‘Gaelic. But an antiquated form of it, I think.’ Cam looked over Lachlan’s shoulder. ‘Looks like my parents were trying to translate it.’
Likewise, Lachlan craned his neck to get a better view of Cam’s ledger. ‘She’s writing about someone’s cow here. Hoof rot, or somesuch.’ At Cam’s surprise he flashed a wry smile. ‘What do you think I grew up speaking?’
Cam chuckled self-consciously. He sat back and passed over the ledger. ‘Of course you did. What else does it say?’
Lachlan chewed his lip in concentration as he read, which Cam found both distracting and adorable. ‘This one’s about a child beset by… some kind of evil spirit. Says it was cast out. This next one is a rumour of a poisoned pond. And then…’ He paused, and then picked up speed. ‘It mentions fire here, Cam. A farmstead that burned down. And then another instance, of an old… I think she means a hermit… found burned to death. Like she’s collecting circumstances she finds suspicious.’
‘Does it say why they’re linked?Ifthey’re linked?’
Lachlan shook his head slowly, lips moving silently as he sounded out the peculiar words in Elspaith’s archaic shorthand. ‘There’s another fire in a village. The note says south. I think she’s following it south. Then the last one… It’s simply,I fear the worst.’
A shiver ran up Cam’s spine. What had Elspaith discovered that disturbed her so deeply? He wondered if she knew she was travelling towards her death. The thought distressed him more than it should.
‘That’s it here. What about the cousin you mentioned?’ Lachlan asked, interrupting his anxious spiral. Cam lifted the pages one at a time until they found him.
Guided by Lachlan’s translation, Hendrie’s notes turned out to be mostly concerned with outbreaks of smallpox on the islands.
‘Here,’ Lachlan exclaimed suddenly. ‘He mentions Elspaith here.’
‘This paragraph?’ Cam followed Lachlan’s eyeline to a short, separate annotation away from the main body of text.
Lachlan nodded, inhaling deeply. ‘I’m paraphrasing, but it roughly says:I know little of my cousin’s passing last year, save that her brother disappeared also about this time. Word has reached me that some monster now inhabits the loch where she died. I shall travel there in the spring and see it put to rest.’
Cam turned back to the red notebook they’d started with. ‘Does it say what happened to Hendrie? He’s not in here, so it wasn’t by fire.’
‘I don’t think he ever made the journey,’ Lachlan said. ‘Someone else has added a note at the end. Says Hendrie’s ship sank in a storm off the coast of Orkney.’
Together they glanced up at the Walker family tree. Hendrie’s date of death was listed as October 1707.
Cam followed the branches back to Elspaith and Bróccin. ‘Weird that her brother went missing at the same time,’ he murmured. The absence of a death date wasn’t entirely unusual in the names of extended family. They couldn’t always be found in official records.
‘Perhaps he died to the same creature as Elspaith?’ Lachlan suggested. ‘She might have been trying to save him.’
‘Maybe.’
At that moment Meredith stamped back into the room, scowling at her phone.
‘Did you reach him?’ Cam asked, wary of what her grumpy countenance might mean.
‘Fat chance.’ Meredith flopped onto the stool by the bookcase. ‘It keeps ringing, but he won’t pick up. And Iknowhe’s heard it, because now he’s turned his phone off!’
Cam’s gut twisted. He hoped that didn’t mean Bryce had caught up with the werewolf already.
Lachlan’s hand landed gently on his arm. ‘We can go,’ he said softly. ‘I know you want to.’
Cam exhaled through his nose, deliberating. If there was even a chance that the werewolf meant no harm… Brycecouldbe reasoned with. And Cam couldn’t shake the feeling that the beast wasn’t quite what Bryce and his team of hunters thought it was.
Maybe it was some innate witch instinct prickling his brain, or perhaps it was just the guilty memory of the creature calmly saying his name right before it was shot. Either way, Lachlan was right. He couldn’t stand the thought of doing nothing about it.
A quiet chuckle escaped him, recalling an earlier, more fraught conversation. He leaned in to whisper softly in Lachlan’s ear. ‘Considering how little we’ve known each other: I’d say you know me pretty well.’
Lachlan’s cheeks coloured. A bashful smile lifted his mouth. He nudged Cam’s shoulder, linking their fingers together. ‘I still want to know plenty more.’
Meredith lifted an eyebrow. ‘Should I leave you two alone or… ?’
Cam towed Lachlan purposefully towards the door. ‘We need to get going.’
Meredith tutted behind him, grumbling about preferring to have a cup of tea first, but her petulance was all for show. Together they locked up the cottage and bundled back into her tiny car. The pale afternoon sun had begun to melt the snow on the verges, sending more greying slush into the road.
