Lost Bride Chapter 21

NINETEEN

THE ANNOUNCEMENT

Wendy found Lucy in the seldom-used gallery with cushioned window seats at each window that looked out over the frost-coated Highlands. “This is one of my favorite spots. Mind if I join you?”

“Not at all.” Lucy patted the bench cushion.

“It’s amazing here, isn’t it?”

Lucy nodded. Her mother looked as happy as she sounded. “So it’s worked out okay for you?”

Wendy gave her a look as if she were crazy for asking.

“You came here for me; you gave up so much,” Lucy explained.

Wendy smiled and waved at the air. “Shh! No more worries.”

“Sure?”

“Positive.” Wendy leaned back and looked at the view. “And what about you?”

“Me?”

“And Rory…”

Startled, Lucy asked, “Why? Do you know something?”

An amused smile teased Wendy’s face. “I do now.”

Lucy rolled her eyes. “Which is why I will never play poker.”

Wendy couldn’t help but chuckle. “Good call.”

With a sigh, Lucy leaned her head back against the wall. “He’s not happy. I love him so much that it aches to see him like this.” She turned and looked helplessly at her mother. “What can I do?”

“Nothing. That’s the hardest thing about love. You can’t make everything better.”

“Wrong answer.”

“Right question, though. What you do is love him. Be there.”

“I am, but he won’t talk about it.”

Wendy put her hand on Lucy’s. “When he’s ready, you’ll be there.”

“How do you know that he’ll ever be ready?”

“Because I’ve been there—on the talking and listening sides. Everyone needs that at some point.”

Lucy exhaled, discouraged. “In a way, it was easier back at the croft. Life was simple. We got up. We did the chores that we had to for food, warmth, and shelter. And we went to bed, exhausted. Rinse and repeat.”

Wendy lifted an eyebrow. “Life isn’t so horrible, is it? You’re living in a castle. Not much to complain about there.”

“That’s just it. It is wonderful, but it’s all Angus’s. And Rory can’t like that. We’re all back here for now, but what if it happens again?”

“You think that’s what’s bothering Rory?”

“Why wouldn’t it? Rory sweated bullets to keep this place thriving, and then, in one fell swoop, Angus destroyed it.”

“I’m sure he never meant to hurt anyone.”

Lucy rolled her eyes in frustration. “Of course not. But he did it. Like a child, he saw only the moment. And because of his guileless charm, we forgave him—as if he were a child. Meanwhile, Rory’s an adult with no power to protect his own family and home.”

Footsteps sounded along the wooden floor outside of the gallery. The two women stared, wide-eyed, and Lucy rushed to the door in time to catch a glimpse of plaid flutter and disappear around the corner.

Rory excused

himself from the breakfast table. “I’m going for a ride.”

Lucy watched him walk out the door then looked at her mother and Captain Munro. There was nothing to say. Angus had disappeared three days ago with no warning and no explanation. Since then, Rory had barely spoken to anyone. No one had said anything, but they all had to be thinking the same thing. Angus had gone off on a gambling bender.

When she could no longer hold back, Lucy turned to the captain. “Has Angus ever been gone this long?”

“No.” His answer was quiet and quick.

In silence, they finished their breakfast and went their separate ways. Lucy set down the book she’d been staring at without being able to read, then she donned an arisaid and went out to the garden. Despite having nowhere in particular to go, she walked briskly. Was it frustration or anger? She wasn’t sure what she felt. She only knew that she’d lost control of her life. Since she’d first walked through the stone chamber, she’d lost any sense of where her life was going.

No, in truth it had happened before that, at the moment Tyler had called off the wedding. Until then, she’d known exactly what her life was and what it would be. It had all been well ordered and secure. But then Tyler had done what he did, and she’d run. If only she’d left and gone home. One of them would have moved out, but then her life would have settled back into a rhythm—alone but secure. She would have still had her job, her friends, and her way of life.

But she

had

run. It was she who had made that decision, and she who had fallen in love. Now she had to face the truth nobody had told her about: love was hard.

“Lucy.”

She didn’t have to turn to know it was Rory, but she did.

He was striding toward her. “We need to talk.”

Nothing good ever followed those words. “Okay.”

He touched her cheek. “You’re so cold. Let’s go inside by the fire.”

She nodded and took the arm he offered. She asked him about his ride, and they spoke of the weather as if their lives at the castle didn’t hang in the balance.

At the door to the library, he paused. “I’ve asked my father and your mother to join us.”

Lucy didn’t ask why. She wasn’t sure she wanted to know. Yet when she stepped through the doorway, she would have no choice.

Once all four were seated, Rory wasted no time. “These past three days, I doubt any of us have been able to get the same thought from our minds.”

The captain’s eyes were dark and distant, while Wendy displayed more generous concern.

Rory glanced at Lucy, then his eyes settled upon his father. “First, I wish to make it clear that I respect your decision regarding this estate. It’s not unusual for a father to deed his estate to his firstborn son. Regardless of whether you could’ve foreseen what happened to us, happen it did. And now, with Angus having been gone these three days, it takes little imagination to surmise what has happened. While I’d hoped he would learn his lesson, I fear it’s a situation over which he has no control.

“I have agonized these past three days, as well as the days, months, and years before that. As it affects all of us sitting here, I feel I must share with you what I’m thinking—or rather, what I’m planning. I’ve been unable to plan for my own life while I’ve been subject to Angus’s weaknesses and excesses. I can no longer endure it. I must have my own life over which I have some control.”

Lucy looked up, feeling suddenly excluded, but then his eyes settled on hers with the warmth that allayed any doubts. He looked down and smiled and then looked up at Wendy. “I am deeply in love with your daughter.”

When he looked back at Lucy, she felt him gaze into her soul. “I have not felt the freedom that a home and financial security would afford. But if I am to ask this woman to share my life, then I must have a life I can offer.”

Lucy felt as if her heart were in her throat.

“And so I feel I’ve no choice but to leave.” He lifted his eyes to look off in the distance, avoiding the shocked expressions that followed his announcement.

“Leave?” Lucy couldn’t believe what she was hearing. She’d given up too much to be there, only to have him sacrifice what they had together because of some misguided notion of protecting her. Lucy stopped before saying more. She wanted to tell him no, that this was not what she had come there for or what she wanted. She’d come because her mother had practically dragged her, knowing how much Lucy loved Rory. But she’d wanted to come and be with him no matter what. He’d been willing to do that for her. Before they’d learned about Angus’s gambling loss, Rory had never brought up the idea of coming back to his home in the past. He would have accepted his life in her time because he loved her that much. Surely, she owed him the same.

Rory smiled softly at her. “I ask you to think, truly think about what this would mean. There is land in a colony called South Carolina, where they’re granting land at one hundred acres a man—fifty more for each person with him. Wendy, of course we would want you to join us, regardless. And Father, I ken you’d not want to leave your home, but if something were ever to go amiss, you would always be welcome.”

Lucy’s head spun. Leave Scotland for what was now a wilderness? When they arrived—

if

they arrived after a treacherous sea journey—they would have nothing but a large parcel of land. Then they would begin building from scratch—camping out, stripping logs, building a shelter, hunting and fishing for food. And if they survived that, they risked illness and attacks from Native Americans, whose land they would be taking. Lucy paused to consider that. It was one thing to look back at historical wrongs, but how could she participate in them with a full understanding of their ramifications?

Rory looked warmly at Lucy. “I ken that it’s a grand scheme, but I want you to think upon it.”

She could barely respond. “I love it here.”

“So do I,” Rory said calmly. “All I ask is that you think about it.”

Lucy wanted to run back to the cairn or at least to someplace she could think. But that was always her knee-jerk response. This was something she had to face up to.

She looked at her mother. Of course, Wendy was bright-eyed. She obviously loved the idea.

Poor Captain Munro looked blindsided. “I think we could all use a wee dram.”

“Yes,” Wendy said as she got up to help pour and deliver the drinks.

Rory sat beside Lucy and lifted her hand to his lips. “I cannae go through it again—losing our home and watching what it put you through.”

“What, scrubbing clothes and skinning animals for supper? How would life in the colonies be different from that?”

He leaned back in his chair. “It would be our land. We’d be building a life, not only for us, but for our children and their children.”

Children? She hadn’t even thought about children. And now he was talking about sailing to the colonies? As she imagined herself stripping the bark from the logs for their cabin, Wendy handed her a glass, which she threw back so fast that her mother could only blink slowly before she took the glass back for a refill. When Lucy had finished drink number two, she retired to the window seat to stare out at the magnificent Highlands.

It was beginning to snow. There was barely a dusting on the ground, but the mist nearly covered the tips of the mountains, making it hard to discern what was solid and real.

Rory sat down on the window seat, facing her, and looked out at the snow. “How many days have I spent like this, wondering what my brother was up to? But now that I ken how far he can go, all I think of is whether he’s done it again. I’m daft to worry. ’Tis not even mine. I’m permitted to live here at Angus’s pleasure, but I stand to lose what I think of as home for the same reason. A man cannae live like that, Lucy.”

She turned from the window. “I love you. But at the moment, I can’t say it’s easy.” She sighed sadly. “But I can’t help myself now. I will go where you feel you must go because I’ve fallen in love and I have to be with you. The thing is, I’ve also fallen in love with this land. I feel like I’ve come home, and you’re taking me from it.”

“Again,” he said, looking downward.