A Matter of Circumstance and Celludrones (Dark Matters)

by Claire Robyns

  Two enormous black kettle pots steamed and hissed on top of an iron range fed from a coal burner. A hearth stacked with logs took up most of one wall, large enough to roast a wild boar whole if the fancy took, which she rather thought it might upon occasion in a household of this nature.

  She also realised, given that the housekeeper and upstairs maid were also the cook and kitchen maid, that she was looking at the entire compliment of Forleough’s staff.

  Chopping, peeling, dicing and chatter staggered to a halt as first Jean, and then the other girl, became aware of her.

  “Were you after something?” Jean asked with a smile that suggested she didn’t mind the interruption.

  Evelyn had her eye on one of those black kettle pots for her bath water, but didn’t see how anyone present could manage lugging that up the stairs. “Where’s William?”

  “The lad was looking for something to do,” Jean said. “I sent him off to gather wild apples with the promise of apple pie after supper. He took Ana with him for company. Did you need either of them?”

  “Nothing that can’t wait.” Evelyn shifted Puppy from under her arm as she crossed to a bolted door.

  Yap. Yap.

  She pulled the bolt and was delighted to find the door opened onto an enclosed garden laid mostly with stone. Ropes were drawn across at one end for the drying of clothes and the only plants were hardy rose vines creeping up the walls.

  Puppy scampered off in his usual spiral of dizzy circles the second his paws touched the ground. Yap, yap, yap.

  Evelyn laughed and closed the door on him and his blissful freedom.

  “That dog of yours is a strange one,” said the girl. Her hair was braided into a thick rope of strawberry curls and she had the palest blue eyes Evelyn had ever seen.

  “Paisley,” Jean warned lightly, “mind your manners, darling.”

  “She’s perfectly correct,” Evelyn said. “Puppy’s an automaton. A mechanical dog,” she added to the girl’s exclamation.

  “Oh, a little like Neco?”

  “A little, yes.” Evelyn chuckled. “Although I’m sure Neco wouldn’t appreciate the comparison.” She stepped up to the kitchen table and folded back her sleeves. “Now, I might not be competent, but I am willing. What can I do to help?”

  She’d have been tossed out—politely, of course—from any English kitchen, but this was Scotland. Jean also had no way of knowing that she was putting a duchess to work peeling root vegetables.

  As the easy chatter got underway again, Evelyn wasted no time in sticking her nose into Forleough’s business. It wasn’t long before she’d learnt the reason for the oppressive air that clung to the castle like a damp ghost.

  “Grey’s father fell from the upstairs window?” she repeated in muted shock.

  “Jumped, more like it,” Paisley snorted.

  “Paisley,” snapped Jean. “We don’t go spreading tales of the dead.”

  Paisley shrugged. “The old laird wasn’t right in the head and he just got worse after Aragon drowned in that crossing last year.”

  “The laird was never the same after his Eleanor died.” Jean murmured, her eyes cast down as she diced the meat.

  “In childbirth,” Paisley whispered. “Poor Grey shouldered the brunt of the blame until the day he couldn’t anymore and left. He wasn’t much more than a boy. I hope the old man’s soul is rotting in hell,” she said heatedly.

  That, Jean heard. Her knife came up with her eyes and her voice hardened. “That’s quite enough.”

  Evelyn had been on the point of asking who Aragon was, but decided her questions would fare better if she got Paisley alone. The chance came a short while later when Paisley mentioned Grey’s preference as a boy to take his baths in the river, even in the dead of winter.

  Evelyn wasn’t sure about winter, but right now it was a middling early summer afternoon and her skin was clammy from the kitchen’s heat. “What a marvellous idea. Jean, could you spare Paisley? I wouldn’t dare to swim without someone to keep a watch out.”

  Jean looked set to deny the request, but her gaze settled on Paisley’s pleading expression and her face softened. “Off with you then, I can manage the rest.”

  Upstairs, Evelyn stripped to her bloomers, replaced her corset with a loose linen undershirt and threw a travelling cloak over her shoulders. The Red Hawk hadn’t yet returned and there didn’t seem to be any one else around to bear witness to her state of undress. Paisley brought a couple of bare-threaded towels and they raced each other out the castle grounds and along the grassy bank of the Tay until they reached a bend sheltered with an ancient weeping willow that hung over the water. The river swirled slowly around flat rocks and into deeper pools that made an ideal swimming hole.

  “This was Grey’s favoured spot,” Paisley said as she stepped out of her smock to stand in a cotton undershirt that had long sleeves and stopped just short of her knees.

  Evelyn tossed her cloak over a weeping branch and followed Paisley into the river. She’d immersed little more than her toes when the icy water turned her teeth to chattering.

  “Dawdle and you’ll lose courage.” Paisley promptly dived beneath the water and came up a moment later, her cheeks a ruddy red, her lips blue and her smile wide. “It’s a little c-cold,” she stuttered. “Gawd, I haven’t done this in years.”

  Evelyn braced herself, determined to get in and stay in long enough to wash the worst of the last night and day’s grime away. She held her breath and pinched her nose and flopped forward.

  The water numbed first her skin, and then probed frosty spears deep into her veins until she swore she could feel her blood flowing thicker as liquid turned to ice. It only took another second to decide she was quite clean enough and pop to the surface, dragging herself onto the closest rock.

  Paisley didn’t last much longer, and soon both girls were wringing the water from their clothes and spreading limbs over a flat rock beneath a sun that was low enough in the sky to touch the peak of a distant mountain.

  “So,” Evelyn said casually, “who was Aragon?”

  Greyston’s brother, as it turned out. Neither he nor his new bride had survived when an Atlantic storm had ravaged the steamer they’d been aboard.

  “That’s when the old laird truly lost it,” Paisley informed her. “He dismissed all the staff—”

  “Except for you and Jean.”

  Paisley shook her head. “Ma simply refused to leave. She told the laird she’d been Forleough’s housekeeper forever, this is where Rabbie—that’s my pa—is buried, and this is where she’ll die. The laird also sold off everything he could, every last head of cattle and all the land not directly entailed to Forleough and gave the money to the church.”

  “But what of Grey’s inheritance?”

  “I think that’s exactly why he did it. Not that Grey cared either way. He left before I turned twelve and only returned now to put his brother’s death to rest, I reckon, and then he’ll be away again.” Paisley’s voice dropped. “There was always bad blood between Grey and his pa and, if you ask me, that’s why the old laird jumped. Probably thought Grey was home to stay. With Aragon gone, Forleough would belong to Grey one day and I reckon the old laird couldn’t take that.”

  “That seems rather drastic, even if he blamed Grey for his mother’s death.” Which in itself was an archaic notion. Evelyn wondered if the girl wasn’t embellishing a little too much on the horrid detail. There wasn’t much else around here to keep one entertained.

  But then Paisley said, “I reckon this all goes back to Cragloden,” and Evelyn’s interest perked.

  “Cragloden?”

  “Grey’s mother was a lady of Science, studied in Edinburgh apparently. Ma’s lips are sealed tight on any matter of real interest, but I know Eleanor used to attend regular Scientific meetings at Cragloden.” Paisley leaned in, her gaze sweeping the area as if afraid her mother might creep up on them with a bar of soap to wash her mouth out. “It’s just funny, if you ask me, Grey being s
ent off to Cragloden and then after the explosion there—”

  “Wait.” Evelyn’s nose wrinkled in confusion. “Are you saying Grey was at Cragloden when that gas explosion blew it to pieces?”

  “I don’t know if he was there, but he was supposed to have been. And then there was a huge barney between him and his pa when he came back here straight after.” Paisley leaned away again and folded her arms. “Grey and Neco took off and we never saw nor heard from them until now.”

  “Well,” Evelyn huffed, wondering what else Grey might have failed to mention and even more concerned now about Lily’s trip to Cragloden. They’d been gone a good couple of hours already and a suspicious feeling niggled. “Does Forleough really only stable three horses?” she asked, and relaxed slightly when Paisley nodded.

  “Grey brought them with him, otherwise there’d be none at all.”

  Evelyn glanced up to see how far the sun had set and caught sight of an abnormally large black bird sweeping in on them. As it flew closer, the shape transformed into the sleek lines of a ship with a single red sail dancing in the wind.

  She sprang to her feet, reaching for her cloak. “It’s the Red Dancer.”

  “The Red Hawk, you mean,” Paisley said, quickly pulling on her smock. Her face turned up to the sky and stayed there. “It must be such an amazing experience to fly across the skies.”

  “I’m sure Grey would take you up if you asked.”

  “Perhaps,” Paisley said quietly. “When he lived here, he was such a stormy tempered, serious boy, but I could ask anything of him. Now the man seems to be all charming grins and light-hearted pleasantries, as if nothing in the world could ever darken his mood, and I’m afraid to ask a thing.”

  Evelyn gave her an understanding smile. “Life rarely makes sense, especially when a man is involved.”

  The hum of the engines reverberated in the air, growing louder and louder until the shadow of the ship passed right over them, the vibrations rippling the surface of the river. They watched until the Red Hawk descended from sight, then made their way to Forleough at an amble.

  Evelyn’s cloak only fastened with a ribbon at her throat and she had to use both hands to keep the folds draped around her undergarments, taking extra care when she saw Neco outside the stables, rubbing down the horses.

  “Is Lily inside?” she asked.

  “Yes, m’lady.” He paused in his task to straighten and look at her. “We’ve only just returned.”

  Paisley hung back to chatter with Neco, but Evelyn had no wish to run into Greyston or any of his crew so unsuitably attired. Besides, she was in a hurry to learn what all, if anything, had happened at Cragloden.

  She slipped inside the hallway and up the staircase, was sneaking down the landing when a door flung open. She spun her head in that direction and came face to chest with Greyston.

  One hand instinctively flew to her throat while the rest of her was caught on her tiptoes in the doorway to his bedroom. Her other hand maintained some control over her cloak, although apparently not enough for his sharp eye.

  His grin came out as his gaze roamed to a slit where white bloomers peeped from the dark folds.

  “Grey, I was just—”

  “Looking for me?” he cut in succinctly.

  His fingers curled around her wrist, unfortunately the one belonging to the only hand left holding her cloak together. He tugged her neatly inside the room and whipped the towel from his shoulder to the floor all in one motion.

  She was so busy grabbing for the edges of her cloak, she didn’t see what happened next. But suddenly the door was closed, she had her back pressed up to the wall and Greyston’s mouth was moving over hers, warm, firm and sensual. A protest gurgled up her throat and stupidly parted her lips, giving him the entry he sought.

  His tongue delved inside her mouth.

  Evelyn did the first thing that came to mind. She bit down.

  He rocked backward on a curse. “What the hell was that?”

  She answered with the second thing that came to mind. A sharp slap across his cheek that left a blistering sting on her open palm.

  He caught both her hands and locked them above her head, against the wall. Her cloak fell wide open, leaving her bared to his smouldering gaze but for a partially damp, practically transparent undershirt.

  “I don’t usually play quite this rough,” he drawled in a husky voice.

  “I’m not playing at all,” she hissed in caustic fury. “Are all Scotsmen this barbaric, or would that be just you?”

  He released her hands. “I don’t understand.”

  “Let me make it easy for you.” She wrapped her cloak tightly around her body and hugged herself to keep it in place. “You yanked me into your bedroom and forced your attentions on me. What on earth made you think I wouldn’t take offence?”

  “You came to my bedroom half dressed.”

  “I was sneaking past your blasted bedroom.”

  His eyes, not quite so smouldering now, narrowed on her. “To William’s room?”

  She was so aghast, she almost choked on her words. “Are you completely insane? I’m married, you buffoon, and desperately in love with my husband. I’d never even think of touching another man.”

  “You’ve flirted mercilessly at every opportunity,” he growled.

  “In England, that’s called social intercourse.” She glared daggers into his intense brown stare. “Everybody does it and every civilised person knows it leads nowhere.”

  “Where I’m from,” he shot back, “that’s called provocative flirting and everybody knows it leads directly into bed.”

  “If you were raised in a bordello, perhaps.”

  The intensity drained and his eyes creased with his slow grin. “Perhaps.”

  Evelyn was done. She stuck her chin sky-high and left the room, slamming the door on his attempt at an apology.

  She stood on the landing, blinking back a tear that had no place in her current state of emotion.

  She was angry. Furious. Mortified.

  If Devon ever found out she’d been kissed by another man…and there it was, the reason for that tear. She liked to think, she did think, he’d be livid, but there was some doubt as well.

  There was a time she’d believed nothing could drive a wedge between them, that there was nothing she could ever do that would turn him from her.

  In the end, it had taken so very little.

  It wasn’t that she was too stubborn to change her ways, or that she couldn’t change to keep his love. It was the matter of not trusting in a love that required it. Except I have changed and I’m hurting others in the process.

  Evelyn wiped the tear from her eye and spun about, pushing the door open. Greyston was on his haunches, the discarded towel in one hand. He looked as if he’d gone down to pick it up and then just stayed down.

  He glanced up and, in the split second before his mouth tugged into a grin, she saw a flash of the pain he carried deep inside. A hurt so dark and wounding, it couldn’t possibly have anything to do with her.

  “If you’ve come to slap my other cheek, go ahead,” he drawled. “I deserve it.”

  “You were right and I was wrong.” She stepped into the room, the edges of her cloak gripped firmly together. “I’m accustomed to flirting outrageously with no consequences. Since Devon kicked me out, however, I’ve gone beyond what even I find acceptable. To prove how very much I didn’t care.”

  He raised a brow at her. “Did your husband really kick you out?”

  He kicked me out of his heart.

  She conjured up a weak smile. “I’m the one who must be sorry, Grey. I was trying to make myself feel better.”

  “Aren’t we all?” He flung the towel over his shoulder and gestured for her to leave the room ahead of him. “Still, I should have asked before I took.”

  Not about to disagree, she shrugged. “Are you on your way to the river?”

  “If things had turned out differently in there,” he said, prodding at h
is bedroom door with his chin, “I might have shown you my favourite spot.”

  “The bend where the weeping willow stands?”

  “Ah.” His eyes went to her sodden hair. “I thought you’d come to me direct from your bath.”

  “I didn’t come to you at all,” she reminded him, and decided this was as good a time as any to raise her concerns. “Paisley told me you were at Cragloden when Lily’s mother was killed in that explosion.”

  “Before and after, not during,” he said, his voice suddenly brisk. “And I’d prefer if you and Paisley kept out of my business.”

  “Does Lily know?”

  “Why don’t you ask her?” He brushed past her and started for the stairway.

  “I intend to,” Evelyn called after him. “And while I’m at it, should I ask if she’s aware that your mother was a regular visitor at Cragloden?”

  He came to an abrupt halt, his shoulders snapping rigid.

  She held her breath, wondering if she’d gone too far, if she’d released the beast from his cage. But then she gritted her teeth beneath a smile and notched her chin defiantly. Lily’s life might well be at stake. Her mother’s certainly had been.

  Greyston’s face was set in stone when he turned back to her. “What the devil are you talking about?”

  “Paisley said your mother attended scientific meetings of some sort there before her death.”

  Each step he took toward her felt more threatening than the last. It was in the closed-off expression, in the way he held himself, in the deceptive mildness of his tone. “What else did Paisley say?”

  Evelyn stood her ground. “Jean refused to tell her any more than that.”

  “Jean.” He shook his head. “Of all the damnable—” He cut himself off, hung the towel over the banister and retraced his path to the stairway in long, determined strides.

  He wasn’t angry because she knew, Evelyn realised, but because he hadn’t. A shiver crawled down her spine as she made her way to her bedroom.

  She was all for a good mystery now and then, but this castle had dark secrets and tragedies seeping through its walls.

  She changed as quickly as she could, removing her damp underclothes and choosing a simple blue and white striped day dress that buttoned down the side. Beneath that, her corset was extremely badly tied. The petticoat, she forewent altogether. If she’d known their accommodations wouldn’t afford a spare member of the staff to assist her as a temporary lady’s maid, she would’ve brought Alice along with her as well as William.