Page 49 of Taming the Highland Misfits
Edina stroked her daughter’s hair and kissed her forehead. “Thank you, sweetheart,” she said tenderly. “Now it is time for your bath then bed.”
“Come and tell me another story before bedtime,” Isla ordered in a mock-stern voice.
Edina laughed. “Only if you are a very good girl.” She laughed, then stood up and took Isla by the hand, then she paused and looked down at her before hugging her very tightly. “My beautiful girl. Do you know how much I love you?”
Isla never forgot the look in her mother’s eyes that night. They were bright and shiny with tears, and it was only later that Isla realised that they were not tears of sadness, but love.
“I know, Mother,” she said softly. “I love you too. You are the best mother in the world.”
For a moment longer they held each other, then Edina led Isla upstairs to her bath. She splashed and played with her more than usual that night, and when Isla went to bed, her mother lay down with her and put her arms around her. After Edina had told her a story, they fell asleep, and the next morning they ate breakfast together.
Isla noticed that there was something wrong with her mother that morning. She was very quiet and she hardly ate any of her food, but when Isla asked her about it she only said that she had a sore tummy.
“Go and play with Tessa,” she urged as they left the table. Tessa was a tubby middle-aged woman who had once been Isla’s nursemaid and nanny. She still worked for the Thomsons as a maid, and she and Isla were very close. She had such an intimidating presence, however, that even Robert Thomson was slightly afraid of her and kept his distance when Isla was with her.
Isla went around the table to where Edina was sitting and put her arms around her, not realising that her mother was wincing with pain. Then she kissed her, smiled at her and ran to meet Tessa. It was the last time she saw Edina alive.
* * *
“I went to see Mother for our midday meal,” she said sadly. “But she was not in the dining room, or the parlour. Then I tried the bedroom.” She stopped speaking, unable to go on. “That was when I found her. She was lying on the bed not moving, and her lips were blue.
When I touched her hands they were cold, and the tips of her fingers were blue too. I shook her and told her to wake up, but she didn’t say anything, although her head fell to the side and although she was looking towards me I could tell that she could not see me. I had never seen a dead body before, I didn’t know what to do and I was so scared, so I screamed.
Tessa came in a minute later, thank goodness, and she took care of me. I was hysterical—I could not understand what was happening. I wasn’t even allowed to keep anything of hers to remember her by. My father is a truly evil man, Finley.” She stopped speaking then, and tears coursed silently down her cheeks. After a moment, she spoke again. “After my mother died my life was not the same. I felt as though nothing was steady and dependable any more, as if my world had no foundation. She was everything to me; the one who guided me and shielded me from the harsh realities of life.
They say time heals, though, and to a certain extent it does. Mother had once told me that when her own mother died she tried to focus on all her good memories of her. I was very young at that time, and I didn’t really understand her, but when she died her advice made sense. I think she might have had an idea, even then, that she was not going to live for much longer, and was trying to warn me. Or perhaps I am just being fanciful.” She shrugged, and gave him a faint half-smile. “I coped for a long time by living on those good memories, Finley, but tonight—tonight brought everything back, and I remember how much I still miss her.”
Finley reached across the space between them and took her hand. “I suppose I was lucky no’ tae have been the one that found my mother,” he said gently. “You made me remember my good an’ happy memories, Isla, just as your Ma did for you. The funny thing is that findin’ out the truth about the way she died has brought about a strange sort o’ peace, although I am still ragin’ at your father, of course. Does that make sense?”
She thought for a moment, squeezing his hand as she looked inside herself to find an answer, then she nodded. “You are lucky to have found that peace inside yourself, and I hope you continue to have that, Finley. You certainly deserve it after all you have been through.
After we have dealt with my father, all I want to do is run away. As far as I am concerned, he is not related to me anymore. In fact, I never want to see his face again, and if anyone ever asks me if I am his daughter I will deny it. I always knew he was a bad man, but a murderer? I never thought that of him, although a man who can rape a woman is quite capable of any atrocity, I suppose.” Her voice was bitter.
Abruptly, Finley changed the subject. “How are we goin’ tae get in when we reach your house?” he asked.
Isla smiled then, a smug, mischievous grin that made him laugh. “I have lived in Lochview House for as long as I can remember,” she answered. “I know every nook and cranny of it. I know where my father hides all his secret treasures, because I have had years and years to find out!
As well as that, I know a way to enter the house and leave again without being seen. I was never able to use it, though, because I was afraid of what my father would do to my maids or the people I was close to in the house, but recently I just reached breaking point, which is why we are here now.”
Finley raised her hand to his lips and planted a soft kiss on it. They had reached the church, then he helped Isla to dismount from Raffy, and they were just assembling their belongings when they heard the sound of hooves. Finley whipped out his sword, but it was too late. They were surrounded by five horsemen on extremely large mounts, and one of them was Robert Thomson, who was grinning from ear to ear.
“Well, if it isn’t Isla Thomson, my long-lost daughter!” he drawled. “Looking like a dirty peasant girl, complete with an even dirtier blacksmith’sboy.” He stressed the last word as he looked Finley up and down with a contemptuous sneer. “Did you not have time for a bath, or do you like being filthy?”
“Don’t rise to his bait, Finley,” Isla warned as she glared at her father. “You are not dirty, and even if you were, you would be far cleaner than this black-heartedmurderer.” At the last word, Robert Thomson’s eyes widened and he leaned backwards, clearly shocked.
A few seconds later, however, he recovered. “And where did you pick up this piece of slander, my dear girl?” he asked, his voice dripping with sarcasm.
“Straight from the horse’s mouth, you bastard!” Isla’s voice was a furious hiss. “Alec Crawford, who saw exactly what you did!”
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Isla’s father’s jaw dropped open as he looked at his daughter in disbelief. Then he suddenly snapped back to reality and flapped his hand at her. “Pfft! You are a fool if you believe a word that moron utters. He and that lump of lard he calls a son live in a world of their own.”
He stamped across to the most senior of his guards and muttered something in his ear, whereupon the man marched over to Finley and relieved him of his sword.
Finley thought it best not to resist, since they were surrounded by soldiers who were armed to the teeth; moreover, he had to protect Isla as best he could and being injured or killed would not help them at all. Sadly, he watched as his weapon was taken away and inspected by the other men. It was a good sword, and had saved his life many times; he would be sorry to lose it.
“Fine blade,” the senior guard said admiringly, waving it around in the air to test it. “Wasted on the likes o’ him.” He looked scornfully at Finley, then laughed, and the rest of the men joined in.
