Then her voice became bitter as she said, “The blow came only a month after the ceilidh, at the end of May. One day Alastair called me to the library, and Kirstine was sitting there looking absolutely beautiful. A bittoobeautiful, in fact, I thought afterwards. I looked at Alastair and his eyes were shining, then I knew. I remember his very words.
“‘You have never had a sister, Ava, but I am happy to tell you that you are about to have one now. Kirstine and I are getting married as soon as we can. Will you congratulate us?’”
“He looked so happy that I could do nothing else but wish them both well, even though I knew he was going to regret it. I hugged her and I kissed him and hoped I was wrong. I just wanted to ask him if he knew what he was doing, because there was still something about her that I did not trust, but he was so besotted with her!”
“What changed?” Caitlyn asked curiously.
“I realized that I did not know enough about her to put my finger on the root of the problem. Then one evening as I was sitting with them, it hit me. She was supposed to be the daughter of a wealthy merchant, but who was he? We had heard his name, Cameron McMaster, of McMaster Silk Merchants, but we had never met him, and as far as I could see, no one else had either.” She stopped to pour them both a glass of wine. When she went on her voice was almost a growl.
“I managed to get Alastair to go back to the job of running the estate properly again by pointing out to him that there would be nothing left to leave to his children if he did not go back to it. Kirstine encouraged him and said that she was sorry to have been the cause of all his troubles. He smiled at her and told her everything would be fine. I could have strangled her.”
She resumed her pacing. “I managed to get us all an invitation to the Laird of Bankfoot’s ceilidh for his wife’s birthday, since he had been a good friend of my father’s.
“It was very short notice and Alastair had a lot of work to catch up on, so he declined. Kirstine was furious, and Alastair was astonished to see that she had a very ugly side to her nature, but she could not coerce or cajole him into going, so she and I went together.
“It was an enjoyable evening and I had plenty of dancing partners, but I kept my eye on her the whole evening, and that was how I saw her very casually slipping out of the side entrance with one of the younger male guests. I followed them discreetly and saw them pass into one of the storerooms that were empty at that time. I am ashamed to say that I went to listen at the door.
“I am not a worldly woman even now, Caitlyn, so I certainly was not then, but I know what the sound of sighing and moaning and kissing means, and I knew that woman was betraying my brother. I did not know what to do. There were two of them, and I was all alone. I decided to go upstairs for the meantime and work out what to do in the safety of the Great Hall.” She put her hands over her face. “And that was where I found Alastair, who had changed his mind and decided to come after all. Caitlyn, please believe me when I tell you this, and please do not judge me for it. I was so upset.”
“Ava,” Caitlyn answered gently, “I never judge. How anyone else leads their life is no business of mine.”
Ava smiled and took a deep breath. “I burst into tears and told him what I had seen. I will never forget his face, because I have never seen him so angry, or so hurt. He went charging down to the storeroom and found them still doing—whatever they were doing.” She hugged herself and shook her head in agitation. “He hauled that man out of there, still half-naked, and beat him mercilessly. We never even tried to find out who he was. Kirstine came out and begged him to stop, and so did I, but it took the combined strength of four guards from the castle to pull him away. I think he would have killed the man if they had not.”
“What happened then?” Caitlyn asked curiously.
“She tried to run away,” Ava replied, tears now beginning to leak down her cheeks, “but Alastair forced her onto his horse and made her ride home with us. He was not violent, and I have never seen him become angry with a woman the way he does with a man, but I will never forget the look on his face. He was so, so hurt.”
“I think I would be too,” Caitlyn said angrily, “if the person I intended to spend the rest of my life with was unfaithful to me. What happened after that, Ava?”
“He brought us all into the library,” she replied. “I wanted to excuse myself but he would not let me. This is how I remember it.
“He asked her why she had said she would marry him if she had another lover, why she had tried to seduce him before they were married, and why she had told him she loved him when quite clearly she did not. His face...I cannot get it out of my mind. I should never have let him see her.”
“Shhh…” Caitlyn said soothingly. “You were upset, and we all do strange things at times like that. It was not your fault, Ava, and you were very young, whereas Alastair was a grown man and could think for himself. Anyway, I think it was better for everyone that she was found out.”
12
The Rest of the Story
They paused for a moment while Ava poured them both a large measure of whisky. “I hardly ever drink this stuff,” she confessed. “I am not very keen on it, but I feel the need of it now, and you must keep me company or I will feel guilty. Now where was I? Oh, yes. After he had asked all these questions she just sat there quietly looking at her hands for a while. It was only when Alastair barked at her to answer him that she looked up. She was crying, but if she hoped for any sympathy from him she was mistaken. His face was set as hard as stone.
“She told him that the part about her father was true. He had been a wealthy silk merchant, but he died suddenly of a heart attack, and it was only after that that her mother found out that he had a gambling habit and they were drowning in debt.
“They lost their house and all their material possessions, and with her mother and two younger sisters to support, she had no choice but to do what many other women have been forced to do since the dawn of time: sell her body. She was young and pretty, and managed to save a bit of money so that her family could feed themselves and rent some modest accommodation. She bought some good secondhand clothes and left them some money, then traveled here with the intention of marrying a rich laird. She lived in a hovel but always looked like a queen, and eventually she befriended some ladies who introduced her to polite society.
“Unfortunately, soon after that she realized that she was with child, but then she had a stroke of luck and met Alastair. As I said, it was love at first sight, at least on his part, but she had to convince him that the baby was his, so it was necessary to seduce him at least once, or it would be too late to convince everyone that the baby was premature when it was born early.
“However, my brother is a man of honor and would not lie with her before the wedding, so she needed to think of something else. She had run out of money and was living on borrowed time. She could not marry my brother if she were with child and she could no longer afford to pay someone to get rid of it; indeed, she could hardly afford to feed herself.
“That meant she had to earn money the only way she knew how—by selling her body—and that is what she was doing when I found her.” Ava sighed and threw back her whisky in one gulp, then went on. “She said—and I believed her—that she had become very fond of Alastair and she had only done what she had to do for her family. I think that she could have made him a good wife if things had been different. She was very upset, and I really did pity her. I still do, but I cannot forgive her for what she did to my brother. He has never been the same since she came into his life.”
“What happened to her and the child?” Caitlyn asked. She had taken one sip of the whisky and left the rest untouched.
“Alastair secured her a place in the convent of The Sisters of Veronica in Inverness. They take in many unwed mothers there and put their babies up for adoption later. The last we heard her baby boy had been adopted by a well-to-do family, and is thriving. His name is Fergus.”
“And Kirstine?” Caitlyn asked, fascinated.
Ava laughed softly. “This is the most ironic part of all. Kirstine stayed in the convent and took the veil. She is now Sister Mary Magdalene. An appropriate choice of name, do you not think? Her mother married again to a prosperous tradesman and is comfortably off, if not exactly rich.”
