Page 53 of Sutherland's Secret
“Somehow she managed to have old periodicals from London sent up here, and she studied them, then talked ceaselessly about the fashions and society and balls and gossip. I tried my best to provide her with the clothes she wanted, even though I could no’ take her to London.”
He still felt shame that he couldn’t make his wife happy. No matter what he did, it was never enough. The only thing that would have made her happy was for them to go to London, and that he could not do. It would have taken weeks, at least, and he couldn’t leave his people for that long and for something as foolish as traveling to London just so she could see it. Now he wondered if he should have. Would she have been content with a visit? Somehow he doubted it.
“So she left you to go to London?” Eleanor asked.
“Aye.” Her words stabbed him. He’d been humiliated and furious when he’d discovered her deception. Her family had apologized profusely, but it hadn’t eased his pain or embarrassment. To the outside world, it looked as if he couldn’t keep his wife under control; nor could he make her happy enough to stay, and that had made him bitter.
“She met an English soldier who promised her everything that I could no’,” he said. “They ran away to Edinburgh and boarded a ship to England. The ship ran into a fierce storm and everyone on board perished.”
Outside, the wind picked up, howling through the cracks in the walls and making the fire jump and crackle loudly.
“I’m sorry for her death,” Eleanor said quietly. “But she was a fool. London is nothing special. A bunch of people who think too highly of themselves and not enough of others. I can say that, you know, because I was one of them.”
“She would have liked ye, Alisa would have. She would have picked yer brain until ye screamed ‘Enough.’ She would have been dazzled by yer presence. A real English lady at Castle Dornach. The like has no’ happened before.”
“And I would have told her that London was nothing to dream of. That people there are the same as people here, without the compassion that your people have shown me.”
“She would no’ have believed ye. She had it in her head that London was her…I don’t know the word I’m looking for.”
“Utopia?”
“Yes. Utopia.”
“She would have been disappointed. The English soldier probably gave her a line of malarkey to get her to go with him. More than likely he’d never stepped into a ballroom.”
Brice had wondered that himself. Would Alisa have come back to him once she got the fever of London out of her veins? He’d never know.
He stood and stretched. “ ’Tis a fine storm that’s blowing up out there. I’ll fetch some water before it hits.”
Chapter 21
Eleanor watched Brice grab a pail that was sitting beside the back door and head outside. She shivered as the wind rushed in and whirled around her on a swirl of dead leaves and dust.
The flames of the fire danced madly about as she stared into them. Alisa had been a fool; she’d had no idea what was in front of her. Didn’t she realize that every woman wished for a good husband who cared for her and took care of her? A beautiful country with honest, hardworking people? Alisa had been blind to all of that in her desire to see more and do more.
Eleanor was lucky in that her family had enough money to dress and eat well. They lived in a fine house in a very good part of the city. They attended the balls that Alisa longed to attend. The girl would have been terribly disappointed if she did get an invitation to a ball. The women and girls were vipers, and Alisa would have been just different enough that she would have been ostracized.
Eleanor probably would have been one of those who turned her back on Alisa. It was how society functioned, but now Eleanor had a clearer picture of things, and she didn’t like what she was seeing. She was forever changed by her time in Scotland. While the journey had been harsh—brutal, even—she was at peace with who she had become. She felt as if she was a better person for her tribulations. She wished Charles hadn’t had to die or that she hadn’t had to suffer in Cumberland’s dungeon for the greed of Blackwood. She wished she could have made herself a better person without all of that, but it was nothing she could change now.
And she had met Brice Sutherland and his clan. If not for them, she would not be alive. If not for them, she would not have the changed view of Scotland that she did now. She felt for these people who were running and hiding for their lives and the lives of their families. Who made the difficult choice to leave the country where their people had lived for centuries.
Brice came back in a swirl of moist air and shook the droplets of rain from his hair. He was such a handsome man, in a rough way. Completely different from the men in London, who had soft hands and padded shoulders in their coats. There was nothing padded about Brice. He was all hard muscles and angles. And Eleanor loved that about him.
“I hope the men make it back to the castle before the storm hits,” he said as he put the pail of water down.
Eleanor hugged her knees to her chest and watched him search through the small cupboard. He came away with a bag of something and a flat stone, then picked up the pail and brought it all to the fire. “Tonight’s fine fare is bannocks,” he said as he placed everything before them.
“It sounds heavenly,” she said.
“Ye’ll no’ be thinking that when ye’re eating it, but it’s the best I can do.”
She watched as, one-handed, he mixed oatmeal and water into a thick dough. He formed it into a ball, helping with the hand that was in a sling, and placed it on the stone, then flattened it to a thick oval shape. He set the stone in the middle of the fire, sliding it in with the stick before he sat back.
He scooted next to her, and they sat side by side on the wooden floor as the storm picked up outside and the bannock cooked. It was all very homey and intimate. If her friends in London could see her now, they would be appalled. If Charles could see her now, he would be outraged that she’d been forced into such barbaric circumstances. But Eleanor didn’t mind in the least. She was sitting by a warm fire, a wonderful man at her side. She was wearing breeches in the wilds of Scotland. Her life had certainly taken a drastic turn.
“So I know you had a wife, but what about other family? Brothers and sisters?” she asked, wanting to know more about this man.
“Aye.”
