“More complicated.” Callum scratched at his growth of beard. “In part, ’tis because I trust you with the task.” Adam raised his eyebrows and Callum laughingly continued. “Come now, you must have seen for yourself how things are. Esme is an uncommon beauty. Not just in looks, but in character. She could charm the very birds from the trees. And her dowry is sizeable.”
Adam clasped his hands and focused his gaze on his fingernails. Anything to avoid Callum’s honest gaze. “And you trust this flower of England to my safe keeping?”
“I would trust you with my own daughters,” Callum said, his voice serious. “But that is not all of it.” He sighed deeply. “I have some idea what your days must be like.”
Adam stilled before slowly lifting his eyes to Callum’s. “You mean, at Kielder Castle?”
“I mean with my father,” Callum said gruffly. “He is not an easy man to be around.”
“Nay indeed.” ’Twas easy enough to agree with that.
“You can take no pleasure in serving him. Since my mother passed, he has become a bloodthirsty Scottish warlord. You were raised in England as the son of a farmer.”
Adam could deny none of this.
“Have I remembered that correctly? You came to my parents following the death of your own?”
He nodded. His parents had been tenant farmers; their land adjoining that once farmed by Clara’s family. But he was unwilling to reawaken such memories.
He closed his mind to thoughts of his lost love. “My parents were taken by a fever when I was but a youth. My father and yours once served alongside one another and Rory was quick to offer me a home.”
’Twas a rare example of generosity from Rory Baine.
“I can scarce remember a time when you were not at Egremont House.” Callum smiled. “I hope you found at least some small happiness there?”
Adam was happy to provide such assurance. “I did. Your mother was a lady of great kindness.”
“But then she also died.” Callum’s face darkened. “You must have had some reason to follow my father to the highlands. Whatever that reason was, you stay with him now because of a sense of duty.”
Adam was finding it hard to swallow. Harder still to formulate a response.
“Moreover, your sense of duty is to the villagers and servants. Not to my father.”
“I have never moved a finger against him.” Adam’s pulse pounded.
“I do not accuse you of it,” Callum swiftly interjected. He sat back in his chair. “The only thing I accuse you of, Adam, is having a big heart. You care for those unlucky enough to live within my father’s walls. You have picked things up where I left off some years hence.”
Callum could always see straight through to the crux of a matter, even when he was a young boy. It was one of the many qualities Adam admired in him.
“But I am Rory Baine’s son. Perchance it is time for me to take on this burden.”
Adam shook his head. He carefully placed his cup down on the table before his trembling hands caused wine to spill on the rug. “You have a wife and family. Your home is in England. ’Tis as your mother would have wished it.”
Mayhap he should not have uttered those words. But it was the truth as he saw it.
“I am not abandoning them. Forsooth, my wife and family are determined to go with me.” Callum tipped his head back and stared up at the vaulted ceiling. “Though I question even Frida’s abilities to bring peace to the troubled halls of Kielder Castle. But that is not a matter to discuss now. In all honesty, Adam, I have been anticipating this summons for some months. It is time for me to return.” His expression turned bleak, but only for a moment. “Why should some good not come out of this? Stay here, man. Enjoy the rest. We have a good wine cellar, and you are unlikely to be much troubled by visitors.”
Adam was halfway to being convinced. He tore off a hunk of bread and chewed it ruminatively.
“You will return here?”
“Indeed, I hope so.” Callum rubbed again at his arms. “If not I, then Frida and the children will. This is their home. I will not rip them from it, whatever may occur at Kielder. But I must accept there will be much to do in Scotland, whatever the outcome with my father.”
Adam nodded and reached for a glistening red grape. “I would like to be of help to you, when that time comes.”
“And I would be pleased to accept.” Callum grinned, once more the boy Adam had known.
“You will not leave me to fester in this lonely corner of England?” He wanted to be sure, especially given the ghosts of his past which still haunted these lands.
