certain that upon my father’s death, he would manage the estates. Neda explained to him that my father had trained me and the pack was mine to lead once my father died.

“If Theodore could have gotten away with it, I’m certain he would have killed me for it. Even so, I had my doubts that he could have killed either of my parents—not on his own. He stormed out of the castle and returned to Maryland. He didn’t come back until he inherited the castle.”

She took a deep breath, hating that her father could have been involved in anything of the sort. “I’m sure he hated that on top of everything, you were a young man.”

“Aye.”

But Grant hadn’t believed he had acted alone. Who else then? “You said Archibald was like his father and grandfather. Uilleam Borthwick murdered yours to try and take over the management of the castle. How was Archibald’s father like that?”

“Haldane Borthwick had been visiting Theodore both when my mother died and then years later when my father drowned. Purely by chance? I think not.”

She considered the ramifications, surprised Archibald had been associated with her father for so long. She had thought it was only more recent, upon her father’s inheriting the castle. A more devious reason for the friendship might exist.

“I’m surprised my grandmother would have allowed Haldane Borthwick to visit if she had any notion he might be as dangerous as Uilleam had been.”

Grant finished his hot mug of tea and set it down on the tray. “Neda was away both times. I’m sure they planned it that way. The first time, she was visiting a dying aunt. She was grief-stricken to learn our mother had died and immediately took us under her wing. My father was heartbroken. From what older members of the pack told us later, they thought he’d forsake all food and join his mate. The only thing that brought him out of his anguish was the daily reminder that he had triplet sons who needed his guidance and love, and our pack members did everything to ensure he remained focused on the job until he could work through his grief.”

“I’m so sorry about your parents, Grant.”

“I thank you, lass. Your grandmother was like a mother to us. My father never took another mate. We dearly loved Neda.”

Colleen was certain that had she ever met her grandmother, she would have, too. “My father wasn’t here when Neda died, was he?” Colleen asked, fearing the worst.

“Nay. Once I took over and worried that Theodore and Haldane had caused my father’s death, whenever your father returned for a visit, I had guards posted to watch him day and night. Not that he ever knew it. But we were concerned for Neda’s safety.”

To her way of thinking, Grant and his brothers would have been as much at risk. “What about you and your brothers’ welfare?”

“We really weren’t concerned about our own safety, but later we learned our pack members watched out for us. They were really proud of having been so sneaky that we didn’t even know it.” He smiled.

She smiled back and thought how wonderful it was to have an extended family that watched the boys’ backs. “I can imagine it wasn’t easy trying to keep track of all three of you without one of you having a clue. So what of Haldane? Is he still alive?”

“Another wolf killed him years later. No one knew who killed him for certain, but we suspected one of my father’s friends resented Haldane, believing he had murdered Robert and gotten away with it, and so sought revenge.”

She pondered that, wondering if that man was still in the pack. “Is the wolf who you suspected of killing him still alive?”