Shadows and Light

to feel anything toward any of them.
    She still seemed to puzzle over who he was—until she looked over his shoulder and noticed the stallion.
    Then her face became hard and cold. He knew that expression, too. His father had worn it often enough.
    “So,” she said with icy courtesy. “The new baron has come to pay a call. Why?”
    “Because I am the new Baron of Willowsbrook,” he replied quietly. Remembering the linen he still held, he took a step forward and offered it to her. “I hope it’s not ruined.”
    She reached for it slowly, as if reluctant to take anything from his hand. “It’s nothing that washing it—
    again—won’t fix.”
    An awkward silence hung between them.
    “Why are you here?” she said.

    “Because—” Frustrated, Liam raked his hand through his hair. How was he supposed to explain this?
    “You’ve paid your brave courtesy call to the witches,” she said, her voice vicious and sneering. “You can ride on now.”
    “No, I can’t.”
    “Why not?”
    “I don’t want to lose my family!”
    There were winter storms in her eyes now. “Not even the old bastard of a baron had had the balls to insult us like that on our own ground—although he certainly caused us other kinds of pain.”
    “I meant no insult,” Liam said.
    “Of course you didn’t.” Her hands fisted. “You imply that we’ll cause your family harm, without provocation, and you don’t think that’s an insult?”
    “No. Yes.” He closed his eyes for a moment. There wasn’t time to put his thoughts in order. If she walked away now, he knew instinctively that she would never listen to him again. “We’re kin. Distant kin.
    On my mother’s side.”
    “I’m aware of that.”
    “And we—you and I—are closer kin. Because of our father.”
    “ Your father. He was never mine, thank the Mother, and for that I am grateful.”
    “You should be,” Liam snapped. “At least you didn’t grow up under his fist.”
    They stared at each other.
    “Baron—” she began.
    “Liam,” he said. “My name is Liam.”
    She hesitated, her reluctance obvious, before she said, “I’m Breanna.” She took a breath, blew it out slowly. “What—?”
    “What’s he doing here?” another voice wailed.
    Liam looked over at a woman clinging to one side of the arch. Her brown hair glinted with red where the sun touched it, and was cropped short, like a boy’s. She just stared at him.
    “Keely,” Breanna whispered, taking a step toward the woman.
    Breanna’s mother. Liam glanced at Breanna, not sure what he should say or do.
    “He’s dead,” Keely wailed. “You told me he was dead.” Then her face filled with a rage unlike anything Liam had ever seen. “Get away from her.” She moved toward him. “Get away from my girl!”
    “Keely, no!” Breanna shouted.
    The land rolled beneath Liam’s feet. Suddenly, clots of earth flew straight at him. He threw up his arms to protect his head and face, felt a clot hit his upper arm hard enough to bruise. Two others hit his ribs and thigh.
    “ No !” Breanna shouted.
    Wind tugged at his coat, lifted him off his feet, and shoved him to the ground. It roared in front of him. He heard the dog yelp, heard Oakdancer’s neigh of fear.
    “Keely, stop it!”
    “I won’t let him have my girl! He won’t hurt my girl!”
    “This is Liam, Keely. Liam .”
    Squinting to protect his eyes, Liam raised his head enough to peer over his arms. An arm’s length in front of him, wind and earth swirled furiously, blocking the women from his view. He rose to his knees, unsure if it was safer to stay where he was or try to run.
    “You told me he was dead !”
    “The old bastard is dead,” Breanna said sharply. “His body was given to the Mother to feed the worms, and his spirit has gone to wherever spirits like his go when they pass through the Shadowed Veil.”
    Liam saw movement at the edges of the swirl. Then Breanna dragged Keely around it to where they could all see each other clearly.
    “This is Liam,” Breanna said. “ Elinore’s son .”
    Keely shook her head fiercely. “Liam is a boy. A nice boy. I’ve seen him riding on his pony.”
    A bleak sadness filled Breanna’s eyes for a moment. “He was a boy. He’s grown up now.”
    “He looks like the baron,” Keely whispered. Her eyes began to fill with blank rage again.
    “He is the baron, but he’s Liam.” Breanna grabbed Keely’s shoulder and pivoted. “Look who he brought for a visit.”
    The blank