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.He made no movement, but she felt as if he was reaching out towards her and she knew that it was only by an effort of willpower that she stopped her feet from carrying her swiftly into his arms.For a moment she had forgotten the Earl and even where they were.She just felt as if the room vanished and she had only to lift her lips to the Duke for him to hold her captive.Her love welled up inside her almost like a tidal wave and she knew that the Duke felt the same and that even though they were not touching each other they were close spiritually, mentally and physically in a way that was impossible to define.‘I love you!’ Fiona felt the words tremble on her lips.Then she forced herself to curtsey to smile at the Earl, and to begin to walk across the room.Before she could reach the door, the Duke was there and they both put out their hands towards the handle at the same moment.As their fingers touched, Fiona felt not only a streak of lightning sweep through her, as it always did when she touched him, but she sensed that the same feeling brought him an agony that she could see in his eyes and a sudden tightening of his lips.She knew that the control he imposed on himself was strained until one day it would reach the breaking point.‘I must be careful,’ she thought.Then, when she reached her bedroom, she thought that perhaps she should go away.‘How can we go on forever as we are?’ she asked herself.She wondered if it would be kinder to the Duke and more sensible to accept his first suggestion to move to Edinburgh with Mary-Rose.Everything in her body cried out at the thought of being separated from him and yet everything that was human and passionate in her nature warned her that she was playing with fire.*The following morning Fiona learnt from Mrs.Meredith that the Duke and the Earl were leaving early for a long ride, which meant that she and Mary-Hose had The Castle to themselves for the day.Looking out the window, Fiona saw that it was bright with sunshine and she decided that they must be out of doors as much as possible.“Excuse me askin’, miss,” Mrs.Meredith said, breaking in on her thoughts, “but when you have the time, it would be real kind of you if you would call on old Granny.”“Who is she?” Fiona asked.“That’s what we always call her, miss, because she’s the oldest woman in the Clan.She used to look after His Grace and Lord Ian when they were small and she loves to talk of the old days.”“Of course I will go and see her.”“She’s nearly blind now, miss, and her mind wanders a bit, but I was told yesterday that she were askin’ to see you.It’d be a real kindness if you would call on her.”“Of course I will,” Fiona said.“Where does she live?“Next to the East Gate, miss.It’ll only take you about five minutes to walk there.”“Then I will call on her when Mary-Rose has her rest,” Fiona promised.“I’ll send one of the men to tell her you’ll be a-callin’,” Mrs.Meredith said.“I know Granny’ll be lookin’ forward to it.”The sunshine, which had seemed so bright early in the morning, turned to rain and Mary-Rose could therefore not go for a walk as she usually did after her lessons.Instead they played the piano, after which the child concentrated on making a drawing of Rollo, which she was doing as a surprise for the Duke.“It’s difficult to get his fur right, Aunt Fiona,” she said after she had been drawing for a little while.“Let’s go to the kennels so that I can look at Rollo and see what I am doing wrong.”“I expect Rollo will have gone with your uncle,” Fiona replied.“Stay here.I will enquire.”She walked to the landing to look down to where there were two footmen on duty.She called one, who ran up towards her, his kilt swinging as he did so and Fiona thought that no elaborate English livery could be as smart or as becoming.“Has Rollo gone with His Grace?” she asked.“Aye, miss,” the footman replied.“I sees him runnin’ behind the horses when his Lordship rode off.”“Thank you,” Fiona said.“That is all I wanted to know.”She went back to Mary-Rose, who threw down her pencil, saying,“I shall have to wait until tomorrow.I cannot do any more without seeing Rollo.”“Shall I read to you, dearest?” Fiona suggested.“Or shall we go and explore the library?”Mary-Rose brightened.“That would be fun! Uncle Aiden has lots and lots of books and some of them have pictures in them.”“Then let’s go and see what we can find,” Fiona proposed.They found a book that contained drawings of dogs, which amused Mary-Rose.She talked about it all through luncheon and took it to bed with her when she went to lie down.“I want you to try to sleep,” Fiona urged, “so we will put the book beside you and it will be there when you wake up.”“I want to find if there is a picture in it where the dog looks as beautiful as Rollo.”“I am sure that would be impossible,” Fiona smiled.She tucked the little girl in comfortably, kissed her and pulled the curtains over the window.“Don’t be longer than an hour, Aunt Fiona,” Mary-Rose begged.“No, of course not,” Fiona agreed.“I promise you I will come back exactly at half-past two.”“I will be very good,” Mary-Rose promised.As she closed the door, Fiona hurried to her own bedroom and picked up a light shawl to put round her shoulders.It was no longer raining, but the sky was overcast and, instead of going bare-headed as she would have done on a sunny day, she pinned on a small straw hat that went with her gown of blue cotton trimmed with little frills of broderie anglaise.It had taken Fiona many hours of work, but she knew that although the gown had cost her very little, it was exceedingly becoming and she hoped that the Duke would see her in it later when he returned from his ride.Carrying an umbrella, she went down the wide marble staircase that led to the front door and walked away in the direction of the East Gate.There was a good deal of ground for her to cover because this part of The Castle walls stretched out a long way to the East and she passed both the Falconer’s Tower and the Abbott’s Tower, which she and Mary-Rose had explored together.She found the little lodge and the door was ajar.“Come in,” a quavering old voice called when she knocked and she found a very small white-haired old woman seated in a chair by the fireside.“You must excuse me not getting’ up, Miss,” Granny said, “but I canna manage to stand on my own two legs by myself these days.”“Please don’t move,” Fiona said.“I will sit beside you.”She found a chair and sat down, noting as she did so that the room was spotlessly clean and was filled with little pieces of china, most of which contained bunches of faded white heather and small mementoes, which she was sure were part of the old woman’s youth.They talked for some time and then Fiona said,“I am very sorry to learn of how His Grace lost his wife.It must be very sad for everyone to know that the mystery has never been solved.”“That’s true enough,” Granny said in her quavering voice.“But ’twas not a happy marriage.I knew that as soon as his Lordship, as he was then, brings home his bride.”“How did you know that?” Fiona enquired and realised as she spoke that it was a stupid question.She was quite certain that Granny was what the Scots call ‘fey’.There was something about her that Fiona instinctively recognised [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]