The Scottish Bride - Catherine Coulter [91]
Tysen bowed to her. “I would be delighted, ma’am.”
Gweneth Fordyce looked down at her brother-in-law and said, “I assume that you will allow me to have our things taken from your precious manor? You will provide me a carriage to come back to Kildrummy?”
He had no choice at all, Sir Lyon realized, or before nightfall he would be known as not only a bloody fool, but also a bounder. “Of course,” he said, and wanted to strangle her. He knew he had to think. Nothing was going the way it should. He hadn’t managed this well. He never should have trusted Gwennie to come with him today and plead his case. He should have known she’d turn on him. Damnation, he still wanted Gwennie in his bed, but faced with the economies he would be forced to make, even that desire was fast fading into the woodwork. With outward calm, he bade Lord Barthwick—the damned vicar who should have been easy to outwit and intimidate—good-bye and escorted Mary Rose’s mother back to the carriage.
He drew in another whiff of that delicious freshly baked bread as he walked out the front door of Kildrummy and realized he hadn’t even gotten to taste a bite of it.
That evening Gweneth Fordyce, along with three Vallance Manor footmen, arrived at Kildrummy Castle with a mountain of luggage.
20
THE NEXT MORNING Tysen was seated in the library, writing a letter to Donald MacCray to find out the truth of things. He looked up when Mary Rose said from the doorway, “My lord?”
He raised an eyebrow at her. “So formal?”
“Well, I still feel that you are angry at me for trying to leave yesterday, even though I know it is still the best thing to do, the proper thing. You did not wish to speak to me last night. Indeed, you avoided me, so I came to you.”
“You don’t know anything,” he said, and eased his quill back into its onyx stand. He sat back in his chair and leaned his head back against his arms. “What is happening now that I must needs know? More outpouring of guilt on your part? You will shoot yourself now to spare me from sacrificing myself? Or is it that you disapprove of something else I have done for your benefit?”
“No,” she said, then sighed and fiddled with the lace at her wrist. She was wearing one of her own gowns that her mother had brought with her. “Thank you for inviting my mother here. She is very happy. Meggie likes her very well, and naturally, my mother believes Meggie to be the brightest child in all of Scotland. Meggie has a new grandmother, and thank the Lord she isn’t mad. I believe my mother is going to teach Meggie how to draw. She is excellent with watercolors.” She paused a moment, then added, “It’s true, isn’t it? My mother really has been pretending to madness all these years? It was all a ruse?”
He nodded.
“I suppose I understand it. She was pregnant, unwed, and what was she to do? But why madness, particularly when she was at Vallance Manor with her own sister and brother-in-law?”
Tysen sighed. “Evidently your uncle wanted her in his bed and he wasn’t above using blackmail. Your mother was quick-witted. She chose madness as her defense against him. I suppose it became a habit with her.”
Mary Rose thought about that a moment. “It would seem to me,” she said finally, “that there are very few honorable gentlemen on this earth.”
“Bosh,” Tysen said. “When we are home, I will surround you with honorable gentlemen. They abound. My brothers are honorable. You will like them and their wives and children. I will admit, however, that your uncle and Erickson MacPhail could strongly influence one’s opin-ions.”
“I do not understand why my father did not help my mother.”
“Your father was undoubtedly married.”
“Yes, of course, but still. I was thinking, Tysen.”
“The good Lord spare