Chapter 19

19

" F ather!" Aidan marched into his father's study late the next afternoon and stood in front of him, glaring down at him.

"Why are you here?" the Laird asked. "You are supposed to be with Fenella's family."

"I changed my mind," Aidan replied firmly. "I will not be marrying Fenella, and you can tell her father that news."

He held up his hand as he saw his father's face begin to redden.

"Fenella has been intercepting some of the letters Edina sent to me. I know she spends a lot of time here, and I think she had the unwilling help of some of the guards. I do not wish to marry a woman so underhand and spiteful."

The Laird hesitated for a moment, glaring at him.

"What if it were I who took them?" he demanded.

Aidan shrugged. "I think you are lying, but it doesn't matter. I am not marrying her."

"We have had this conversation before!" his father cried. "The contracts are signed and?—"

"Damn the contracts!" Aidan yelled back. "They are pieces of paper, and we are people. If I marry Fenella we will both be miserable, because I will always be longing for Edina. She is the love of my life, Father."

"Who said anything about love?" his father asked. "Marriage is a contract between a man and a woman, and in our case, between two families. Your mother and I were not in love when we married, but we grew to love each other. You and Fenella will too. Have you seen Edina?"

"Yes, I have." Aidan's voice was defiant; he stood up straight with his shoulders back and his arms crossed defensively across his chest. "I went to see her yesterday."

"And what happened?" The Laird sat back on his chair and looked at his son through narrowed eyes.

"She loves me as much as I love her," Aidan answered. "She told me so."

"I see." There was a long pause. "And what does she have to offer us, Aidan? Hm? A large dowry? Family connections? I admit she comes from a good family, but she must marry at her own level."

"I have told you my intentions, Father," Aidan growled. "This is my life, not yours. I have been a good, obedient son and I have done my duty, even when it was unpalatable to me. You need me more than I need you at this moment, because the castle? The land? The wealth? I can do without any of it so you cannot threaten me with disinheritance, because I simply do not care. All I want is to marry the woman I love, and I am saying no more about it."

"What about your duty to the family, your brother?" his father asked angrily. "Would you abandon us? Just like that?" he snapped his fingers, glaring at his son.

"Please do not insult my intelligence, Father," Aidan said dismissively. "I know when you are trying to manipulate me, but you will not succeed. Goodbye."

He turned on his heel and opened the door, only to find his way blocked by two stocky, fully-armed guards.

"I thought you might be passing by," the Laird told him casually, "so I had my men stand by to welcome you."

Aidan turned and treated his father to a few of the kind of words the Laird had no idea his son even knew. The Laird's eyes widened with shock, but a moment later he recovered and spoke sternly to the guards.

"Take him away, lock him in his bedroom and stand guard outside. He goes nowhere without my permission."

Aidan did not waste his time or energy resisting, but allowed himself to be led away by the guards. However, he directed a venomous glance back at his father as he left.

Aidan Findlay was not finished yet!

As he was being led away, he heard a shout from behind him, and Lady Findlay came running up to them.

"Let him go!" she cried, pulling at one of the guards' sleeves. "Where are you taking him?"

"Laird's orders, Milady," the man told her. "We have tae take him tae his room an' lock him in."

"You will do no such thing!" Lady Findlay's face was a mask of outrage, but when she looked at Aidan, her expression softened.

"What is happening, son?" she asked.

"May we speak in private, Mother?" Aidan asked, nodding at the men who were holding him.

Lady Findlay murmured her assent, and they went up to Aidan's bedroom, where they went inside, but Lady Findlay ordered them to leave the door unlocked.

"There are two of you, after all," she pointed out.

The men took their positions on each side of the door, then mother and son sat down in front of the fire.

"Tell me what is happening, for heaven's sake," Lady Eleanor demanded. "Have you murdered someone?"

The question was not serious, of course, and Aidan smiled grimly.

"No, but something equally serious," Aidan replied. "I have refused to marry Fenella."

Eleanor Findlay did not know whether to be sad, angry or relieved. Sad, because Aidan quite clearly loved Edina, angry with her husband for forcing this fate on him, but relieved because if he married an Anderson family member it would solve many problems.

When he married Fenella, there would be a tight bond between the Andersons and the Findlays, which would give both families a measure of security they would not otherwise have had.

All this passed through her mind as she gazed at her handsome son, then she leaned forward and put her arms around him.

"I know what it is like to love someone you cannot have," she said sadly. "Before I had to marry your father, I was in love with another boy. His name was Gavin, but he was only a farmer's son, and we met when I sneaked out one night to go to a local ceilidh.

I was fifteen, and your grandfather, who, as you know, was one of the most cold-hearted men you could ever meet, had his sights set on your father. We both knew that, but we kept on meeting in secret until we were found out. Your grandfather was beside himself with fury, and would not believe me when I told him I was…untouched. He made me marry your father within a week so that if I was pregnant, I could say the baby was early. Lewis arrived a few years later!"

Aidan laughed.

"So you're the reason I am such a devil!" he exclaimed. "Mother—I never guessed!"

Eleanor giggled, then ran her hand over his thick reddish-brown hair and looked lovingly into his face.

"If I had married Gavin, my life would have been so different."

She moved her arm in a wide sweep to indicate the space around them.

"I would not have all this, but neither would I have had my two wonderful sons, who mean the world to me."

She paused, and her eyes filled with tears.

"When Lewis left us, I was devastated, and I could hardly hold myself together for a while, but I had to, for your sake."

"Why did you not tell me?" Aidan asked, puzzled.

"I wish we had," his mother replied with a sigh. "But your father forbade it, and came up with that stupid scheme of you swapping identities. He said it would bring shame on the family if they knew Lewis had died of drink."

Aidan nodded slowly.

"The only thing I regret is that I could not be with him at the end," he said, sighing. "It is the only thing I find hard to forgive."

"I am so sorry." Eleanor's voice was infinitely sad.

"What's done is done, Mother." Aidan said gently, then kissed her forehead.

Then Eleanor said something he had not expected.

"You are not marrying Fenella," she declared firmly. "Fenella can marry your cousin Donald, and that will secure an alliance just fine. I will distract your father for a few hours until you escape."

"Mother," Aidan shook his head in disbelief. "You are a wonder. I have never seen this side of you before!"

Eleanor grinned. "I think you will see this side of any mother when she is fighting for her children," she told him. "Aidan, I would kill for you. I would die for you, and so would any mother, and you will feel the same when you are a father."

Aidan swallowed the lump in his throat and hugged Lady Findlay tightly. He could not speak for fear of bursting into tears, but in a few moments the urge went away, and he looked into her face.

"What did I do to deserve such a wonderful mother?" he whispered.

"What did I do to deserve such a wonderful son? You stepped forward when the clan needed you as an heir. You gave up your name to become someone we thought we needed. But we were wrong, my boy," she countered, then became brisk.

"Now, we have to get you out of here. Let me think."

She looked around the door and said something to one of the guards, then looked at Aidan, her eyes twinkling with mischief.

"Do you know the way to the healer's room?" she asked.

"Yes. Why?" Aidan was mystified.

"Because in a moment I will have to go there," his mother answered. "And from there you can go to the back of the stables."

A moment later, a tray arrived with a carafe of whisky, two glasses, and a tray of oatcakes on it.

"Mother!" Aidan exclaimed. "You know I don't drink whisky!"

"I know, but they don't."

She nodded towards the door where the guards were.

"Put the oatcakes in your pocket for later. You will need them, and now, get ready to carry me."

She poured out two large glasses of whisky, then took a hefty slug of one of them. It was fiery stuff, and Eleanor immediately began to cough. Aidan swept her off her feet and shouted to the guards.

"Help! My mother is choking!"

The door swung open immediately and Aidan dashed downstairs with his mother, still coughing, to the empty healer's room, where she made a miraculous recovery. He set her down and she kissed him.

"I have packed a wee bag for you and left it at the back of the stable," Lady Eleanor said. "It has some of your clothes and money in it. I somehow knew as soon as I saw you that you were going to escape today. Go with my blessing and my love, Son. Lewis's grave is in a little garden I had specially built by the loch. It has a high wall and a stout gate on it which is marked with my name. You will find the key under a big stone. Go and see him, give my love to Edina when you are settled, and send word to me."

She was smiling at her son through shimmering tears, hoping no harm would come to her only surviving son.

"Thank you, Mother," he whispered, "I will. I love you."

Then, with one last hug, he crept into the back of the stables, which could not be seen from the courtyard, saddled his horse and galloped out before anyone could stop him.

He had only a few spare clothes, nothing to drink, whatever money was in the bag to spend, and half-a-dozen oatcakes to eat, but he cared nothing about any of that. He was going to see his brother, then the woman he loved.

The wooden board on the wall of the garden read: Lady Eleanor Findlay. Private. The wall around it was sturdily built of blocks of granite and stood at least eight feet tall. Aidan had to dig into the ground beneath the biggest of them to reach a large key, which he inserted into the lock on the stout wooden gate.

He stepped inside and saw a plain oblong marble gravestone inscribed with the words:

Here Lies Lewis Findlay

Beloved Son of Lairdand Lady Eleanor Findlay

Brother of Aidan

Taken Too Soon

May He Rest In Peace Forever

Aidan could not hold back his grief any longer, and fell prone in front of the headstone, then began to weep bitterly until he had no tears left. If men were not supposed to cry, then he was obviously a weak man, but he did not care. He was a brother, and as a brother, his heart was broken at his loss.

Finally, he looked up and gazed at the stone for a moment. A little moss had grown on it, and he scraped it away irritably with his fingernails before he began to speak.

"Lewis," he murmured. "My brother. How I miss you! I wish I could see you one last time so that I could tell you how much I love you. I hope that wherever you are, you can see me and know how I feel. We are separated now, but I hope one day we will be together again."

He paused, then smiled.

"Do you remember Edina? Little, naughty, pretty Edina who used to run rings around us and get us all into trouble? She came back a while ago, and I fell in love with her. Lewis, she is so beautiful, but she still has the same wild spirit she always had.

And do you know the most remarkable thing? She loves me too! I don't know what I did to deserve it, but there it is. Father is trying to marry me off to someone else, but we are going to elope, because no one is going to separate us, Lewis. I know that I will be giving up my rights to the estate and the castle, but Mother is on my side and has supported me all the way. I want to take my life back and not be controlled by Father and his ambitions.

I have never loved a woman so much in my life as I love Edina, and when we make love, Lewis, it is paradise on earth."

He stopped, then stood up.

"I have to go, my brother, but please know that I will love and miss you forever."

He leaned down and kissed the headstone, then walked to the gate and looked back.

"Goodbye, Lewis," he said softly.

It was dark by the time Aidan reached Drumnaird. In fact, the light had been dwindling during his journey, but he had made it safely to his destination. He hoped that his mother had been able to distract his father long enough to make it too dangerous for any guards to follow him through the darkness.

He dismounted from his horse and walked along to Edina's cottage, where he saw the gleam of lantern light peeping out from between the shutters. He knocked on the door and after a moment, a voice which he recognised as Mairi's asked cautiously, "Who is there?"

"Aidan," he replied.

No more than a split second later, Edina was in his arms, having practically flown out of the door. She kissed him fervently, then pulled him inside.

"I escaped, I think," he told her, grinning, "I'm quite sure my father will be hot on my heels at first light, though, Edina. It will not take him long to guess where I was heading."

"The guards cannot ride in pitch darkness," she replied. "We have a few hours yet, so let's eat, and you can rest for a while. I sent my guards back to your father, so you have no need to worry about them. Oh, Aidan, I am so glad to see you!"

Mairi smiled as she said, "I am glad ye are well, Master. Sit down an' rest an' I will heat up some food for ye."

Edina moved to help her, but Mairi waved her away, smiling.

"Sit there an' have a cuddle, Mistress. The Master has come a long way tae see ye."

Edina grinned, then sat down on Aidan's lap, and his eyes widened.

"You remember what happened last time we sat like this?" he asked, pretending to be alarmed.

Edina giggled. "Yes, I do, but Mairi is here to stop you being wicked," she told him. "All I want to do is hold you, my love."

They sat in front of the fire in silence for a while, saying nothing, merely enjoying the warmth of each other's bodies. When Mairi came in with a thick lamb stew and a mountain of bread, they drew apart very reluctantly. However, the rumblings of Aidan's stomach showed that he was too hungry to wait any longer. Edina put a glass of milk by his side and sat down to watch him eat, since it always gave her great pleasure to see someone enjoying their food.

When he was finished, Aidan put down his spoon and gave a satisfied sigh, then he stretched and yawned.

"Time for bed," Edina announced.

"Ye can sleep in my bed," Mairi said to Aidan.

"No, Mairi," Aidan answered. "Thank you, but the floor will be fine."

"Indeed, it will not." Edina's voice was firm. "You can sleep with me. It may be a bit of a squeeze, but I don't mind."

"What about your reputation?" he asked wickedly.

"Hang my reputation!" Edina answered, laughing.

"Hang mine too!" Aidan agreed. "Thank you for supper, Mairi. Goodnight."

"Goodnight."

Mairi watched them with a satisfied grin on her face, then went to bed.

Both Edina and Aidan were too tired for lovemaking that night, and the bed was too small to allow it, but they woke in the morning shortly before sunrise, well-rested and alert.

Aidan sprang out of bed and pulled Edina up, then they shared their first kiss of the day.

"Every day is going to start with a kiss from now on," he told her, smiling.

"I like the sound of that," Edina replied, laughing softly.