Page 10 of It Happened in the Highlands
“Which hand?” he asked again. His left hand was still extended.
“The left,” she said, trying to finish this foolishness.
He opened the hand. It was empty.
“I realize you’re teasing me, sir, but I’m not in any mood for it. I need to return to my friends.”
“I’ll give you one more chance. Which hand?” he asked, holding out only his right hand again.
He was not giving up.
“The right one,” Jo said, smiling despite herself. “And this is my final answer.”
His fist slowly turned over and opened. A delicate red rose bud lay in his palm. “For you.”
Later that night, Jo and Lieutenant Wynne Melfort were officially introduced.
* * *
He was Captain Melfort now. Secretly, she’d followed his advancement and accomplishments in the ensuing years, combing through the war news for every mention of him.
As Jo stared out the rear window of the carriage at the man and boy standing on the edge of the lane, a thousand feelings rushed through her, but she clung to one. As painful as their separation was, time had softened much of her sorrows.
Tall and confident as ever in his stance and gaze, Wynne showed no trace of aging. He looked just as she still saw him in her dreams. The years had been kind to him. If anything, he had grown even more handsome.
Her eyes met his, and she nodded her head. He bowed but did not approach.
A blur of voices and market sounds filled the carriage, but none of them penetrated her thoughts. Then, the surprise of the incident gave way to panic. The urge to run, to escape from him, propelled her thoughts and actions.
“Have the driver walk on,” she whispered to Anna, her maidservant.
She forced herself to take a breath, then the next and the next. Her heart was drumming in her chest, and any sense of composure was slow to attain. She willed herself to be calm; clear thinking was a necessity right now.
They’d finally met again. And the worst was over. What once existed between them was over. It was over, Jo kept repeating to herself. It was over.
“Did you know him, m’lady?” Anna asked. “A braw, handsome gentleman, to be sure.”
At the time of Jo’s engagement, the maidservant had been working at Baronsford. She guessed if Anna knew Captain Melfort at all, it was only by name.
“Perhaps. He looked familiar,” Jo replied vaguely. “But you were saying you have cousins who live somewhere near Aberdeen.”
As Anna rattled on, Jo considered what had just occurred. According to directions they received in Rayneford, they were very close to the Abbey. And Wynne was in the village. Perhaps he had a connection with the hospital. That would explain how Dr. McKendry identified her from the patient’s sketches.
The vagueness of the letter she received now made sense. She wouldn’t have come if she knew Wynne had anything to do with this.
She could still go back. Turn the carriage around and continue the trip north to see Gregory and Freya. But the Abbey was real. She’d known that before she left the Borders. Her sister-in-law Grace wouldn’t allow Jo to leave until she’d made inquiries in Edinburgh with the help of one of Hugh’s law clerks. They’d learned Dr. McKendry had established the asylum as a reputable facility in only two years of operation. Whether her brother was aware of the actions of Grace or not, Jo didn’t know, but she’d left Baronsford assured that she wasn’t walking into some ruse or fraudulent situation.
The patient and the likenesses to Jo in the sketches had to be real too. There was nothing to gain, no purpose to be had, no advantage that she could think of that would prompt someone like Dr. McKendry to formulate such an elaborate deception.
Jo reminded herself of the reason for coming here. Her mother.
“M’lady, that must be the Abbey,” Anna said, motioning out the window to the building rising in the distance above the fields.
She wasn’t going back, Jo decided. And when it came to Captain Melfort, the most difficult part was behind her.
At least this was what she needed to make herself believe.
Chapter 4
