Colin left his mount at the livery and crossed to the inn. He questioned the innkeeper and learned that two women of Birdie’s and Faith’s descriptions were checked into a room down the hall. Colin tramped to the door and, without knocking, flung it open.
Birdie sat, wide-eyed, and stared at him. Even though she was disheveled, she was still lovely, but Colin was irate.
“Where’s Faith?” he growled.
Birdie, appearing unable to speak, weakly tossed her hand toward the window.
“Then I’ll wait.” He settled into a chair across from her.
Birdie studied her hands and bit at her lips.
Finally, Colin asked, “What in the devil were you thinking?”
Suddenly she spoke, her voice anxious. “Did you find her?”
“We hope so, with no thanks to the two of you,” he answered. When she didn’t respond, he added, “How did you happen to hook up with a viper like Faith Baker? Talk to me, Birdie!”
And Birdie told him her story: She had been bored. She hated being in the country, and her only escape was to go into Galashiels and visit with the dressmaker, with whom she had much in common fashion-wise.
“One day I crossed to the coffeehouse. I had met Faith before on the night of the fire, when I was given Adrianna by her mother.”
“Her name is Alice,” Colin reminded her.
She waved his comment away. “Faith and I had much in common, I discovered. We loved fashion and gossip and pretty things. She was a regular visitor in Edinburgh at her uncle’s home, and her uncle was Gavin’s mentor.” She gazed at Colin. “Did you know that?”
“I’ve met him.”
“She agreed with me that the bairn should be mine, and over time, we talked about how exciting it would be to have the child to raise, to watch her grow and all…” Her voice faded away. “I began purchasing things for her, things she could wear as she got older. I hid them in my wardrobe.” She thought a moment and then asked, “How did you discover I had taken Adrianna and gone away with Faith?”
“Robbie went in to check on her and found her gone, you gone, and your wardrobe empty. Lydia had found the things the day before, but you fled before she could ask you about them.” He waited a moment. “And then…” He didn’t need to finish the sentence.
Birdie appeared contrite. “It seemed so easy at first. Adrianna slept a lot, and Faith found milk for her, and it all seemed like such an adventure. Then, even though people had told me how hard it was to raise a bairn, I had no idea.”
Colin watched her face, knowing her nuances, her theatrics, her phony feelings of affection. Strangely, she looked penitent.
“Go on.”
Birdie dug into her pocket and pulled out a handkerchief, seeming surprised to have found it there. She twisted it in her hands. “She said she knew of a way to take her and get away with it.” She gave Colin a poignant look. “It was all I needed. I wanted that bairn. She was mine before she was Gavin’s or Robbie’s. And Robbie has everything I ever wanted. Why should she get the bairn too?” Her voice ended as a pathetic squeak.
Colin shook his head. He imagined she couldn’t have gotten this far without Faith Baker’s devious behavior. But she was in no way innocent.
“Do you realize what will happen to you if Alice, who has a terrible case of croup, doesn’t survive?”
Birdie’s lips were pressed together, and she nodded. “We could go to jail, I guess.”
“Birdie, people have been hanged for lesser crimes than this.”
“I wasn’t the one who left her on the doorstep,” she pleaded. “And Faith told me the doctor was in there, and she knocked to let him know there was someone outside—”
“There was no one there, Birdie. The doctor was at home. It was only luck that brought him back to his office that night.”
Birdie sagged back against the settee. “This is all so vexing,” she said, nearly sobbing. “How my life would have changed if…”
“If you hadn’t always coveted something that wasn’t yours? If you hadn’t stolen Robbie’s fiance? That was the beginning of your downhill slide, I’d say.”
“And if that dunderhead Gavin hadn’t proposed to the wrong sister,” she added.
Dunderhead? “But by that time, you had already married your sister’s beau. What good would a marriage proposal be to a married woman?”
She waved her hand to indicate it wasn’t important.
“Then you weren’t angry because you were in love with him yourself, you were angry because he made an honest mistake?”
She made a face. “In love with Gavin? Lord, no. He was merely one of many lads who followed me around at home.”
The door swung open, and Faith Baker stepped into the room and froze, her gaze locking with Colin’s, and looking every bit the trapped animal.
• • •
Gavin rode his mount hard, stopping briefly when he realized he was exhausting the animal. At the next village he swapped his own horse out for another at the livery, and kept riding on toward Dundee.
He met no one on the way nor did he overtake anyone. Although he had not been to Dundee in years, he had studied maps and streets and knew where the Baldovan Orphanage was, on the northern outskirts. Orphanage! He had never felt such outrage. Such helplessness. In his entire life he had not found anything worth getting himself worked up over, until now. Until now. Like a knife twisting in his chest, he thought about Robbie and Alice, and the life they were just beginning to enjoy as a family. Would it all come to naught? No. He couldn’t think that way.
His good sense having abandoned him, he didn’t notice the log in the road until he and the horse were upon it, and the horse stopped short, sending Gavin over his head, onto his back on the ground. The fall took his breath from him and he stared into the night sky, gasping for air.
• • •
Robbie paced; it had become her natural manner. “No word. I can’t understand why we haven’t heard something. Anything at all.” Her own fear was so great she didn’t see the fearful glances between Lydia and Mrs. Murray.
“I’m sure we’ll hear something soon,” Lydia soothed, although even to her own ears the words sounded false.
“Ladies,” Eve said, rushing toward them and out of breath. She raised a missive in her fist. “The innkeeper found me at Mrs. Ferguson’s and I came straightaway.”
Robbie took the letter and, with shaking fingers, opened it. She sagged against the table in the foyer, nearly knocking over the vase of flowers. She read it quickly.
“It’s from Colin. He says they have found Alice, and Gavin will be returning with her shortly!”
Joyously, all four women read the letter again, just to make sure it was real.
“Shortly,” repeated Robbie. “He’ll be here shortly with our beloved Alice!”
But shortly was not to be. A day went by, then another, with no word from either Gavin or Colin. Robbie could do nothing but pace, her faithful Lady Perlina herding her this way and that, keeping Robbie from straying off toward the woods.
• • •
Colin watched as Faith’s expression changed from alarm to distaste. “So, you found us. I guess I’m not surprised; you have the face of a bloodhound.”
“Faithy! What a thing to say! He can’t help it, you know.”
Colin glanced at Birdie; she looked truly horrified. It soothed him a little to know she wouldn’t say something so cruel about someone else, at least not out loud.
“You’re lucky that cur wasn’t rabid,” Faith continued. “There are dozens and dozens of strays roaming the streets of Edinburgh, you know.”
Colin continued to stare at her. “Oh, this wasn’t a stray. This dog had a master.”
Faith gave him an unpleasant smile. “One who stood on the sidelines and watched his pet devour you, I imagine.”
“Yes.”
Faith lifted an eyebrow. “Well, I must find him and commend him for teaching his dog to attack people I don’t like. You must introduce me.”
Colin stepped to the window, watched the activity in the street. “Yes, that would be an appropriate introduction. One self-absorbed stalker meets another.”
“I don’t stalk people,” she shot back.
Colin turned from the window. “No? You prey on the weak and innocent, sniffing around for places where you might tunnel in and drop your poison.”
Her gaze narrowed; hate spread across her features. “And you are a feckless has-been who can’t even get up the nerve to practice medicine again.”
“I admit to being ineffective of late. But I can change. You, on the other hand, are and will always be a nasty-minded viper.”
“Colin?”
Birdie’s voice was soft, but it drew his attention. “Yes, Birdie?”
“What’s going to happen to us?”
He clasped his hands behind his back and paced in front of her. “What do you think should happen?”
She screwed up her face; tears rolled down her cheeks. “I don’t want to go to prison.”
“Oh, don’t be a fool,” Faith scolded. “He wouldn’t do that to us.”
“I’m afraid it isn’t up to me,” Colin said. “Gavin is the one who must decide. If I were to be in a position to do something, trust me, you two would not get away without some form of punishment. And you, Miss Baker, undoubtedly became her accomplice to get back at Gavin for ignoring you and marrying someone else.”
Neither woman spoke, so Colin said, “Pack up your things, both of you. There’s a coach waiting to take you back to Galashiels.”
Birdie, contrite, did his bidding. Faith, belligerent, tossed him a killing look before she began filling her valise.
• • •
Gavin opened his eyes. He must have lost consciousness, because the night sky was filled with stars. He could breathe now, but felt paralyzed. He studied the the heavens, noting the tail of the Plough was pointing directly toward Polaris, the North Star. Oh, he knew where he was; he just wasn’t sure how he was. He attempted to move and gasped as pain pierced his side, taking his breath away once again.
He tried to get up, but the pain left him flat on his back. He told himself to relax, to stay calm. Again he studied the sky, a place he knew better than the land around him. The three stars in Orion’s Belt caught his eye. Zeta, Epsilon and Delta. And there was Cassiopeia, on the opposite side of the North Star and north of the Plough.
He turned his head to the side and saw the mount standing nearby, calmly grazing. He had to get up, get going. How much time had passed? He struggled to get his timepiece from his pocket, but wasn’t able to complete the task. The pain was too excruciating. He had no time to waste; he had to get to his daughter!
With all of his strength, he rolled to his good side and heaved himself to a sitting position, gasping for breath once again as he fought through the discomfort. Would the mare cooperate? He struggled to stand, his hands on his thighs as he waited for the pain to dissipate. Slowly, there was no other way for him to move, he stepped toward the horse, and when he reached her, he inhaled sharply and pulled himself into the saddle, clinging to her mane as he waited for the acute pain to wane. Then, he gave the mount a gentle nudge with his heels, and they were once again cantering toward Baldovan.
Some time later, Baldovan Orphanage loomed ahead of Gavin. English Tudor in style, it was built of rubble stones with Caen stone dressings. The roof held black and red tiles. It did not appear threatening, but Gavin had recently learned that what’s on the outside is not necesarily what one would find on the inside. Thoughts of both Birdie and Faith pecked at his brain, and had they been nearby, he might have threatened to strangle them. He cursed them for their disloyalty and himself for his naïvete.
• • •
The coach carrying Colin, Birdie, and Faith pulled up to the inn in Galashiels. “You two are not off the hook,” he reminded them. “Until we know that Alice is all right, you are to stay where I tell you to. Faith, with your mother at the coffee shop and Birdie, you will travel to Edinburgh with my sister, Eve, and stay there until further notice. If the two of you were anyone else, I’d have you locked up to make sure you didn’t run off.”
“But the bairn will be all right, don’t you think, Colin?” Birdie’s voice was remorseful; Colin didn’t think he’d ever heard her speak so contritely before.
He studied her; she was still disheveled. Probably for the first time in her life, she thought of someone other than herself. “We won’t know anything until we hear from Gavin.” He refused to give them false hope; giving Robbie a measure of hope is what he had to do right now.
“I don’t want to go to Erskine House, Colin,” Birdie said.
“I’m sure you don’t. You have created a perfect mess for yourself, and I don’t doubt you’d rather not face anyone else’s wrath but mine. However,” he added, “I think it’s time you realize that the world doesn’t revolve around you.”
“But they’ll all hate me!” Birdie put her face in her hands.
“What did you expect?” Colin asked, feeling little sympathy for her.
Eli Baker, the innkeeper, came out and retrieved Faith’s valise from the coach, then waited for her to alight. He said nothing, and for once even Faith wasn’t able to look her uncle straight in the eyes.
Her aunt, the innkeeper’s wife, stormed out of the inn and grabbed Faith by the arm, pulling her along with her. “Foolish, foolish lassie,” she sputtered. “Yer mam just gettin’ better, now you pull a stunt like this. Ye want to kill her, do ye?” The woman dragged her into the inn.
• • •
Once at Erskine House, Birdie hurried off to her apartment, locking the door behind her.
After Colin explained everything that had happened to them, learning where Alice had been taken, finding Birdie and Faith, he had to admit he was surprised he hadn’t found Gavin already at the house before him.
Robbie continued to be anxious and worried. “Why doesn’t he let us know where he is? I expected him long before this.”
Colin pulled her with him into the morning room and led her to a chair. “I have to admit I thought he’d be here too, but until we hear otherwise, we should keep hope and wait.”
Robbie flung herself out of the chair. “I can’t! I’ve waited and waited, since the very moment you and Gavin left to find Alice, all I’ve done is wait, and the waiting is exhausting.”
At Colin’s silence, Robbie suddenly realized she hadn’t asked where they found Alice, only that she’d been found. Robbie rounded on him.
“Where did you find them, anyway?”
“Birdie and Faith were at an inn in Crathie, waiting for a coach.”
“What about Alice?” Intense panic climbed her throat.
Colin stood and went to the window. Autumn had arrived with a vengeance. Beeches were coloring to rust, leaves were dropping, the air was cool with the promise of winter. “Isn’t it enough to know that Gavin went to get her?”
“No! It is not enough.” Sick with worry, she replied, “Tell me, Colin, and tell me now. I want to hear the entire ugly story, warts and all, and don’t leave anything out.”
After he finished, Robbie was so angry and upset she was sick to her stomach and nearly speechless. “Baldovan? They took her to an orphanage?”
“I won’t pretend to understand it, Robbie, but according to the local doctor, it’s where they take all foundlings.”
“But she isn’t a foundling! She’s my daughter. My sweet, innocent—” Her lower lip quivered, and she could not finish her sentence. For the first time since the entire incident happened, Robbie allowed herself to cry.
“What must she think?”
“Robbie, she’s not old enough to form those kind of—”
“That not only did her birth mother pass her off to another, but the parents she’d been given to allowed her to be taken from her crib and…” She pulled in an angry breath. “Those two. How could they? How could they?”
She rounded on him once again. “What’s to be done with them?”
Attempting to placate her, he replied, “Let’s wait for Gavin to arrive with Alice before we make any big decisions.” Although in his mind, the decisions were made, even though the punishment did not nearly fit the crime.
Unable to control her anger, Robbie stormed to Birdie’s apartment. Her sister sat at her dressing table, examining herself in the mirror. She looked up and caught her sister’s angry gaze. She immediately looked away.
Robbie refused to do the same. “How could you?” Her anger was palpable in her voice.
Birdie looked back at her sister from the mirror, her eyes filled with tears, but her expression not tearful. “You have everything I’ve ever wanted.”
“But what were you thinking? How did you plan to care for Alice? You have no way of keeping yourself fed, much less a bairn.”
Still on the defensive, Birdie replied, “I didn’t think that far ahead, all right? All I knew was that she was given to me, and therefore she was mine. And I didn’t expect her to get so sick that we’d have to take her to see a doctor.”
Robbie clung to the back of an armchair to keep her knees from buckling out from under her. “She was sick?”
With a defiant gaze, Birdie replied, “She coughed all the time and kept me awake. She threw up on both Faith and me, and when she coughed she sounded really bizarre, like a barking dog with a frog in its throat.”
Robbie pressed her hands to her stomach. The agony her child had gone through at the hands of Birdie and Faith cut deeply into Robbie’s heart. “What you did wasn’t just selfish and cruel. It was foolish and irresponsible.” She swung away, one hand on her forehead and one on her hip and paced. “Are you ever going to learn to think of someone other than yourself, Birdie? Are you?”
Birdie sniffed. “Well, if it makes you feel better, I am sorry.”
Robbie stopped pacing and stared at her sister. “You’re sorry? That’s it? Birdie, she could have died.” She had to turn away, or the urge to grab her sister’s shoulders and shake her senseless would have overcome her.
“I know! But how was I to know that bairns needed so much care? I know it was foolish of me, but I had no idea how much work went into raising one of those things.”
Robbie tsked. “You hardly raised her, Birdie; you didn’t even have her a week, and you couldn’t even do that right.”
Birdie collapsed into sobs, perhaps meant to soften Robbie, perhaps real, but either way, Robbie wasn’t taken in.
“What will happen now?” she asked meekly.
“God knows what I’d do with you,” Robbie answered. “But it’s up to Gavin to decide your fate, you foolish girl.” She gave her sister a stern glance. “What would Papa say if he were alive? I think even he would have scolded you proper, Birdie.”
Papa had been both girls’ champion in spite of what they did or how much trouble they got into, although Birdie’s antics always outweighed Robbie’s.
Through eyes fraught with tears, Birdie wailed, “I don’t want to go to jail.”
Robbie lifted an eyebrow. “No, you wouldn’t do well there, would you?”
“I wouldn’t survive there, Robbie. You know how fragile I am.”
“You should have thought of that when you concocted this foolish, impetuous, and very stupid scheme.”
As she turned to leave, she warned, “You’re going to Colin’s townhouse. Eve will be your companion. If I hear any word that you have treated her as poorly as you treated people here, I’ll find a solicitor who will make you pay for your mistake in a way that will surely make you realize how lucky you have had things up to now.”
Contrite, Birdie asked, “Can I stay in my apartment? I don’t want to see anyone. And, if Mrs. Murray or Maureen could bring me dinner, I’d be ever so appreciative.”
What Birdie needed was to be forced to face the entire household, but even Robbie knew that that would just be cruel. “I’ll see that you’re fed, Birdie.”
“And Robbie?”
Robbie turned, her expression masked.
“I am sorry.”
Robbie left her, wondering how true her sister’s statement was. Of course, she could be sorry; she had done something appalling and gotten caught. Robbie wondered if Birdie would ever really change.