Page 72 of Laird of Twilight
“Just as I told you. The Fey. You were lucky to escape.”
She pushed a hand through her hair, tendrils slipping from neat braiding. “Truly, I do not know what to believe. Or what to do.”
“Your gift,” he said. “The Sight was granted to you by the fairy queen when you were an infant. You can see what cannot be seen. Use it to protect yourself.”
“Sometimes I do have the Sight, but it is common enough in the Highlands. It is not very useful. Time goes by with nothing, and then I may see and know things, but it is so unreliable.”
“Like the fairies,” he said. “Capricious. Charming. Like you. And now you are in love, and your thoughts are spinning around. It is normal.” He smiled as if delighted.
“Grandda,” she said impatiently. “I want to stay here at Kilcrennan. I want to be here to help you. Everything would be so complicated if I fell in love. And so I will never do that.”
“Too late,” Donal said, watching her. “You already have.”
* * *
His inked pen scratched over paper as James sat at the desk recording his latest geological observations of the local hills near Struan. He would need to deliver a new series of lectures after the new year, and though it was only October, he was never one to fall behind. He glanced across the room, where golden afternoon sun slanted through the windows. The rocks that he had lately collected were arranged neatly on a small table, each one tied with a string attached to a paper tag. He was particularly excited about a few of those samples, which supported his theories.
The Earth is still evolving into its present and future states,he wrote.Lava, volcanoes, floods and tidal waves, earthquakes and other catastrophes caused massive shifts of land and sea. Earthly documents exist in rock and stone, in the rippled patterns of rocks found along the shore, in cracks formed in mud that once dried in hot sun, in the imprints of waves, raindrops, and trickles of water, and in the fossil remains of marine shells, plants, mammals and reptiles...
Osgar, napping beside his desk, sat up, whining a bit. James glanced at the wolfhound. “Ever since the Greeks,” he lectured to the dog, who tipped his head as if fascinated, “man has noted the evidence of a long-ago sea that surged as high as the mountains. Did you know that entire continents once lay under water? So we think, for rock preserves a record of the secrets of the earth. Astute investigation can interpret and reveal the truth. The present is the key to the past.”
He wrote that down, adding, “And the past is the key to both present and future.” The dog seemed to lose interest, settling down for the rest of his nap.
Suddenly James wondered what Elspeth might say about his lecture. He felt a sharp longing, wanting to discuss it with her. She was never far from his thoughts. Never far enough, he added. Sanding the ink, blowing gently, he set the paper aside.
Then he reached for his grandmother’s manuscript, a thick stack of pages still left to read. He reminded himself that he had to finish this fairy business and move on, leave Struan House and the glen, and return to Edinburgh.
A knock at the door made Osgar leap to his feet, ears alert. James opened the door to find Eldin looking grim. James sighed.
“Come in, Eldin. May I send for coffee or tea?”
“Thank you, no. Sir John and I will be departing shortly. What a handsome animal,” his cousin said, stretching a hand to pet Osgar. “A proud and ancient breed.”
“Aye.” James hoped Osgar would growl ominously enemy, but the wolfhound merely nudged his head under Eldin’s hand. Greedy beast.
“I will take only a moment of your time. I understand through Mr. Browne that you are thinking of selling this house. If so, I am prepared to make an offer.”
James frowned. “I have not entirely decided.” Regardless, he did not want to sell to Eldin.
“I should make it clear that Lady Struan’s decision regarding my role in her will was her own doing. I did not influence her.”
His cousin knew what James might assume, of course—anyone knowing Eldin would consider that conclusion. “Lady Struan corresponded with you often over some business dealings, I understand,” he said calmly. “Perhaps the two of you discussed her wishes for the will.”
“I assure you we did not. In the last few years, she had invested some capital in certain enterprises—jute, herrings, salt—to support Scottish industries and make a little in repayment. I assisted her in those transactions. She invested wisely and made a good profit. She also made a little assisting in some illicit trading as well, mostly whisky and salt.”
“Did she! I was not aware,” James said, more amused than shocked. “I know she believed that Highlanders had suffered enough already from being cleared out of their homes and lands with the sale of their landlord’s properties. She mentioned more than once that it was unfair that they should pay exorbitant tax duties on necessary items such as whisky and salt.”
“She did. And so I helped her arrange some patronage of those enterprises.” He cleared his throat. “She earned extra funds by doing so. And so perhaps she thought we worked well together and included me in her will as a sort of...contingency if things did not go according to her plans and wishes.”
“I take it you know the unusual conditions of the will.”
“I do. I can only wish you luck in your endeavor.” His dark blue eyes were intense, a cool and almost hawkish expression.
“To be honest, sir, my siblings are convinced that you exerted some influence over Lady Struan. Whatever the case, there is little to be done about it now.”
“Very little,” Eldin responded. “Nor can we change other bygones.”
“Oh, that you watched our cousin die on a bloody battlefield, and did nothing to help him?” James tried to stay calm, his fingers flexing tightly on the doorknob. “That is not something that is easy to forget.”
