The Inheritance

by Irina Shapiro

  “His Majesty Prince Charles has landed in Scotland. The messenger arrived this morning — he is at Eriskay. There were two ships, but only one made it through. The other ship turned around after suffering severe storm damage. Our king awaits us and we ride within the hour.” Dougal’s eyes were alight with excitement, and he was gesturing with the sword he’d been working on as he spoke, scattering the men around him in panic.

  Rory turned to Isobel. “I must go. I’ll send word. I promise ye that we will be together when this is all over. Just bide for now. At least John willna be here to trouble ye.” With that he ran off to the Hall. Isobel went in search of Anna; she would know more. With any luck she wouldn’t see John at all before he left.

  Isobel saw Anna rushing through the gates a few moments later. She’d prepared a pack of food for Dougal, and a new sark that she’d sewn for him. She was excited about the king’s arrival, but had a hard time hiding her disappointment. She and Dougal were to have been married next week. Now, she would have to wait for months, possibly even years until she could be his wife.

  “Isobel, ye are back!” she gushed. “Have ye heard the wonderful news? His Majesty is in Scotland. He will reclaim the throne, and we’ll finally throw off the hated yoke of British rule. We will be free, and governed by our own true King.”

  Isobel felt the excitement coursing through her veins. This is what everyone had been waiting for, planning for. She knew that Rory had spoken to her father about this while he was at Grant. Would her father and brother, and their clansmen, be joining the king as well? She wasn’t sure what her father’s political views were, but she couldn’t imagine that he wouldn’t support his king. Everything would be different now.

  Some of the women were preparing to go with the men. She wished she could go as well, to be close to Rory, but that would also mean being close to John, and that wouldn’t be wise. Besides, John wouldn’t allow his wife to be a camp follower. She would have to stay here and do her duty at home. The women would look to her for guidance as the wife of the Laird.

  The activity in the courtyard became even more frantic as the hour of departure approached. She saw Rory from a distance supervising some men. He had his sword at his side and a dirk in his stocking. He saw her and mouthed, “I love ye,” over the heads of the men. She knew she would have to say goodbye to John. Now was not a time to take him to task over Mary. That would have to wait — everything would have to wait.

  Isobel saw him emerging from the castle. He was dressed for war, shouting orders as he made his way toward the cluster of men getting ready to leave by the gate. John saw her standing there, and instructed the men to go on as he walked toward her.

  “We’re leaving to join His Majesty Prince Charles. Ye are to stay here and act as Laird in my absence. If ye need help, ask Dougal’s father. He’s too old to come with us, but he is a wise and experienced man. I’ll send messengers back with news when I am able. God keep ye.” With that, he turned and walked off toward the men. Isobel stood there until the men began to ride out of the castle gates, followed by the supply-laden wagons and women who refused to be left behind. She stood there until the cloud of dust settled and she could no longer see them in the distance.

  “Dear God, keep him safe,” and she didn’t mean her husband. Isobel turned around and went inside. She was in charge now.

  June 2010

  Chapter 34

  I woke up late the morning after my conversation with Mom. The sky outside looked overcast, and the June breeze had turned chilly. I snuggled back under the quilt and closed my eyes. I didn’t have anything scheduled for today, and I was okay with just lounging for a while.

  I had been in Scotland for almost two weeks now, and the time had just flown by. My original plan had been to stay for about a week, but I honestly was in no rush to get home. One of the great perks of being a teacher was having summers off, but the drawback of that benefit is that everyone else was working. I would normally be looking forward to going back to school by the beginning of August.

  My thoughts turned to the castle. I felt a strange desire to go back, to look at Isobel’s room and try to envision her there. I wished there was a portrait of her somewhere, but I would just have to use my imagination. I was getting tired of just lying in bed, so I got up, put on a pair of old jeans and a light sweatshirt, and headed downstairs. Linda was still serving breakfast, and after fortifying myself with some eggs, toast and freshly made coffee, I walked out to the parking lot and got into my car. Linda had given me clear driving instructions, since the castle wasn’t in my GPS, and I felt a sense of purpose as I set out on my expedition.

  I wasn’t sure why I wanted to go back, but I felt drawn to the place. The castle came into view about twenty minutes after I left, and I knew I was going the right way. Today, the walls weren’t sparkling, since the sun was nowhere to be seen, and it looked gray and forbidding against the leaden sky. I felt a moment of apprehension, but then told myself that I was being silly, and parked the car by the gate. Danny had given me a set of keys and I let myself in, closing the gate behind me just in case.

  I walked to the west tower and unlocked the door. The stairwell was lost in shadows, and I could only see the next few steps as I walked up. I found myself holding my breath and not making any noise, although I wasn’t sure who I was afraid of. I passed Angus’s bedroom and kept walking up. The door to Isobel’s room was slightly ajar, and I peeked in before actually entering.

  The last time I’d come here, the room was bathed in sunlight from the multiple windows, but today the corners were lost in shadow. I could barely make out the picture on the tapestry, and I almost felt like there was some invisible presence with me in the room. Why did I come here? The room was fully furnished, but there was nothing of its last owner in here. Her clothes didn’t hang in the carved armoire, her brush and hair ribbons weren’t on the dressing table. I imagined her sitting in front of the mirror, opening the jewelry box and choosing what to wear that evening. Would a Laird’s wife have a lot of jewelry, I wondered? I walked over to the window and looked out over the sea. It was the color of Danny’s eyes, a charcoal-gray that seemed to blend with leaden the sky at the horizon.

  The rain began to fall as I stood there, making the room even darker. I didn’t think to bring a flashlight, and I looked around to see if there might be a candle, for authenticity’s sake. Of course, there wasn’t, and I turned back to the window.

  The rain was getting heavier, thunder rumbling in the distance. I’d always been afraid of thunderstorms, and decided to wait for it to pass. Most thunderstorms didn’t last too long. I counted Mississippi’s between each boom of thunder to know how close the storm was. Lightning split the sky above the roiling sea, and I stepped away from the window. I was about to sit down on the bed when I heard something, and it sounded like a door opening somewhere down below. I told myself I was just being fanciful. Everything was quiet for a few minutes, but then I heard it again — the distinct sound of feet on the worn stone steps.

  I looked around in panic for something to use as a weapon. There was nothing. I wouldn’t have the strength to swing the carved wooden chair, it looked way too heavy, and there wasn’t a candlestick or anything else that could be used for self-defense. The steps got closer, and I shook with fear. Who would be roaming the castle during a storm? Besides, I’d locked the gate after myself, hadn’t I? How did they get in?

  I backed into the darkest corner of the room, so that I could at least see who it was before they saw me. Whoever it was must be passing the bedroom below. The steps were getting louder and faster. I held my breath as the door opened slowly, revealing a dark shadow outside. I tried to flatten myself against the stone wall as the intruder stepped into the room.

  I nearly collapsed with relief when I saw Danny. I threw myself into his arms before I knew what I was doing, and he held me close, whispering to me like he would to a frightened child.

  “I’m sorry, love. I didn’t mean to scare you
. I came by the inn just after you left, and Linda told me you were heading out here. I got worried and decided to follow.” He was stroking my back and running his hand through my hair.

  I was still shaking with fright, and then I realized what he said. “Why were you worried? Did you think something would happen to me?”

  “Deserted places attract certain types of weirdoes. I didn’t want anyone to frighten you.” He was searching my face to see if I was all right. His face was so close to mine. I could see how long his lashes were and the stubble on his lean cheeks.

  I wasn’t sure what possessed me, but I leaned in and kissed him. It was meant to be a kiss of gratitude, but within a few moments, we were kissing passionately, and Danny was backing me toward the old-fashioned bed. He pushed me down on my back, and I fumbled with his belt as he unzipped my jeans and pulled them off. He tore off my underwear, and I arched my back and gasped in ecstasy as he entered me roughly and urgently. He grabbed my legs and lifted them to his shoulders, thrusting deeper and faster.

  The orgasm that rocked me was like nothing I’d ever experienced before. I had never felt this torrent of desire that literally swept me off my feet. Danny collapsed on top of me as he came, and I closed my eyes, still riding the waves of pleasure that were coursing through my body.

  My heart rate was beginning to return to normal, and I turned away feeling suddenly shy. Did he want this as much as I did or only took what was being offered? I closed my eyes again not wanting to face him. Danny took my face in his hands and turned me toward him.

  “Don’t look away from me,” he said, smiling. “Don’t ever look away.” He pulled me up off the bed, and gave me a tender kiss before he pulled back the covers and gave the bed a once-over. Finding it clean, he motioned me to get inside. “Come on, climb in.” He removed the rest of his clothes and dove under the covers. I got in next to him, and he pulled me close. The rain outside was lashing at the granite walls, the room still shrouded in gloom, but I no longer cared. Now it seemed cozy and romantic, and the bed hangings made me feel like we were in a private world of our own.

  “This bed probably hasn’t seen this kind of action in almost two hundred and fifty years,” I giggled. “Who would have been the last to sleep in it?”

  “Most likely the Laird and his wife before he went off to war. It would have been some time in 1745, since he never came back. Isobel would have slept in this bed until her disappearance in June of 1746.”

  I could tell that Danny wasn’t as interested in the history of the furniture as I was. He was nibbling my ear and moving on to my neck. The second time was slow, deliberate, and meant to drive me wild. I was vibrating like a tightly-wound spring by the time Danny was finally done kissing, licking, and stroking. I wrapped my legs around him, urging him on, but he took his sweet time, watching me with those gray eyes that looked almost black in the dimness of our sanctuary.

  “Want me, do ye?” he whispered. “Show me.”

  I reached down and took his cock in my hand, slipping it inside and wrapping my legs around him, forcing him in.

  “Like that, is it?” he breathed, as he gave in and gave me another memorable screwing that nearly broke the old bed. He rolled off and kissed the top of my head.

  “I haven’t been this happy in a long time,” he said simply, putting my doubts to rest. I snuggled up against him and drifted off to sleep, feeling safe and content in his arms.

  Chapter 35

  I was having the most extraordinary dream. I was still in Isobel’s room, but I wasn’t quite myself. Tendrils of auburn hair hung down the front of my linen shift, the room bathed in soft candlelight. This was no longer a cold, forgotten chamber. This room was the abode of a living, breathing person. Feminine items covered the dressing table, and a dumpy young woman wearing a flouncy cap over her dark hair was hanging up a discarded gown. I was impatient for her to leave, anxiety mixed with joy.

  The light from the fire in the grate was flickering and casting eerie shadows on the walls. I could smell autumn in the air blowing from the only open window, my skin chilled despite the warmth of the fire. The girl hastily closed the window, shivering slightly as she added more wood to the fire. I patiently waited for her to leave, breathing a sigh of relief when the door finally closed behind her.

  After waiting a few minutes to make sure she wasn’t coming back, I went to the tapestry hanging on the wall. I lifted the fabric with my left hand, gently working out one of the stones behind it to loosen it. It came away at last, and I took a folded piece of paper out of my bodice and carefully hid it behind the stone. I knew I wasn’t supposed to keep it, had instructions to burn it right away, but I couldn’t bring myself to destroy it. It was so precious to me that I wanted to hold on to it and have it at my fingertips when I was at my loneliest, overcome with fears for the future.

  I fitted the stone back into place, adjusted the tapestry, then blew out the candle and got into bed, closing the curtains against the chill October night.

  Chapter 36

  I woke up feeling slightly disoriented. The room was dark and smelled of an odd combination of things. There was the odor of old furniture and dust, and the more recent smell of love satisfied. Rain was still beating against the window panes, and I snuggled closer to Danny. He was dead to the world and I didn’t want to wake him. What a strange dream, I thought. I’d seen myself in the gilded mirror in my dream, and I wondered if that’s what Isobel actually looked like. What was she hiding behind the tapestry? I suddenly had a wild urge to go look.

  The room was full of shadows, and I could barely even make out the picture on the tapestry. I needed a light. I suddenly remembered there was a small flashlight on Danny’s keychain and picked up his jeans off the floor. The keys were in his pocket and I shone the light on to the tapestry. There they were, frozen in their timeless farewell, the lady and her knight. I began to move the tapestry, nearly choking on the cloud of dust that floated toward my face.

  “What are you doing?” Danny had obviously been woken up by my wheezing. He looked at his watch.

  “I had the strangest dream. I was Isobel, and I was hiding something behind the tapestry.” Even to my own ears I sounded a bit deranged.

  “Do you normally channel long-dead women in your dreams?” he teased.

  “No, this is the first time anything like this has ever happened to me, but it seemed so real. It’s as if she wanted me to look.” I stopped talking, afraid of what Danny would think about my mental state.

  “Let’s have a look then.” He pulled on his jeans and came to stand behind me. “Are we resurrecting ghosts?”

  “I suppose we are.”

  He held up the tapestry carefully, pointing the flashlight at the wall while I felt around for the loose stone. I found it easily enough, and started to pull it out of the wall. Pieces of broken mortar cascaded to the floor, the stone heavy and grainy in my hand as I finally pulled it out.

  “Shine the light into the hole, please,” I asked Danny as I peered into the darkness. I reached in cautiously, hoping I wouldn’t come away with a dead mouse or something worse.

  “There’s something in there.” I carefully pulled out a stack of letters tied with a faded red ribbon. The paper was yellowed with age, the black ink faded to gray, but still legible. Danny gaped at me in amazement. I don’t think he really expected to find anything behind the tapestry, and was just humoring me.

  “Ye know, if you pulled something like this in the eighteenth century it would be enough to condemn you as a witch and have you burned at the stake. Are you a witch?”

  “I don’t know. Is the spell I cast on you working yet?”

  “Oh, it certainly is, my beautiful sorceress.” He gave me a lingering kiss, which left me wanting him again, but I pushed my lewd thoughts out of my head for a moment and turned back to the letters.

  I blew the dust off the stack and took it back to the bed. I was about to pull off the ribbon when Danny stopped me.

  “Katie, wait.
This is too much fun to just rush through. I have an idea. Let’s get out of this place. We’ll go back to my house in Inverness, I’ll make us some dinner, and then we can sit down and read these letters properly. I hope they’re in English.” He was already getting dressed.

  “Why wouldn’t they be?” I was puzzled. The Scots spoke English after all.

  “Everyone speaks English now, but back then many clanspeople spoke the Gaelic. The letters might have been written that way in case they fell into British hands.”

  I couldn’t resist, pulling out the top letter and shining the light on the writing.

  “In English,” I announced in triumph, putting the letter back into the stack and picking up my own clothes.

  Danny pulled the coverlet back over the bed, and came to stand next to me. He put his arms around me, giving me a sweet kiss.

  “When I followed you to the castle today, I had no idea what it would lead to. I kept trying to be cool so you wouldn’t suspect how attractive I found you. It wouldn’t have been very professional of me to try something with a client. I hope you’re not sorry.” I suddenly saw the insecurity in his face. He had no idea what my feelings for him were and wanted reassurance.

  “I was attracted to you too, from the moment I saw you — and you weren’t even wearing a kilt.”

  “Ah, is that what it takes? I have one at home. I would be happy to put it on for you — the proper way.”

  “What’s the proper way?” I was curious.

  “Why, with nothing underneath, of course.” His grin was wicked and I burst out laughing.

  “Promise?” With that we took our things and left the room. I tucked the letters into my purse so they wouldn’t get wet outside, and followed Danny down the stairs. He’d left an umbrella downstairs by the door, and walked me to the car so I wouldn’t get wet. I was to follow his car to Inverness, but first he had to call Linda and tell her that I hadn’t been abducted by aliens. I found this funny, but he assured me that she would worry. This wasn’t some big hotel chain. This was a family-owned B&B and they took care of their guests like family. If I didn’t turn up by the evening without any explanation, there would most likely be a search party looking for me by nightfall.