The Scottish Bride - Catherine Coulter [39]
He walked back into the huge entry hall, shaking his head. Life since his arrival at Kildrummy Castle had not been boring.
“Are they gone, Papa?”
“Assuredly they are, Meggie. I don’t understand it. I don’t believe in ghosts, never did, despite what everyone says about the Virgin Bride at Northcliffe Hall. I never saw her.”
“Uncle Douglas did, several times. He just won’t admit it. He thinks he will be called weak in the head if he does say that he saw her. He says only the ladies claim to see her, and that’s because they thrive on the supernatural, that they gain attention from their claims, that they are, in short, weak in the head.”
“Be that as it may,” Tysen said, his voice testy, “I have never believed in the Virgin Bride or in any other ghost, not even when I was sleeping in that room once and—no, forget that. Whatever, Mrs. Griffin believed she saw a ghost in her bedchamber, and it quite terrified her. She informed Mr. Griffin that they were going back to Edinburgh.”
Now that he thought about that strange sequence of events, he saw the humor in it and smiled, shaking his head. Seduce Mrs. Griffin?
Suddenly, with no assistance whatever from a spirit, Tysen realized quite clearly what had happened. He turned to carefully study his daughter’s face. It did not require a great intelligence to understand what she had done. She was smirking, her eyes brimming with her triumph. He saw it before she could wipe it away.
“Meggie,” he said slowly, “you have grown up with tales about the Virgin Bride at Northcliffe Hall and Pearlin’ Jane at Vere Castle, who supposedly appears with great regularity to watch over your aunt Sinjun.” He stroked his chin, never looking away from his daughter. “I will ask you only one time, Meggie. Were you the ghost in the Griffins’ bedchamber? Were you sitting atop the commode? Whistling, perhaps? Swinging your leg?”
“Papa, it is time for breakfast. Would you like to have some porridge?”
“Meggie?” His voice was very, very quiet. Meggie gulped, then stared down at her feet.
She gulped again and said in a paper-thin voice, “Yes, Papa. I’m sorry, but I had to do it. I was afraid they wouldn’t leave. She is so very dreadful, and he just stands behind her and nods and looks like he’s not even there, and then last night I overheard Mrs. MacFardle tell Agnes that Mrs. Griffin always did exactly as she pleased, that Mr. Griffin never gainsaid her, and there was simply no way she would allow an English vicar who just happens now to be the laird of Kildrummy Castle to dictate to her. Why, this was as much her home as her other home where she lived whenever she wasn’t visiting here. Mrs. MacFardle went on and on, Papa, about Mrs. Griffin’s philosophy of life—she believes she deserves to govern. I was worried she would go head-to-head with you. I didn’t want you to have to lose your temper. I didn’t want you to feel guilty over losing your temper. I was protecting you, Papa.”
Meggie came to a halt, out of breath.
“Ah,” Tysen said in an awful voice, one he reserved for members of his flock who had grievously sinned and weren’t repentant, “so Mrs. Griffin is one of those bad people I am too stupid to deal with, perhaps too dull-witted to recognize even when I’m looking them right in the eye?”
“You’re not stupid, Papa, or really unaware, it’s just that you’re too good.”
“Meggie, I myself ordered them to leave. I recognized Mrs. Griffin for what she was. She was leaving this morning, her spouse with her. Your performance only advanced their departure by an hour or two.”
Meggie didn’t say a single thing.
He became very still, then said slowly, “You believe I am weak? You believe that she could have succeeded in staying even though I ordered her to leave?”
“You are so very good, Papa,” she said, barely above a whisper.
She had no faith in him at all. Tysen felt the blow hard and deep. Did she see him as good or as simply ineffectual? As a man who dealt in the spiritual realm and had little understanding of the real world?
Meggie said, her chin going up now, “Aunt Sinjun said a female