Wild Catriona

by Oliver, Marina

  'I only hope the business will support your tastes. It's not healthy, I must warn you.'

  'So my father said, but he also said you refused help from one of his friends, Silas MacNab, to make it more profitable.'

  Would John accept that help, he wondered. 'I'm glad to see you back. I didn't want your inheritance, though no one will believe me, and I certainly am pleased to hand over the business to someone else! But what of you? How was it you were reported dead, and how do you come to be here?'

  'It was a skirmish, I was unhorsed, and fell in some damned river. Beyond the ford where we'd been ambushed it was running strongly, and carried me along for some distance. By the time I'd scrambled out I was so far away the rest of the troop didn't find me, and thought I'd been killed, or captured.'

  'Couldn't you have found your way back?'

  John grinned. 'I was rather tired of the whole business of soldiering, to tell the truth. Besides, the family who gave me shelter had a very attractive daughter, and she didn't want me to go. It was remarkably pleasant for a while, but in the end rustic simplicity palled, and I found my way back to civilisation.'

  'Isn't that counted as desertion?' Rory asked. 'How could you come home?'

  John shook his head. 'I lost my memory, Rory. I'd hit my head on a rock while in the river. It was so odd, I could remember some things, useful facts such as my name, and my Scottish address, but nothing about how I came to be living in a small hut with an Indian family. It was pure chance, naturally, that one day I met a troop, a patrol who took me back to headquarters with them. For some reason I couldn't recall army procedures, or how to prepare my weapons. My head still troubled me on occasion. I was useless in an army, so I was able to sell out and they sent me home. Besides,' he added thoughtfully, 'matters were getting serious in India, there was real fighting at Calcutta and Plassey.'

  Rory laughed. It was a typical example of the way his younger cousin had tried to obtain his own way from his earliest years.

  'I hope you can recall what's necessary to run the business,' he said, amused.

  'Oddly enough, I think I can cope with those sorts of problems. The air of Scotland appears to have brought about a complete recovery. But aren't you disappointed? Father said you'd been such a good manager for him. Would you manage it for me?'

  'Did your father tell you I'd set up my own manufacturing workshops, printing linen,' Rory asked.

  'He muttered something about it, suggested we might go into partnership. But you know, I really don't think I am suited for the monotony of business life.' He gestured at the ledger in front of him. 'All of this is so infernally tedious!'

  Rory grinned. 'Then you'll have to find someone else to do it for you, cousin. It won't be me. I have quite enough problems of my own to deal with, and will be glad of enough time to devote to them. I'll show you what I've been doing, if you wish.'

  John shook his head. 'How well you take it, cousin. Thank you, but there's no need for me to take up your valuable time. Silas says he'll send someone in to help sort it all out for me.'

  'Silas MacNab?' Rory was puzzled. Did Silas already know of John's return, and if so why had he not mentioned it last night? Why leave it for Rory to find out for himself? Was it because Silas was aggrieved with him, and he'd thought it would be an unpleasant shock for Rory to discover he'd lost his uncle's fortune? Was Silas capable of such petty revenge? Rory decided he was.

  'When did he find out?'

  'Father wrote to him, but he came here this morning. Forget Silas. Let's go out and celebrate my return from the dead,' John said, coming round the desk and grasping Rory's arm. 'I've missed the gossip of the coffee rooms.'

  'Let's,' Rory said slowly. An idea was forming in his mind, and he needed to think it through. John's return would not only relieve him of the running of his uncle's affairs, it would annoy Silas, who had expected him to be wealthy when he inherited the business. Might Silas regret the engagement to Susannah he had been so eager for? John was undoubtedly now the better catch, and Silas would be well aware of this. Was there any way that Rory could encourage those thoughts? Rory himself could not call off the engagement, but Susannah could. He began to think of ways of discouraging Susannah and throwing her and John together.

  *****

  Rory spent the afternoon explaining to his cousin the main tasks he would have to undertake. Then he went to say farewell to his employees. Joshua, to his astonishment and delight, asked if he might come and work for him.

  'Are you sure?' Rory said. 'You've worked for my uncle for a long time.'

  'Aye, and for you. I'm none so keen on working for Mr John and that Silas MacNab.'

  Rory chuckled. 'I'd be glad to have you, I know I can rely on you. What do you know about block printing, though?'

  'Nothing, yet, but I could learn. I've another suggestion, Mr Rory. Ye'll be needing linen, so why not set up your own group for spinners and weavers? That's what I've been doing mostly, looking after that, getting the yarn around, and I could find you plenty of good men and women. And if you could afford it, your uncle would sell you some of his bleaching fields. He'd be only too glad to be rid of them.'

  'Perhaps. But I'm not sure about stealing my uncle's workers. That was what you meant, wasn't it? To entice them from my cousin's employment? Like Angus Mackenzie was doing to us? No, Joshua, that's a mean trick, and I won't do it.'

  'I don't suggest that, Mr Rory. Though I'd not be surprised if some of them, when they find they have to deal with your cousin, will ask to come to us! Meaning no disrespect, but he's not the man his father used to be, nor what you are.'

  Rory smiled at him. 'Thank you for your confidence. But where do we find good spinners and weavers?'

  Joshua smiled. 'There's a rumour going about that Mackenzie's selling up.'

  'He is? When did you hear that?'

  'Last night, when I was having a dram with some friends. He's selling his house, too, and moving to Lancashire. He said cotton's going to be the most profitable fabric now.'

  'He might be right,' Rory said slowly. 'Though wages are much higher in England, that would cost him a good deal.'

  For centuries wool had been the most important export from England, but the news from Yorkshire seemed to indicate a decline. In Lancashire, however, where there was more cotton, improvements such as Kay's flying shuttles, which needed two people to operate the wider loom, were forcing workers into new methods. This increased the amount produced, and the quantity of cotton exports was rising.

  'Linen's what I know, though,' he added.

  'So his people may soon be looking for other work, and they'd just as soon come to us as your cousin. We'd not be enticing them away from him.'

  'But will they be reliable? They left us before for the sake of a higher wage.'

  'Aye, but can you blame them? They don't earn much, and they have to look to providing for their families as best they can.'

  'I'll consider it.'

  'They'll be glad to accept less than Mackenzie was paying,' Joshua urged.

  'No, that would be taking advantage, and they earn little enough. If the rumour's true, we'll pay them fairly,' Rory decided. 'Find out what he was giving them, offer them the same, but make it clear that if they ever leave us there will be no coming back for them. And Mackenzie has a good workshop,' he mused. 'He might be selling that too.'

  *****

  John Ogilvie's return was the talk of Glasgow for several days, and then a scandal of a shopkeeper's wife who had eloped with an apprentice twenty years her junior occupied everyone.

  Rory spent all his time in the printing workshops, and managed to find a competent man who was able to manage the original one. Gordon, with Rory's encouragement, decided that if he didn't have to make too many important decisions of his own, he would be able to continue as he had been doing.

  'But I do wish Miss Catriona would come back,' he said wistfully. 'We've not had any good new designs since she left.'

  When Susannah came to the
workshop he was preoccupied, calculating the costs of moving the workshops together. If he bought Angus Mackenzie's buildings, there would be plenty of room for more expansion in the future, and he was determined to expand eventually. Now, with his small needs, it would make supervision easier, but it was yet another big expense, as well as the organisation involved.

  'What do you want?' he asked curtly, not bothering to conceal his irritation.

  She frowned at his tone. 'Papa wants us to go to the house, the one we're going to live in. There's something he needs to discuss with you. I don't know what it is, so there's no need to ask me.'

  'I do wish your father would stop interfering in what we do. It will be our house, Susannah.'

  'He's paying for it! You might be a little bit grateful.'

  'He's paying for it because he wants to, and because he thinks it will give him the right to tell us how we must live. I won't endure that. I mean to be master in my own home.'

  She took his hand and held it to her cheek. 'Don't shout at me, Rory! I can't bear it when you're angry with me.'

  'I'm not angry, but you have to accept that I need to put my business first. I am not your father's errand boy, nor his pensioner, and I will meet him when it suits me.'

  'I think you're being horrid!'

  She flounced out, and the following day, when he accompanied her to a theatrical performance, with Silas, Matthew, John and a couple of other friends, they quarrelled again.

  'I really do want to go to Mary's party tomorrow,' she said during the first interval as they strolled outside the box Silas had hired. 'I want you to escort me, as Papa can't, and Aunt Elizabeth has a feverish cold and will not venture out of doors. Please, Rory, do as I ask, or I won't be able to go at all.'

  'The Mary Campbell whose cousin kissed you?' Rory asked. 'I'm surprised you are prepared to go to that house again.'

  'It's not that house, it's their town house, here in Glasgow. Mary's mother is giving a small party, with dancing.'

  'I'm too busy.' Rory looked up. John was coming towards them. 'I'm sure John would be only too delighted to take my place,' he said, and swiftly explained to John that he had very important things to do the following night. 'Susannah is so disappointed, and refuses to go without me.'

  John was looking at her admiringly. 'If you will accept my escort in his place, Mistress MacNab, I'd be delighted,' he offered, and Susannah gave him a brilliant smile.

  Rory breathed a sigh of relief, and during the next week made certain he was unavailable to escort Susannah anywhere. There was little more than three weeks to the wedding.

  He didn't see Silas either until both of them appeared in his office one morning.

  'Come in,' he invited, pushing his wig awry. 'Do sit down. I have to go out in a few minutes, I'm afraid I am meeting someone, but what can I do for you?'

  'Susannah has something to say,' Silas answered abruptly. 'Go on, my dear, I'm here, and Rory won't eat you.'

  She gulped, then spoke in a rush, a monotone that had clearly been prepared and rehearsed. 'Rory, I am so sorry to hurt you, but I want you to release me from our engagement. I find – find that my affections were never as strongly engaged as I imagined. And I hope that you will not be too angry with me.'

  'You were eager to rush the wedding a short while since,' Rory said, trying to conceal his elation. If Silas suspected this was what he had been working towards, all might yet go awry.

  'I – I – '

  'The child has reconsidered,' Silas interrupted, 'and I won't have her constrained against her wishes. You'll surely be a gentleman and release her from her promise?'

  Rory tried to look stern. 'Is this anything to do with my cousin's reappearance?'

  'No!' Susannah exclaimed.

  'Yes,' Silas said. 'After all, you're a comparatively poor man now, without expectations, not quite what I wanted for my girl. Your cousin, I must say, Rory, has quite a different attitude. He's willing to take the advice of an old man. He's not as stubborn as you are. And Susannah has become very fond of him.'

  Which means that John is too lazy to object when Silas wants to interfere, and sees the advantages of having access to his fortune through Susannah, Rory thought.

  'I release you, of course,' Rory said solemnly. 'And I wish you every happiness in the future. I trust that we can still remain friends. I would not like to be at enmity with my cousin.'

  'There, what did I tell you?' Silas demanded of Susannah. 'Rory is a gentleman, he wouldn't wish to hold you to your engagement against your wishes. Thank you, my boy. You've set her mind at rest,' he added, turning back to Rory. 'I won't forget it, I'll be sure to put plenty of business in your way, and if you ever need advice, don't hesitate to ask me. Now, Susannah, love, we'd better leave Rory in peace. I've no doubt, noble though he's been, this has been a severe blow to him, and he'll want some time for reflection.'

  They departed, and Rory began to tidy up his papers. If he started this afternoon, and rode till it grew dark, which at this time of year was well after ten at night, he could hope to be on a boat to Holland the following day. If only he was in time, and Catriona had not succumbed to the temptation of marrying Jan. If he lost her now he didn't know how he could endure life.

  He was delighted his reading of John's character had been so accurate, and that his ploy in throwing them together had been so completely successful. They would deal well together. And he was free to go to Catriona. He prayed he was not too late.

  *****

  Despite his urgency Rory had to force himself to be sensible. This time he ought not to rush away without making some provision for his business during his absence. It was all he had, since John's return, and all he had to offer Cat. The thought of her, the anticipation of holding his wildcat in his arms, of being with her for the rest of his life, was incredibly sweet, and he marvelled at himself that he had not recognised it long ago.

  Joshua was concerned when Rory told him. 'Away? You'll be going away again?' he asked anxiously.

  'Yes, I hope to fetch Mistress Duncan back.'

  Joshua's dour face split with a beaming smile. 'That's the best news I've heard since she left us.'

  'And we need a better printing workshop, and Mackenzie has the space for us to put both together, even expand. I've a mind to buy it. Joshua, while I'm gone keep your ear to the ground, find out what's happening, whether he's really going.'

  'You can depend on me.'

  Rory left at dawn the following day, satisfied that Joshua and Gordon could manage while he was gone. The journey was frustrating. His horse cast a shoe and he had to walk miles before finding a smithy. No boat was leaving for Holland for three days, and the one on which he eventually sailed was a leaky old tub which made slow progress, so ragged were the sails, and overloaded the hold.

  At every delay he tormented himself with doubts. Had Catriona's response when he kissed her been as warm as he recalled, or was he deluding himself? She'd pushed him away, reminding him of Susannah, but had that been an excuse? Was it possible she hadn't wanted to tell him she loved Jan? If he was now too late he would curse himself for a blind fool for the rest of his life.

  Eventually he arrived in Amsterdam. It was late at night, and desperately though he wanted to see Catriona, he forced himself to be patient. Finding a room near the Damrak he tried to sleep, but found it impossible. Now he was so close to her, he became even more anxious. Would she agree to marry him? Had he misinterpreted her response to him last time? Would she have other reservations? Worst of all, might she have accepted some other offer? He hadn't misunderstood the proprietorial air of her cousin Jan.

  With immense difficulty he refrained from invading her aunt's house before they were likely to be awake. It would be impolite to go before they could have finished breakfast, he told himself. Restless, he walked along the Herengracht taking scant heed of the magnificent houses which bordered it and were reflected in the waters of the canal.

  At last he could contain himself no longer, an
d almost ran to the van Geer house.

  Catriona was in the entrance hall, dressed to go out, wearing a charming, sprigged gown of floating cotton, and a perky straw hat. She looked startled to see him, and he thought he saw a hint of panic in her eyes. Was he too late, after all? Surely she could not be afraid to see him? Not his Catriona. She wasn't afraid of anything. Yet, there was a certain reserve in her face.

  After what seemed an age she spoke, and her voice seemed curt, anxious, almost. 'Rory! What is it? Why are you here again? Haven't you been home?'

  He struggled to recall the date. It was in truth a very short time, barely three weeks, since he had last been here.

  'Cat, I – can we talk?'

  She hesitated, biting her lip, then turned aside. 'Come in here,' she said, and led the way into a small office overlooking the street. It was furnished with several chairs and small tables, and was where her cousins entertained business visitors. Sitting down on a small chair near the window, she gestured Rory to one opposite. Instead, he began pacing the room, talking disjointedly, and afraid to look at her to judge her reaction. It seemed to him she was displeased to see him. If he was too late he didn't know what he would do. Cast himself into the nearest canal, no doubt, for without her life would be unsupportable. Simply to imagine her married to another man was an agonising torture. She listened without interrupting, however, to his stumbling explanations.

  'My cousin John is not dead. He was, well, ill, I suppose. He claimed he lost his memory, and was living with an Indian family, while his army friends thought him dead. He's just come home.'

  Catriona's expression did not change. Was she not interested? Did she not understand the implications for him? Or, dreadful thought, did she not care? He pressed on.

  'It means I am no longer his father's heir, and John wants to run the business. Or at least his father expects him to. Silas is going to help. But that's unimportant, it's only so that you understand.' He took a deep breath to still the agitation which was threatening to stifle his words. 'It's one reason why John, well, why Susannah prefers him and asked to be released from our engagement.'