His gaze followed hers. He could just see the pool of bright red blood spreading below her.
Without thought, he picked her up, bringing her softly to the bed. “Lay down, my love. Everything will be all right.”
At that moment, Aila walked into the chamber.
“I heard a lot of banging,” she said, then stopped as her eyes took in the scene. The laird, knocked out cold on the floor. Lily, on the bed with Douglas bending over her. A trail of blood.
She let out a screech. “What has happened? What have you done?”
“Be quiet, Aila! I need your help. She is bleeding, quite badly.”
Aila rushed to the bed.
“My lady! Can you speak?” Aila’s eyes were raking over Lily, shrewdly assessing.
“Aye.” But her voice was thready.
Aila looked down at the blood seeping onto the bedding.
“We have to stop that bleeding,” she said urgently, “or she will lose the bairn!”
Lily spasmed, bucking on the bed. She had beads of sweat dripping down her face.
“Aila!” She grabbed the maid’s hands. “Save my child!”
Aila rubbed her hands. “I will do my best, my lady.”
Lily turned to Douglas. “Don’t leave me!”
“Never,” he growled.
***
Aila and Shona set to work. They changed Lily, trying to stem the bleeding. They sent for the local midwife.
“Mistress Kerr will know what to do,” Aila said, nervously. She wiped Lily’s brow. “What on earth happened here?”
Douglas’s face darkened. “The laird is what happened here. He came into the room and threw her against the wall. I knocked him out.”
Aila bit her lip. “I forgot all about him on the floor! I will call McGregor.”
McGregor, Richard’s butler, arrived. The Laird was coming to, groaning and clutching his head. McGregor aided him to stand, and brought him back to his chamber. Douglas watched them go with hatred in his heart.
At that moment, Mistress Kerr, the local midwife, entered the room. She was a wiry woman with pure white hair beneath her wimple. She carried a basket, which contained various herbs.
She looked at them all, clustered around the bed.
“What is he doing here?” she spoke to the women. “He needs to leave, right now.”
“Not on your life,” Douglas scowled.
“No men allowed,” the woman replied, sternly. “This is women’s business! Make haste.”
Aila looked at Douglas. “You had better do what she says, laddie. She is our best hope, of saving the lady’s child.”
Douglas looked bereft. “If she dies…” He hung his head, unable to continue.
“She won’t die,” Mistress Kerr replied crisply. She was already prodding and poking Lily’s stomach. “Not if I can help it! The bairn, on the other hand…” She frowned.
He picked up one of Lily’s hands and kissed it. She roused slightly.
“Lily, I must leave the room,” he said. She shook her head violently. “No, Lily, please don’t distress yourself. I will be close. I promise I won’t leave the Castle!”
Lily slumped back into the pillows. “You always make promises, Douglas.”
She turned her face away, staring blankly at the wall.
***
He retreated to the kitchen, sitting on a chair in the corner. Joan, the cook, tried to tempt him to eat, but he had no appetite. All he could think about was Lily.
He assailed Aila when she entered the kitchen, carrying a bundle of bloodied sheets. “What is happening? How is she?”
Aila sighed, pursing her lips. “It doesn’t look good; I have to admit. She has lost a lot of blood, and Mistress Kerr can’t stem the bleeding.” She looked around the kitchen, distracted. “The laird has stirred. I had to stop him from entering the room. All he was concerned about was whether his ‘son’ was going to live! He couldn’t give two tosses for our lady, and what he has done to her.” Aila’s bottom lip started to tremble.
“Now he’s started on the whiskey. Drinking himself into oblivion.” She sounded scornful.
“Aila, what has gone on here? What has he been doing to Lily?”
Aila sighed again. “She fought back, to start with. Defied him. Then he started using the whip. And I have seen bruises on her, occasionally.” She wiped away a tear.
“But there’s more. You know how you asked what the noise was in the chamber, when we passed it? He keeps his women in there. You know, the ones from the village.”
“That bastard!” Douglas had never felt such hatred in his life.
“Aye. Taunts my lady with his harlots! He parades them; he does, in front of her.” Aila looked down. “She stopped defying him, though, when she realized she was with child. Said she didn’t want him to harm her bairn. She had been spending time in the nursery with the lady Isobel, playing with her, even though he forbade it. But she stopped doing that. She has been in her chamber, mostly, staring out the window at the water. It breaks my heart, so it does.”
Douglas clenched his fists. He looked at the ceiling. “I have always held that he was still my brother, regardless of the evil he has done. But I cannot take any more! I am going to beat him to a pulp.” He stood up. Aila grabbed his sleeve, pulling him back into the seat.
“You will do no such thing! Things are bad enough here. The last thing my lady needs is you on a rampage.”
Shona walked into the kitchen, looking harassed.
“His lairdship wants a bath,” she stated crisply. “We have to get hot water up there, now.”
“Mary, Jesus and Joseph! While his wife is battling to save his child, he desires a bath?” Aila’s voice was scalding. “As if we don’t have enough to do! Ach well, at least it will keep him out of the way. Shona, grab a pail and we will get to it.”
Chapter Sixteen
Lily was dreaming. She tossed her head from side to side.
Fever had gripped her. She awoke at one point to see a figure standing over her. A lady, in a long flowing gown. The lady bent toward her, and she could see the blue, hooded eyes of her husband’s first wife.
“Hush, all will be well,” the Lady Elspeth soothed. The figure put a hand on Lily’s forehead. It felt as cold as ice…
She opened her eyes. The figure was gone.
She was lying in her bed. A woman she didn’t recognize sat beside her, stitching. A stone lay upon her stomach. She reached for it.
“An amulet, my lady,” the woman said. “Pass it to me. It is too late, now. The wee bairn passed into this world without drawing breath.”
“My baby is dead?” Lily felt tears, hot and salty, running down her cheeks.
“I am afraid so, my lady,” the woman replied. “The babe was too small. I gave you a herb tonic to stop the birth spasms, but it was too late.” She paused. “It was a wee lassie.”
Lily turned her face away from the woman, and wept bitterly. She had never felt so bereft in her life.
A soft knock sounded at the door. The woman put down her needlework and walked to open it.
“May I come in?” It was Douglas. The woman nodded.
Lily had forgotten that he had returned. The painful events of the day suddenly crashed into her mind. Douglas, returning after a year. Wanting to take her away, saying that he still loved her. Richard, finding them together. She remembered being flung against the wall, but not much after that.
And now, she had lost her babe.
Douglas was beside her now, his face creased in concern. He looked awful. His eyes were puffy and his hair unkempt.
“Douglas,” she croaked. “I lost my baby.” She started to cry anew.
“I know, my love.” He took her hands in his. “I am so sorry. If I could turn back the hands of time and make it not happen, I would.”
She hung her head. Hot, salty tears dripped onto their entwined hands.
“My lady.” It was the woman. “I am going to the kitchen to eat. I will be back
to check on you soon.” And she departed.
“The local midwife,” Douglas said, in response to Lily’s questioning gaze. “Mistress Kerr is her name. She delivered me, apparently. But she could not save my mother…” his voice trailed off.
“I didn’t know that your mother died in childbirth, having you,” Lily said.
“Aye. I never knew her. The only parent I had was my father. A cold man, who barely acknowledged me until I was twelve years old. Aila brought me up. She has been here since before I was born.”
“Aila is a treasure,” Lily agreed. Her bottom lip started trembling. “But I miss my own nurse. I want Mairi.”
“I will send a rider tonight, to fetch her from Aberdeen for you,” Douglas said.
“No!” Her voice was louder than she intended. “You mustn’t! If she comes, he will punish me…”
“He will never lay another hand on you!” He tightened his grip on her hands.
“Oh, Douglas!” She fell against him. He encircled her in his arms. “I waited, and waited, for you! Every night I prayed that you would return. I would look out my window, and watch for you…the last month, since I felt the babe quicken, I have stood at that window every night. Watching every ferry that alighted. But you never came.”
He felt tears prick his eyes. “I wanted to,” he said slowly. “Sometimes I wanted to so badly I could barely restrain myself from packing up in the night and riding to you. But I knew our only hope was for me to build wealth, so that when I returned, we would have options.”
He hung his head. “If I had known how terribly you would be treated, I would have just grabbed you and ran, straight after the wedding! He has gotten worse. He didn’t treat Elspeth nearly so badly when they were first wed. I thought we had time on our side.”
He caressed her face. “I am so sorry, my love. The man is a beast. From this moment forward, he is no brother of mine.” His face darkened. “To have hurt you so. To have killed your child!”
Lily started weeping again. “It was a wee girl, did you know?”
Douglas shook his head. “I didn’t know. She would have been beautiful, had she had a chance. Just like her mother!” He grabbed her face between his hands. She looked at him, trying to catch her breath.
“Lily, I meant what I said. If the babe had been born safe and well, she would have come with us. I didn’t care that she was not mine!”
“Thank you, Douglas,” she said softly.
They gazed into each other’s eyes. He slowly bent toward her, and they kissed. It was slow and gentle.
“I should let you rest,” he whispered. She clung to him, burying her face in his chest.
The door burst open, and Aila ran into the room. She was panting.
Douglas jumped to his feet. “Aila! What is it?”
Aila leaned against the wall, puffing. “Oh my! I cannot believe it! It is the laird.”
“What of my brother?”
“The saints preserve us! He is dead!”
***
The whole castle was in an uproar.
McGregor and two more of the laird’s men were in his chamber now. When Douglas entered the kitchen, the servants were all huddled at the table.
They looked shell shocked. Shona and Cora, his nieces’ nurse, were holding hands. Joan, the cook, was reciting the Lord’s prayer under her breath, her fingers clicking on her rosary beads. Aila was pacing the room. Mistress Kerr, the midwife, seemed bewildered. All the rest were talking loudly over each other. It sounded like a flock of starlings.
“For the love of God, what happened?” Douglas spoke to the whole room. It fell silent.
Finally, Shona spoke.
“I knocked on the laird’s door to bring another pail of hot water for his bath. There wasn’t an answer, so I put down my pail – it was heavy, mind – and knocked again. I waited for a little while. I didn’t want to burst in on him without his say so; ye ken he has a temper, and especially after what had happened in my lady’s chamber earlier!” Shona stopped, and took a deep gulp of breath.
“But there was no sound. I put my ear against the door, but couldn’t hear a thing. I thought about going downstairs to ask Aila what to do…”
“For the love of God, lassie, will you get on with it!” This was from Aila herself.
Shona looked offended. “I am! Where was I? Aye, not a peep from his chamber. Eventually, I screwed up my courage and opened the door.” She paused, dramatically. “It looked like he’d left the bath, at first. But then I went towards it, to look in. The hairs on my neck were standing up by this time. I could barely drag my feet to go towards it.
And there he was. The Laird. Underneath the water, with a look of surprise on his face, ye ken? Like he’d been caught unaware, like death had crept up on him. His eyes were open, staring up at me through the water! And he was grey – as grey as the castle walls! Well, I screamed and dropped the pail of water. Then everyone came running.”
Douglas could not believe what he had just heard. His brother was dead. Drowned in his own bath.
“It’s not surprising,” Aila said darkly. “He’d drunk the whole bottle of whiskey when I last checked on him. He was falling asleep then. I told him he should get out, but he laughed in my face.”
Douglas slowly sank into a spare seat at the table. “Richard is really dead?”
“Aye, laddie.” Aila looked him square in the eye. “You are the new Laird of Loneshire now.”
Chapter Seventeen
The sun was beating down on his head as Douglas dismounted his horse, giving the bridle to his groom. He looked up at Colloness Castle and smiled, taking the entry stairs two at a time. Where was she?
He called her name as he went from room to room. Eventually, he found her in the kitchen garden, bending to pick some lavender from the herb garden. His niece Isobel was next to her, holding the sprigs she had just picked.
“Ach, there you all are! My two favorite lassies!” He bent down and picked up Isobel, twirling her in the air. The girl laughed; her long hair flying around her.
“Douglas, put her down! She just ate.” But Lily was smiling as she spoke.
They walked into the kitchen together. At that moment, Cora came in to take Isobel. “Time for your afternoon nap, Missie. No, don’t screw up your face!” She left the room with the crying toddler in tow.
Douglas and Lily laughed as they sat down at the kitchen table.
“She’s got spirit, that one,” Douglas said. They looked at each other, both unable to contain the grins which spread over their faces.
“So, how did it go in town?” Lily took a sip of the water she had poured for herself.
“Very well. I have the death certificate.” He reached into the satchel at his feet. “The magistrate signed it this morning. Official cause of death: drowning. The inquiry is over.” He looked at her, his eyes sparkling. “We are free to marry, Lily!”
Lily let out a squeal of delight. “I cannot believe it! After all we have been through.”
“The magistrate also gave me my seal as the new Laird of Loneshire. I went to the solicitors, too, to hand over what was needed.” Lily squeezed his hand.
She couldn’t believe the speed of events since that dramatic night, when she had miscarried her first child and lost her first husband.
When Aila had come in and told them that Richard was dead, she had thought it was a trick. But it had turned out to be true. The laird had indeed drowned in his bath, while in his cups. It had taken her a long time to recover from the miscarriage, both physically and emotionally. When she had eventually felt the strength to get up, Douglas had proposed to her. They just had to wait until the inquiry into Richard’s death was over.
There were more surprises. It turned out that Richard had been gambling heavily in the weeks leading up to his death. He had gambled away the deeds to Colloness Castle itself. It had taken a long time of negotiation for Douglas to buy them back. The gold he had been saving while in France had all but gone to get the
castle back.
But it was done. His birthright was his, once again. And they were free, to start over.
***
The day dawned bright and crisp. It was their wedding day.
How different it was from her first, thought Lily. Then, she had been mad with grief and denial. Aila and Shona had dragged her to the altar. She remembered the faces of all the guests staring at her as through a darkened tunnel. The sight of her bridegroom standing at the altar was like a vision of Beelzebub himself.
Now, her heart was filled to bursting with happiness. She had to stop herself from skipping down the aisle to her beloved.
And there he was, waiting for her. Douglas. The new Laird of Loneshire. She caught her breath at how handsome he was – resplendent in his formal kilt, his dark hair sleeked back. He turned to her at that moment, and he gasped.
She felt beautiful. She had gained back the weight she had lost while married to Richard. Her black curls, plaited and knotted in formal style, shone again. Her green eyes sparkled. She had chosen her wedding gown with care, and knew that it became her. She could see by the look of appreciation on Douglas’s face that he thought so, too.
The chapel was near empty – another contrast to her first wedding day. Then, it had been teeming with fine guests. Today, the only people were themselves, the priest, the two witnesses, and the lady Isobel.
They exchanged their vows as if in a dream. Lily felt as if it was only the two of them on the earth in that moment. His ring on her finger pulsed against her skin, bright gold.
That night, they turned to each other in passion, but also in relief.
Lily had never dreamed it could be so wonderful. He was passionate, but gentle. She was scared initially after all that she had been through, but he guided her with skill and love.
“Thank you,” she whispered. She was surprised to find tears coursing down her cheeks.
He kissed them away. “My love, it is I who should thank you! Thank you for waiting for me. For enduring all that you have. I promised you we would be together, in the end. And now we are – forever.”
“Forever,” she repeated. They turned to each other again.
Historical Hearts Romance Collection Page 30
