––––––––
It was the better part of an hour before Sassy and the others came back and Alistair was waiting for them at the edge of the park. Just as he predicted, the first thing she wanted was the rest of her lunch. “The sheriff arrested Charlotte.”
“For ruining my clothes?”
“Nay,” Alistair answered, “for neglecting to pay for the pie before she took it.”
Sassy grinned. “Good.”
“Come, Sarah has your lunch and she saved a place for us on the grass.” He offered his arm and was pleased when she took it, just as gracefully as any fine lady would. And why not, she was dressed in Mrs. Goodwin’s expensive white shirtwaist, with pearls sewn into the lace, a dark blue skirt and a pair of practically new shoes.
As Alistair carefully wove them between the wandering crowd, Sassy giggled and leaned closer. “Even the skin beneath this shirtwaist is blue.”
Alistair pretended to be shocked, “My dear, a gentleman should never know these things.”
“A gentleman does not know a lady has skin?”
“Good heavens no, not until his wedding night.”
She rolled her eyes. “What a discovery that must be.”
The prim and proper Alistair could not help but laugh.
*
At exactly half past six, two men began to scatter a fine layer of cornmeal on the smooth cement to make it easier for the dancers to make their turns. It was then the Mayor called for the musicians to take their places on the pavilion. “But first,” he said, “to begin the evening activities, allow me to introduce the finest singers in Colorado Springs, The MacGreagor Quartet.”
Never had they been so nervous, but Shepard, Prescot, Brookton and Egan walked to the front of the crowd and climbed the two steps up to the pavilion. Shepard asked for a middle “c” from the violinist and when they were ready, gave the signal to begin.
Hannish had not heard they were calling themselves the “MacGreagor Quartet,” and it made him proud. He, along with everyone else, listened to the medley of songs “his” quartet sang, and when they ended with The Star Spangled Banner, everyone stood, even the elderly. He watched several men respectfully take off their hats and he took his off too. He missed Scotland, but it was an honor to be counted among the people of this new country. He felt a sense of pride in what they had accomplished—after all, they beat the British—something Scotland never managed to do.
*
As soon as the orchestra began to play a waltz, a couple of teenagers decided to demonstrate a few rag-tag steps and were, with the approval of the crowd, yanked off the dance floor by their parents.
No one enjoyed the dancing more than Sassy, but she refused to take part in it. Cathleen, on the other hand, accepted every offer and danced until she thought her new shoes might wear out. Naturally, Alistair danced with Sarah, Hannish danced with Pearl and then Loretta and then Pearl and then Loretta, and then Pearl again. McKenna danced with the deputy and the sheriff, once he gave up trying to separate Prescot from Millie. The whole time, the sheriff mumbled about the price Prescot paid for Millie’s lunch.
Yet, Sassy sat between Donnel and Blanka and stayed in the comfort of the two elder women she had grown to love. “If I had a mother, I would want her to be just like the two of you,” she said. “You are so very wise. May I ask a question?”
“Of course,” Donnel said.
“How do you know when you are in love?”
Donnel winked at Blanka. “Do you remember sister? It has been a long time ago for me.”
“Sister, you cannae have forgotten that. I remember as if it were yesterday. His name was Jonathan and I swear upon my mother’s grave, my heart completely stopped each time I saw him.”
“Stopped?” Sassy asked, looking a little alarmed.
“Aye, some say it skips a beat, but I feared the next beat would never come again when my Jonathan was near.”
“I remember now,” Donnel said. “I greatly feared I would embarrass myself in front of Michael, and of course, I did. I missed a church step and fell flat on my face. Later, he teased me about falling hard for him, but he had such a gleam in his eye when he said it, I could not protest. He was right of course; I loved that man until the day he died. I love him still.”
“But how can you know if he loves you?”
“Unless he is a stupid man, he will tell you,” said Blanka.
Donnel rolled her eyes and repeated, “Aye, unless he is a stupid man.”
“Are most of them stupid?”
“It would seem a good many of them are,” Blanka answered. “I suppose they have their reasons, or think they do. ‘Tis fear that keeps a man from telling a woman how he feels.”
Sassy looked from Blanka to Donnel. “Fear of what?”
“He is afraid the woman he wants does not want him.”
“You mean like Keith? He hopes I will someday, but I do not care for him in that way. I have even said as much.”
“Keith needs to meet more ladies. I shall tell Alistair to send him to town more often.”
“Would you? I would be forever grateful. I have but one more question. Suppose the man a woman wants does not ever say he loves her? What then?”
Donnel exchanged knowing looks with her sister before she answered, “She must wait until he has his wits about him. ‘Tis all she can do...just wait.”
The day had been filled with excitement and all the way home, they laughed about some of the fun things that happened. The summer night air was warm and the sunset illuminated the sky in shades of pink and lavender, as if to add a touch of majesty to their almost perfect day. This time, the butlers sat next to Millie and Sarah, instead of having the men on one side of the wagon and the women on the other. That meant Hannish was on the end, and he was the first to jump down when the carriage and the wagon finally stopped.
Hannish didn’t see her until after he and Keith helped the women out of the wagon and the men began to gather the blankets, and the empty lunch boxes. The women had walked to the front of the house, but curiously had not yet gone in, so he went to see what the problem was.
The young woman wore a crooked hat, held a sleeping baby in her arms and had tears in her eyes. “Margaret Ann, what is wrong?” Hannish asked.
Her lip quivered when she answered, “I have come to give you my boy, Mr. MacGreagor. I know you will take good care of him.”
“Give him to me? Why?”
“I cannot keep him if I am to have my position at the Hotel. He is six months and wants to crawl, not stay in his bed all day. He cries, Mister MacGreagor, and they don’t allow crying babies in the hotel, except for guests.”
“I see,” said Hannish.
“May I hold him?” Sassy asked, sitting down beside her on the step. “I sorely miss taking care of babies in the orphanage.”
Margaret Ann nodded and carefully handed the sleeping baby to her. “You will take him then, Mr. MacGreagor?”
Hannish sat down on the other side of Margaret Ann. “Of course we will care for him, but on one condition.”
She brushed a strand of golden hair away from her face and sniffed her nose. “What?”
“You must stay with him and work for me,” said Hannish. “They do not complain, but the ladies at Marblestone Mansion are a might weary of washing clothes. We could use a lass like you. The pay is good, you’ll have plenty to eat, a warm bed, and the laddie can crawl anywhere he likes—so long as it is safe.” He waited, but she didn’t return his comforting smile. “Have we a bargain?”
“My hands are too painful to wring the clothes. Have you a wringer washer?”
“A wringer washer?” He looked at Sarah, who quickly nodded. “I believe we do.”
“Then I am pleased to do your wash, Mr. MacGreagor.”
“It is settled, then.” He stood up and gave Margaret Ann a hand up. “Prescot, I believe we shall be in need of a few toys, a crib and...” Sassy had the baby all wrapped up in her lap, gently rocking him from side to side and when she kissed the child’s cheek, he had never seen her look more beautiful or more at peace. “Sassy, tomorrow, would you care for little...?”
“William,” Margaret Ann answered.
“William, while Margaret Ann goes to town to collect their things, and to tell the hotel they’ll be needin’ another washer woman?”
Sassy grinned. “I would love to.”
“So would I,” said Cathleen.
“And me,” McKenna added.
Hannish laughed and nodded for Alistair to open the door. “I fear poor William is about to be mothered to death, Margaret Ann. Come, we shall find you a bed. Have you eaten? We have...”
McKenna waited until they were well inside before she whispered to Sassy, “So that is Margaret Ann. She too is plagued by Charles Whitfield and I cannae help but wonder who the boy’s father is?”
“I bet Mrs. Abigail knows, she knows everything,” Sassy said, letting Keith help her stand up now that she had a baby in her arms.
“If it is Charles, I wager she does not know, or she would have said. I’ll not be the one to ask her either; she is already quite put out over the money Charles spends.”
*
The hiring of Margaret Ann began a whole host of people coming to the mansion looking for work, as though no one had ever heard of the place before. Hannish hired mostly men willing to help tend the horses and do the gardening, but when a seamstress showed up on the doorstep, he was more than willing to give her a good paying position. The baby always needed new clothes, the ballroom needed drapes and the MacGreagor ball was only a month away. Alistair and Sarah interviewed three more housekeepers, and then offered each a position, which all three quickly accepted.
The engraved invitations went out early, especially those sent to friends in Scotland, and several accepted. They would bring their own valets and lady’s maids, who in turn would need a place to sleep and plenty to eat.
McKenna was thrilled, but Hannish was worried about getting everything done in time.
Prescot, and at least two of the footmen, took the wagon to town every day to pick up more furnishings and at last, the green room, the red room, the blue room, the pink room, the purple room, the yellow room, and the orange room were complete. Each had paintings on the walls, vases for flowers, four-poster beds, chest of drawers, easy chairs, lamps, pillows and new bedding.
As a gift, Abigail and Claymore presented Hannish with a large tapestry depicting a Scottish Border Collie and her five pups. It was perfect for the marble foyer, and he hung it on the wall with pride.
Margaret Ann settled in nicely and with no men to pester her like there were at the hotel, the color improved in her cheeks. Each day, as one of the men carried the basket of washed clothes to the clothesline, she let William crawl in the grass. He still tried to put everything in his mouth, but a little grass wouldn’t hurt, they all decided. Now that they had more help with the cleaning, Sassy and Cathleen were usually outside too, to see that no harm came to the child.
Just as often, Hannish stood in his study window and watched. Sometimes, Sassy looked at him, but not often enough to make it obvious that she cared, at least not obvious to him.
Hannish still went to the kitchen each morning for tea and occasionally ate breakfast with the servants, especially if McKenna was not yet awake. His loneliness was becoming more and more unbearable, and breakfast with Sassy and the others seemed his only comfort. Cathleen had a few stories of her own to tell, most involving practical jokes Sassy played on Old Mrs. Forthright, and Hannish often found himself smiling about them later in the day. Yet their eyes only met occasionally, he dared not touch Sassy, no matter how much he longed to, and the war between his heart and his mind raged on.
He reminded himself of his pledge to Olivia nearly as often as Sassy reminded herself he loved his wife. It was maddening for her to be in the same house and not be able to feel his arms around her. It would never happen, she knew, and once they had enough saved, she and Cathleen planned to move away. It was the only way to quiet her aching heart, so she took to reading the newspapers after McKenna finished with them.
There had to be someplace for them to go, even if she could not imagine life anywhere else.
*
“Oh, McKenna, what am I to do?” Abigail asked, nearly out of breath as she rushed into the small sitting room on the first floor. She paused just long enough for Alistair to finish delivering her and walk away.
“What is wrong, Abigail?”
“Charles has fallen in love with the worst possible woman.” She quickly sat on the edge of a chair.
“Oh no, how dreadful.”
“It is worse than dreadful: she has been arrested in Paris by a detective from Scotland Yard.”
McKenna’s eyes widened. “Arrested for what?”
“I do not think I can even say it.” Abigail put her hand on her chest and shook her head.
“I shall ring for tea.” McKenna got up, rang the bell and sat back down.
“Bigamy,” Abigail muttered.
“What?”
“She has been charged with bigamy, can you believe it?”
“Bigamy? I am truly shocked.”
“I can scarcely believe it myself.”
“Has Charles married her?” McKenna asked.
“He will not say, but McKenna, I think he has. He has gone to London to see about getting her out of jail. Of course, he needs more money and Claymore might not send him any. We think Charles should come home now.”
“That might be best.”
Abigail scooted back in the chair, watched Ronan bring the tea tray in and begin to serve them. “Charlotte and her brother have left town finally. They did not say where they were going, back to Denver, I suppose.”
“I cannae say I am sorry to hear that.”
“Neither am I. Oh, I do hope Charles has not married her. What will we do if he has? What on earth will we do if he has married a bigamist?”
No one was expecting it when Donnel did not wake up one morning, least of all her sister Blanka and Donnel’s sons, Dugan and Ronan. She seemed in perfect health the night before, although she complained of a slight headache and went to bed early.
The doctor was called, but Donnel’s flesh was cold and there was no denying she had been gone for several hours. Of all the women in the house, Cathleen was the most upset and Egan, the one who escorted her to America from Scotland, seemed to be the only one who could console her. He sat beside her, held her hand just as he had on the train and let her cry on his shoulder.
The undertaker brought a casket to the mansion and waited until Blanka, Sarah and McKenna finished dressing Donnel in her best dress. With the help of her sons, he carefully laid the body in the burial box and then the men carried the casket into the parlor.
The footman brought in extra chairs from the dining room and when they were ready, Donnel’s family and friends sat in a circle around the body. It was a time of remembrance, and for quite a while, no one spoke.
At last, Hannish said, “She thought to kill me once?”
“I remember that,” said McKenna. “What was it you took without permission?”
“The liniment for her knee. I had a sore shoulder and I thought it would help,” Hannish explained.
“Aye,” said Blanka, “but you might have mentioned it. She looked high and low for that liniment, and never thought to look in the barn.”
Hannish shrugged. “By then, she’d been yellin’ so long I was afraid to come out. I was only ten and I’d spilled most of it.”
“What did she do to you?” Sassy asked.
“She made me scrub the kitchen floor on my hands and knees every day for a week. I never took anything without permission again.”
Egan chuckled. “That was Aunt Donnel’s favorite punishment. When we were growin’ up, the MacGreagor kitchen floor was the cleanest in all of Scotland.”
Dugan smiled too. “And she’d not forget either. If the kitchen floor was already being scrubbed by one of us, there was always the next week. No Sir, she never once forgot a punishment.”
“How many of you were there?” Halen asked.
Hannish looked to Blanka for the answer. “Seven?”
“Eight, all boys, save McKenna. A terrible fever one year took both my boys and two of Donnel’s. That was before Egan and his mother came to live with us. The elder Mr. MacGreagor loved having children in the house and we always found enough room for more in the servant’s quarters somehow.”
Seated next to her, McKenna reached over and took Blanka’s hand. “I can’t think what we would have done after our parents were killed, had you and Donnel not been there to care for us.”
“You are orphans too?” Sassy asked.
“Aye,” Hannish answered, “but we had a duke for an uncle. He moved us all into the big house where Jessie cooked for us, Alistair was my Uncle’s butler and Millie was head housekeeper. By then I was sixteen.”
“What happened to your parents?” Cathleen wanted to know.
McKenna looked at the pain in her brother’s eyes and answered for him, “They were killed when a man failed to pull a switch and two trains hit head on.”
Halen caught her breath. “Dear God.” Her words lingered as all of them imagined what that might have been like.
“Those were the worst of days,” Blanka said, her eyes filling with tears.
“Aunt Blanka,” said Dugan, “Would you like to rest now?”
Blanka brushed her tears away. “Aye, but I will say this about my sister. She was a good woman, the best there ever was. We had our troubles, same as anybody, but we lived a good life.” All the men stood when Blanka got up and took Dugan’s arm. “We had a very good life...all in all.”
*
Drawn by matching dapple-gray horses, the summer hearse came two days later to take Donnel to the church services and from there to the cemetery. The entire household went, even little William, who slept through most of it.
In the following days, everyone carried on as best they could, but there was always one empty chair at the servant’s table in the kitchen. Yet, even death does not stand in the way of love and each evening, Hannish watched Alistair and Sarah walk arm in arm around the rim of the massive yard. The men decided any respectable mansion should have a swing tied to the branch of an old oak tree, and it became Prescot and Millie’s favorite place to talk.
Even Blanka seemed to be getting better, now that the dog had taken a shine to her instead of Cathleen. “Traitor,” Hannish said, each time he walked past Blanka’s day room and spotted the dog stretched out on the foot of her bed. When she was not yet asleep, it always made Blanka smile.
The dog was growing by leaps and bounds and somehow figured out that if he went to the front door, either Prescot or Alistair would let him out. It was better than waiting for someone to notice him at one of the other doors. Likewise, when he pawed the front door a couple of times on the outside, one of them would let him back in. Traitor, still half puppy, was a little too rambunctious for the toddler, so he was not allowed to play much with William, no matter how badly he wanted to.
*
The day of the MacGreagor Ball drew closer and closer. Three couples and their servants came from Scotland five days early, as McKenna suggested they should, so they would not be suffering from high-altitude sickness when the ball began. Dinners were lavish and there was plenty for everyone to do, including ironing out the wrinkles in gowns packed away in steamer trunks during the journey. McKenna could not decide what to wear, and asked to have three gowns prepared, so she could choose at the last minute.
Each day, Hannish took his sister and the guests on sightseeing tours in open-air buggies he rented from town. It gave the servants time to rest, and him a chance to forget about Sassy, if only for a few hours. Apparently, their guests already knew about Olivia, and none of them mentioned her name. For that, he was grateful.
Then it happened. The wagon was about to pull away when he spotted Sassy in an upstairs window watching him. He tried not to make it obvious, but he could not take his eyes off her. What’s more, she did not leave the window and did not look away either. It was the first real indication he had that she felt something for him, and his heart skipped a beat. Too soon, the wagon took him and his guests out of sight.
Still, the struggle between his growing affection for the woman he was beginning to think of as Leesil, instead of Sassy, and his pledge to Olivia, the woman he only felt contempt for, continued.
On the day of the ball, McKenna rang her unanswered bell three times before she decided to go look for Sassy. She found her sitting in the grass near the clothesline, with her head down, looking very sad. McKenna quietly knelt down beside her. “What is it, little one?”
“I dinna think love would hurt this bad. I dinna think that at all.”
“Does your heart ache for him?”
“You know how it feels?”
“I do, I was in love once.”
“Tell me about him, Miss.”
McKenna closed her eyes. “There is little to tell, He simply chose to marry another.”
“He is a put-her.”
“Indeed he is. Do you wish to tell me about the man you love?”
Sassy sighed. “You know who he is. I do not hide it very well.”
“I think you have hidden it very well. I dinna know for certain until just now.”
“Then he does not know either?”
“I think he does, he just does not want...he is trapped between what our father taught him and what he feels in his heart.”
“Donnel said I must wait until he has his wits about him, but it is taking a long time.”
“It certainly is.” McKenna got to her feet and reached out her hand. “Come with me, Miss Leesil Covington, ‘tis time he sees what he will be missin’.”
*
From one mouth to the other, word spread through the mansion quickly that Sassy was going to the ball, and no one was to breathe a word of it to Hannish. Most guessed what that meant and they were more than willing to become part of the conspiracy. Therefore, when McKenna asked a giggling Cathleen to fetch the new seamstress and tell her to bring her pins, the request was carried out at once. Cathleen peeked around every corner to make sure Hannish was not walking the halls, and then snuck the seamstress up the stairs.
Thankfully, McKenna had three gowns cleaned and pressed, so there was a choice to be made. The blue one was nice, but it did not exactly match the color of Sassy’s eyes. Pink did nothing for her auburn hair and therefore, the darker blue one, with the daring ‘V’ neckline and silver lace trim would have to do. It only needed a little taking in at the waist, and a slightly altered hem in the front of the skirt to keep Sassy from tripping on it. The foot long train in the back was perfect and the silver trim was sure to shimmer under the ballroom lights.
Sassy stood still for the fitting and concentrated on remembering how to dance. Once the gown was off, Cathleen helped her bathe and then Millie came to dry her hair, brush it, loosely pile it on top of her head and then weave delicate white flowers into it. A touch of rouge and she was ready to put the dress on again. To complete the look, McKenna added brocade slippers and white gloves that came to just above Sassy’s elbows.
If Hannish missed seeing Sassy that day, he did not mention it to anyone. Instead he busied himself, making certain they had enough food, the furnishings in the ballroom were adequate and the new red drapes were hung properly. When it was time, he went upstairs to dress in the new formal suit he was forced to buy, since Olivia neglected to bring his other ones.
McKenna put on the blue gown and got herself ready. Then she sat Sassy down on the bed. “You wait here. I must greet our guests and when it is time, I shall send Prescot up to get you.”
“I am a little frightened, what if I...”
“You’ll be just fine. Shall I ask Alistair to dance the first dance with you?”
“If Millie does not mind.”
Millie grinned. “I do not mind, so long as I get to see the look on Mr. Hannish’s face when he sees you.”
“Good then,” McKenna said, hurrying out the door. The orchestra was beginning to play and everything was as good as it was going to get.
Abigail and Claymore were the first to arrive, and with them came three of their servants to help with the guests. When more arrived, Prescot escorted them into the ballroom and then came back for more. Next came the mayor and his wife, the sheriff and a woman he introduced as an old friend. The Goodwins, the Mabs, the Millers, and of course, Pearl and Loretta, both looking lovely, both happy to see Hannish and both escorted by two gentlemen no one had ever seen before. Six more carriages arrived, delivering guests from the Antlers hotel, plus the hotel owner and his wife.
At last, it was time, and when McKenna gave the secret signal, Prescot slipped up the back stairs to get Sassy.
“I believe that is all our guests,” said Hannish.
“Are you certain? I thought I invited more.”
“Did you? Who?”
“Well, let me think. The Carsons are not yet arrived and then...” She looked up just in time to see the hem of Sassy’s dress appear at the top of the stairs.
Hannish followed her gaze and step-by-step, a vision of loveliness began to descend. As soon as he recognized her, his mouth dropped. “Leesil?”
She kept her arm around Prescot’s, smiled and nodded.
Crouched down at the top of the stairs, Millie was having trouble hiding her giggle. She covered her mouth, quickly got up, ran down the hallway to the back stairs, and then hurried to the kitchen to tell everyone about the stunned look on his face.
“Shall we?” Prescot asked when they reached the bottom of the stairs.
“Please,” Leesil answered.
Alistair quickly stepped forward and offered his arm to her. “I believe she promised the first dance to me.”
“I’ll tell Sarah,” Prescot threatened.
“Very well, but you’ve not heard the last of this.” Alistair put his nose in the air and followed them.
Still shocked, Hannish watched until they were across the parlor and went out of sight. “McKenna, what are you up to?”
“She wants to go to a ball and I think she should.” With that, McKenna walked away as well.
*
Alistair took Sassy in his arms and she waltzed with him as though she had been born to it. “Keep smiling and do not look at him, it will drive him daft,” said Alistair, after they made a turn at the far end of the ballroom.
“Is daft a good thing?”
“Just now it is.”
“I see. Does everyone know?”
He turned her and then answered, “We guessed it long before you did, I imagine. He always knows where you are and if he does not, he goes looking.”
She blushed. “I did not know that.” Sassy did as Alistair suggested and if Hannish was bothered or even in the room, she did not see it.
Hannish was there, of course, refusing to stay at the front door to greet any other guests no matter who they were. He watched her for a moment, and when he spotted Pearl, he asked her to dance. She was delighted, and Hannish intentionally waltzed her closer to Alistair and Sassy, but Sassy kept smiling at Alistair and seemed not to notice him. Just then, a woman he had never seen before tapped Pearl on the shoulder. Reluctantly, Pearl let the stranger have her way and left the dance floor.
“I have come to dance with the second most handsome man in the room,” the stranger said after they danced halfway around the room.
She had a nice smile and an easy manner. “Who might the most handsome be?” Hannish asked.
“My husband, naturally. Do forgive me, Mr. MacGreagor, for my attire, ‘tis a long ride on the train from New York.”
“You have only just arrived?”
“Aye, the train was quite late.”
“I am not surprised. Where might your husband be?” Before she could answer, someone tapped him on the shoulder. “Watch where you put your hands on my wife.”
Worried that he was about to get in a fistfight, Hannish stopped and stared at the intruder. At last he smiled, let go of the woman and deeply bowed, “Your grace, welcome to America.”
“We’ll have none of that between brothers.” Cameron tightly gripped his brother’s hand. “How I have missed you. You have met my lovely wife, I see.”
He turned to her. “You are Flora? I have heard many wonderful things about you. Will your husband kill me if I hug you?”
“Oh, never mind him.” She giggled and wrapped her arms around him.
Cameron was too excited to continue the niceties. “Brother, come with me, I’ve a tale to tell you’ll not believe.” He grabbed his wife’s hand and led them both to a grinning McKenna. Have you a place where we can talk privately”
“The study will do,” McKenna answered, heading that way.
Sassy couldn’t help but see the four of them leave. “Who is that?”
Alistair answered, “His brother. You will like him; he is not as...formal as Mr. Hannish.”
Hannish urged them to sit down and sat in the chair next to his desk. “I hoped, but I did not think you would arrive in time.”
“The ship stalled at sea for a day, but we managed. Brother, I...” Cameron tried.
“Stalled? Did it no have sails?” Hannish asked.
“Brother, I...”
McKenna rolled her eyes. “Let him speak, Hannish, he apparently has something important to tell you.”
“Very well, I am listening.”
Cameron reached into his inside jacket, pulled out a letter and unfolded it. He put on his glasses and then cleared his throat. “I received this letter from Lady Bayington on the twenty-seventh of June, at which time I employed one D. L. Jackson, a Barrister, who in turn asked Scotland Yard to discern the truth of the matter. I read the letter to you now:
Your Grace,
Lord Bayington and I agree, as we are most fond of both you and your brother, and can maintain our silence no longer. There is something you should know about the woman Hannish married. Olivia and I were born in the Shetland Islands, more specifically Scalloway and played together as children. It was apparent early on, that Olivia intended to get what she could from the world in the way of riches and celebrity, and I, in my foolishness followed in her footsteps.”
Her first husband...”
“What?” Hannish gasped.
Cameron looked over the rim of his glasses at his brother. “Aye, her first husband.”
“She never said a word.”
“Brother, if you will let me continue, you will soon see why.”
“Please,” said Hannish.
“Her first husband married her before she reached the age of fifteen and I married as well. Unfortunately, Olivia...perhaps this is a good time to explain that Olivia is not her real name. She was born Gormelia Carr. Realizing marriage to a simple man was not the life she envisioned, she convinced me to run away with her.
We fled to London, where we got a glimpse of the finer side of life, and Olivia at once began to plot precisely how to get to the top of society. She took on the new name of Alexandra, an exotic name naturally and before long, her beauty attracted the attention of an English gentleman. She married him in the spring of 1885.”
Cameron paused to turn the page.
“Two husbands?” Hannish muttered.
“There is more, do you wish to hear it?” Cameron asked.
“Please.”
“Even her new husband could not meet her insatiable appetite for wealth and glory, and she left him before the year was out. Olivia then married a Lord, whom I shall leave unnamed to preserve his reputation. He kept her for less than a month and quickly petitioned for a divorce, from the woman whose name was now Alice. It was well before that divorce was granted, that she, now Olivia, married Hannish MacGreagor and became the duchess she’d always wanted to be.
Marriage to Hannish, however, was to be her greatest mistake.
Seeing her wedding picture to a duke in a London newspaper, her first husband discovered his own path to riches, and has been blackmailing her for the past two years.
Hannish leaned forward in his chair and put his head in his hands for a moment. “So that is why she needed so much money.”
Cameron folded the letter back up and handed it to his brother. “It is all there, every ugly detail. Her first husband is a man by the name of George...something. I have forgotten his last name.”
“Graham?” Hannish asked.
“Aye, Graham.”
Hannish rolled his eyes. “I should have shot him when I had the chance.”
“Is he not the stonemason?” Cameron asked.
“The same, he came here with Olivia.” Hannish took a moment to consider something. “They were in on it together. First, I gave her money for work he did not do, and then I paid him. How clever of them, but do continue, brother.”
“Very well. Her second husband claims she stole a fortune from him before she ran off, and has pressed both bigamy and theft charges against her. She was traced to Paris where she was discovered in the company of a Colorado gold mine owner by the name of Charles Whitfield. Do you know him?”
McKenna moaned, “Oh no, poor Abigail.”
“Aye,” said Hannish, “We know him. His parents are in the ballroom. McKenna, I see no reason to tell them, unless Charles has had the misfortune of marrying her.”
“I agree,” said McKenna. “Abigail would be beside herself if she knew. She said Charles has gone to London to try to get Olivia, or whatever her name is now, out of jail.”
“He’ll not succeed,” said Cameron, “not without a very clever and extremely expensive solicitor to help her.”
Hannish stared at his brother. “Does this mean I was never married, or must I become a part of the action against Olivia to be free?”
“I’d not like to see you tangled up in this mess and so far, they do not know about either you or Lord Bayington. According to the barrister, you married a woman who does not exist. Therefore, you need not divorce her.”
Hannish could hardly get the words out... “I am free?”
“I believe you are.”
*
Hannish wasted no time returning to the ballroom. He walked to the middle of the room and tapped the man dancing with Sassy on the shoulder. “Allow me.” The man nodded and walked away.
“What are you doing, they will talk,” Sassy whispered.
“Let them talk.” Slowly, he put his left hand on her back, took her hand in his and drew her close. Then he leaned down and whispered in her ear. “Will you come with me? I have something I long to say to you.”
Sassy pulled back to look in his eyes. “Where?”
“Just outside.” He waited for her nod, led her through the dancing couples and then opened the door to the terrace. He let her go through first, and then followed her to the short stone wall, separating the terrace from the lawn.
The half-moon was just peeking over the roof of the mansion when Sassy looked up at the stars. In the ballroom behind her, McKenna, Cameron and Flora moved to the window to watch. “What do you wish to say to me?”
“Do you remember the night I carried you up the stairs? You put your arms around my neck, put your head on my shoulder and I knew then I never wanted to let you go.”
She turned to see the sincerity in his eyes. “You did?”
“I have thought of you every waking moment since. Until tonight, I thought I would go mad wanting you.”
She quickly turned away. “‘Tis torture for me too.”
He slowly put an arm around her. “I am sorry I put you through that.”
“‘Tis my first time at being in love. I dinna know what to do.”
“I hope ‘twill be your last time at being in love.”
“Mr. Hannish...”
“Just Hannish.”
“Mr. Hannish, you forget, you are married.”
He turned her toward him and wrapped his other arm around her. “I have just learned I am not married. Olivia tricked me and we were never married.”
“She tricked you?”
He pulled her closer. “Aye, and three others before me.”
“I dinna know a woman could do that?”
“No honest woman would.”
Behind Sassy, all the servants quietly came out on the terrace to watch. Inside, Abigail and Claymore, along with most of the other guests began to crowd near the ballroom windows.
Hannish pulled her closer still, put his hand on the back of her head and urged her to lay it against his chest. “Leesil, I have so longed to hold you.” He kissed the top of her head and held her just a little bit tighter. “Will you be my wife?”
For a moment, little Sassy with no last name, thought her heart was never going to start beating again. “I...I...”
When she leaned back to look at him again, he kissed her cheek. “What, sweetheart, what troubles you?”
“I am just now learning how to be an adult. I dinna know how to be a wife.”
“I hardly know how to be a husband, but we can learn together. Say you will, Leesil. Just say you will.”
She drew in a forgotten breath, finally put her arms around him and looked into his eyes. At last, she said, “I will.”
The love was evident in his eyes when he leaned down and kissed her. McKenna brought a hand to her chest, Cameron took off his hat, Sarah kissed Alistair, Millie put her head on Prescot’s shoulder and the rest of them cheered – all except Keith who went back inside.