He drew in another whiff of that delicious freshly baked bread as he walked out the front door of Kildrummy and realized he hadn’t even gotten to taste a bite of it.
That evening Gweneth Fordyce, along with three Vallance Manor footmen, arrived at Kildrummy Castle with a mountain of luggage.
20
THE NEXT MORNING Tysen was seated in the library, writing a letter to Donald MacCray to find out the truth of things. He looked up when Mary Rose said from the doorway, “My lord?”
He raised an eyebrow at her. “So formal?”
“Well, I still feel that you are angry at me for trying to leave yesterday, even though I know it is still the best thing to do, the proper thing. You did not wish to speak to me last night. Indeed, you avoided me, so I came to you.”
“You don’t know anything,” he said, and eased his quill back into its onyx stand. He sat back in his chair and leaned his head back against his arms. “What is happening now that I must needs know? More outpouring of guilt on your part? You will shoot yourself now to spare me from sacrificing myself? Or is it that you disapprove of something else I have done for your benefit?”
“No,” she said, then sighed and fiddled with the lace at her wrist. She was wearing one of her own gowns that her mother had brought with her. “Thank you for inviting my mother here. She is very happy. Meggie likes her very well, and naturally, my mother believes Meggie to be the brightest child in all of Scotland. Meggie has a new grandmother, and thank the Lord she isn’t mad. I believe my mother is going to teach Meggie how to draw. She is excellent with watercolors.” She paused a moment, then added, “It’s true, isn’t it? My mother really has been pretending to madness all these years? It was all a ruse?”
He nodded.
“I suppose I understand it. She was pregnant, unwed, and what was she to do? But why madness, particularly when she was at Vallance Manor with her own sister and brother-in-law?”
Tysen sighed. “Evidently your uncle wanted her in his bed and he wasn’t above using blackmail. Your mother was quick-witted. She chose madness as her defense against him. I suppose it became a habit with her.”
Mary Rose thought about that a moment. “It would seem to me,” she said finally, “that there are very few honorable gentlemen on this earth.”
“Bosh,” Tysen said. “When we are home, I will surround you with honorable gentlemen. They abound. My brothers are honorable. You will like them and their wives and children. I will admit, however, that your uncle and Erickson MacPhail could strongly influence one’s opin-ions.”
“I do not understand why my father did not help my mother.”
“Your father was undoubtedly married.”
“Yes, of course, but still. I was thinking, Tysen.”
“The good Lord spare me. Another plan to escape me?”
“I was thinking that when I am twenty-five, just next month, I can repay you for taking care of me and my mother. You’ve even allowed her to move in with you. It is very generous. Oh, goodness.” Mary Rose actually felt her jaw quiver, she just couldn’t stop it, and it was hard to swallow.
Tysen said with no sympathy at all, “If you cry, Mary Rose, I will haul you over my shoulder again, ride to that stream, and toss you in. We can see just how long it takes you to climb out this time. Now, you have caused me no end of trouble simply because I am doing the right thing. If only you would finally recognize me as the end to all your misery, and your mother’s as well. You still have tears in your eyes. Stop it now.”
She sniffed.
“That’s something. Now, I’m writing a letter to see if, just perchance, the lie I so smoothly told your uncle yesterday happens to be the truth. I believe it is. Your uncle didn’t gainsay me, but it’s best to have it in writing.”
She stared at him. “You lied? You actually knew you were going to do it, and knowing, you still lied? Oh, Tysen, it is all my fault, that is a sin and you committed it and you are a man of God and—”
“Be quiet and listen.” And he told her the very believable tale he had concocted for her uncle’s benefit.
She said slowly when he had finished, “I have never before been told that Sir Lyon was my guardian. Indeed, I can’t imagine that my uncle would ever have willingly wanted to be my guardian. He was embarrassed that a bastard was living under his roof. It was difficult for him to feel magnanimous, his shame was so great. You know, I wonder if Ian discovered this?”
“I have no idea. I will ask Mr. MacCray, if you wish. Regardless, you and I are going to be married on Sunday, by special license. I spoke this morning to Reverend MacMillan, a very nice old gentleman who says he has known you all your life and thinks you will make a fine wife for a vicar, even though the vicar is foreign. He is, however, concerned that in my nobleness, I am rushing you into this. He is concerned that you might wish to change your mind. I told him that your fondest wish was to wed a vicar, namely me, and move to southern England where you wouldn’t know a soul, present yourself to a gaggle of new relatives entirely unknown to you, and become a mother to three children not your own. I believe he wanted to laugh at that, but he choked so badly trying to hold it back that I had to thump him soundly on the back.”
She was standing there, pale, her face still bruised, her light blue gown a bit loose on her, for she’d lost flesh during the past week—no wonder. She didn’t laugh, didn’t crack even a little smile.
He said very gently as he rose from his chair, “Give over, Mary Rose, give over. Marry me. It is the right thing to do. We will do well together.”
He didn’t look away from her.
Finally, she said, her voice barely above a whisper, “All right, Tysen. I will marry you this Sunday.”
And so it was that the following Sunday morning, in the drawing room of Kildrummy Castle, the Honorable Tysen Edward Townsend Sherbrooke, Reverend Sherbrooke of Glenclose-on-Rowan, brother to the earl of Northcliffe, took his second wife, Mary Rose Fordyce, spinster, of Vallance Manor. Gweneth cried delicately into a lovely lace handkerchief, and Colin Kinross stood beside Tysen as he calmly spoke his vows. As for Sinjun Kinross, she stood beside Mary Rose and lightly squeezed her shoulder upon occasion, perhaps to encourage her to speak up, but no matter.