Page 187 of The Defiant Curse

Oof.

Yeah, that’s what they all thought.

“Duncan killed all the invaders and swore he’d find who did it,” Gabby said. “And he did. He later found proof that it was Catherine, betraying him. So, he had her drawn and quartered, while alive, and dumped her in the lake.”

Michael went there.

“The same lake that’s back to being haunted and nearly killed both of us. Don’t go in the lake,” he warned.

Was he crazy to tell them that again?

It was snowing.

That was the last place anyone wanted to be.

Gabby finished.

“Oh, well, it gets worse, Ethan. To make sure Catherine’s child never saw a penny of his money, since he wasn’t a Granndach, he killed it. Then, he dumped the remains in a box in a cave behind the waterfall. We found the child, his lover, and Oison’s remains. Apparently, Catherine killed him when she had a chance. Which was probably a good plan since he murdered her sister. This was not a happy, loving family with decent in-laws.”

Jesus.

“It’s wild here,” Ethan stated. “So, Catherine might have betrayed her sister, betrays Duncan and Ciarán, kills her father, and…what else did she do?”

Wasn’t that enough?

Elizabeth was curious.

“Do you know if her second husband, the farmer, died of illness or did she help him die so she could come back and get some money—again, that’s an MO for murder, and possible in my world. I can’t imagine a farmer afforded her luxury.”

They all stared at her.

Why?

None of them considered that.

“A black widow wife?” Graham asked.

Elizabeth shrugged.

“If it walks like a killer, and behaves like a killer, it’s not a little innocent lamb, Graham. Not in my world.”

As much as Finn hated to admit it, she was right. Worse, he’d never considered it.

This woman was teaching him a few tricks about assuming.

Now, Blackhawk was curious.

“And what happened to Duncan?” Ethan asked. “Because he had to be so hurt when his lover was killed, and he was betrayed.”

They told him.

“He raised Callum, his son with Ceit, and then we think took his life to go be with Ciarán. He never recovered from losing the love of his life. He exited stage right when Callum was old enough to take over.”

The cabinet behind them opened and slammed, making Elizabeth jump, along with the rest of them.

“Jesus Christ,” she said, crossing herself. “And this is why I’m wearing a rosary here,” she offered, pulling it out of her shirt, and dropping it over the material of the sweater.

Yeah, this place wasn’t for the weak.