Page 106 of Claimed Highland Brides

“What do we do?”

“We see wha’ her good-for-nothing husband has tae say and then decide.”

Fiona looked down at the letter and with a deep exhalation, unfolded it.

My dear Lady Jamesina,

My deepest regards to you and your family. I am afraid that I am unexpectedly detained here in Edinburgh and I require your share of the deed to the mine to extract me from here. Would you kindly have it sent care of the World’s End to one Angus McTavish, a solicitor in my service?

I would not ask this of you except that it is a matter of life and death.

I look forward to rejoining you in our home.

Yours sincerely,

Your Husband,

Lord Delwyn Barton

Fiona looked up at Daividh with a frown. “Wha’ does this mean?”

Delwyn sighed, his eyes distant and thoughtful. “Ye think he wrote it or it was dictated tae him?”

Fiona shook her head. “I would not know…but maybe Jamesina would.”

“Ye want tae tell her?”

“I dinnae think we have a choice.”

Daividh nodded. “I’ll have her summoned.” He stepped outside the door and hailed a passing footman, sending him to fetch Jamesina. They sat in silence as they waited, too tense and filled with too many conflicting emotions to speak to each other.

Jamesina stepped in the room, looking from one to the other, her face apprehensive. She took a deep breath as her eyes finally stopped at Daividh. “Is he deid?”

Daividh gasped in surprise. “Why would ye say tha’? O’ course he’s no deid.”

“Ye both look so solemn.”

“Aye weel, it is a serious matter and we dinnae ken wha’ tae make o’ it.”

Jamesina clasped her hands in her lap to keep them from shaking. “Tell me then?”

Fiona handed over the letter. “It’s just that we received a letter from yer husband, in which he asks for the deed tae yer part o’ th’ mine.”

Jamesina’s eyes flew over the page, her lips pursed. Then she looked up at her sister, eyes wide and scared. “I dinnae think he wrote this.”

Fiona nodded. “We wondered. I dinnae ken wha’ happened between ye but he dinnae leave here wi’ yer blessing, did he?”

Jamesina gave a short sharp shake of her head.

“And so? Who d’ye think wrote it?”

Jamesina took a deep breath and closed her eyes. She realized that she would have to tell them everything. In spite of his own disloyalty, she had kept her quiet, vainly hoping her husband would return and redeem himself. And if he did, then no one need know the reason he left. But now, here he was, asking for something she could not give. Knowing she could not give it.

She stopped short as realization hit.

Delwyn knew he could not get the deed to the mine, only her income from it. Which meant that he could not be in league with those who wrote the letter. Either he was giving her a warning that something had happened to him or he didn’t know about the letter.

Maybe it’s even both.