“Where will we go, missy?”
“England, I think,” she answered, “but first we will need to go to New York and see when a ship is available. That will give me time to tell my parents where I am going, though I must make sure not to tell them why.”
Chapter 5
Finally approaching Scotland
Late May 1892
This is where rash planning could land you, Kitty thought as a rough crofter’s wagon carried her, Hannah and Sung Li into Edinburgh at last. They had been forced to wait in New York almost a week before a steamliner had been available to transport them to Southampton, the first available port in the whole of Britain. Finally docking there weeks later, after stopovers in the Bahamas and Ireland, Kitty had gone first to Evelyn’s closest home in Dorset, hoping her sister might be in residence. The housekeeper had informed her the countess was in Scotland as Kitty had originally thought.
More problems had arisen when Kitty’s purse was stolen on the post chaise to London where they had been planning to catch the train to Aberdeen. Since most of her ready money had been in that purse, Kitty had been forced to purchase third class tickets on the northbound train. It was a horrendous eleven-hour trip to Aberdeen and, by that mid-point on their journey, Hannah was irritable, cried and whined inconsolably. The third class car was simply awful, not even completely enclosed, allowing the weather and cold to overtake the passengers. It was also overcrowded and the bench seats were uncomfortable. Kitty had not been able to sleep at all.
As was common at that point, the train had been travelling at nearly seventy miles per hour to maintain the tight scheduling the railroad company demanded. Near Berwick-upon-Tweed, the locomotive ahead of theirs failed to slow for the gradient turn and several of the rear cars detached and rolled back on the track and into their train! Kerosene lamps in the wooden second and third class compartments shattered, causing fires and chaos. They had waited hours for rescue while dozens of people died from injuries and burns. Kitty knew they had been very lucky to escape with only minor injuries, but the rest of their luggage was lost and they were left stranded near the wreckage.
Sung Li finally walked the long distance to the closest hamlet at Eyemouth to wire Kitty’s sister for assistance and obtain a cart to take them the remaining fifty miles to Edinburgh. It had taken hours for him to return and when he finally did, with a driver and wagon, he explained there had been no telegraph office in Eyemouth to send a message to Eve and that it had taken so long to come back because the Scots could not understand him any better than he could understand them. It had taken Kitty herself almost ten minutes to explain to the man where she needed to go, and she’d had to promise him additional payment when they got there as she did not have enough funds remaining to induce him to make the trip.
Through it all, Hannah cried, wailed and complained of her hunger.
That was when it started to rain.
And she hadn’t imagined things could get worse!
Now they arrived in Edinburgh and it was already late in the evening. Kitty was frustrated, muddy, tired, cold and extremely hungry. Her knock at the door of the townhouse of the Earl of Glenrothes went unanswered at such a late hour, though she pounded persistently with frustrated insistence. When a rumpled young footman finally opened the door, Kitty was nearly ready to cry.
“May I help you, miss?” the man asked warily, as he took in the woman before him in a torn and dirty dress, and the ancient Chinaman behind her holding a crying, soot-covered toddler.
“I need to see my sister,” she told him, as she elbowed her way around him and into the warm foyer. “Also, please send someone to pay the driver for getting us here.”
“Now see here, miss,” he grabbed her arm as she tried to pass, “you just can’t force your way in like this!”
By this point in her life, Kitty had a strong dislike of being manhandled and fiercely pushed him away. “Don’t you touch me!” she snarled, and poked him in the chest with her finger. “You listen to me! I’m tired, hungry, I have been robbed, in a locomotive crash and rained upon! I cannot understand half of what anyone is saying to me and my daughter is hungry! You go get my sister, right now!”
Chapter 6
A ministering angel shall my sister be.
- William Shakespeare, Hamlet
Glenrothes House
Carlton Terrace
Edinburgh, Scotland
Perhaps it was the intensity of the silence in the cozy sitting room where Evelyn MacKintosh was reading a book that made the slamming of the door and battery of voices below seem so loud. She was setting her book and tea on the side table and moving her sleeping son to the seat as a flurry of steps raced up the stairs. Rising, she opened the door just in time to meet her butler, Hobbes, with his hand raised to knock. “What is it, Hobbes?” “There seems to be a slight problem, my lady.” The old servant paused as if he did not know where to begin. “It appears we have unexpected company.”
“Who is it?”
“A young female person of uneven temperament with a small girl-child and, if I am not mistaken, an aged Chinaman.”
“An aged…I’ll see to it…” Eve rushed down the hall, wishing her new husband were there as well. He had gone to his estate for a meeting with his steward and had not yet returned.
“I can’t believe this country!” were the words Eve heard as she reached the top of the stairs. She stood for a moment in the shadows and watched the late night visitor pace the foyer at a ripping pace. Her muddy wet hair was disheveled and hanging from its coiffure at a precarious angle. Her face darkened with dirt and…soot? Her dress, once probably a very lovely yellow brocade, was torn and dirty and hanging limply to the ground. She was indeed in a temper, pacing as she was, and throwing her hands in the air. Fortunately, the countess could make out little of the stream of curses that were currently flowing from her lips.
“Damn Scottish idiots!” she heard briefly. “Can’t speak one decent word of English at all! I end up on the side of the road, in the rain, with no way to get anywhere! Idiots! Every single one of them!”
“Is that so?” Eve questioned mildly, as she descended the stairs. The words were soft but carried into the foyer as all eyes turned up to greet her. Two harassed looking footmen, one tiny old Chinaman holding a miraculously sleeping toddler, and one angry woman.
Kitty turned her startled eyes to the stairs and gaped at her sister as she descended them. She looked like an angel, she thought. Her long hair was tied back simply at the nape of her neck. The gown she wore was a simple flowing brick-red silk with a stiff, white ruff collar and a low V-neckline that met at the button front. Her slender ivory arms were visible to her elbows as the force of the breeze caused by her rapid descent had pushed back the loose bell sleeves. She was probably the most regal looking woman that Kitty had ever seen, despite the informality of her apparel. Time had certainly changed her, and reversed their roles, for there was Eve looking like a paragon of Society while Kitty cursed like a dockhand.
“You there! Close that door.” Eve spoke with authority to the open-mouthed footman who stumbled over himself to do her bidding. “Now, may I ask what is going on here?” Her expression was serene until her eyes widened as they met Kitty’s. “Kitty? Kitty, what is going on here?”
The four people before her, and the nervous Hobbes to her rear, all began their versions of the tale at once in such loud voices that Eve could barely hear herself think. “Enough!” Eve’s voice rang out and the hall fell completely silent. She wrapped an arm about Kitty’s shoulders, embracing her sister, unmindful of the soot and mud covering her. “You two may go,” she indicated to the footman. “Is this your…servant? Yes, all right, Hobbes, please see to our guests and prepare a room for them and my sister.”
“Your sister, my lady?” Hobbes eyed Kitty skeptically.
“Yes, this is Mrs. Hayes, my sister from America.”
“A pleasure to be of service, madam.” The butler sketched a small bow to her
, then turned back to Eve. “May I bring you some refreshment, my lady?”
“Thank you. A meal and tea in my sitting room, please.”
“Coffee?” came a small voice.
“Oh, dear,” Eve whispered regretfully, “I’m sorry, no. Chocolate?”
“That will be fine,” Kitty answered, as she took Hannah from Sung Li.
“As you wish, madam.” Hobbes started to lead the old man from the hall as Eve steered Kitty into the drawing room, when Kitty suddenly remembered, “Eve! My driver! He needs to be paid.”
“I shall see to it, madam,” Hobbes assured, and snapped his fingers to nearby servants.
Once up the stairs and inside the sitting room, Eve flung her arms around her sister, disregarding the grime covering her. “Kitty! Oh, my goodness. Kitty, dear! How I’ve missed you! Oh, what are you doing here? Did Mama come with you? Da?”
It took Eve a moment to realize that her sister’s shoulders were shaking, and a moment longer to realize she was crying. “Kitty! What is wrong?”
“Evie!” Kitty sobbed as she clung to her sister. “I thought I’d never make it here! I left him! I left him!”
An hour later, after Kitty had had a chance to bathe – she’d reveled in the heat of the water as it took the chill from her bones – and eat, she curled up in a large armchair before the roaring fire in her sister’s private sitting room. Hannah had been taken to the nursery for her own bath and a warm bed.
The cold northern winds whistled outside the thick brick walls, and the slap of the rain against the windows mixed with the snap of the burning wood in the fireplace. Evelyn lounged comfortably on the settee, stroking her son’s blond curls as his head rested in her lap, and sipped a cup of steaming tea as she watched her sister stare into the fire. She wondered what was going on. Eve knew that coming to Scotland had, in some way, been a major step for Kitty. Kitty said she had left Hayes, though she would give no details as to why. And, most peculiarly, she seemed almost…defeated.
Eve wasn’t sure exactly what was wrong, but she knew she had to help fix it. Her sister had been trembling with…anxiety? Fright? Something had happened to Kitty in her nearly six years of marriage. Something that seemed to have nearly emotionally destroyed the Kitty she had known. Stiff and deathly pale, she kept looking at the door looking as if she had seen a ghost, so overwhelmed with emotion and fatigue that she was near a faint.
He’ll find me. He’ll find me. The words pounded in Kitty’s head until she thought she’d scream. Why did I ever marry him?
Because her father had wanted her to.
She massaged her temples. At first, it hadn’t been so bad. It had seemed she would have a good life with Hayes and would have been satisfied to live out the rest of her days with him. They had been happy, content at first. That initial infatuation she had allowed herself had helped her see past his emotional outbursts and insecurities. Until it was too late. Until she was trapped.
Kitty had known she would find sanctuary with Eve. That she would welcome her and Hannah. Her sister was always there to aid her. She was Kitty’s dearest friend. Her greatest ally and confidante. Even now, Eve’s presence was calmly, quietly assuring Kitty of her support and friendship. Kitty could never thank her enough for that.
She was never one to push too hard either, but Kitty knew Eve wondered what had brought her to Scotland. Why can’t I tell her, of all people? Why can’t I tell anyone? When will I stop feeling this awful combination of humiliation and anger? She covered her face for a long moment and sighed.
“Can I stay, Evie? I don’t want to cause any problems…”
Eve cut her off with a wave of her hand. “You know you can stay as long as you like. I am glad to have you and Hannah here. She’s grown so much!”
“So has Laurie,” Kitty offered, grateful for a moment of casual conversation. She looked again at her sleeping nephew. “He looks so much like Da.”
“Yes, and better Da than William, in my opinion.”
Kitty raised an eyebrow at that but did not comment. “There might be a problem though, Evie. If Freddie comes to find me…”
“You said you left him,” Eve probed, when her sister failed to continue. “Does he not know?”
“Evie, please! Not tonight, please? It’s been a long journey. I’m so terribly tired and, for this moment, I just want to know I am safe.”
“You are, dear, you are.” Eve eased out from under her son and switched seats to sit down next to Kitty, and put an arm around her shoulders in a comforting embrace. “After all, we are the Prestons. We will always find a way.”
Chapter 7
True originality consists not in a new manner,
but in a new vision.
- Edith Wharton
I am a Preston. I am a Preston, Kitty thought the next morning, as she stared into the mirror hanging over the dressing table in her room. A small smile curled her lip at the thought. It was something that had been so easy to forget in recent years, but she was a Preston as much as Eve. As much as their father. Here in Scotland, after the first good night’s sleep she’d had in weeks, it was easier to look more optimistically at the possibilities of life before her.
A Preston never gave up. Never stopped fighting for what they wanted. It was something she had forgotten in recent years.
A light rap on the door roused Kitty from her reverie as she turned to find Sung Li entering the room with a broad smile. “Happy day, missy,” he offered, placing the tray he carried on a small table near the fireplace and pouring her a cup of chocolate.
“Good morning, Sung Li,” Kitty returned with a cheerful tone that didn’t even need to be forced. “I trust the countess’ man found you suitable accommodations last night?”
“Yes, I have a very nice room. All the people are very nice, but curious,” the wizened old man chatted while he uncovered the plates he brought and encouraged Kitty to sit and eat.
“Curious about what?” she asked, digging into the eggs and sausage he had brought.
“Some curious about you.” A tiny smile lit his face. “Some do not know what to make of me. A very remote place this is, that has never before seen a Chinaman in its midst.”
Kitty stifled a smile at the thought. “I’m sure they’ll get used to you.”
“Surely they will.” He waved a hand at her when she paused between bites. “Eat more, missy. It was a long journey.”
“I know. Hannah seems to be recovering well, though.”
“She is a child,” he said simply, with a philosophical shrug, as if that explained it all. “You will be riding with the countess this morning as she requested, I suppose?” Eve had brought her a huge pile of clothing to choose from earlier and had asked her to ride with her in the park after she ate. Readily agreeing, Kitty had chosen a habit of deep burgundy velvet so lush that the light played across the skirt like flames licking the cloth. The collar and cuffs of the short jacket were trimmed golden fox fur with machine-tatted lace of ivory peeking from beneath. The fit was perfect, of course, as she and Eve were the same height and size. She had just been securing the matching hat on her tightly bound hair when Sung Li brought her breakfast.
“Aye, I suppose I will.” Kitty grinned into her cup, fully prepared for Sung Li’s next onslaught of wisdom.
“Getting up on a wild beasty is not so good for you, I think,” the old man sniffed fussily, though Kitty knew he secretly enjoyed mothering her so.
“If you think my Claudio back home is a ‘wild beasty’, you should see the countess’ Angel. You might not think that Claudio is so bad in comparison.” Kitty sipped her chocolate and envisioned with no little envy the wonderful animal Eve possessed. Like Claudio, Angel had been a gift from their Da several years ago and Kitty was sure Eve had brought him here as he had long been her favorite mount. “Aye, he’s a wild one. Maybe she’ll let me ride him sometime…”
“Now don’t be saying that!” Sung Li huffed. “I won’t say no more if you ride that one less than the o
ne you have. No need to do worse than that.”
“Worse than what?” Evelyn asked curiously as she walked into the room, slapping her riding crop against her skirted leg.
“I was just telling Sung Li about Angel,” Kitty explained, as she finished the last of her meal and chocolate before setting her napkin aside. “It seems I have finally found something worse than riding my own Claudio.”
“Angel is not so bad,” Eve said fondly of her massive gelding. Da had enough faith in her riding abilities to be assured she wouldn’t hurt herself on the feisty beast. He had also chosen Kitty’s Claudio for her, a Thoroughbred gelding of excellent lines and amazing speed. He knew his girls very well.
“Not so bad, humph!” Sung Li sniffed. “Nothing worse than a horse. Dangerous beasts! You give me heart attack every time you ride, missy.”
“Well, I wouldn’t look out the window as we ride away then if I were you, Sung Li,” Eve countered with a smile, “or you shall see the wild beasty I have chosen for my sister to ride this morning.”
Kitty eyed her sister with an eager smile. “What have you found for me?”
“He is from Francis’ stables. A thoroughbred bit of trouble called Ferhð.” Eve noted the emptied plate and cup Kitty set aside. “All right, then? Come, let us go for our ride.”
A half hour later, Kitty was trotting through the Royal Terrace Gardens on Eve’s Angel alongside her sister. Eve had given over her favorite mount to Kitty for the morning with minimal coercion on her part. What a magnificent animal he was! A massive, black Frisian with a mane and tail that fell nearly to the ground and shimmered with every step he took. He was of such gargantuan size that Kitty almost doubted her ability to control him. Angel! A misnomer for such a devilish looking animal.
Questions for a Highlander Page 59
