However, something was holding Caitlyn back from a commitment, and John Brodie had a feeling he knew what it was.
17
Robert and Alastair
Alastair was miserable, and as usual, when he was feeling like this he overworked himself to the point of burning out completely. Ava had given up asking him to stop; he never listened, and it always ended in an argument, so she avoided the subject and watched him carefully.
Things came to a head one Sunday morning when he did not come down for breakfast, and Ava tentatively entered his room late in the morning to find him still sleeping, something which was very unusual for him. She shook him gently, but he turned over and did not open his eyes. She bent to kiss his cheek and decided to leave him. He needed to rest.
Alastair slept for the rest of the day, and till the same time the next morning, when he opened his eyes, confused at first by the position of the sun in the sky. At that moment Ava entered, intending to wake him up.
“Good morning!” she cried. “We all thought that perhaps you had been bewitched because you have slept so long.”
“Have I missed Mass?” he asked, yawning.
“You missed it yesterday,” she replied. “It is Monday, and you have slept for almost two days.”
He looked at her, aghast. “You are jesting!” he protested.
She shook her head. “I warned you about what would happen if you overworked yourself.” Her voice had an I-told-you-so quality.
“I need to get up!” he complained. “But I feel so tired—and hungry!”
“I will go and get your breakfast,” she told him. “But you are not getting out of bed today, and I will have two guards stationed outside your room to make sure that you do not try to escape!” She gave him a threatening look and went out.
Alastair got up and made perfunctory ablutions, washing his face and hands quickly and attending to his other needs. He dropped a nightshirt over his head, since he usually slept naked, then he got back into bed and waited for his breakfast to arrive, purposely emptying his mind of everything but the day of work ahead of him.
He hardly ever mentioned Caitlyn’s name these days, which made Ava both happy and sad. He had even stopped thinking about her, and was making tentative attempts to go out and get to know other young ladies.
Presently his mind was distracted by the arrival of a maid bearing his breakfast. Ava came in behind her and sat beside his bed.
He was ravenous, and ate like a wolf, polishing off his eggs, haggis, sausages, and porridge in five minutes. He sent for more, and had soon disposed of two bannocks and cheese and a pint of ale before he pronounced himself satisfied. He immediately felt better.
“You need a long, long rest, Alastair,” Ava told him, her voice troubled. Alastair looked into his sister’s eyes and saw the care and concern there that never ceased to amaze him. He was a grouchy, unreasonable, impossible man, and he found it difficult to believe that anyone could love him. “We have both been invited to the Brodie castle for Christmas,” she went on. “I will go, however, you do not have to if you don’t want to, but let me know, because I must answer the invitation.”
“I will think about it,” he said grimly. “I can see that I will never get any peace until I do.”
She smiled at him. “That is all I ask,” she replied, and kissed his forehead. “Go back to sleep, Alastair, you need it. Work tomorrow.”
“I have slept for two days,” he told her. “I will not sleep now, Ava.”
But he did.
Robert McKnight and Caitlyn Brodie had become a couple. They were not betrothed: Caitlyn wanted to wait a while longer to be sure, and Robert acquiesced. He prided himself on being a patient man.
Just before Christmas they decided to go into Inverness to visit the jewelry market there, since Caitlyn wanted to buy Eileen and Ava a gift.
This was not the ordinary kind of market; it was in a stone building with little shops, rather than stalls inside, where all the valuable merchandise could be locked away at night. Caitlyn looked around in wonder at the glittering diamonds and tanzanites, blood red rubies, sapphires as blue as the midnight sky, and emeralds as green as her own eyes.
In contrast there was the silken luster of pearls and opals that borrowed their subtle hues from the bright showy gems around them, and the soft lilac light of amethysts. The warm sheen of gold was everywhere—on rings, bracelets, necklaces, brooches, and earrings. Its glow mesmerized her in a way that the cold shine of silver could not.
After a while she began to become confused by the sheer variety of choices on offer, and her head was spinning by the time she found the opal ring she wanted for her mother. However, soon something else caught her eye. It was a pendant locket made of gold and studded with tiny rubies, and when she opened it she gasped. The face of a beautiful woman was looking out at her with a half smile on her face, but what astonished her was that the woman looked just like Ava.
“What is it, Caitie?” Robert asked softly as he saw the look on her face. “You look as if you have seen a ghost!”
“I think I have,” Caitlyn answered, her eyes still wide with shock. “If I am not mistaken this belongs to Ava. It was stolen when she was robbed a few months ago. I hope I am right, because I would love to give it back to her.”
“Would you not like to catch the robbers who did it?” Robert asked quietly.
