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“Bought? No. This is a tenant farm, we pay rent, which will be due again in six months’ time. Father spoke fondly of being able to buy the farm someday, but that day did not come. I would have known of it; we would have had a grand celebration.” She said, astonished.
“No, that is not what he told me. He said that he bought the farm and was making a will leaving it to me. I swear that he did. One night when I came home after the tavern, I thought that is what he said, no I know that is what he said.”
“Are you sure? Perhaps you had some Scotch that evening, and mistook his words. Believe me brother I would know if we owned this farm.”
“It seems that I do not own this farm. The attorney has no last will and testament of father’s, he never made one up, the old fool. Not that he has anything of worth according to his attorney. The only worth was that blacksmith shop, the tools and so forth and that has gone up in flames, useless. Then there's this farm, that would have been something of worth, but instead it is something to be. That is not why I came all the way here.”
She gasped. “No it is not. You came here to grieve with me and to visit father’s grave. To be home for a time.”
“Yes. Yes, right. I must get a drink,” he said moving out the door
“But what...?” but it was no use, he was out the door. Hilda was stunned, for she had never seen that side of her step-brother and it frightened her greatly.
Two days later, she woke to find Euron up early. He moved about the cottage packing saddle bags.
“Euron? What's happening? What are you doing?” She asked, wiping the sleep from her eyes.
“I have to go back to Scotland. I am expected in a week. I was hoping to return with money from selling this farm, but that has not been as fruitful as I expected.”
“Selling the farm? What? I do not wish to sell this farm even if we did own it. It is our home.”
“Not anymore. Get dressed.”
“Why? I can go to my aunt and uncle's by myself later, I do not need to be escorted.”
“You are not going to your aunt and uncle's, you are coming with me.”
Her green eyes grew wide. “Scotland? I have no wish to go. I will stay here.”
He stopped packing, and looked at her, taking a few steps toward her. “Do you know why I wished to sell this farm? It is because I owe a substantial amount of debt to a very dangerous man.”
“Debt? For what?”
“Let's just say I have not been a lucky man at the tables.”
“Gambling? Father taught you not to gamble, it is very dangerous,”
“If I do not pay this man then I cannot return to my post in the army, and I will not have suffered everything that I have gone through the last year's not to make captain. I will stay in the army long enough to be promoted to that position. But I will not be if I abandon my post, and I cannot return to my post without paying the money I owe.”
“But you are not able to sell the farm? What do we have here that you can sell, there is nothing but pots and pans?”
He moved closer to her. “Do not devalue your worth little sister, tell me you are still a virgin, are you not?”
She gasped. “How dare you speak to me in such a manner?”
“Oh and you speak so eloquently now. I wish that I could thank that morsel Adeline for teaching you such manners, for you will fetch a high price, or an even trade.”
“That is enough. Do not tease me about such things. If you are leaving then go and be off with you. I will not stand here and allow you to talk to me in such a way.” She turned on her heels.
Whack! Everything went black.
A cold breeze brushed her cheek, stirring her, but it could not be the cold air of the night, could it? Hilda remembered nothing, and as she slowly awakened, she felt that she was jostling back and forth. There was a strong presence behind her, against her back. Her eyes opened, and she saw darkness in front of her.
But she could make out the lines of an animal, twas a horse, and she now knew that she was riding on the back of one. She lifted her hands to brush the sleep from her eyes, only to realize that they were tied together at the wrists.
“What? What is this? Why are my hands tied?” She said.
“Oh, she has finally awakened. I am glad for it. I was beginning to fear that I hit you too strongly; couldn't have you being lame.” Euron said. He sat behind her on the saddle, with one arm around her waist and the other hand on the reins of the horse.
“Euron, what are you doing? Have you lost your mind?”
“No, I believe that I am thinking quite clearly now for the first time in a long time. This might be a good turning point for my life, after all. Pay off this debt, move forward, become a captain, and marry wealthy. That is the new path I see before me and it looks quite promising, all thanks to you, step-sister.”
“Let me go, this is absurd. People will be looking for me, you are a vile creature,” She said, beginning to struggle and get loose.
“Now stop that, unless you want a hit on the back of the head again. The first blow did not draw any blood, but I cannot promise that about the second,” He said.
Hilda stopped struggling, and grew cold. How could this be happening? How could she have judged her brother so wrongly all these years? He was not always like this, she had known him since she was ten and he five and ten years of age, lived with him for three years before he left to join the army at eight and ten years of age.
Yes he was rambunctious and reckless, but not of mean vicious character. Suddenly she realized that he had been a stranger to her for the last few years, for he had only come to the cottage for a month or two out of every year and not longer, and was hardly home during that time. What had he become while absent from home? He was not the man that her father had raised. He had become something else, something much more sinister, and now she was in his grasp.
“Father would be horrified to see what you are doing, how can you dishonour his memory by doing this?”
“I do no such thing. Were he alive still I would be doing him a favour by not having one more mouth to feed.”
“That is a lie and you know it. You're only telling these lies to make yourself feel like less of a monster, but you are a monster. Now let me go, take me home. I want to go home.”
“Stop your whining, I will do no such thing. Now, we have a long way to go, and it will be much more enjoyable if you were to shut your mouth. Do not make me shut it for you,”
“A long way to go? We are not going where you said we are going? We are not going to Scotland, are we? No, that cannot be so. That is too far from home, stop.”
“We are going to the border between Scotland and England, that is where I have substantial gambling debts and where my post is. You wouldn't last in Scotland, it is very cold and filled with very strong people, not weak like you. They would eat you alive. The way the clans fight, abduct women; you have no idea. You have had it easy, but no longer. You will do your part to pay my debts, and that is all.”
“Pay your debts, why should I do such a thing? You are the one that accrued those debts, and you should be the one to pay for them, or die for them for all I care.”
He laughed. “Now that's the spirit. I might to make a tough woman of you after all. You need to live. You need to see what the world is like away from the safety of the farm, you will see. Then you will have no choice, the way I have no choice now.
“Never. I will never be like you.”
“In a few hours we will be stopping at an inn. I cannot afford a room, but we will seek shelter in the barn; that is where the servants, drivers, and footmen stay whenever their masters stay inside. They stay in the barn and sleep with the horses, and that is exactly what we shall do. You will not give me any trouble there, do you understand? Or you will pay for it.”
“I hate you.”
“That is fine. Hate me in silence though, for I have had enough of your words.”
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