Love and the Clans Read online

  “I don’t suppose she will inherit it. I believe she has two brothers, one of whom is in the Army and the other in Edinburgh – at least I think so.”

  “You cannot make it anything but a horrible and terrible mistake. I don’t suppose she will have a penny of the Earl’s money, if he has any, and Alpin cannot support a wife in his present state of affairs let alone restore the estate and the Castle as we all want him to do.”

  “I think, dear Moira, that although you mean well, you have pushed Alpin too hard. He always said he did not wish to get married until he fell in love with someone very special. While I do agree with you it is a misfortune that he wishes to marry a MacFallin, it may well turn out to be a blessing in disguise.”

  “I cannot think how it possibly can. As you are well aware, everyone in our Clan loathes the MacFallins, and they loathe us. It would be completely impossible for any marriage between our two families to be anything but a tragedy.”

  The Countess spoke angrily and, as if she found it impossible to contain her feelings, she stood up and walked across the room.

  “Somehow,” she then snapped, “although I am not certain how, we have to prevent it.”

  The Dowager Duchess gave a cry.

  “No dear Moira, that would be a mistake. If Alpin wants her for his wife, then we must accept her and make the best of a bad job. Whatever happens we cannot, and I certainly will not, upset or hurt my son.”

  “You may feel like that,” the Countess growled, “but I feel very differently. If you think I am going to accept that ghastly old Earl into my family, you are very much mistaken. I have to make Alpin see sense!”

  “I beg you to leave him alone, Moira. I cannot help thinking, as I said before, that you have driven him to this because you have kept pushing him to marry Mary-Lee. I knew from the very beginning that he had no wish for his wife to be an American.”

  “What does it really matter who she is – with all that money?”

  “Well, it matters to Alpin and now he has chosen someone he wants to marry, we have to make the very best of it.”

  She spoke bravely, but there was a note of despair in her voice.

  As the Countess walked to the window in disgust, the Dowager Duchess wiped away a tear.

  She was thinking that there was nothing they could do now except pray that by some miracle Alpin would be happy, even though his bride would be a MacFallin.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  The Duke showed Sheinna the view from the top of the Castle.

  He pointed out especially the gardens and the place where he intended to build his museum. At the moment there was only a hut there containing the heads of lions he had killed in India, the first stag he had shot as a small boy and of course his first salmon.

  There were also a number of unusual objects he had picked up in foreign parts and Sheinna longed to examine them all.

  But he hurried her down again because he wanted to show her the other rooms and she was most impressed with them all.

  He proudly showed her into the dining room with its large family portraits and then the library with all its old volumes of the history of Scotland and the Clans.

  Finally he took her into his own study and, when she saw his travel books, she gave a cry of delight.

  “There are so many about foreign countries”.

  “I know,” the Duke replied. “They are about places I have visited and those I wish to visit. I try to learn about them, if possible, before I journey there.”

  “That is so sensible of you, Alpin. Otherwise you might miss something important.”

  “I have always thought that myself, but there are a number of books here on places I will never get a chance to see.”

  “Then I suppose we must be content with travelling in our minds,” remarked Sheinna.

  The Duke looked at her in surprise.

  It was something no other woman had ever said to him.

  “Do you really do that?” he enquired.

  “You have been so lucky to have gone to some of these places, but I have only read about them and you must tell me much more than I know already.”

  “I would be delighted to and I will also show you the souvenirs I brought back. Some of them are small and just souvenirs, but others are more significant and when I look at them, I remember their background and the people I met in that particular country.”

  “If you can tell me about Nepal, India and most especially China, I will be living here for ever and you will never be able to get rid of me!”

  As she spoke she looked over her shoulder just in case someone was at the door and she was being indiscreet.

  “You are quite safe,” said the Duke, “we cannot be overheard. At the same time be careful what you say when you are with others – ”

  A little later, as they were still talking in his study, Rory came in to give the Duke a message.

  The Duke read it and then he asked.

  “Is there a dinner party here tonight?”

  “Oh, yes, Your Grace,” replied Rory, “her Ladyship arranged it several days ago, then the visitors who came last night arrived rather unexpectedly, so we had dancing last night as well as tonight.”

  “I had no idea – ”

  He waited until Rory had left and then he turned to Sheinna,

  “I think after all it would be a mistake for us to go and see your father this afternoon. I had no idea there is to be a party here tonight, but it would be a good idea for you to meet our friends who live in this part of the County.”

  “Yes – of course,” Sheinna agreed hesitantly.

  “So shall we postpone what will undoubtedly be an uncomfortable encounter with your father?”

  “I am not going to argue about that,” Sheinna said in a low voice, “but I cannot possibly stay for dinner as I have nothing to wear.”

  The Duke thought for a moment and suggested,

  “Sit down and write a note to your father saying you have been asked to a party with friends and are staying the night with them. Don’t mention any name and he will never think for one moment that you are with me at the McBaren Castle.”

  “No, he most certainly will not.”

  “Then write another note to your maid,” the Duke continued. “Tell her to pack one of your best dresses for this evening and several other clothes in case tomorrow you stay longer than we at first planned.”

  “Are you sure we can do this – ?”

  “I am quite sure, Sheinna. I will send Rory with the notes. He is discretion itself and, if I tell him you are in hiding, he will understand.”

  Sheinna smiled.

  “I think we are getting deeper and deeper into this all the time,” she murmured. “I just cannot imagine how it will end.”

  “But of course,” the Duke chuckled, “we will live happily ever after. The only person who will really resent our happiness will be Sir Ewen.”

  “Do not mention that man,” Sheinna begged. “It makes me tremble even to think of him.”

  “Then just enjoy yourself tonight, Sheinna. As you have already said, we are in a Fairy Palace and we must both forget that there are any goblins outside!”

  Again Sheinna looked over her shoulder before she whispered,

  “Your cousin, the Countess, obviously hates me.”

  “If she does, it really does not matter to you. She has always been an interfering woman, but my mother is very fond of her, and when I am away, Moira is at least someone for her to talk to.”

  “I can understand your mother missing you, Alpin, and I suppose it is natural she would want you to marry and settle down here so that she will have grandchildren to interest her.”

  “I will do that one day,” the Duke said bitterly, “but as you understand, there is still a great deal of the world I wish to explore before I am shut up here, and have nothing more exciting to occupy me than the feud between your Clan and mine.”

  The way he spoke made Sheinna laugh.

  She thought it would be
exciting to be at a party tonight and the Duke was so right in saying that they might as well postpone the awful moment when she had to tell her father about their engagement.

  She sat down at the writing table and the Duke gave her a piece of plain writing paper and a pen.

  In her clear and elegant handwriting Sheinna told her father that she was staying away for a party tonight and she knew he would surely understand just how much she always looked forward to dancing the Scottish reels.

  The Duke watching over her shoulder observed,

  “That ought to pacify him. Now while I put this into an envelope for you, instruct your maid as to exactly what you need packed.”

  Sheinna made out a list and then closed the second envelope.

  The Duke took the two letters to give them to Rory.

  He did not ring the bell as he thought it would be embarrassing for Sheinna that he was ordering a servant to deceive her father.

  “Please understand, Rory,” he told the butler when he found him in the hall, “you are on no account to say who you are or where you come from.”

  Rory was listening intently.

  “If you are asked where the party is taking place,” the Duke went on, “or where her Ladyship is staying, you must just look vague.”

  “Please leave it to me, Your Grace,” Rory asserted. “Your Grace knows I always enjoy a secret!”

  The Duke knew this to be true.

  When he was a boy, it was always Rory, who was a footman then, who would creep out with him at night and it was usually to swim in the sea or to spy on the poachers on the river.

  It was Rory who would take him to the top of the moor where the snow was lying deep and when everyone else warned that it was too dangerous.

  He realised that Rory would appreciate even better than anyone else what a commotion it would cause when he announced formally that he and Sheinna were engaged to be married.

  He had not told him yet what they were planning, but he was certain for several good reasons that Rory had his suspicions of what was going on –

  One was that his cousin, the Countess, as always had been talking so loud, and another, that a MacFallin had not crossed the threshold of the Castle for at least fifty years.

  “I’ll be as quick as I can, Your Grace,” Rory said as the Duke handed him the notes. “As you’ll be dancing the reels tonight, I’m having your best kilt pressed and your finest sporran taken out of the safe.”

  That particular ceremonial sporran had been worn by the Chieftain of the McBarrens for generations. It was a fine piece of workmanship and the fur on it was owed to the keen eye and good marksmanship of its first owner.

  The Duke smiled.

  He mused, if nothing else, he and Sheinna would enjoy an amusing evening before they went into battle.

  ‘I don’t want her to become upset or depressed,’ he thought. ‘While this idea of mine will definitely save her from being forced to marry the ghastly Sir Ewen, there will undoubtedly be many unpleasant moments ahead for both of us.’

  He walked back to the study to find that Sheinna was engrossed in a book on India she had taken down from one of the shelves.

  “I have been looking at the illustrations and reading about the North-West Frontier,” she sighed. “How I would love to go to India!”

  “Perhaps it would be a good place to travel to if we have to run away?”

  “Now you are not to try and make me believe that is possible, but it’s a country that I would rather visit than anywhere else in the world.”

  “I thought that when I was out there, but I was even more fascinated by Nepal, perhaps because it is so close to the Himalayas.”

  “Tell me about them, please tell me about them,” Sheinna begged him. “If I was a man, I would try to climb them, but as I am a woman I must be content to kneel at their feet and look up at them.”

  “They are just incredibly beautiful. I will find you other books which will tell you more about the Himalayas than the one you are reading.”

  “Oh, thank you, thank you, Alpin,” she enthused. “I only hope that I will be able to absorb them before I am dragged away from you by Papa.”

  “We must prevent him from doing so – otherwise he will force you to marry Sir Ewen and you will then be unable to escape again.”

  He saw the expression of fear in her eyes and that she trembled.

  He suggested quickly,

  “Forget about him, we are going to enjoy ourselves tonight as if we were two people very much in love with each other and celebrating with our friends.”

  “You are not going to tell them we are engaged?” Sheinna asked him.

  “I think we should do. It will be more difficult for your father to force you up the aisle with Sir Ewen or even to take you home as a prisoner if so many people know about our engagement.”

  He paused before he added,

  “They will be just astonished, but it will give them something new to talk about.”

  “Are you quite certain that we are doing the right thing?” Sheinna asked him. “I am thinking of you and how it will be very very difficult for you, Alpin, when everyone is horrified at your intention to marry a MacFallin.”

  “I don’t think everyone will be horrified. Many of the guests who are coming tonight, I should imagine, are quite unaware of the animosity between our two Clans.”

  Sheinna looked surprised, but he carried on,

  “Some of them come from Edinburgh, others from London. I had really forgotten that my cousin was holding such a big party. It is in fact her daughter’s birthday.”

  He remembered as he spoke that he had asked his mother to buy a present for him to give to the birthday girl and he only hoped she had not forgotten, as he had.

  “If everyone is so interested in the birthday party,” Sheinna commented, “they will not then be concentrating on us.”

  The Duke thought that this was wishful thinking, but he did not say so.

  He could easily imagine the disagreeable comments his cousin Moira would make about the MacFallins.

  Then he thought the one thing he should do was to keep Sheinna from being too worried about what might happen at the party.

  He therefore talked about India until it was time to go and dress for dinner.

  But before they did so he took Sheinna once again up to the top of the Castle to view the sunset.

  The lights in that part of Scotland were known to be some of the most stunning ever and the sun was sinking slowly behind the hills, while its last rays illuminated the moors on either side of the bay.

  It was far more glorious the Duke considered than anything one could experience in India or anywhere else in the world for that matter.

  He sensed as they stood together in silence on the top of one of the towers that Sheinna felt the same.

  When the sun vanished and they looked up, the first evening star was glittering overhead.

  “Thank you, thank you, Alpin,” Sheinna muttered. “This is something I will always remember. You are the luckiest man in the world to be able to stand on your own Castle and see anything so indescribably wonderful.”

  The way she spoke to him and the deep sincerity in her voice was, the Duke felt, very moving.

  He was used to women who were only animated when he was talking about themselves and who had little enthusiasm for the world he loved and wanted to explore.

  When they climbed down the narrow steps from the tower, Sheinna went to her bedroom.

  She thought it was beautifully furnished and very luxurious, but she would have taken it for granted if she was still in England.

  She had indeed not expected to find anything quite so comfortable in Scotland and when she compared it with her own home, she thought it was absurd for her father to be so behind the times.

  He did not realise that people had progressed and in doing so they expected more for themselves than they had ever desired in the past.

  She had always taken it for granted that the ri
ch people in England would have fine houses in London and even larger and more prestigious ones in the country.

  It was thus only since she had returned to Scotland that she had realised how out-of-date and uncomfortable her home was.

  Here in the Castle everything was in perfect good taste and no visitor could find fault with anything.

  Her clothes that Rory brought back from her home were already unpacked and hanging in the wardrobe and a bath was arranged on the hearth in front of the fire.

  There was just a small fire burning in the grate as when the sun went down and as a cold wind blew in from the sea.

  Her four-poster bed was draped with copious velvet curtains and there were several mirrors in which she could see her own reflection.

  “You have plenty of time,” the Duke told her as he showed her into the room. “I have learnt that the guests are arriving for dinner at eight o’clock.”

  “Where shall I go – when I am ready?” she asked in a frightened voice.

  “We will meet in the large drawing room, which is a little further along the corridor where you met my mother earlier. There will be a footman outside to open the door for you. I promise I will be there, so that you will not have to enter the room alone.”

  “Oh, thank you!” Sheinna exclaimed. “I shall be very shy because I expect I will know no one.”

  “You will know me,” the Duke replied, “and I will look after you this evening, Sheinna. So don’t be afraid.”

  She smiled at him.

  He thought that unlike many women he had known she was not demanding or clinging to him.

  He went to his own room to find that his valet was waiting for him with his bath.

  By the time he had changed he realised that it was only twenty minutes to eight and it would be a kindness to Sheinna if he picked her up before she left her bedroom.

  He could understand too well that she would be shy in walking into a room where she knew no one – except for his mother and his cousin Moira, who he was sure would continue being hostile.

  He knocked on Sheinna’s door and a maid opened it.

  “I came to see if her Ladyship is ready.”

  Before the maid could answer Sheinna ran across the room to him.