Gentle Tyrant

by Lucy Gillen

  CHAPTER FIVE

  RATHER surprisingly it was Rod who made the most fuss when Laurie told him next day about her being stranded in the storm, and his dislike of Rose McAdam was even more obvious. 'She's a bitch!' he declared vehemently, his arm round Laurie's shoulders consolingly. 'She's an absolute bitch, and I only wish I'd been here yesterday. I'm terribly sorry about it, Laurie, I really am.' 'It wasn't your fault.' She pulled a face and smiled. 'I have to admit that I agree with you, though. Perhaps I shouldn't say it when she's your sister-in-law, but there's no doubt of it; 'My ex-sister-in-law,' he told her. 'Thank heaven Russ had enough sense to divorce her!' 'But she still comes to stay here; doesn't Russ mind her coming?' Rod shrugged. 'What can he do? She has custody of Colin and he Likes to see him.' 'it seems a shame that Colin can't come on his own and see his father; Laurie said. 'He's old enough to travel on his own, isn't he?' 'I suppose so,' Rod admitted, and smiled maliciously. 'But then Madame wouldn't get to see Quin, would she? And that's the prime object of the exercise, 83 not Colin at all. As I said, she's an absolute bitch, but we put up with her for a few weeks every so often because of Colin. I'm only sorry that she's got her knife into you, though.' 'It isn't as if she has any reason for it, either,' Laurie said, and he pulled a face. 'Ch, I don't know. You're a lovely-looking girl, that's enough for her, and if she thinks you've got designs on Ouin she'll fight you tooth and nail. Then of course Quin himself goes out of his way to be damned awkward and make things worse.' 'He does?' She was curious about how Quin treated his di Scult relative. 'I'm thinking about that kiss the other morning; Rod reminded her. 'He did that deliberately to annoy Rose, and then yesterday he gave her a piece of his mind for stranding you in that storm. Mind you; he added, while Laurie digested that piece of information with interest, 'it isn't the same for him. Now if I'd been here and told her off she'd have known she'd been told off. He doesn't see things in the same way I do, of course, and anyway, he takes things in his stride more.' 'Mmm, he didn't seem unduly, bothered about me being deliberately left to get soaked; Laurie said, 'although he did come out for me and I never did thank him for coming.' She remembered that Quin had claimed the kiss had been payment in kind for his services, but it might be as well not to mention that part of it. 'He was in the stables when Rose came back with Bro-vnie apparently; Rod went on, bringing her back to earth. 'And as soon as he saw Brownie he thought 84 something had happened to you. When Rose said what she'd done, he gave her his opinion while he saddled Hamish, then took Brownie and tore off after you.' Laurie supposed she should have been flattered by the attention she had commanded, and she was certainly puzzled as to how Rod knew so much about what had happened, when he had not even been there. 'Who told you what happened?' she asked, and he grinned. 'McKinnon, the manager of the hotel. He was here to see something about some extra staff, and he was in the stable to find Quin when Rose came in.' 'I see.' Quin's hasty departure so soon afterwards would have done nothing to endear her to Rose Mc-Adam, Laurie felt sure, and she wondered too what Robert McKinnon would have made of it, for she had known him since she was a child. 'He was quite staggered, apparently,' Rod told her with a grin, 'when Quin took off like that, and Rose was furious.' He laughed shortly. 'McKinnon is no more fond of Rose than I am. She's staying there, at the castle, and I gather she isn't the most popular guest they've ever had.' Laurie gazed at him for a moment, puzzled. 'Oh, I see. She isn't staying at Clach Aros?' Somehow that made her feel better. 'Oh lord, no!' Rod declared, apparently horrified at the very idea. 'It'd be much too nerve-racking for all of us if she was. We have Colin here, but Rose is staying at the castle, although she comes here all too often unfortunately. She likes to ride, so we more or less have to offer her the use of our horses.' 'Oh, I see.' 85 Rod sighed. 'Oh, let's forget about Rose and her bitchiness, shall we? There must be more congenial subjects to talk about.' Rod was sitting with her on the low wall that surrounded the garden at the back of Clach Aros. It was a fine day again after the storm, and the sun was warm and inviting, slanting through the trees and making shifting, flickering patterns across their faces as they sat there. It was a day she could have enjoyed a thousand times more if she had been the hostess and not the visitor. She would never, she told herself, get used to being a visitor at Clach Aros. Rod, as if he guessed something of her thoughts, caught her eye and smiled. 'Is this one of your favourite perches?' he asked, and she nodded, responding to the smile, despite her nostalgia. Somehow it was not easy to mind Rod being there and she had never resented him as she had Quin. Perhaps because Quin had made the actual purchase and she could not rid herself of the idea that he had been responsible for her losing her home. 'It always was my favourite perch,' she told him. 'I used to climb the trees when I was a little girl, and I've been spanked many times for tearing my clothes on them.' 'Did you get spanked?' He reached for one of her hands and looked down at the small, fine-boned fingers. 'I can't imagine you doing anything as tomboyish as climbing trees and getting spanked for it.' 'Nevertheless I did; she assured him with a smile. 'I believe I was quite a handful in my young days.' Rod put an arm round her waist and hugged her, his 86 grey eyes glowing warmly as he looked at her 'And , now you're quite an armful,' he told her softly 'I never really believed that girls as beautiful as you existed outside fairy stories, you know.' Laurie smiled, uncertain how much his rather extravagant compliments suited her. He was certainly very attractive, but she. was rather wary of taking him too seriously. 'Beautiful girls don't exist outside fairy tales,' she told him, and he shook his head. 'Oh, but they do,' he insisted. 'You're beautifuleven Quin admits it, and he's not given to unsotted praise.' 'I don't believe it,' Laurie retorted swiftly, wishing that Quin need not have been brought into the conversation again. He had the most disturbing effect, even in his absence, and the idea of his thinking her beautiful did the most ridiculous things to her pulse rate I m sure he's far too blase, or too busy, even to know what I look like.' 'Well, I notice what you look like; Rod told her prepared to dismiss Quin for more personal points' You're very lovely, Laurie. Much too lovely to have a boy's name.' 'It isn't a boy's name,' she denied laughingly, but he was dreamy-eyed again, his mind busy with an alternative. 'Lorelei.' he said at last, and smiled at her, well pleased with his version of her name. 'I shall call you Lorelei, it's much more appropriate for a siren as dangerously beautiful as you are.' 'I don't know that I Like being called after the beauties who lure sailors to their deaths,' Laurie declared, 87 pulling a face and laughing. 'Don't you like it?' 'Not particularly,' she said, and smiled to take the sting out of the rejection. 'I don't think I'm dangerous enough for a name like that.' He gazed at her with his dreamy grey eyes. 'You're dangerous to me, Laurie. Dangerous to my state of mind I've been dreaming about you ever since the first day I saw you.' 'A little over two weeks ago,' Laurie reminded him, and immediately felt rather unkind when he looked so hurt. 'Time has nothing to do with it,' he told her. 'Haven't you ever heard of love at first sight?' 'I have,' she said, 'but I don't believe in it.' 'Why not?' He looked hurt again. 'It happens, Laurie.' 'It might do occasionally,' Laurie allowed. 'But I don't think it did in your case. Rod. Not really and seriously.' 'I'm perfectly serious,' he assured her. 'I'm about to fall in love with you, beautiful Laura, whether you Like it or not.' Laurie was unsure just how she did feel about it. It would not be too difficult, she thought, to fall in love with Rod. He was good-looking and very attractive and he made her feel that she was important to him. It gave her a rather enjoyable feeling of being somebody again, after so much humiliation and disappointment lately. 'You're very good for my ego. Rod,' she told him, trying not to treat it all too seriously, and he turned her round on the wall to face him, his hands on her 88 arms, his eyes solemn. 'I'm not trying to be good for your ego, Laurie,' he told her gravely. 'I'm falling in love with you, and I wish you'd take me seriously.' 'I I'm sorry.' She found it difficult to know just what to say in the circumstances. 'That I'm falling in love with you?' he asked. 'I hope you're not sorry about that.' La
urie looked at him for a moment. At the tanned face, so much more conventionally good-looking than either of his brothers, and those dreamy grey eyes that were very definitely a big part of his appeal. He had the same deep, pleasant voice they all had too, and altogether there was little she could find to fault in him. It was simply that, at the moment, she did not feel inclined to take him too seriously. 'I'm flattered if you really are fallling in love with me,' she told him. 'I really am. Rod, but in a way I wish you hadn't told me. After only two weeks I can't honestly say how I feel about you, except that I Like you a lot, and I Like being with you.' He gazed at her for a moment longer, then sighed deeply. 'Oh well,' he said resignedly, 'that's better than nothing, I suppose. I don't expect miracles, but if you don't actually hate me, then for the moment I'll settle for that.' She shook her head, smiling at his solemnity. 'Oh, of course I don't hate you! I don't hate anybody.' He looked at her for a moment steadily. 'Except maybe Rose?' he suggested softly, and pulled her towards him and kissed her. It was a long, slow and quite ardent kiss, and it set 89 her pulses racing wildly, but that did not really surprise her, for she had hardly supposed she was the first girl he had kissed. Even so she had not expected to find him quite so smoothly practised, and it made her feel a little wary of him and very unsure of herself. When he released her at last, he looked down at her for a moment, then put a hand under her chin and lifted her face to him again, smiling but a little puzzled by her response, she thought. 'You should be kissed more often,' he told her softly, and Laurie shook her head uncertainly. 'Rod, someone might see us out here.' 'So?' He flicked a querying brow that was startlingly reminiscent of Quin. 'Kiss me again, and never mind what anybody thinks or says.' He kissed her again, this time even more passionately, so that she felt quite breathless and a little lightheaded. But all the time he was kissing her she was not so much worrying about whether anyone would see them, as remembering the way Quin had kissed her, out there in the pouring rain under the trees. And it disturbed her to realise that his kiss had driven everything else completely from her mind. Laurie gazed at her grandfather in dismay, her eyes wide and unbelieving. There was a heavy cold sensation in the pit of her stomach and for several minutes her brain refused to accept the fact of what he had just told her. 'I I can't believe it,' she said, sitting down heavily in an armchair. 'They wouldn't they couldn't, could they. Grandpa?' 90 The old man shrugged, resigned, it seemed, to the latest turn of events as he had been to all the other changes in his life during the past couple of months. 'They're entitled to do exactly as they like with the house now it's theirs,' he reminded her. 'There's nothing you can do about it, Laurie.' 'But it's it's monstrous!' Laurie declared. 'And they promised, they promised they'd look after Clach Aros love it as we did.' Her grandfather smiled at her patiently, shaking his head. In sympathy with her feelings but realising the harder facts of reality too. 'Unfortunately, my dear; he told her gently, 'loving a place doesn't pay for repairs and upkeep. It's hard cash that does that.' 'But they have plenty of money; Laurie objected, feeling close to tears. 'They don't need to do it. A stately home!' -She spoke the hackneyed title bitterly. 'How could they?' 'Necessity?' her grandfather suggested quietly. 'And it's no good upsetting yourself over it, Laurie. No use at all, my dear.' 'I am upset; Laurie insisted, her blue eyes dark with anger and hurt at the thought of her beloved Clach Aros being invaded by hordes of visitors. 'And I can guess who's behind this this money-grubbing scheme too.' 'Oh?' Her grandfather looked at her curiously, and she nodded, in no doubt at all that she was right. 'Quin; sue stated firmly, 'It has all the earmarks of his his arrogance and insensitivity; 'Laurie, you're ' 'I'm not wrong,' Laurie interrupted him bitterly, 91 getting to her feet. 'I know you'll stand up for him, Grandpa, but I know him. Just because he comes here and talks to you tries to make friends with you, he ' She shook her head, her hands clenched tightly. 'Oh, I'm going out before I explode!' She already felt sorry for venting her anger and disappointment on her grandfather before she had gone more than a couple of hundred yards from the cottage, but she resisted the temptation to go back and apologise, because she knew he would understand how she felt. , A walk in the cool evening air would do her good after being indoors all day too. It would help to clear her head, although she did not anticipate being any less bitter about the proposed plans to open Clach Aros to public viewing. She had no hesitation in allotting the blame for the idea to Quin McAdam, for she couid not e?sily imagine Rod's dreamy romanticism giving rise to anything so sordidly commercial. Russ too was unlikely to have thought of it, for he was always kindly and sensitive and she could not see him being prs'yred to open his home to paying customers. It just hsd to be Quin, with his arrogance and impatient sufferance of sentimentality, who had conceived the idea and would probably bulldoze his brothers into going along with him by sheer force of will. She was not really surprised to find that she'was crying as she walked along, although she felt convinced that her tears were as much due to an-rer cs to sorrow, and an anger directed specifically at Quin McAdam. Lately she had found him more than usually annoy92 ing, although possibly only because she was more than normally sensitive. Somehow it seemed to her that he smiled in a certain way whenever he saw her with his younger brother, although admittedly he had m",de no comment so far, but Laurie thought she sensed a certain sly amuse-'ient at the sight of them together, and she resented it bitterly. There were several things lately that made life less placid than she would have liked it, not least the fact that Rose McAdam was still staying on at the castle and also spending a great deal of time riding with Quin when he went about his usual routine. She made no secret of the fact that she would be far more pleased if her ex-husband's secretary was less young and presentable, and once or twice Laurie had clashed with her verbally, although so far there had been no more spiteful retaliations, as when Laurie had been stranded during the storm. When she was not working, a great deal of Laurie's time was spent with Rod, And she grew daily more certain that eventually she would fall in love with him. He did not press too hard for her to make up her mind to be more serious abort him, but he was gently persistent in his pursuit of her, and she found his attentive charm having more and more of an effect on her own emotions. She resented bitterly Quin's apparent amusement at the idea, and the fact that he always made her feel gauche and uneasy whenever he saw them to-gether. It annoyed her too to find that even now it was Quin who was uppermost in her mind as she walked over 93 the moor in the direction of the loch, and not Rod. No matter if the business association with the brothers was supposed to be a partnership, Quin was the dominant factor in it, and he v ould not, she feared, have too much difficulty in bending the other two to his will if he put his mind to it. If Quin had made up his mind that Clach Aros was to be opened to the public, she had no doubt that the other two would eventually agree to it, whatever their own private feelings were. She had already walked as far as the thick belt of trees between the cottage and the loch before she ralised how far she had come, and she sighed, supposing she should turn and go back. It was such a beautiful evening that she felt she should have been giving more attention to her surroundings and less to unhappy things. The tall, dark pines were arrayed like a cluster of black shadows against the green and gold evening sky, and as much of the loch as she could see beyond them caught the westering sun and gleamed like molten gold spilled over the open moor, dappled with little winking flashes of light where the surface was ruffled by a breeze. It was much too beautiful to waste on being unhappy, and at least she could still enjoy such evenings as this and not be shut away in a town somewhere. She walked through the edge of the trees, swinging a long, heavy stave of wood that she had picked up, de-ciding that she would go just as far as to where the wood curved outwards and widened, then turn and go back. Her walking made little sound beyond a soft, slightly crackly swish, and she could hear the thou94 sand and one noises that the more permanent residents made. Also, she realised suddenly, there was something else. Something familiar, and yet she could not, at the
moment, recognise it. A restless, shifting sound as of something larger than the rabbits and birds that rustled and whistled among the lower growing vegetation. " It was an impatient, whistling snort a few seconds later that gave her the necessary clue and she realised that somewhere among the trees there was a horse getting impatient. It sounded as if it was standing, shifting impatiently from one foot to another, and the thought of someone else being in among the trees, near enough to be audible and yet making no attempt to call out a greeting, gave her an oddly creepy feelling suddenly, and she gripped the stick'she carried a little more firmly as she walked on. It took her only a second to identify Rod's black Arab horse a moment later, and she looked startled to see that he was riderless. He stood between two trees, his fine head on its arched neck tossing impatiently, his nostrils quivering warily when he saw Laurie. She approached him warily, for he was not as docile as Brownie was and he would permit no liberties, even from Rod. 'Suli!' She spoke his name softly as she approached and extended a hand to rub his sleek black neck. 'Good boy, Suli.' The Arab permitted her to smooth his neck, even tossed his head in appreciation, but Laurie was concerned about his being riderless, especially now that she noticed that the reins lay across his saddle and were not trailing as they would have been if his rider had 95 merely dismounted and left him for a moment. He was restless too, although that was not too surprising, but combined with the absence of a rider it gave Laurie a cold, shivery feeling along her spine. 'Why are you here alone?' she whispered softly to the Arab, who pricked his sensitive ears. 'Who was ' She stopped then and bit on her lower lip hard, her eyes catching sight of something just behind him in the high green fronds of bracken. She made herself take time to lift the reins over his head and draped them over a low branch, then she walked round behind him and stared down at Rose McAdam, lying still and inert on a bed of crushed bracken. A large, ugly bruise was already colouring darkly on her forehead and she looked so horribly still that Laurie was almost afraid to touch her for fear of what she might discover. A brief and inexpert examination, however, discovered. a slow but steady pulse and a reassuring rise and fall under the thin shirt, but it was essential to get help as quickly as possible, and she wished she had taken time to change and bring Brownie out instead of walking. However, there was nothing for it but to cast modesty aside and ride back on the Arab, no matter how unsuitably dressed she was. She straightened up, shock still making her slow to act, and stared down at Rose McAdam, unable to completely believe she could have been thrown, for she had shown herself to be an excellent horsewoman whenever Laurie had seen her riding. She shook her head, to clear it, then half turned towards the waiting Arab, only to stop short when she heard someone else 96 coming. The drumming sound of hooves on the turf was unmistakable and she heaved a sigh of relief. Whether it was Rod or Quin, either of them would be welcome, for they could take the responsibility of the injured woman off her unwilling -hands, and she looked up, her relief plain in her eyes. It was neither of the brothers, however, and she stared rather blankly at the slight boyish figure of Colin McAdam, mounted on Brownie and almost on top of her as he came through the trees. He reined the mare in sharply and it was the fallen rider that he spotted first, not the riderless horse, his eyes widening in horror as he stared down at the still figure. 'Mother!' His voice cracked and rose shrilly, then he looked at Laurie with a glint of panic in his eyes. 'You've killed her,' he accused. 'You've kiled my mother!' 'No! Oh no, Colin!' She went towards him intent on reassuring him, and realised that she was still carrying the thick stave of wood she had picked up during her walk. The boy looked at her in alarm when she came nearer. 'You've killed her!' he whispered hoarsely. 'No, Colin! She isn't, dead, she's only hurt, knocked out.' She was more concerned at the moment with reassuring him about his mother than with defending herself, but the boy seemed unable to grasp anything beyond the fact that his mother lay still and hurt on the ground and that Laurie stood over her with what must have looked Like a pretty formidable weapon in her ; 'hand. ; 97 'You hit her!' He would not be convinced, and Laurie despaired of getting his help. 'Listen, Colin.' She grasped Brownie's rein, despite Colin's effort to break away. 'Your mother needs help quickly. Now ride back to the house and tell one of your uncles. Get them to call an ambulance or the doctor as quickly as possible. Do you understand?' 'I won't leave her with you,' Colin declared flatly. 'I won't let you hurt her again.' 'Colin, please!' 'No!' He got down and came and knelt beside his mother, and Laurie choked back tears at the helpless look of despair on the young face. 'Then I'll have to go,' she told him, but he took no notice of her. He did not even turn his head to protest when she took Brownie in preference to the swifter Suli. She had enough to contend with, she felt, without having to cope with possible temperament from the high-strung Arab. It was both inelegant and uncomfortable riding in the brief summer dress she wore, but since there was nothing else for it she managed as best she could and rode like the wind back towards Clach Aros. Perhaps she should not have left a boy as young and vulnerable as Colin with an injured woman, but there was nothing else she could have done in the circumstances, and no time to argue with him. She saw Quin before she gained the entrance and waved a hand to stop him from going into the house as he obviously meant to. Instead he came down towards her, his eyes startled when he saw her dress. Without a word he lifted her down from the saddle as 98 soon as she stopped, and stood her on the gravel drive in front of him. 'What's wrong?' he asked briefly, and she looked at him for a split second, wondering suddenly who he would believe when it came to allotting the blame for the acddent. 'It's Rose Mrs. AicAdam; she told him. 'She's had a fall and she's unconscious in the trees over there.' 'A fall?' Laurie nodded, a little impatiently. 'From Suli. She needs a doctor, Quin, and quickly, I think she's had a nasty knock on the head.' Til ring Doctor Sandford; he said briefly, and turned to go into the house, leaving her there with the mare, wondering why she felt so suddenly cold and scared, i When she came round Rose McAdam would tell them that her son was mistaken in his version of what had happened. She would know that her fall had been an accident and that Laurie'had had nothing to do with it, but just the same that niggling little worry persisted as she took Brownie round to the stables at the back of the house. 00