Page 53 of Sighs of the Highland Wind
FOOLED BY THE ILLEGITIMATE HIGHLANDER
PROLOGUE
Ava was bubbling with happiness about her upcoming wedding with Cameron. But now she had to go back and face reality again. The tumultuous day had swung from extreme sadness to joy as Cameron had given her the strength to bear the terrible news. She drew in a deep breath, squared her shoulders, and opened the door of her small home, ready to share with her sisters her happiness about the first good thing that had happened to them in years.
Rona and Janet looked up as she entered. Ava saw her sisters exchanging glances and felt a brief moment of unease, then she brushed it aside, and her face broke into a beaming smile. "Why are you too looking sad?" she cried. "Cameron and I are going to be married. Things are goin' to change. You wait an' see!" She looked at Rona, then at Janet. She had expected some positive reaction, even under their present tragic circumstances, but she did not get the one she had anticipated.
Janet stepped forward and took Ava's hands in hers, and her eyes began to shed tears uncontrollably. "Ava," she said gently, "we have somethin' to tell ye."
Ava looked at Janet, baffled. She did not like the look on her sister's face at all.What could have possibly gone wrong again?"Tell me," she said fearfully.
Janet left Ava's hands and took a breath, calming herself down. She placed her hands on Ava's shoulders this time and looked tenderly into her sister's eyes. "I am sorry to have to tell you this, Ava, but Cameron is no' goin' to marry ye."
1
Afew weeks before…
When Ava opened her eyes she could see that dawn was not far away, since the first pale light was coloring the western sky a pale grey. Shortly the grey would give way to orange, then yellow, then, hopefully, blue, although in Scotland blue was usually a distant dream, even in midsummer. Now, in autumn, it was almost unheard of.
She cast off her warm woolen blanket with great reluctance and stood up, then stretched and yawned. She was fortunate to have had a good night’s sleep, since today promised to be another hard, backbreaking day.
Ava looked around in the dim half-light to make sure that her sisters and her father were all still asleep, then tiptoed with great care over to the door, which she opened as quietly as she could. Apart from the first faint chirping of the birds, the world was noiseless and still, and she drew in deep lungfuls of the cool still morning air.
She was glad of the peace, stillness and solitude before the noise and activity of the day began. Sleep had rested her body, but it was these few moments of time to herself that refreshed her mind.
Presently, she took a deep breath and walked down to the burn that ran outside the little cottage where she lived, then gave herself a quick but thorough wash and went inside to dress. Now the work of the day would begin in earnest.
Ava let the goat and pig out of the barn, then opened the hen coop and scattered oatmeal on the ground, where the chickens began to cluck and scratch at once. She opened the gate and let the big sow into the small patch of trees that bordered their croft. There, she would root out bulbs, acorns, insects and even mice. Pigs were easy to keep, since they ate almost everything, even household leftovers.
She milked the goat then let her out to crop the grass around the farm, before filling a bucket with water and going back into the house. Her sisters and father were not yet awake, but she had expected that.
Ava was always first out of bed, but she had never resented that. In the absence of a son, she, as the eldest of three daughters, had to shoulder much of the responsibility of running the household. Her mother had died giving birth to her youngest sister, Rona, and her father was dying slowly and painfully, being eaten alive by the merciless onset of consumption.
In the last few years, their lives had been buffeted by one catastrophe after another, and a lesser mortal than Ava would have buckled under the strain, but she was made of sterner stuff. She had resolved that she would not be beaten down by theircircumstances, and she was doing everything she could to keep that promise.
Presently, she went into the cottage again and heard the sound she dreaded most - her father’s awful, hacking cough. It had always sounded to her like the noise of an ax chopping wood, and she had no doubt that it felt just as bad. Ava always expected every cough to be his last, and although she dreaded his death, she wanted it to happen sooner rather than later, so that his suffering would end.
Tiptoeing over to her father’s bed, she bent down over him and gently put a hand under his shoulders to lift his back off the mattress a little. The coughing had been so severe that tears were streaming down his face, and Ava wiped them away with her thumbs. When she put a handkerchief to his mouth it came away stained with blood. Eventually, the paroxysm eased, then stopped, and Ava gave him a sip of water from the cup that always stood beside his bed. He sipped greedily for a moment, then relaxed.
“Better now, Da?” she asked softly, trying to summon up a smile.
“Aye, hen,” he replied. “But I will be better when I am dead, then I can go tae heaven an’ be wi’ your mammy.”
“You should no’ say things like that, Da,” Ava told him as she kissed his forehead. They both knew he was right, but she could hardly voice such thoughts to him.
“They kill horses when they break their legs,” Colin Struthers wheezed. “It is an act o’ mercy, Ava. Why can they no’ gie the same mercy tae people?” He had said the same thing many times before, and it was a plea for her to act on the wish, but she knew she could never do so.
Ava sighed and put her arms around him. He was as thin as a skeleton, and his eyes were sunken into his head. There were hollows under his cheekbones and his hands looked like claws, with every blue vein showing clearly under his transparent skin.
“I don’t know, Da,” she said sadly, kissing him on the forehead. “It doesnae seem fair.”
“You know, when your mammy was carryin’ Rona I felt sure she was goin’ tae be a boy,” Colin wheezed. He swallowed and took another breath before going on. “I thought he would grow up big an’ strong so that he could help you lassies wi’ the heavy work around the farm, but my darlin’ Maisie died, an’ the baby was a girl. No’ that I mind - my wee Rona is very precious tae my heart - but boys are stronger. Now the burden o’ the work an’ worry has landed on you, Ava, an’ I am very, very sorry.”
“Da, Janet, Rona an’ I are managin’ just fine.” Ava’s voice was soothing as she tucked Colin’s blanket under his chin and plumped up the pillow under his head. “A brother would have been nice, but it was no’ tae be, so calm yourself. We are just as well without one.”
She looked at the bed he was lying on, distressed as always by the state of it. They had no proper beds, only straw-filled pallets on the floor which were rolled up and stacked away at night, but that was all everyone else of their class had. Feather beds and silk sheets were only for the wealthy, who lived in mansions and employed servants. The Struthers family could only dream of such things, but they were rich in love.
The middle sister of the three, Janet, was a hefty, muscular girl, who carried out many of the tasks that needed physical strength, such as digging, and occasionally even pulling their hand plow, since they had no horse or ox. As well as her muscular frame, shehad a muscular nature, but she was particularly badly affected by the state of her father’s health. Ava often found her weeping when she thought no-one was looking.
