“Thank you,” Ava breathed. “I thought you might have wanted me to come down and see her, but I am not yet ready for that.” Ava sighed in relief. “Perhaps in a few days.” She looked pleadingly at Caitlyn, who put a reassuring hand on her knee.
“I will be here when you need me,” she smiled.
“What have I done to deserve a friend like you?” Ava asked, shaking her head in wonder. She leaned forward and planted a soft kiss on Caitlyn’s cheek. “You are the sister I never had.”
“As you are to me,” Caitlyn replied, and they hugged again, then Caitlyn said, “Alastair and I had a bit of a disagreement. He accused me of flirting with a stable hand.”
Ava grinned. “Which one?” she asked mischievously, even though she knew the answer.
“Andy MacKay,” Caitlyn answered. “Why are you smiling?”
“You are not a woman if you DON’T flirt with him!” Ava laughed.
“But I wasn’t!” Caitlyn protested.
“Did he wink at you?” Ava asked. “Little smile?”
“Yes...” Caitlyn was intrigued.
“Well, you may not have been flirting with him,” Ava laughed, “but he was definitely flirting with you!”
“Oh dear.” Caitlyn bit her lip. “Alistair and I said some terrible things to each other and…” She trailed off.
“What?” Ava was impatient for more.
“Nothing.” Caitlyn gave her a slightly over-bright smile. She had decided not to mention the kiss.
“He will get over it,” Ava said soothingly. “He always does. I forgot to ask—where is he?”
“And I forgot to tell you,” Caitlyn laughed as she lied, “he sends his apologies, but he had an appointment with someone whose name I do not remember.”
Ava laughed, wishing Caitlyn and Alastair would be married so that her friend could stay with her. She had seen the way they looked at each other, and felt the current of attraction between them. Even the argument was a symptom of it.
They are made for each other,she thought,and yet they seem to be the last people to know about it.
Moreover, Alastair had changed; he was calmer, softer, and more patient. Caitlyn was good for him, but there was something holding him back, and Ava knew exactly what it was.
“I need to tell you some things about Alastair,” Ava said, sighing. “As I told you before, he hasn’t always been as you see him now. Once he was...well...a bit more lighthearted. He has never been an outgoing person, especially since Father died, but he used to go to the odd ceilidh or visit a few friends at Christmas; he was never completely withdrawn the way he is now.” She paused. “We are each in our own prison at the moment, really,” she said sadly, “but Alastair has the weight of the entire estate on his shoulders. He cannot sit and brood about things. Since you came he seems to have come out of himself a little, though. I see a change in him. It’s the first time I’ve seen him smiling in the last three years or so, ever since Kirstine.”
“Kirstine?” Caitlyn asked. “Who was she?”
“Kirstine was the daughter of a rich silk merchant from Glasgow,” Ava said bitterly. “She was a blonde, beautiful harlot.”
Caitlyn was shocked at the tone of her voice. “Go on,” she prompted gently. “What happened?”
“It was at the only ceilidh we had since my father died, and it was for my sixteenth birthday. Alastair arranged it as a surprise for me, and only told me the day before.” She smiled at the happy memory. “Did I tell you how much I love my brother? He is the best man I know. Anyway, my birthday is in spring, in April, and it was not too cold, so the lights were on in the courtyard outside and everyone was dancing out there.
“Alastair had invited a lot of work acquaintances because he has no real friends, and I have only half a dozen. Romance was the furthest thing from his mind. He does not tell me these things but I know, because he always has his nose buried in his ledgers and his hands in the soil so that he does not have to think about the affairs of the heart.
“When my father died you have no idea how many lairds came beating a path to our door with their daughters in tow, but he refused every one. I suspect it was because he was waiting for the right one, the one he could see himself falling in love with.
“She never came by way of her father, but she came to my sixteenth birthday party. As soon as he looked at Kirstine McMaster he was smitten. I could see it in his eyes, and so could she. I was a bit younger then, Caitlyn, but even I knew that my brother was a complete innocent. By that I don’t mean inexperienced in worldly matters—he was not ignorant in matters of the flesh—even as his sister I knew that! But he had no idea about the minds of women. He saw her and he wanted her as a little child wants a toy.
“She seduced him; it was as simple as that. She walked up to him that evening and he kissed her hand, and those big blue eyes looked straight into his and smiled at him. He had to pay attention to the rest of our guests, of course, but his eyes followed her around for the rest of the evening and he spoke to her at every opportunity—and she made sure there were plenty of those!” She paused, and stood up, then began to pace restlessly about the room.
“By the time the night ended Alastair had invited her to go riding with him the next day. I have never seen him look so happy, but I was uneasy; it had all happened very fast. She came to dinner afterwards, and was perfectly charming and polite, and I began to think that my doubts had been misplaced. Then Alastair’s work started to suffer as he began to pass every moment he had with her. The ledgers and accounts were being neglected, and Alastair no longer attended livestock markets. He was wasting too much of his valuable time on Kirstine. It was unhealthy and I told him so, but he shouted at me and accused me of being jealous, because before I had always been the center of his life and now I was not.”
She began to twist her hands in agitation. “The worst thing was that he was right. He had always been the big brother I could depend on, who kept me safe from everything. Now another woman had taken my place. She was always good to me, of course. She inquired after my health and admired my clothes, talked to me about what she’d been busy with, and asked what I’d been doing with my time. I liked her, but something about her always made me uneasy.”
