Page 56 of Seduction in a Kilt

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

Dusk had well and truly fallen by the time Ivy reached the ruined chapel. She dismounted and tied up the mare a few hundred yards distant and approached the building by a circular route. There was no noise save for the occasional hooting of an owl or call of a nightjar, which gave the place an eerie feel in the half light.

The building itself was eerie too. The clearing where it sat was overgrown with weeds, patchy grass, and young saplings. The roof had almost completely collapsed, leaving moss-covered debris scattered everywhere. Its crumbling walls were covered with ivy, and trees were growing out of the gaping black holes which had once housed windows.

The whole place gave her the shivers as she approached. The very air felt thick with tension as she stepped lightly into the overgrown compound at the rear of the chapel. She looked around and saw no one, only a lone horse tethered to a broken piece of tall masonry. The beast was pawing the hardscrabble ground to find morsels of grass to nibble upon.

There was a broken doorway ahead of her, and she headed that way, her stomach churning with nerves. As Ivy set foot on the shallow steps leading in to the derelict building, she took a deep breath, a vain effort to calm her churning stomach.

The interior, what was left of it, seemed completely derelict. From the little she could see, it looked as though the floor tiles had been ripped up and carted away, leaving a puddle-strewn mess of muddy earth behind. Broken pews lay haphazardly strewn about as if thrown there.

Ivy started at the sound of a footstep close by, her hand on the hilt of her sword. The hooded stranger suddenly loomed at her from beneath a broken-down archway. She backed off and stared through the gloom at the scarecrow-like stranger. He looked taller, and more menacing in this setting. She kept her hand on her sword and her senses on alert.

“So ye decided tae come, Lady Ivy.” The familiar voice echoed around the walls as her would-be informant approached her. “A wise decision. Ye willnae regret it.”

“I hope I willnae,” she said, making sure her voice did not betray her deep unease. “Ye said ye have things tae tell me. I’m here at yer biddin’, so tell me.”

“Indeed, melady, many things. Shall we sit?” he gestured to the stone platform that was possibly the old altar, Ivy thought.

“Ye sit if ye like,” she replied. “I’ll stand. I havenae got all night, so I’d be obliged if ye’d hurry up.”

“So eager tae ken the truth!” He gave a strange little laugh as he settled himself on the stone.

“Ye can start by tellin’ me who ye are,” Ivy said.

“Me name is Evander,” he replied. “And I kent yer parents very well.”

“If ye kent them, what were their names?” she asked, testing him.

“Why, Brodie was ye faither, the laird, and a good one too. And the lovely Lady Sophie was yer maither, a beautiful, gentle woman, formerly the daughter of Laird Cochrane of Devitt.”

“Well, anyone could find that out if they wished tae,” Ivy said. “I’m nae impressed.”

“Lady Sophie had the same dark-blue eyes as yersel’. In fact, ye look just like her. I recall when ye were born. I used tae dandle ye on me knee when ye were but a few months old. Ye have a wee scar on yer pinkie finger where yer braither burned ye with a coal from the fire. He got a good beatin’ fer that.”

Ivy’s heart thumped in her chest. Not only did she did have such a scar, though it was very faded now, but Carson had often said how it had been her fault that he’d had so many beatings from their father, and he had punished her for them after he became the laird.

“Yer nurse maid was a woman called Letty. She had a big mole on her face right here.” He pointed to a spot just below his left eye. Ivy went cold all over. She had loved Letty, and she well recalled the mole.

“She used tae say it was the thumbprint of an angel,” Evander added, nodding his hooded head.

Chills ran up and down Ivy’s spine. That was exactly what the cheerful Letty had used to say.

“If ye gave her a coin, she’d let ye touch it fer good luck,” Evander added. “And when ye were very small, ye had a favorite toy, a wee cloth doggie – the name of it I dinnae recall – that ye slept with very night. Ye wouldnae go tae bed without it.” The sound that came out of his mouth then was like that of glass cracking in a fire. It made Ivy jump, it was so hideous. His version of laughter, she supposed.

“How d’ye ken all this?” she asked, almost convinced now that he did indeed have intimate knowledge of her family’s past.

“Why, I was there, of course. Yer parents were me friends. Good friends. That is why I wish tae help ye.”

“If that is so then why have ye waited so long? ‘Tis fourteen years since they died.”

“That is a very good question. And I can sum up the answer in one word: Carson.”

“What about him?”

“What about him? Ye havetae ask me that?” She could make out genuine astonishment in his voice. “Surely, ye ken better than me what a brute the man is? It is because of him that I wear this disguise. Folks would run from me otherwise.”

She stared at the filthy cloth covering his face, wondering if it were true that Carson had done something horrible to him that forced him to cover his features. Knowing her brother, it could be anything. For the first time, Ivy felt a jot of sympathy for the pathetic creature in front of her.