Page 262 of The Defiant Curse

Mostly, how she tied to all of this. Elizabeth was on a deep dive down the genealogy trail.

“Want company?” he asked, sitting beside her, as Gabby held out the plate of cookies.

She grinned.

“Always,” she said, grabbing a cookie.

As they all sat, Gabby was curious.

“Whatcha doing, Daphne?”

Elizabeth ate the warmed-up cookie, and contemplated what to say to that.

What she was doing was trying to figure out what the hell was going on here—mostly with why she looked like Ceit.

Duncan called her his child.

While she wasn’t telling them, she was starting to put two and two together.

Honestly, she was believing she was related to them. What she needed was a little help.

Forensically.

Once more, it appeared forensics would be coming to the rescue.

Mainly, Tony.

“I’m researching a few things,” she admitted, keeping it pretty obtuse.

Well, some of it.

“I’m researching the name Cathal and using the information that Ian had figured out when he was here,” she said, pointing at the ripped-apart journal. “We know the year, we know Ceit’s father, and we know the region she was from. What we don’t know is Cathal’s last name. I still can’t read his last name on the back.”

And God knew she tried.

The etching was faint, like it had been rubbed with fingers, or worried with Ceit’s thumb, as she wore it.

“So far, trying to find anything that pops up around the sixteen hundreds.”

Gabby was curious.

“On your own?”

Honestly, she’s not sure why Gabby was so shocked. She used to research well before having research monkeys to boss around.

How did they think she did her job at the very beginning of her time as a special agent?

Witchcraft?

“Gabriella, I can research like a lunatic. I can, I just don’t have to anymore. That’s the perk of having a team. The shit work rolls downhill in my world. Besides, I did my time doing the boring work. I trained with Gabe. Do you think he did his own research? For the record, who do you think coined the term ‘research monkey’?”

Yeah, that seemed to fit.

From where he sat, Ethan was curious.

“There has to be a way to read it. Too bad we don’t have one of those little jewelry loop thingies to see the name.”

That gave Gabby an idea.