Funds will be needed to repair things and replace equipment. This will increase my original estimate by at least five percent. However, Lady Strathlin’s advocates have informed me by letter that some contributors who have offered their assistance have been told they need not extend it.
I plan to return to Edinburgh shortly and personally appeal to these contributors to reconsider. If the Commission will extend additional funds in the meantime, it is much appreciated.
I also intend to pay a call on Lady Strathlin.
Yrs. respectfully,
Dougal Robertson Stewart
Innish Bay, Caransay, Hebrides
Chapter Fifteen
“Iwholeheartedly agree,you cannot abandon this project, Dougal,” Sir Aedan MacBride told him. “Your lighthouse must go up. The location is ideal and the need is paramount.”
“It is.” Dougal leaned back in a leather-upholstered chair in his cousin’s study. He had come down from Edinburgh for a few days to visit with kinfolk at Aedan’s home of Dundrennan in Strathclyde. “I cannot give up this cause, despite the latest maneuvers of Lady Strathlin’s mob of solicitors.” Nor could he give up any chance to see Meg MacNeill while the lighthouse was being built.
“Well done. Still, it is a shame Lady Strathlin does not understand that.”
“More to the point, the lawyers who speak for her misunderstand it.” Dougal appreciated his cousin’s calm natural reserve and his ability to listen carefully. Lingering over glasses of port after a meal together, Dougal had confided some of the troubling details of the project to Aedan, an engineer of highways and byways.
Dougal circled his glass in one hand and watched the dark liquid slosh inside. “I would build the thing myself, even fund it myself, even if it broke me. I would set every damned stone with my own hands if I had to.” He sat forward and rubbed a hand over his face, weary and frustrated, yet feeling trenchant determination. “The Caran light must go up.”
Aedan nodded. “A more bullheaded lad has never breathed. That persistence was a bit of a fault when you were younger. But it has helped you face impossible odds and danger in building your lighthouses. This one will be a magnificent structure. The design is spare, yet elegant and practical and will outlast the ages. I have no doubt it will go up by hook or by crook.”
“Aye. Perhaps you can make the journey to see it when it does.”
“I would like that. How is Evan Mackenzie, by the way? Still spitting into the wind? What a sight it must be, you two rascals besting that great rock above and below the sea.”
“Besting! Hardly. We barely hang on some days,” Dougal laughed. He had attended Edinburgh University with Aedan and Mackenzie both, and they knew each other well. “Evan is subdued these days. He keeps to himself since the incident last year.”
“That bridge collapse was not his fault, though unfortunately not everyone agrees.”
“Nor is he to blame for his father’s faults. But Evan takes these things to heart.”
“Lord Kildonan is a discredit to the whole of Scotland. No wonder Evan rejects him.”
“A tricky path, for he remains his father’s sole heir. One day he will be Earl of Kildonan, which he says is the last thing he wants or needs.”
“Inheriting a black mark when his reputation has already suffered—that is not easy.”
Dougal stared at the tartan carpet beneath his boots. “Aedan,” he said, “what do you know of Lady Strathlin?”
“Some. Just that she inherited the biggest fortune in Scotland rather unexpectedly. The male heir and the next in line both died, and old Lord Strathlin followed shortly after. Awful business for a young woman, but I understand she has been acredit to the title and estate and is generous and charitable. So her determination to interfere with your work is surprising.”
“True, it does not chime with what is said of her magnanimous nature. She bought the lease of the island years ago from the English lord who owned it, fired the factor, and secured the island in perpetuity for her tenants. They need not worry about much beyond the fickle weather, which can be a real threat. For all the trouble she has caused me, the woman is admirable otherwise.”
“Aye. She has provided relief elsewhere in the Hebrides and Highlands, sending food shipments and helping them start industries to support themselves. My own father spent much of his personal fortune on shiploads of grain and goods for Highlanders and Islesmen years ago when they were in desperate need. If Lady Strathlin uses her fortune and influence to make a difference, she is to be applauded.”
“You have met her, I think?”
“Just briefly about two years ago. Beautiful, as I recall, younger than I expected,” Aedan continued. “She had a train of attendants and hangers-on, but was neither haughty nor vain. We did not talk for long but I found her charming and genuine.”
“Huh,” Dougal said. “I have thought she must be an older woman.”
“Young and quite appealing. A cloud of golden hair and eyes like the sea in sunlight.”
“Interesting,” Dougal said, brow wrinkling. Perhaps she was close kin to Meg MacNeill.
