Chapter 25

 

Christian was halfway down the stairs when she saw Mary walking through from the kitchen, a besom and a dustpan in her hands.

‘Good morning, Mary.’

The girl looked up at her young mistress and returned the greeting. Christian walked on down to meet her.

‘There’s good news today,’ she told her. ‘Joshua is giving Geordie a hand to get dressed in the clothes Captain Catto brought yesterday. Then he’ll help Geordie come down the stairs. I’m going to wait here for them.’

Mary beamed. ‘Och, that’s grand, Miss Kirsty! I’m right glad Geordie feels well enough!’

‘Aye,’ Christian agreed, and was interrupted by someone outside the front door tirling the pin. The brass wire to which it was connected jumped and jangled above their heads high up on the wall of the lobby and along its way to the kitchen. Mary propped the broom and the dustpan against the wall of the lobby.

‘Dinna you worry, Miss Kirsty. I’ll no’ open the door very wide. You bide here and make sure Geordie and Joshua stay upstairs.’

Secretly amused by this hitherto unseen confidence, as well as a wee bit nervous as to who might be at the front door, Christian waited. She was relieved when she saw Mary accept a letter from whoever was proffering it. Closing the door, she glanced down at the letter and brought it to Christian.

‘For you, miss. I think. It’s your name on the front, is it no’?

‘It is, Mary. Well done.’ She’d been teaching the girls their alphabet, progressing to how to recognize names, their own and the other members of the Rankeillor household. She turned as her father came out of the library and Betty came through from the kitchen.

‘A letter. Delivered by…’ She swung round again to Mary.

‘I dinna ken. A man. Maybe a caddy, I think.’

‘Very probably,’ Christian said, realizing she was going to have to open the letter and read it out loud with an eager audience watching and listening to her.

 

My very dear Kirsty,

You’ll remember we agreed you would pay me a visit early in the New Year. I hope tomorrow would not be too prodigiously short notice? Will you come in the afternoon before it gets dark and stay over? I’m afraid Meg has had to go back to Glasgow early but hopefully you and I can chatter enough to make up for her absence. I don’t think we’ll have any problem diverting ourselves! Quite the opposite, I’m sure!

If you can come, no need for a reply.

Your loving friend,

Anna Gordon

 

She read it out, bemused by the lack of a tremble in her voice. Feeling no blush staining her cheeks. Her hands steady on the sheet of paper. She looked up and found her father frowning at her. For a moment all she could hear was the rushing of blood through her ears. Had he guessed something was amiss? She didn’t dare look at Betty.

‘I hope Miss Meg hasn’t had to go back to Glasgow early because of any family trouble.’

Family trouble. They might all be in danger of experiencing that.

She relaxed when Patrick smiled at her. ‘You should go lass, it would be a nice wee outing for you. Especially after all the alarums and excursions over Yuletide. We can manage without you for a night, can’t we Betty?’

‘Of course we can. You go and enjoy yourself with Miss Anna.’ Betty was smiling too.

A young voice called from the upstairs landing. ‘Is it all right for us to come downstairs now?’

Everyone looked up. Geordie was standing with his left hand resting on the bannister. His right arm was curled through Joshua’s left. Both boys were dressed in the respectable but plain and simple clothes Marjorie Livingstone had got for them. She had included several pairs of woollen stockings in the bundle. Geordie had no shoes yet but his legs and feet should be warm in those until he got a pair.

One boy so dark. One boy so fair. Yet they were brothers under the skin.

‘Down you come, lads,’ Patrick said. ‘Take it slow and steady.’

 

An hour or so later Christian walked into the kitchen and found it empty apart from Geordie. When she’d been told Robert Catto had now given permission for her, Mary and Tibby to leave the house, Betty had given a great big sniff of disapproval. This morning she’d wasted no time in taking advantage of her regained freedom.

After two festive meals, the larder was sorely in need of replenishing. It was high time too for the girls to learn how to buy the best food at the best prices at Edinburgh’s various markets. With the Daft Days over, those were getting back to their normal routine.

Geordie was in the comfortable chair by the kitchen range often occupied by Betty once her day’s work was done. Cushions sat on top of a wooden frame which could be stretched out to form a footrest, as it was now, turning the chair into a daybed. He had a blanket over his legs and two plump pillows behind his damaged and tender back. Lucy the little cat lay curled up on his lap.

He was holding The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe but it was obvious he wasn’t reading it. Gazing over the top of the book, his eyes did not seem to be focussed on anything. She had to say his name twice before he turned his golden head towards her. His hair was cut short but he had a mass of waves.

‘Miss Kirsty? Can I do something for you?’

‘I thought I might be able to do something for you, Geordie. Where are Joshua and Alice?’

‘Out the back chopping sticks for kindling. Joshua said he was going to do it and Alice said she’d better show him how to so he doesna cut his leg off.’

Christian laughed. ‘Is that what she actually said?’

‘Aye.’ A trace of what Robert Catto had called his sparkle returned to Geordie’s face.

She drew up a three-legged stool and sat beside him, pointing at the book. ‘Are you not enjoying it? We could easily swap it for another one. Whatever some folk might think, you don’t go to hell for not finishing a book you don’t like.’

‘I’m enjoying it fine, miss,’ he assured her. His attempt to rouse himself to show some enthusiasm clutched at her heart-strings. ‘It’s a grand story. I’m just finding it a wee bit hard to…’ He broke off, obviously not knowing the right word to use.

‘To concentrate?’ Christian suggested. ‘Give your full attention to it?’

‘Aye,’ he agreed. ‘I’m finding it a wee bit hard to con-cen-trate.’ He rolled the syllables around his mouth, as she had learned he always did when introduced to a new word.

‘Is that because you can’t stop thinking about other things? Bad things?’

He turned his golden head away. ‘Aye, miss. I can’t stop thinking about what happened at Eastfield.’

She took the book out of his hands. ‘I should make you a bookmark.’

‘I’ve got one, miss. The letter the Captain sent me. I put it at the back when I’m reading.’ A tinge of pride warmed his voice. ‘Nobody’s ever sent me a letter afore.’

Keeping his place with her thumb, she flipped back to the end to find the neatly-folded letter and transferred it to where he had read to so far. Robert Catto had addressed it formally, to Master George Smart.

‘There,’ she said, laying the book beside his legs. ‘Now you’ll know where to start from when you feel like reading it again.’ She laid a comforting hand over his hands, which he had lowered to rest on the blanket. ‘Would you like to talk about it, Geordie? There’s no-one else here, only you and me. Sometimes it helps to tell someone what’s bothering you. I promise not to tell anyone else. Unless you want me to.’

He turned his head again to look at her out of his clear young eyes. ‘Ah dinna want ye tae tell Alice or Joshua. What was done tae Alice was much worse than what was done tae me. They were horrible tae Joshua too. For a long time. For years, Miss Kirsty! He says he canna remember no’ being Miss Liddell’s wee pet.’ Geordie said the words with a bitterness which struck Christian to the core. A boy of his age should be too young to know that emotion.

‘He tellt me that’s what she used to call him. Lots o’ bad names too. When she wasn’t slapping him or hitting him. Or ordering folk to throw buckets o’ cold water over him. With her screaming and shouting that no amount o’ water would ever turn him white. That’s what happened after I was flogged, Miss.’

Christian drew in a breath. What a truly vile woman Charlotte Liddell was.

‘He’s worried they’re going to find him and take him back. He’s real worried about that, Miss Kirsty. That’s why I dinna want to burden him, or Alice. I might want ye tae tell the Captain, though. Although I dinna want him tae think badly o’ me.’

‘Why on earth would he think badly of you, Geordie? You’ve done no wrong.’

‘But I must have done wrong, miss.’ Swallowing hard, he drew the back of a shaking hand across his nose. ‘Otherwise why would they have done what they did tae me?’ The words were tumbling out now. ‘Miss Liddell asked her brother if he wanted to whip me. She said she would but she wouldn’t be able to hurt me enough! Why did she want to hurt me at all? I’ve never done them any harm! But they wanted to hurt me! Which makes me think I must be worth nothing!’

‘You are worth so much, Geordie!’ she assured him, giving his hands a quick squeeze to reinforce her words. ‘Loved by Alice. Liked by Joshua, who took such a big risk to get you away from Eastfield. You two are likely going to be friends for life. Captain Catto took a big risk too, going out looking for you, bringing you back here. Because he too thinks very highly of you. Calls you his right-hand man, is that not so? I think very highly of you. So does Mrs Betty. Mary and Tibby too. I’m pretty sure it won’t be long till Professor Rankeillor feels the same way. Once he gets to know you and finds out what a fine person you are.’

Geordie wasn’t in a fit state to take in what she was telling him. Under her hand, his fingers curled in frustration and bewilderment. ‘They took my clothes away, miss. My braw new clothes. I felt really smart in those.’

‘Living up to your name, young Master Smart,’ she said, and got a ghost of a smile in response.

‘They stole them from me.’

‘Aye. They did.’ She squeezed his hand again. Dare she hope she had heard indignation in those words? That would be a much healthier emotion than him feeling he was worthless.

‘They think they’re so high and mighty but they’re nothing more than common thieves. They stole from Alice, too. You ken what I mean, miss,’ he added, looking at her out of those clear blue eyes.

‘Aye, Geordie. I ken what you mean.’

‘They stole from Joshua too. Stole his life. He’s a human being like the rest of us.’

‘Yes, and another very fine one. Tell me something, Geordie. Do you think Alice and Joshua are worthless?’

‘No!’ he burst out. This time there was no mistaking the indignation in his voice. ‘Of course ah dinna think that! Oh—’ He broke off, realization dawning in his eyes. ‘You’re crafty, Miss Kirsty.’

‘You see what I’m driving at? You see the logic?’

‘Logic,’ he repeated. ‘Which would mean the sensible conclusion tae draw in the light o’ a’ the evidence?’

She grinned. ‘You’re a grand talker, Geordie. How do you know all the things you do?’

‘Because I listen afore I speak, miss. And you’re a grand healer. You’re right kind, too. Like the Captain. Even though he tries no’ tae show it.’

‘I’ve seen it, Geordie. I know he’s kind.’

‘He likes you, Miss Kirsty.’

‘I like him.’ She gave his hand one last pat and stood up. ‘Now, shall I go and make sure Joshua hasn’t cut his leg off?’