Countdown - Iris Johansen [147]
“Antonio was Cira’s lover. He wouldn’t have left her and gone sailing off.”
“My, how certain you are. Men leave women. Women leave men. It’s the way life is.” He paused. “And why did you run over here after reading those documents and break into Angus’s room?”
“I didn’t break—well, not technically. But I was prepared to do it.”
He chuckled. “I do love that honesty. From the moment I met you, I knew that I—”
“Then be honest with me. Stop playing word games.” She drew a deep breath and then went for it. “You knew what Demonidas had written in that log.”
“How could I know that?”
“I don’t know. But Reilly said that you’d almost stolen a document from him. It had to be this document. Because Reilly tracked and took Jock for a reason. You told me that Reilly probably thought you’d discovered something about the gold on one of your trips to Herculaneum. That Jock was in and out of your castle and that he might know something more.”
“Isn’t that reasonable?”
“Absolutely. That’s why I didn’t question it. Until I read Cira’s letter and Demonidas’s log. Until Reilly told me that after reading the document he’d come to new and different conclusions regarding Cira.”
MacDuff looked at her inquiringly.
“Don’t play with me. You knew that Reilly had that log.”
“How could I?”
“You went after Demonidas’s log at the same time Reilly did. But Reilly got his hands on it first. And after Reilly had it translated, he remembered that you had wanted it too. Very badly. He became curious. But Jock wasn’t able to tell him anything, so he put you temporarily on the back burner. He was busy trying to get hold of Cira’s scrolls and manipulating Grozak.”
“Not quite on the back burner,” MacDuff said. “He had me followed and once sent one of his trolls to try to knock me on the head and kidnap me.”
She stiffened. “You admit it?”
“To you. Not to Trevor or Venable or anyone else.”
“Why not?”
“Because this is between the two of us. I’m still going to get that gold and I don’t want interference.”
“You don’t have it yet?”
He shook his head. “But it’s there and I’ll find it.”
“How do you know it’s there?”
He smiled. “You tell me. I can see you’re working your way through it.”
She was silent a moment. “Cira and Antonio left Kent and came here to Scotland. It was a warring, savage country and she was still on the run from Julius. They decided to go inland, deep into the Highlands. They could lose themselves there and bide their time until they could become more visible and set themselves up in the style Cira had always wanted.”
“And did she?”
“I’m sure she did. But she had to be careful, and a little gold would have gone a long way in such a primitive place. It wouldn’t have taken much of her store of gold to set herself and Antonio up quite comfortably, even luxuriously by the standards of those wild Scots. Isn’t that right, MacDuff?”
His brows lifted. “It sounds reasonable. I’d think you were right.”
“Don’t you know?”
He didn’t speak for a moment and then he slowly nodded and smiled. “It would have taken only a mere pittance, and Cira was very, very canny.”
“Yes, she was.” She smiled back at him. “And she stayed there and prospered and she and Antonio changed their names and raised their family. Their descendants must have liked it there, because they never moved to the coast even when it was safe. Until Angus decided to build this castle in 1350. Why did he do that, MacDuff?”
“He was always a wild man. He wanted to strike out on his own and carve his own niche. I can understand that, can’t you?”
“Yes. When did you find out about Cira’s background? Was that another old family secret?”
“No. Cira must have turned her back on Herculaneum when she settled in the Highlands. There are no tales of Roman revelry. No stories of Italy passed down from father to son. It was as if they sprang from the ground there and made it their own. Angus and Torra were wild and free and, on occasion, as savage as the people surrounding them.”
“Torra?”
“It means from the castle. A good name for Cira