“How so?” he asked.
“Your brother. There is more to your finding him, is there not?”
Burke leaned against the rock.
“If you withhold information about your brother, how will I ever be able to help you locate him?”
Burke crossed his arms over his chest and stared into the night.
Storm sensed he wrestled with the decision to trust her, but what choice did he truly have if he wished to find his brother?
He relented. “I’ve never met my half brother, Cullen, though my father had spoken of him to me since I was young. He told me how he left his year-old son with his deceased wife’s sister while he journeyed to America to build a new life. He met and married my mother, and they staked a claim in the Dakota Territory together. My father returned to Scotland before I was born to get Cullen, but when he arrived, he discovered that his sister-in-law had died and no one knew where his son had gone.
“My father searched throughout the years, and on his deathbed two years ago made me swear to find my brother and bring him home, and to let him know he had never stopped searching for him. I gave my word I would. Besides—” Burke turned to look at Storm. “He’s my brother, he’s family, and he needs to finally come home.”
“I understand,” Storm said, “but he may not want to go to America. Scotland is his home, his heart is here.”
“Perhaps he’ll have no choice.”
“Why is that?”
“I learned that there may be a bounty on his head,” he acknowledged reluctantly.
“Why?”
“I don’t know. It was secondhand information and I had no way of confirming it, but Dunwith was mentioned and I figured I’d see what I could find out there.” That was all the information the detectives had to give him.
Storm slipped off the rock to stand beside him. “I’ll have Malcolm take the group the remainder of the way. Tanin, you, and I will proceed to Dunwith tomorrow morning and see what we can find out.”
Burke pushed off the rock. “Why?”
“Because it’s a shorter journey from here than if we return to camp.”
Burke shook his head. “No. I mean why are you coming along? Why not just send me with Tanin?”
“I have friends in Dunwith who may be of help.”
“I appreciate your generosity.”
“Your money is buying my help, Mr. Longton.”
“Burke.” He smiled. “After all, I am part of your group now.”
“You are a visitor, not a permanent member,” she reminded. “Now I suggest we get a sound night’s sleep. We’ll leave with dawn’s first light and should arrive at Dunwith by late morning.”
“I appreciate your haste in helping me.”
“I have good reason for it.”
“To get me out of your hair faster?”
Storm laughed and patted her head. “My hair is well protected.”
“Is it now?” he asked, and in a split second snatched the cap off her head.
Waves of silky black hair tumbled down around her face, over her shoulders, to finally rest at the middle of her back.
“I had thought fiery red,” Burke said, swinging the stocking cap on his finger. “But the stark black color highlights your blue eyes. You are quite a beauty for a criminal.”
Storm snatched her cap back. “Don’t they teach manners in America?”
“We’re not at a social function. We’re in the middle of dense woods, two strangers who currently need each other. I wanted to know whom I dealt with.”
“And you needed to remove my cap to discover that?”
“The Sioux Indian tribe, indigenous to the area I come from, believe that you must view the whole person with your eyes and heart if you are ever to know whom you truly deal with. Part of you hides beneath that cap.”
“It disguises my gender, nothing more,” she insisted.
“It disguises much more, and I intend to discover who you truly are, Storm.”
She jabbed him in the chest. “Be careful, Burke. You may not like what you discover.”
Chapter 4
Dunwith had once been a thriving village surrounded by tenant farms, all owned by the landlord whose manor house sat on a rise looking down over the land. Like many villages throughout Scotland, it had repeatedly suffered poor harvests. Poverty and famine were driving thousands to flee Scotland for the promise of rich land and bountiful harvests elsewhere.
Some Scots had left years earlier and had found that promise in America. Burke wondered if Storm had ever considered joining the throngs of disillusioned Scots.
“Stay here,” Storm ordered, catching his attention. “I’ll be right back.”