Page 68 of It Happened in the Highlands
Graham stalked to a desk by a window.
“And what did you gain by it?” she persisted. “A few paltry pounds from the sale of her estate?” Jo shook her head in disgust. “In your vile scheming, is Charles next to die?”
Mrs. Barton took a step toward her.
“Youare the only vile schemer,” she hissed. “You and your clever plans to take everything we have built. Everything we hold dear.”
Jo continued to ignore her, keeping after Graham.
“Or were your actions even more insidious?” she demanded. “Did you try to kill her? Did you throw her into those flood waters yourself? Is that the reason she was so terrified of coming back?”
“You’re wrong,” he retorted, anguish in his voice. “I committed no murder. She was caught in the flood, and I thought she was dead. I was sure of it. No one could have survived those raging waters, certainly not a woman in her condition. And I tell you with God as my witness, it wasn’t about her estate. I wanted to bring her back. Save her.”
His admission had a more powerful effect on Mrs. Barton than Wynne would have imagined. She crossed the room and slapped Graham hard across the face.
“That’s a lie!” she screamed. “You wouldn’t betray me. Not then, not now.”
Graham said nothing. He never lifted a hand to his face. He simply stood where he was as Mrs. Barton spun and started back toward Jo.
“That harlot deserved to die.” The old woman stopped in the center of the room, her eyes wild, unfocused. “It was God’s will that she should drown like the Pharaoh and his Egyptian whore. She died as she should. And the devil growing inside her died as well. I wanted them gone.Godwanted them dead. Both dead.”
As if suddenly awakened, Graham started toward her. “Leana. Stop.”
She held up a hand, halting him in his tracks.
“From the first moment the little jade stepped foot in this house, all she wanted was to steal the Barton men from me,” she sneered. “She wanted to takeeverythingfrom me. Ainsley and his sanctimonious drivel. Speaking of her as the daughter I should have given him.”
Backing toward the desk where her son sat, she reached out to touch his hair, but stopped, pulling her hand back as if burned.
“And then my Charles, my boy, fell under her spell.”
She glared at Jo, pure hatred in her eyes.
“He turned on me like an adder, and she made him do it. Turned his back on the match that would have made him a man for all Scotland. Shrugged off the marriage prospect that I’d arranged for him like it was nothing. Nothing! And turned toher! Marriedher. . . just to spite me. All my plans for him. All for nothing!”
* * *
Married her.
Josephine and Charles. Married. He was her father.
Married her.Mrs. Barton’s words reverberated in Jo’s mind.
She wanted to go to Charles, hold him. He was her father. But the old woman was standing beside him, her arms askew, her face twitching with fury. And Jo knew Charles’s mother would fight her like a wild animal if she tried to get near him now.
Then something changed in Mrs. Barton’s face. A glimmer of understanding flickered in her eyes. She scowled darkly at Graham.
“Saved her? You would havesaved her?” Her mouth opened and closed as if forming words that did not come out. “You wouldn’t do that. Not you. Not the man who claimed he loved me. Not the man who had begged me to marry him for . . . how many years, Graham? Not the man who vowed to wait for me till the last breath of life left our bodies.”
Suddenly, all the anger and doubt and frustration and helplessness inside of Jo was pushed aside, and pity welled up in her heart. In spite of the knowledge that this old woman was the cause of so much misery, responsible for the death of her mother, she could feel nothing but pity for her at this moment. Another lost woman.
“Leana,” Graham began helplessly.
Mrs. Barton shuddered and shot a fierce glance at Jo.
“So you’ve stolen him from me, as well,” she rasped. “You and your whore mother have taken them all. Well, this one’s not half the man his brother was. Never could be. So take him. I don’t need him or anyone. Youbothshould have drowned. I wish you’d never seen the light of day.”
“That’s enough, Leana,” Graham said, crossing toward her.
