“What are you waiting for? You will comeinto the Hall.” Without waiting for them, Evelyn turned anddisappeared through the door.
Disappointment slapped Tess across the face.The happiness of a moment ago soured in her throat.
“Let’s go inside.” Colin murmured in herear. Taking her by the arm, he encouraged her up the steps.
A spiral stairwell inside took them up tothe Great Hall of Ninestane Castle. It was a high, wood-paneledchamber with a great fire burning in a fireplace at one end of theroom. Servants moved about the smoky hall, and a half dozen armedBurnett warriors glared at the Highlander. A few feet from theirmistress, a number of ladies-in-waiting watched attentively.Evelyn, however, was standing alone by the dais when Colin and Tesscrossed the room.
“Jenny will take you to your bedchamber,Theresa. You can clean and change for dinner.” Dismissing her witha wave of her hand, Evelyn indicated that Tess was to follow aservant who stepped forward. She turned to Colin next. “You willtake your men around to the west wing to the kitchen. You all willbe fed, and then you will start back to the Highlands…tonight.”
Tess shook off her shock at the abrupttreatment and spoke up as brightly as she could. “Mother, ‘tiswonderful to see you after so many years.” She took Colin’s arm andpresented him. “Please allow me to present Colin Macpherson, theyoungest son of Lord Alec Macpherson and Lady Fiona DrummondStewart. He is the brave nobleman who found me on the Isle ofMay.”
Lady Evelyn looked coolly from one to theother for a long moment.
“If you think there is a reward to becollected, Highlander,” Evelyn said shortly, “you are mistaken. SirDavid sent enough men to escort my daughter back. ’Twas at your ownchoice to travel so far—”
“M’lady, he isnothere to collect any reward,” Tess shot back. Her greatest fears hadmaterialized. “’Twas because of this man and his family’scompassion and generosity that I stand before you now. I owe him mylife.” She sensed Colin was about to make an objection, so shelooped her hand through his arm and held it tightly. “He is nothere to be paid for anything he has done. He is here because hecared enough to come and make certain I am safely settled. He is myfriend, and it gave me great pleasure to know that you would havean opportunity to meet him, too.”
There was an instant of silence as all colordrained from her mother’s face.
“You are speaking nonsense, TheresaCatherine. Befriending a Highlander!” She looked with disdain atTess’s wet and muddy attire. “Up to your room this instant. I wantyou out of those filthy clothes. Already you are a disappointment.I can see I shall have a lifetime of instructing ahead of me tocorrect all that you are lacking.”
Tess stared with disbelief at the thin andrigid figure by the dais.
Colin spoke his first words since arriving in thehall. “If you will give us a moment, m’lady, perhaps we can startover. You’ll be pleasantly surprised at how accomplished yourdaughter is…in spite of…nay, because of her time on theisland.”
“Accomplished in what way? In shearingsheep, mending a fishing net, being a simpleton? I read the letteryou people sent me. She is obviously incapable even of exercisinggood judgment.”
“And how capableyouare of goodjudgment!” Colin fired back. “To make such a detailed assessment ofyour daughter with just a moment’s look and a few exchanged words.”He shook his head. “If your idea of accomplishment consists ofinsensitivity and arrogance, how fortunate Tess is that fateplucked her from your bosom at such a tender age. Aye, she wasindeed blessed.”
“Who are you to speak to me!” Evelynwhispered furiously.
Tears then splashed onto the woman’s eyes,but she did not wipe them away. She turned from Colin and fixed hergaze on the floor at her daughter’s feet. Once again attuned to hermother’s ways, Tess watched Evelyn’s temper turn to sorrow.
“I cannot believe I am to be treated soheartlessly. A grieving mother. My life shattered by the beliefthat her only child was lost…forever. The endless nights of prayerand anguish. The days of lonely reflection. The loss of hope. Thedespair that I should be the only one left.” She turned tearful,accusing eyes on Tess. “And then the news that you were alive. Andwhat do you do? Instead of coming directly to your own kin…to yourmother…you decide to go and hold court with strangers in theHighlands. You chose them over me. And then…then you expect me,your mother, at my age and in my condition to come and pay homageto you.”
“M’lady, ’twas not like that!” Tess blurted out.“’Twas not out of disrespect that you were invited there.”
“If you hear me for a moment,” Colin added calmly,“you will understand that I recommended that Tess come to BenmoreCastle first, in part because we did not know where you wereresiding at present. As your daughter says, there was no disrespectintended.”
“Say what you will, I have been deeply wounded.”
Tess opened her mouth to say more, butEvelyn raised a hand for silence and turned sharply to Colin.
“Sir, you have done your duty and delivered mydaughter safely to me. Now, you will take your leave immediately. Ihave no wish to be disturbed any longer by the presence of filthyHighlanders in Ninestane Castle.”
Having dismissed him, she turned back to herdaughter.
“And you, Theresa Catherine, are now under myprotection. You will do as I see fit. And just so that youunderstand the magnitude of my disappointment, my plan has been topresent you at Court and negotiate a suitable marriage on yourbehalf. But that can only happen after you have been properlyinstructed in the ways of the gentility. And ‘tis abundantly clearto me that Sir David and I have a great deal of work ahead ofus.”
“But Mother, I—”
“That is the end of this discussion. Youwilldo as you are told. I will receive you in my chambersonce you changed into more suitable attire. Say goodbye to yourHighlander. You shall not be seeing him again.”
With a withering glance at Colin, LadyEvelyn turned and glided from the hall.
Angry and frustrated, Colin ran a weary handover his face and stared after the woman. This was not exactly howhe’d imagined this meeting would go. The setback of not being ableto explain everything properly had his blood boiling.
By the saints, he thought, he hadn’t helpedany by losing his temper with the woman, either. He was clearly thedevil himself, as far as Tess’s mother was concerned, and he was ata loss regarding how to remedy that now.
