Legacy of the Highlands

by Harriet Schultz

  If the girl wanted to take the lead he’d let her and they strolled toward the town center. When their nostrils picked up the spicy aroma of Indian food wafting out of a small takeaway, she asked if he’d like to pick up some food for them to eat in his hotel room.

  Serge wasn’t about to turn down a blatant offer like that. He was hungry, she was fun, and she might be useful in lots of ways. Minutes later he excused himself to duck into a pub. “Got to use the men’s room,” he explained sheepishly. “All that tea you poured for me, you know.” Once away from Mairi, he called the hotel to arrange for a second room. With all the incriminating equipment in his suite, he couldn’t bring her there.

  “Oooh! I’ve never been inside such a posh hotel. I feel like a princess,” she said as she took in the view of Inverness Castle from the turreted room’s bay windows. “I’ll just freshen up. Is that the loo through there?” she asked and pointed toward the bathroom.

  “Yes, but don’t take too long. That food smells great and I’m hungry. How about some champagne to go with it?”

  “That would be lovely. But there’s no need to seduce me, you know. I’m already here,” she said and blew a kiss in Serge’s direction as she closed the door. She was impressed by the complimentary array of expensive toiletries in the bathroom, and she held the cake of perfumed soap to her nose before using it to wash. The luxurious surroundings and her erotic fantasies kept Mairi from noticing that there were none of Serge’s belongings anywhere.

  Serge effortlessly shifted his focus away from his visit to Mackinnon’s and back to the delicious Mairi writhing beneath him. Mental progress report finished, he relaxed and let himself enjoy her lush body. He wasn’t sure whether she’d be useful to him in other ways, but for now the way they were using each other was perfect.

  With his appetite for food and sex satisfied and his body refreshed by a brief post-coital nap, Serge yawned contentedly and stretched his long limbs. The bed creaked as he shifted position and Mairi opened her eyes.

  “You really are a man, aren’t you?” she said sleepily.

  “Ah…yeah. I guess I am. Did you doubt it?” he replied with a grin.

  “Oh, no. What I mean is, it’s different with a man. I’ve only been with lads me own age. They’re so quick like. And you…well. It’s different, is all.” Her face flushed and she was suddenly a shy eighteen-year-old again.

  “I’m glad you enjoyed it. And in case it wasn’t obvious, so did I,” he said. Masterful lovemaking was as much a part of his bag of tricks as his skill at interrogation, hand-to-hand combat and shifting his identity. “You’ve hardly told me anything about yourself, Mairi. Do you have brothers, sisters, lots of friends?”

  He shifted to a sitting position and pulled her toward him so that her back was against his chest. Her wild mane of russet curls tickled his nose and her heavy breasts rested on the arms he wrapped around her. His hands were tempted to move to her nipples, but he willed them to remain where they were. Duty before pleasure.

  “Honestly, there’s not much to tell,” she said. “I’m the second of five children. We’re Catholics and Mam and Da obviously don’t believe in birth control. I think they’re daft. For years there was always a screaming bairn in smelly nappies.” She shook her head, remembering. “I’m not even sure that I want children of me own. Let’s see, there’s Michael who’s named for my father, then me, Matthew, Katie and wee Andrew. As for mates…well, my best one is gone.”

  “What do you mean, ‘gone’?”

  “Just gone, is all. Jamie Mackinnon...that’s Uncle Jamie’s grandson...well...he and I were born the same year and we’ve always been like brother and sister. About two months ago, or maybe it’s three by now, he said he was off to America, but wouldn’t say why and believe me, I tried every way I knew to make him tell. I always know if he’s lying, so maybe he thought it better to say nothing than to try to fool me. Anyway, I haven’t heard from him since, except for a scribble on a card to say he’s back in Scotland and off to work at some sheep farm way up north. It’s not like him to not come ‘round to say hello. And why would a lad give up a good job in a garage here in Inverness to care for dirty sheep in a wee town like John O’Groats where he knows no one, tell me that?”

  Now this was intriguing, Serge thought, but he only continued to show polite interest. “I’m sure your friend had his reasons for taking off. Could he be in some kind of trouble?”

  “Jamie in trouble? Ha! That’s daft. Uncle Jamie says the lad just took off one day. It could be that he’s upset about his own Da being sent to prison. But when it happened, he seemed all right with it,” she said, her brow furrowed. “I’d help him if I knew what to do.”

  Mairi had unknowingly provided a critical piece of the puzzle and Serge’s mind began to analyze how it all fit together. First, Mairi’s friend’s father, the son of James Mackinnon, the shopkeeper, is arrested. Then this Jamie, the grandson — shit, did they all have to be James or Jamie? — goes to America for some unknown reason, returns and unexpectedly moves to the far north.

  “I imagine if my father were in jail I’d be pretty upset and I might start to act weird too,” Serge said as moved his hand to her milky thigh. “What did the police want with your friend’s father? Did he rob a bank or shoot someone?” he asked with an air of innocent curiosity.

  “I didn’t see it myself, but people say that soldiers dressed all in black, commandos maybe, came to their house one night and took Jamie’s Da away. In his nightclothes, he was! Can you imagine? There was a lot of talk, but even Jamie was flummoxed. A few folk guessed that his Da must be connected to the I.R.A. or some such thing, but the Mackinnons are definitely not Irish so that can’t be it. Anyway, there I go blathering on about people you don’t even know. Tell me something more about you.”

  “What do you want to know?”

  “Well, for starters, are you married?”

  He laughed. “No, I’m not married.”

  “Hmmm, a handsome man like you should be and I’m surprised. Doesn’t really matter anyway. You’ll go back to your sunny Florida in a few days and you won’t even remember me,” she pouted.

  “Mairi,” he murmured softly, “you underestimate yourself. You’re not a woman that a man soon forgets.” It was almost too easy to ingratiate himself with someone so trusting and unsophisticated. “Maybe you can visit me. I could send you a ticket.”

  “What!” She pressed her body against his and covered his face in excited kisses. “You would do that? You’d pay my way to America?”

  “Why not? It’s no big deal. I can easily afford it and I’ve got a big house near the beach, so you can enjoy the sun for a few days while I work. Think of it as the Mairi Graham traveling scholarship.”

  She wrapped her arms around him as if he were a genie that would vanish back into his lamp while she imagined herself in a tiny bikini, her skin baked to a golden tan. “Bloody ‘ell! My parents would never allow it. It’s one thing to do what I please here in Inverness, but this…”

  “They won’t guess that there’s anything between us. After all, you said I’m about the same age as your father and they’d never think you’d get involved with someone so old. I’m sure we can come up with a good story.” He pretended to be deep in thought. “I could tell them I’ve offered you a job in one of my stores. Do you think that would work?”

  “I don’t know,” she said, her brow furrowed. “I’ve a better idea. Lots of local girls go to Europe or America to work as nannies and my parents know I’ve helped raise my younger brothers and sister. I could say you and I struck up a conversation in the teashop and you told me you have young children — and a wife of course — and need someone to help care for them. That might do it.”

  “Sounds great,” agreed Serge. “They’ll want to meet me, of course.” The Grahams and the Mackinnons were close, she’d said, so her father might know more about the arrest of Mackinnon’s son and the grandson’s disappearance. He felt a brief twinge of guilt that ther
e would be no trip to Florida for the gullible Mairi, but that was how the game was played. His betrayal would toughen her up and even save her from future heartache.

  “I know they’ll say yes. I just know it!” She bounced up and down on the bed, unable to stay still. “But for now, I’m expected home. I’ll talk to my parents tonight or tomorrow at breakfast,” she said enthusiastically as she kissed her way down his body and used her talented mouth to thank him in her own, very satisfying, way. Before Serge allowed himself to surrender to pleasure, he fleetingly thought about all he’d have to report to Diego…but that could wait until later, much later.

  Chapter 22

  Alex left the Ritz Carlton and strolled back to her apartment in a daze as she tried to process all that had happened in the past twenty-four hours. Her father-in-law’s mind-blowing confession about his role in Will’s death had been horrifying enough to send her to bed for a week, but when combined with the night she’d just spent with Diego it was like she’d been hit by a knockout punch. Despite it all, she felt the kind of exhilaration that followed a couple of glasses of champagne.

  Back in her apartment, she quickly exchanged the now-wrinkled designer outfit for comfortable jeans and a snug Rolling Stones’ T-shirt, hit “play” on her blinking answering machine and stretched out on the couch. She was bubbling with feel-good endorphins and wondered what Francie would say about it all.

  My friend’s a mind reader, she thought, as she listened to three voicemails from an increasingly impatient Francie demanding to know every detail about the meeting with Will’s father. There was also one from John Cameron apologizing for his behavior. But it was the last message, from Francie’s husband David, which captured her attention.

  “Hi Alex, it’s David. Call me at the office.” He was her lawyer and she hoped whatever he had to say wouldn’t spoil her mood. She decided to get his call out of the way to reassure herself that he only wanted to check in with her.

  “Hey David. What’s up?” she asked cheerfully.

  He skipped their usual banter and got right to the point. “A few months before he died, Will left a letter with me that I was to give to you if you survived him.”

  “What?” Alex bolted to her feet. Will’s estate had been settled quickly and he’d left everything to her — apartment, investments and a very hefty trust fund. Could he have changed something, added something without telling her? She gripped the phone with hands that were suddenly ice cold and forced herself to breathe. “Why did you wait until now? You can’t drop something like this on me, David.”

  “All I can tell you is that he left the timing up to me. It’s a letter size envelope, but I have no more idea than you do about what’s inside. When Will brought it to me a few months before he was killed, he told me that if he died before you, I was to give you time to recover and then hand this over to you.”

  “Cut out the lawyer bullshit, David! This is me! Talk to me like a friend, not my lawyer.”

  “Sometimes I think being a friend’s lawyer isn’t the smartest thing in the world,” he said and paused for a long moment. “Look Alex, the last thing I want to do is to upset you, but I’m bound by law to carry out Will’s instructions on this matter. When he brought this to me he seemed pretty upset and was adamant that I not even ask him to explain. His also left a letter for Diego and since he’s in town I figured I’d give them to each of you now. If you can come in this afternoon, we can get this settled.”

  Alex sighed, resigned to whatever was to come. If she’d been able to handle everything that had happened so far, she’d have to dig down and find the courage to get through this too.

  “Fine. I can be at your office at one. You coordinate it with Diego.’”

  “Okay. And Alex, try not to worry.”

  “Yeah, sure, easy for you to say,” she muttered sullenly. That blew her plan for a laid-back gossipfest with Francie.

  Five minutes after Alex arrived at David’s office Diego strode in, shook hands with the lawyer and sat next to her. “Do you know what this is about?” he whispered.

  “No. I haven’t a clue, only that Will left letters for each of us,” she said. His presence calmed her and she welcomed the hand that he wrapped around hers. She wondered if he felt as guilty as she did to have Will reach out to them hours after they’d had sex. It was almost as if he knew.

  “You look like two kids who have been sent to the principal’s office,” said David. Their tension was contagious and he was as curious as they were to finally find out what message Will had left.

  “Along with the two envelopes, Will left specific instructions for me. The contents of these envelopes are your property. The decision to reveal what they contain to each other, or to me, is entirely yours. Will asked me to be present in case either of you had any legal questions.” He extended the first envelope to Alex. Her hand trembled as she reached for it. He gave the other to Diego.

  The sight of Will’s familiar scrawl made her eyes fill, but if she cried now she wouldn’t be able to see and she had to know what he’d wanted to tell her.

  My darling Alex,

  Since you’re reading this, I guess I’m dead and obviously you’re not. I hope that at this moment you’re a very old lady with age spots on your wrinkled hands, hands that held mine as I passed from this world into the next. But my guess is that’s not the case. It makes no sense and I pray I’m wrong, but I have this feeling that I might die young. If it’s an accident or happens some other way and without warning, I hope it comforts you to know that I wasn’t alone — you were with me, as always, because you are my heart.

  Alex could hear Will’s voice and felt him in the room. She was stunned that he’d had a premonition about his own death, but she wasn’t surprised that he’d never mentioned this feeling to her. If he had, she would have hovered over him in a way he’d have never tolerated, so he’d kept quiet.

  Diego’s envelope remained sealed. He and David watched Alex close her eyes and press the letter to her breast, but they remained silent observers. She took a few steadying breaths, sipped some water and continued to read Will’s words.

  One reason that I’m writing this letter is to tell you I love you one last time in case I wasn’t able to say it before I died. If I made you even half as happy as you made me, I know I’ve done well. You brought more joy to my life than I ever imagined. We always said we would love each other forever and beyond. Those aren’t just words, darling Alex. My body may not be able to love you any longer, but my soul is yours for eternity.

  And there’s something else — something I expect we’ll have already gotten past, but as I write this it’s still new. I should have told you the truth about why I banished Diego from my life and yours. I’ll never understand why I couldn’t confide in you. I swear it was the first lie of our marriage and the last, but you have a right to know what happened.

  Diego found out that his parents and mine slept with each other before either of us was born. My birthday and Diego’s are just weeks apart, so I couldn’t get it out of my head that either man could have impregnated either, or both, women. I insisted that Diego and I should have our DNA tested so that we’d know for sure which man had fathered each of us. I don’t know why this became so important to me, but it was. The test confirmed that John Cameron is my father. The shocker is that he’s Diego’s biological father too although Diego is, and always will be, a Navarro regardless of his DNA. He never wanted to know and I should never have told him the results of a test I had done without his knowledge. To say I violated his trust is a huge understatement. He had every right to be furious and never speak to me again. I behaved like a jerk and lost the friendship of a man I‘d always thought of as my brother. And then I lied to you. I beg you to forgive me.

  So, my beloved, it’s time to end this and move on to the next. I know you’ll grieve, but you have to let me go. Please don’t spend the rest of your life unhappy and alone. We both know that you and I shared something rare. I can’t imagine ei
ther of us ever finding that kind of love with anyone else, but love comes in many forms. I beg you to find it again because your happiness is, and always has been, my own.

  Yours forever and beyond,

  Will

  Alex’s tears flowed with the intensity of a tropical storm. Will was gone, but what they’d had together wasn’t. She would always have that. This letter was Will’s final gift to her.

  “I’m okay...I am...really.” She said the words as much to herself as to the two men who’d witnessed her distress. She finally turned her tear-streaked face to Diego.” You must be dying to know what’s inside your envelope. It’s not fair to make you wait any longer.”

  “I can wait,” he said as he dabbed at her tears with a handkerchief.

  “Me too,” added David. “There’s no rush.”

  “I never thought I’d hear from him again. And what he said was so beautiful…but there’s something I need to tell Diego. Privately. Can you excuse us for a minute David?”

  “Of course. I’ll be down the hall if you need me,” he said and left them alone.

  Alex didn’t say anything until Diego’s eyes met hers. “Thank you for telling me the real reason for the fight that you and Will had or this letter would have come as a shock. He wanted to apologize for not being honest with me about the paternity tests. There’s probably an apology in your envelope too.”

  Despite her attempt to reassure him, Diego wasn’t sure he wanted to know what Will had to say to him. “Will was my best friend and my brother, but right now I’m not ashamed to admit that I’m scared. The last news he delivered almost killed me,” he said, and laughed nervously. There was a sheen of sweat on his forehead. Finally, jaw set in determination, he ripped the envelope open and scanned its contents. Alex watched his expression go from soft to hard until he finally crushed the letter in his fist.

  Alex waited for Diego to tell her what the letter said. “Well?” she finally probed, running out of patience. She had no idea what Will could have written to make Diego’s body suddenly coil with barely contained fury.