Highland Rake by Terry Spear Page A

intended to continue onto the castle and to reach it by nightfall, he would not risk the lady's health and would stop by the nearby village and stay there until the brunt of the storm passed.
    She had looked so startled when she had realized he was crouching in front of her and had been for some time that he wondered just who she could have been speaking to. At first, he'd meant to wake her, but when she opened her eyes and began talking—to him, he thought, he'd paused and listened. Her question—asked in a highly annoyed whisper and simply, "What?"—had taken him aback.
    He had at first assumed he'd startled her awake, and she was attempting to cover up her fright by being annoyed with him. But then she began to talk about her da and the massacre, and he didn't know what to think. He certainly hadn't brought the subject up. He hadn't even realized she might have witnessed her da's murder. That they were on a hunt, he knew that much. That her brother… Connell. Damnation, that's what she'd called him. Well, not Dougald, but she'd been looking right at him when she called him Connell.
    Had she been talking in her sleep? But tears had formed in her eyes, and she looked very much liked she'd been awake.
    He'd heard rumors that she talked to the fae, or…if the stories could be true, ghosts. Had she been talking to her dead brother? He'd died…several weeks past, murdered for his transgression with a married lass. Alana asked why he was questioning her now…about her da's murder? So long ago?
    God's wounds, he thought his brother Malcolm had married a lass with abilities no person should ever have. God save the man who married Alana if she spoke to ghosts whenever the need arose. He could just imagine being in bed with the lass and there was her brother…curled up beside her…or beside Dougald.
    As much as he was dying to know the truth, so were his brother, cousin, and Gunnolf. They happened to be watching the whole situation once they saw him crouching before Alana, but not waking her to ready for the journey, and instead listening to her speaking to someone like she was having a normal conversation. Only her words were whispered. To an extent.
    He heard them, and so did his kin and his friend.
    He wanted to speak with her. But he'd already seen the tears in her eyes and the ones rolling down her cheeks that she'd brushed away, and he didn't want to start the waterfall again.
    ***
    As they began their journey, the men were mostly quiet. A couple of them way in the lead talked about something Alana couldn't hear. She was riding her own horse, stiff, her arse killing her, and she would be glad to get out of the saddle for a couple of days.
    Dougald rode at her left flank, Angus on her right, displacing Niall. He hadn't been happy about it, though he still looked hopeful that Angus would stay with James, and Niall would take off with Gunnolf and Dougald when they decided to journey somewhere else.
    She felt the two brothers watching her from time to time. She'd barely been able to eat a bite of the bread and nothing more that they'd shared that morning. She couldn't believe she'd been talking to her brother, whispering, aye, but was startled to realize Dougald had been crouching before her. How much had he and the others heard?
    The men had talked plenty before they got ready to ride again. All but the four who may have overheard her speaking with her ghost of a brother.
    "Do you often talk in your sleep, Lady Alana?" Dougald finally asked her.
    She turned her head sharply to look at him. "What?" She'd heard him, but she didn't know what else to say. Mayhap this would be the perfect way out for her. She was prone to talking in her sleep. Wouldn't that solve her problems? Except when she was perfectly awake and still talking to ghosts.
    "My sister used to talk in her sleep when she was overly tired," Dougald said, watching her, his expression one of sympathy.
    Alana considered the notion more carefully. If she talked in