“She was in London at the time. Her mother was having a grand birthday party there. But ’twas tae London that I went tae find her. Yet every time I called on her there, she was out, or indisposed, and even then, I didna suspect anything was wrong. I just kept coming by their town house each day, and kept getting turned away.”
“You’re saying she didn’t want to see you?”
“Nay, she didna know I was there. She wasna told. What shewastold was that her da had found out about us, and he’d paid me off. Wi’ her da doing the telling, she believed it, thought I’d forsaken her for money, and she was devastated. I dinna know what Cecil told the mon, but he got him tae lie about me, and tae agree that Cecil should marry Mellie immediately. And she was tae brokenhearted tae care.”
“My God, her own father—”
“Dinna blame him, hinny. The mon probably thought he was protecting her from me. God knows what Cecil told the mon, but he instigated and manipulated us all wi’ his lies, so he could have the woman he knew I loved. He didna even want her for himself. He just wanted tae make sure that I’d be denied having her.”
Kimberly shook her head sadly. “So they were married in London, before you could even speak to her to tell her the truth?”
“Nay, they were married as soon as she returned tae the country, but it was more’n a week more ’afore I realized she wasna even in London anymore. And by then I was tae desperate tae see her tae stay away any longer for Cecil’s sake, so I returned tae Northumberland as well. And was told by a neighbor that she’d been married just days ’afore I got there.”
“Why didn’t you take her away anyway?” Kimberly asked him almost angrily. “Why did you leave her there to be miserable with him?”
“You think I didna try? It nearly killed her tae tell me nay, she couldna go wi’ me, she was married.”
“Even knowing you’d both been tricked?”
“Aye, her morals were too strongly ingrained. The deed was done. The vows were for better or worse. Though she loved me still, she’d no’ break those vows.”
Kimberly slumped back against the sofa. She vaguely remembered a few things from her childhood now, that she had long since forgotten, her mother never staying in the room with her when her grandparents came to visit, or even speaking to them, and she hadn’t gone to their funeral when they’d died together in a carriage accident.
“If it helps any, I don’t think she ever forgave her parents. I was too young at the time to even wonder why she never spoke to them when they visited.”
He reached for her hand and squeezed it. “Nothing can help the tragedy of three misspent lives, hinny.”
“No, I suppose not.” She sighed. “And she didn’t even tell you about me?”
“’Twas so soon after—I dinna think she knew about you when we last spoke.”
She blushed slightly. It was difficult to think of her mother making love with this man out of wedlock. Yet they had planned to marry, to live their lives together. That was more than she could say for herself and Lachlan. Yet she and Lachlan had ended up married, but the two who should have, would have, if not for the perfidy of others, didn’t.
“I know you came home to the Highlands, but did you never go back?”
“Nay, not once. I knew that if I ever saw her again, I’d be stealing her away against her wishes, and she’d be hating me for it. And if I ever saw Cecil again—well, murder was on my mind for many a year. So I drowned myself in whisky and women and—” He shrugged here. “You’ve met the results o’ my overindulgence.”
He said that so casually, without a bit of embarrassment. Sixteen bastards he had, well, seventeen, counting her. And he was apparently doing right by them, raising the lot, because they all lived with him. Now, if she could discount the tale about them trying to kill each other for entertainment…
She smiled. “Yes, you have some fine sons there.”
“And no’ a single grandchild out o’ them as yet,” he mumbled.
She almost choked. “Well, none of them are married yet, are they?”
He raised a bushy brow at her, as if to say, “What has that to do with it?” and in his case, it certainly hadn’t been a necessity. She wondered if all his sons’ mothers were living with him as well, but she wasn’t about to ask.
“I take it you would like some grandchildren?” she asked instead.
“Aye, bairns are a pleasure tae have around at my age, but the lass I favor now, she’s barren. You wouldna be breeding yourself, would you?”
Kimberly’s cheeks filled with heat. “No, I’ve only just married,” she said, which apparently had not much to do with it in her unusual family, of course, but thankfully, he didn’t point that out.
“You’re happy wi’ the MacGregor, are you?”
“He doesn’t love me, but we do very well together.”
Now why had she admitted that? And he was frowning at her because of it, and wanting to know, “Then why did you marry him, lass?”
