The Runaway McBride Read Free

intensity. No one moved; not a sound was heard, not even the hiss of the gas lamps on the walls, only the frail rasp of an old woman’s voice.
    “Look to Macbeth. That’s where your fate lies. You stand on the brink, Gavin. Fail Macbeth, and you will regret it to your dying day.”
    When she released his hand, Gavin gave an involuntary shudder.
    “Alex? ”
    Alex meekly gave his grandmother his hand. “Calluses,” she said, opening his fingers to stare at his palm. “Now, how would a man who works behind a desk come by these bumps? ”
    He shrugged indifferently. “I keep up with my fencing.”
    “Mmm,” her ladyship intoned, searching his expression as though she doubted his words. There was nothing to read there. Of all her grandsons, Alex was the most adept at concealing what he was thinking and feeling.
    She let out a sigh. “You will pass through fire,” she said, “but it will not consume you if you trust your intuition. Logic will not help you. You will know what I mean when the time comes. Hold fast to what you feel, Alex. That’s where you will find your salvation.”
    Gavin stifled a yawn and received another kick on the ankle from James.
    “Thank you, Granny,” Alex said. “You’ve given me a lot to think about.”
    Her ladyship gave a snort of derision. “Aye, you may thank me, but your gravity does not deceive me. There’s none so blind as those who will not see, and you three are no better than those three wee blind mice in that cursed nursery rhyme. Disregard my words if you will, but you do so at your peril.”
    She ignored their feeble protests and looked at James. After setting aside his glass, he surprised her by taking her hand between his own and cradling it gently.
    He spoke first. “You see how it is with us, Granny. You can’t leave us, not yet. We’re practically Sassenachs. Stay a while and tell us the old stories and teach us the old ways.”
    Her throat tightened. He’d had a harder row to hoe than his cousins. A shadow seemed to cling to him, as though all his dreams had faded away. She longed to help him, but her time was past. All she could do was point the way.
    She spoke so softly that he had to put his ear to her lips and ask her to repeat herself. Inhaling a shallow breath, she whispered haltingly. “Your bride is in mortal danger, James. You must find her, or she will surely die. Don’t despair. Your gift is to see into the future, and the future can be changed.”
    She saw the doubt in his eyes as he pulled back to stare at her. “I know, I know,” she said querulously. “It doesn’t make sense, not yet. Just remember my words, and in due course all will become clear to you.”
    James’s cousins looked at him with raised brows. They had not heard their grandmother’s message to him. He gave a slight shrug and lounged back in his chair.
    Her ladyship seemed to be dozing, and Gavin turned to the others and said in an undertone, “Do you think we’ve been given a test, you know, whoever successfully completes his quest become the next ”—he made a face—“grand master or whatever? ”
    James replied, “If it were that easy, all we’d need do is fail the test, then we would be free and clear.”
    Alex shook his head. “Sometimes I wonder about you two. We’re not living in the Dark Ages. This is the age of progress. Granny is a . . .” He had to search for the word. “A relic of a superstitious era. I no more believe in seers than I do in King Arthur and his knights of the round table.”
    Lady Valeria joined the conversation at this point. Without opening her eyes, she said, “Your trouble, Alex, is that you spend too much time with numbers.” She opened her eyes. “Let me tell you that I have seen more of the world than you can possibly imagine. I was born at the turn of the century. I was in Brussels with my parents when Wellington met Napoleon at Waterloo. I’ve lived through other wars and the reigns of four monarchs as well as countless