The Heiress Bride - Catherine Coulter [92]
“Why isn’t Colin happy?”
“I believe he feels guilty.”
“He should. I’m here and he’s not and there is another thing—Robert MacPherson . . .” She broke off, wanting to kick herself. Colin would come riding home ventre à terre to protect her. MacPherson wouldn’t care how he got to Colin and with Colin here, there were too many possibilities, including the safety of the children. No, she would have to deal with MacPherson. There was no other way as far as she could see, and she’d thought about it very hard, listing out pros and cons as Douglas had taught her to do when faced with any problem.
“What do you mean about MacPherson?”
She shrugged, looking guileless as a nun. “I just wondered what Colin was doing about the man.”
“Nothing. He’s gone to ground. Colin visits the old laird, and he’s learned that Robert’s been going behind his back with his people, trying to get the power. Distressing, but true. Colin’s in a bit of a bind because, truth be told, he likes the old laird, despite Robert and Fiona.”
“He will figure it out,” she said shortly, looking out over the barley rows to the east. “It hasn’t rained in three days. We need it.”
“It will rain, it always does. This is paradise for growing. Colin is truly blessed with all the arable land. Here on the Fife Peninsula there are usually mild temperatures and ample rain. Much of Scotland is barren crags and empty moors and savage hills. Yes, Colin is very lucky to have Vere Castle. His ancestors, naturally, were lucky to be here and not in the Highlands or the borderlands.”
“I doubt the first Kinrosses had their pick of where they wished to be in Scotland. Who are these Ashcrofts, MacDuff?”
He smiled. “Friends of my parents. It was a long-overdue visit.”
“We’re long overdue as well. I’m glad you’re here.”
“I wish to see all that you’ve done. Incidentally, what does Colin think of all your improvements?”
“Not much.”
“I hope he hasn’t hurt your feelings.”
“He has. I fancy you know that.”
“Perhaps. Try to understand, Sinjun. Since he was a little boy, Colin usually lost those things that were his. He learned secrecy. He learned to guard what was his. But even then he wasn’t always successful. He was the second son, you see, and as such, anything that was his that his brother Malcolm wanted, why, it was taken away from him. I remember he had this small stash of items, nothing valuable, you understand, just things that were his and were important to him, things he didn’t want taken away from him, and Malcolm would have, I never doubted it. Anything that was Colin’s he wanted. Colin hid them in this small carved box in the trunk of an oak tree. He would go to the oak tree only when he knew Malcolm was somewhere else.
“Perhaps that explains why he still wishes to keep the doing of things here at Vere Castle to himself. You see, everything is now his and what is his, he protects. He guards jealously.”
“I see,” Sinjun said, but she didn’t, not really. It made no sense. He was no longer a boy, he was a man.
“It has sorely chafed him that there was no money to bring the castle back into its former splendor. You have made a very big difference, Sinjun.”
“Why does Aunt Arleth hate him so?”
“She’s a strange old witch. The workings of her mind have eluded any meaningful analysis. Malcolm was her favorite, I don’t know why. Perhaps because he’d be the future laird and she wanted him to look at her with lasting respect and affection. She treated Colin like he was a gypsy’s get, of no importance at all. I remember she told Malcolm about Colin’s love of poetry—he got that from his mother—and Malcolm told his father that he also loved poetry and he wanted Colin’s book. He got it.”
“But that wasn’t fair!”
“Perhaps not, but the laird saw the Kinross future as being in Malcolm’s hands, thus Malcolm wasn’t thwarted in anything he wanted. It ruined his character. Naturally Aunt Arleth hated her sister for the simple reason that she wanted the earl for herself. The word is that she got him after her sister died, but only in her bed, not at the altar.