Page 80 of Wild Scottish Fortune

“What is your name?” I asked, my pulse picking up. I knew nothing of my history, and if this was true, at the very least she might be able to piece some bits together for me.

“Marie. A common name to be sure of it. Or a witchy one, if that’s your way of thinking. It was theirs, you ken?”

“Aye,” I said, shifting slightly on my feet. Marie tapped the wooden spoon on the side of the pot, and then laid it on the table. Turning, she dried her hands on a rag and then looked me up and down.

“You’ll never find a mandressed like that.”

I still wore my overalls from work, and my tool belt at my waist.

“Is that a bad thing?”

“No, I don’t suppose it is.” Marie pursed her lips, considering my words. “Maybe you’re smarter than I was. Caught up in what I thought was love. Above my place, of course. He used to come visit me. In the afternoons. One warm summer day we snuck off to the meadow together. Never have I loved more.”

“You fell pregnant.”

“Aye.” Marie shook her head, her eyes clouded. “It was, well, it was magickal. Though I shouldn’t much be using that term, should I? If you speak of magick, they find you. They burn you. Hang you. Drown you. Fair trial or not, you’re a dead woman walking as soon as they put the mark on you.”

“Who did that to you?” I asked, sadness seeping through me. Scotland had a dark history with witch trials, and I was beginning to understand what might have happened to Marie.

“He did. Och, maybe not.” Marie waved a hand in the air, her eyes flashing. “More likely the Lady did. She wasn’t much for supporting other women. Particularly when I carried his bairn.”

I wanted to point out that maybe the Lady had loved her Lord and his cheating had broken her heart, but it didn’t seem prudent to do so. Arguing with a ghostly ancestor, one who had already been proven to be dangerous, wasn’t a wise strategy.

“What happened?” I asked instead, since Marie appeared to be in a chatty mood. I reached cautiously intomy pocket, fingering the bag of herbs for protection that Miss Elva had given me. Gris-gris, she’d told me, and I hoped it held strong.

“I birthed her, didn’t I? My beautiful daughter. Worthless to him. He’d waited, you see? His Lady hadn’t given him an heir yet. But once my daughter had arrived, well, it wasn’t enough.” Marie shrugged, but her face was anything but nonchalant. Anger warred with sadness, and I lifted a hand.

“I’m so sorry that happened to you.”

“The world is an unkind place, blood of mine.”

“Not always,” I whispered, though I’d seen more unkindness than most. If I fully believed that there was no good, however, I’d never find happiness. An image of Goldie flashed in my mind, happily booping her pirate ship, and then Fin’s face. Warmth flooded me. A reminder of some of the good I’d known.

“Och, that’s a face in love.” Marie barked out a laugh, stepping forward, and I visibly saw the shift in her. “Careful, child of my blood. They always lie. And when they find out who you are? The power that runs in your veins? They’ll kill you for it.”

“It’s not the same now,” I said, though her words sent a shiver down my spine. “They don’t prosecute witches anymore.”

“Och, aren’t you the lucky one then?” Marie threw her head back and laughed, her hair spiraling out around her, and when she dropped her chin back down, madness careened in her eyes. “Because I was murdered for it. On this very spot, while my babe cried for me in the corner.”

“I’m sorry,” I said again, helpless to offerany other support. What could I say? She’d been horribly wronged, but I couldn’t make it right.

“He’ll do the same. As soon as he sees what you are…he’ll never be able to love you.”

Right, enough of this. I caught a flash of movement and the Green Lady appeared behind Marie.

You need to move her on. She’ll hurt you out of sheer jealousy. If she can’t have happiness, nobody can.

Marie whirled, spying the Green Lady, and raised her arms, a scream spiraling from her very core.

There’s blood magick here, Orla. You’ll need to use your own.

I gaped as the Green Lady winked out of sight and Marie whirled, fury radiating from every inch of her body. A smile pulled the corners of her mouth up, adding to her fierceness, and I froze as a layer of ice coated the cottage. It even encased the fire, though the flames still danced behind a thin layer of ice, and I realized that I was dealing with a deeply powerful ghost. This was nothing like I had seen in the past, and though Marie wasn’t as physically intimidating as the nuckelavee had been, her immense power had me rooted to the spot as my brain scrambled to figure out how I was going to banish her.

“If I couldn’t have joy, neither should you,” Marie hissed, and I ducked as an icicle flew across the room and shattered over my shoulder.

I needed to crack on with some magick here because this was definitely not an apparition. The sting of ice shards against my face informed me that this was very much real, no matter how much I wished that it wasn’t.

“That’s not a very nurturing sentiment for your ownblood,” I said, vying for time as I pulled the gris-gris bag out of my pocket. “Shouldn’t you want the daughter of your daughters to find happiness?”

---