The Heiress Bride (Sherbrooke Brides 3)

Alex just shook her head back and forth and said to Sophie, “Sometimes I forget what they’re like. When I’m reminded, why, I realize that life is more than sweet, it’s delicious. It’s even better than those blueberry-and-currant tarts Douglas is gobbling down.”

“Now that you’ve spoken the pure truth,” Douglas said, “I beg you not to run out of here toward the basin Philpot set in the entrance hall.”

“I would that we shift the subject a bit,” Sinjun said.

“Yes,” Ryder said, “now that Douglas and I see that you’re pleased with this man, Sinjun, we will move on to other matters. Douglas and I have given this situation a good deal of thought, Colin. It seems to us that the person who told Robert MacPherson that you’d killed his sister is quite likely the same person who killed her himself.”

“Or herself,” Alex said.

“True. But why would anyone want Fiona dead?” Sinjun asked. “And to have Colin there, unconscious by the edge of the cliff, all ready to blame because he couldn’t remember anything. It was a carefully thought-out plan. Serena, do you know of anyone who hated your sister that much? Someone who knew enough about potions and such to erase Colin’s memory?”

Serena looked up from her tart, smiled vaguely at Sinjun, and said in her soft voice, “Fiona was a faithless bitch. I quite hated her myself. I also know enough about the effects of opium and henbane and the maella plant. I could have done it quite easily.”

“Oh.”

“Let’s go another step,” Douglas said. “Serena, who hated Colin?”

“His father. His brother. Aunt Arleth. Toward the end, Fiona hated him because she was so jealous of him and he didn’t love her. She was even jealous of me, but I never touched you then, Colin. I was very careful.”

Colin went very still. He slowly lowered his fork back onto his plate. He said mildly, belying the pain Sinjun knew he must feel at Serena’s words, “My father didn’t hate me, Serena. He merely had no use for me. My brother was the future laird. I wasn’t important. I understood that as much as I realized it wasn’t right or fair

, as much as it hurt me. It would be like Joan and me having a son and disregarding him because Philip is the firstborn.

“As for my brother, why, Malcolm had no reason to hate me, either. He had everything. If there was any hate to be festered, why, I should be the one brimming with it. As for Aunt Arleth, she loved my father and hated her sister, my mother. She wanted my father to marry her after my mother died, but he didn’t. It’s true she dislikes me amazingly and believed my brother was a prince among men, but I doubt even she understands why. It was as if she feared me, perhaps, because I was also a son, a possible future earl.”

“I don’t hate you, Colin.”

“Thank you, Serena. I truly don’t know how Fiona felt about me before she died. I pray she didn’t hate me. I never wished her ill.”

“I would never hate you, Colin, never. I only wish I had been the heiress. Then you wouldn’t have had to go to London and marry her.”

“Ah, but I did and there’s an end to it. And you, my dear, will go to Edinburgh to live with your father. You will go to parties and balls. You will meet many nice men. It is for the best, Serena.”

“All adults say that when they wish to justify what they’re doing to someone else.”

“You’re an adult,” Sinjun said. “Surely you don’t wish to remain here at Vere Castle.”

“No, you’re right. Since Colin won’t make love to me now, I might as well leave.” With those words, she rose from her chair, not waiting for Rory to assist her, and, oblivious of the stunned silence, wafted her way from the room.

“You have very odd relatives, Colin,” Douglas said.

“What about your mother, Douglas, and how she treats me?”

“All right, Alex. Most families have strange members,” Douglas said, grinning at his wife. “Serena . . . I don’t know, Colin. She seems fey, if you know what I mean. Not daft, not really, just fey.”

“Yes, as if both her feet weren’t quite planted firmly on the grass. She’s always fancied the notion that she was a witch, and she’s dabbled with her plants for many years now.”

“But you don’t believe she would kill her own sister. And drug you so you would take the blame?”

“No, I don’t, Joan. But as Douglas says, Serena is odd. She always has been. Fiona adored her though, insisted that she live here with us, though I wasn’t overly pleased about it.”

“Did she try to kiss you in front of her sister?”

“No, Alex, she didn’t. That began after her sister died. When I brought Joan back, she tried to waylay me behind every door.”

“It would be nice to have some clarity here,” Douglas said.

“Perhaps,” Sinjun said, “we should call Dahling. She has opinions on everything and everyone.”