Questions for a Highlander

by Angeline Fortin

  She had been in Edinburgh for almost two months now, working diligently on planning the engagement ball for Richard’s two brothers. She was a countess, after all, an accomplished hostess not only by William’s hand but her mother’s as well. She had taken over Lord Richard MacKintosh’s Edinburgh townhouse and even brought some of her own staff along, since most of theirs had gone to England with them. She had settled in, very much at home.

  Invitations had been sent; menus for the engagement ball and for the week’s end house party had been planned and printed. George II place settings and silver had been chosen, flowers ordered, centerpieces designed and commissioned and additional staff engaged for the events at Raven’s Craig Castle. She had escorted Coline and Ilona Roper to the dressmakers, helped them receive guests for their morning calls and chaperoned them through the beginning of the Season. Their trousseaus and linens were ordered.

  She had been busy from dawn ‘til dusk. Falling into bed exhausted had been a pleasant change from the sleepless nights which had plagued her. But while she had enjoyed the tasks, there had been little opportunity to venture from her persona of perfection. In fact, the past months had only served to emphasize her social panache.

  Would she ever feel truly alive again?

  Chapter 9

  In every moment, the quality of your life is on the line.

  In each, you are either fully alive or relatively dead.

  - Dan Millman

  As the morning sun rose, Eve left the beach and strolled back to the castle, picking her way across the low stone outlines of what was once the bailey and outbuildings of the original 15th century Raven’s Craig Castle. Hundreds of years after its construction, only the main keep and two towers remained. Eve had left Abby and Richard’s lovely townhouse on Moray Place in Edinburgh’s New Town district two days ago to come here, to Raven’s Craig Castle, to oversee the final arrangements for that evening’s ball and the house party to follow. In those two days, she had fallen in love with the historic castle. Though it was the ancestral home of the Earls of Glenrothes, the condition of the castle in years past had prompted the earldom to build a more modern estate for its primary residence at Glen Cairn. The current earl, it seemed, had taken an interest in the castle again and was in the process of restoring the portions that remained. Eve wished she could be there to see it when it was done for she felt he was doing a brilliant job of it.

  Coming through the main hall which extended from the front of the castle through to the back entrance, Eve could see through the open front doors an elegant carriage sitting at the end of the bridge that spanned the former moat. “Who has arrived, Godfrey?” she asked of the earl’s butler as she entered, offering him her bonnet, gloves and parasol. “We weren’t expecting any of the family to arrive until this afternoon.”

  “Lord and Lady Richard MacKintosh have just arrived, my lady,” the butler answered.

  “Lady MacKintosh is here?” she responded in surprise. In spite of Abby’s assurances, she hadn’t been expecting them back until long after the engagement ball was over. “Where have you put them?”

  “She has made herself quite at home in the rear drawing room.”

  “Of course she has! It’s her home!” Eve admonished as she hurried into the room. “Abby!”

  “Evie!” her long-time friend returned with a wide grin as she struggled to rise from the chaise where she reclined.

  “Please don’t get up!” Eve urged as she approached.

  “What is that?” Abby asked with a wave of dismissal at Eve’s outstretched hands. “Give me a hug, silly girl. I have missed you!”

  I have missed you too! Eve thought as she awkwardly returned the embrace the other woman bestowed on her. After a moment, she sank into the hug thinking how wonderful it was to have a real friend.

  Abby gestured to the man by her side as he rose to greet Eve. “I’m sorry, I’m not sure if you have met Richard before, have you?”

  Eve replied in the negative and turned to Richard as Abby introduced her to her husband. “I was so sorry I couldn’t make it to your wedding and did not have the opportunity to meet you before, Lord MacKintosh,” Eve addressed Abby’s husband formally as she perched on the edge of the sofa. The refreshment tray was delivered and Eve set to being a perfect hostess. “I so wanted to come, but Shaftesbury did not think it a good idea.”

  Did not think it necessary, she amended mentally. It was an argument that had cost her a week locked in her room.

  “Not at all, Lady Shaftesbury,” Richard replied. “The fault is mine for not meeting you while we were in Deal.”

  Pleasantries finished, Eve surveyed her friend. “My goodness, Abby, you look wonderful.”

  Indeed, for a woman who had given birth to twin girls just four weeks before, Abby looked remarkably vibrant, though exhausted. “Truthfully, I am quite dog-tired but I knew Richard would regret not making it back. Luckily, the train is fairly quick and we had a private car but the carriage from Edinburgh this morning was most tiring.”

  When Abby lay her head back wearily on the chaise, Eve heard Richard whisper to his wife. “We shouldn’t have come, angel. I hate to see you suffer so. We could have missed this.”

  Eve watched as Richard caught his wife’s hand and pressed a lingering kiss to her palm. He smiled at his wife with a look of such love that Evelyn's heart twisted in a pang of envy as she turned away from the couple. How would it feel to be loved so? To have the love of a man showered on you so openly and fully? She couldn’t imagine.

  “Nonsense,” Abby replied briskly. “I’m fine, but who would have ever thought that two hours in a carriage might be more trying than twelve hours on a train?”

  “The fact that you spent the entire train journey abed in our private car might have made that leg a bit more comfortable,” Richard teased.

  Abby merely laid her head back against the chaise with a sigh, her unwillingness to argue a testament to her exhaustion. “At least I had company,” she teased softly.

  Finding their tender tones uncomfortable, Eve offered briskly, “Well, you should go up to your room then and rest. The evening ahead will be exhausting for everyone and we have not your excuses to make. I will have a tray brought up to you and send a maid up to run you a bath.” Eve had only been at Raven’s Craig for a couple days but had already found the castle’s staff to be remarkably well trained and very friendly.

  Abby raised a hand to stop Eve’s progress to the bell pull and shook her head. “Not yet, Evie. Please sit and tell me how everything has gone so far. I must say you are looking much better than when you left London. Your color is much better. Have you enjoyed yourself?”

  “I must say it has been very pleasant having a purpose and Edinburgh is such a lovely city even this time of year. When you are rested, we can review the menus for the week and the room assignments in case there is anything you would like to change,” she offered politely.

  Waving her off, Abby smiled, “I’m sure everything will be just lovely, dear. You have excellent taste. I would not have asked you to do this otherwise. Besides, your letters kept me well informed.”

  Eve nodded, graciously accepting her assurance. “And where are the babies? I should like to see them.”

  “The nurse is having them changed,” Abby told her with a frown, studying her friend trying to understand what was different. “She took Trist up to play with Laurie as well,” she added, referring to her four-year old son, Tristram.

  “I’m sure they’ll get on famously.” Eve arranged the cups on the tray. “I must say, I wasn’t expecting you back so soon after the birth.”

  “We didn’t want to miss the engagement ball.”

  “The Roper girls are quite anxious for tonight as well,” Eve replied. Her voice was fond but polite. Distant.

  “And Sean and Colin as well,” Abby answered, looking at her friend with a frown marking her angelic brow. “My grandparents travelled up with us. You should see them this evening.”

 
; “How lovely.”

  Lovely? What was going on here?

  Eve prepared their cups, adding sugar to Abby’s from memory and asking of her husband how he preferred his. “I must say I am so glad to meet you at last, Lord MacKintosh…”

  “Just Richard, please.”

  Eve hesitated a beat. “Thank you, Richard. Abby’s letters make me feel as if I know you already. Of course, I had heard many stories about you since we were in school together. Abby had the veriest esteem for you even then,” she added with a soft smile.

  Veriest esteem? The Eve she had known would have pounced on the opportunity to tease her friend. That comment should have at least been accompanied by a grin and a wink! Abby’s brow wrinkled again. “Is that what I had?”

  “Yes, quite,” Eve confirmed with a slight nod. “You know it is true.”

  Abby shrugged, since she could not deny it even though she might rephrase it. She had grown up on the estate neighboring Richard’s. Her older brother, Jack, was a great friend of Richard and his brothers. She had pursued him all through her adolescence and into her twenties before finally getting him to the altar five years ago.

  Of course, Richard was the lucky one, Eve thought. Abygail MacKintosh was a beautiful woman inside and out. She was also as tiny as a woman could get. Standing next to her, Evelyn often felt as tall as a giant, an Amazon to her pygmy and as ungainly as an ox. Several inches less than five feet in height, Abby often appeared to be a small child at first glance so petite was she. She was an extraordinarily lovely woman, however, with angelic blond beauty.

  “What is this, Eve?” Abby inquired as she sipped her tea and pulled a periodical from the table beside the chaise.

  “It’s a new periodical that Kitty sent me from New York. I just received it yesterday and was so enthralled I could barely put it down.” Eve assembled a little plate of sandwiches and cakes for her friend and delivered it to her.

  “Cosmopolitan?”

  “Please feel free to take it since I am finished,” Eve offered politely. “I’m certain Kitty will send on the next issue.”

  “Thank you, I will. Ahh, here are our little lasses now!”

  Two nurses entered, each carrying a small bundle. As they took them to the twins’ parents, Eve couldn’t stop herself from jumping up to intercept one of them. Taking one of the girls into her arms, Eve stared down into a pair of bright blue eyes and hummed with delight.

  “What do you think of my girls, Evie?”

  Eve looked up from the baby girl she cuddled with a flush of embarrassment at having been caught cooing softly to the baby. “How precious, Abby! Oh, I know you wrote me of their names, but I cannot remember.” Eve cuddled the little girl close and smelled the sweetness of the newborn. “Which one is this?”

  “You have Bryn and this is Corri,” Abby cuddled the other baby when the nurse laid her by her mother’s side.

  “Twins!” Eve exclaimed, placing a soft kiss on the down blond head of the newborn. “I don’t know how you managed it or how you can tell them apart, but they are just lovely!”

  Eve rocked the babe in her arms and cooed softly while Richard lowered the other babe to Abby’s side and took a seat beside her. His gaze when he looked upon them both was so tender it made Eve’s heart clench. Eve studied her friend’s husband more fully. He was tall, perhaps six feet or so, with dark brown hair and light brown eyes.

  “You know, Richard,” she mused as she idly rocked the baby from side to side, “you seem very familiar to me. Have we met before? Perhaps when I was in London for my debut or after I wed?”

  “I am sure I would remember,” Richard answered with a complimentary smile, earning a jab from his wife. “It’s unlikely however. I left England in ‘82 when I joined the Queen’s army and went into Africa and did not return until ‘87.”

  “Yes,” Eve nodded remembering stories Abby had told her. “I recall when you left now. That was my last year at the academy. Still, I can’t help but think that you look so familiar.” Dismissing the déjà vu feeling, she turned to her friend. “I am certainly glad you’ve returned, Abby. I suppose now I might turn the reigns over to you as hostess. Certainly I don’t need to even attend this evening since you’re back.” A bit of relief niggled at the back of her mind. Coward! She accused herself, but her inner faint heart merely shrugged off the insult.

  “Of course, you do,” Abby stated firmly. “As far as I am concerned you are still hostess of this affair. I’m certainly in no condition to take over. Besides, Richard's family will want to meet you.” Abby leaned her head back again as if exhaustion were overtaking her. “If I know you, you already have a spectacular gown ready, so name one reason why you cannot carry on.”

  “You do realize that I am supposed to be in half-mourning yet?” Evelyn argued. “Realistically, I am not supposed to show my face in Society for another three months at least.”

  “Even if Shaftesbury death was officially declared until last June, it’s still been over a year since he died. No one here is counting months, Evie, nor would they care even if they were aware of how long it’s been,” Abby dismissed her with a wave of her hand.

  One year today, Eve thought. No, she corrected. Just a year since she found out. True enough, it had been thirteen months since the ship had gone down.

  Abby went on, “I wrote and invited Moira to the ball and house party. Think of how lovely it will be to see her again.”

  Eve sighed. It would be wonderful to see Moira again, their fourth musketeer, as it were. Though they wrote regularly, as Eve had with Abby, she hadn’t seen Moira since before her marriage. Just imagining herself, Abby and Moira together again made her long for Kitty to join them.

  “You need to get out and live again, Eve. And deep down, I’m certain you even want to, you simply haven’t realized it yet! The girl I knew loved to go dancing! Just think of what a brilliant time you’ll have!” Abby argued, dangling the lure of a chance to let loose a bit.

  “Alright, alright,” Evelyn's soft Irish brogue, a rarely heard gift from her father, emerged barely detectable. She knew she'd been duly defeated when it escaped her. “I give up. Truly, Abby, you are the most persistent of people. However, I don’t have to like it and I don’t intend to stay long.”

  Abby grinned in satisfaction. “You'll have a wonderful time.”

  “You know how odd it will look, of course. An American English countess acting as a hostess for a pair of Scottish girls in a family that she hasn’t even met in its entirety?” Evelyn’s lips twisted. “We ought to cause quite a stir!” She closed her eyes and sighed, remembering all the balls she had attended in New York and her Season in London. How she missed dancing! It would be so nice to dance again! “Maybe just one dance,” she conceded out loud. “If I can find someone to dance with.”

  “Richard can dance with you, since I will not be on my feet at that point,” Abby offered for her husband, who nodded favorably with a quick smile. “He also has scads of unmarried brothers who can keep you busy.” A little frown flitted across her brow briefly. “Jack is expected as well, you know.”

  Eve couldn’t stop the groan that escaped her lips. Abby tilted her head back with a sigh. “I must ask, Evie, how irritated are you by my brother’s behavior? I am curious, has he been such a trial?”

  Abby had warned her before she had come to Edinburgh that her brother, Jack Merrill, the Earl of Haddington, had come up with a plan to rebuild his diminished fortunes by marrying an heiress. Apparently their father and then older brother had left the Haddington estates in terrible disrepair and nearly bankrupt, leaving Jack little choice but to wed for wealth. Somehow, in spite of Eve’s cold reception, the man had taken it into his head that a wealthy widow trumped a young heiress and had set his sights on her. Like a hound on the scent, he had discovered her wealth and set his sights upon making her his wife.

  Persistently.

  Annoyingly.

  Oh, he was handsome enough with his dark mahogany hair and unusual
golden eyes, but she just wasn’t interested and he had been most infuriating this past month. “He hasn’t been too much of a pest,” Evelyn hedged, voicing just a bit of displeasure aloud.

  “Bah, liar!” Abby declared with a snort. “I know my brother!”

  “Indeed, I am,” Eve confessed, and went on to tell her friend how much a fool Jack Merrill had been making of himself recently. “I swear he simply would not let me be. Every moment I turned, there he was!”

  Their first meeting, she hadn’t even known who he was. Eve had been walking through the gardens in the park when she had noticed a man staring very rudely at her. Before she had been able to reprimand him for his rude behavior he had approached her, staggering from side to side. Public drunkenness and in the morning hours as well! After bowing extravagantly before her, he had taken her hand placing a sloppy kiss on it and declared that with a woman like her to bed, marriage might become a tolerable state.

  Naturally Eve had slapped his face and informed him briskly that he was presumptuous and rude, a Neanderthal unfit for decent society, a swine of the lowest order. She had coldly insulted him before threatening to call the constable if he did not leave immediately.

  Eve related this to Abby who set off squeals of laughter at the thought of her brother being so thoroughly set down.

  Their second meeting had not been much better. While she had been reviewing the guest list one afternoon, Hobbes had informed her that Lord John Merrill, the Earl of Haddington, had come to call. Interested to meet Abby’s older brother since she had never before had the opportunity, Eve had entered her parlor with a polite smile of greeting, until he had turned and she had seen his face.

  “He asked me to marry him!” she repeated now to Abby, still in utter disbelief. “After just five minutes’ acquaintance!”

  “So much for his suave reputation,” Richard joked with a wide grin.

  “Do you not like him even a bit?” Abby asked, biting her lip to stifle another round of laughter. “Ooo, that hurts. Don’t make me laugh!”