Page 61 of Return to Wildsyde

“Ach, mo chridhe, dinnae cry.”

“What does that mean?” she asked, sniffling.

Lyall smiled and wiped the tears away with his thumbs, holding her face in his hands. “It means ‘my heart,’ for I have given mine to ye. Truth be told, ye stole it away and I could nae stop ye, but I dinnae want to stop ye now, Luella. These past days without ye have been misery. Ye brought the joy and the colour back to my life. Dinnae make me live without them again.”

Luella shook her head, fighting to keep her composure. “Oh, Lyall, I’ve been so unh-h-happy. I want to go home.”

He embraced her so tightly she could hardly breathe, but she didn’t care. She clung to him, burying her face in his neck and somehow finding the familiar scent of the place she loved, for he was that place as much as Wildsyde and the magnificent setting around it.

“Then we shall return to Wildsyde together, and we shall have a fine wedding and celebrate so merrily no one will be able to gossip and say we’ve done it for anything but love, because everyone will see the truth, plain and simple.”

“Will it really be for love?” she asked him, hardly daring to believe it even after all he’d said to her.

Those leonine eyes were warm and filled with everything she had ever dreamed he might feel for her. “Aye, sweet lass. It will, at that.”

“Then… Then that sounds perfectly wonderful,” she said, her voice thick with emotion.

“But Luella, there’s just one condition,” he said, the words stern despite the amusement glinting in his eyes.

“Oh?” she asked cautiously.

“Ye have to say yes, aye?”

“Aye!” Luella cried, laughing now.

“Ach, that’ll do,” he said with a grin, and kissed her again.

Chapter 20

Dear Mr Barry,

Please forgive me for writing to you in such a bold manner. If my brother finds out, I dread to think what he will do, but you told me once that you owed me a debt for tending to you when you were so grievously injured, that you would help me if I wished to escape the circumstances I found myself in. I was far too afraid to do so before, but now I am afraid what will happen if I do not.

Help me, sir, I beg you. I do not know where else to turn. I will wait in the gardens of St Paul’s Church in Covent Garden on Friday at midday. Please, do not fail me.

―Excerpt of a letter from Miss Rosemarie Fortesque to Mr Thomas Barry – AKA The Lord Thomas ‘Thorn’ Barrington (son of The Most Hon’ble Lucian and Matilda Barrington, The Marquess and Marchioness of Montagu).

20th August 1845, Wildsyde Castle, The Highlands of Scotland.

“Oh, how handsome you look!”

“Ma! Ye can nae just come barging in without knocking! I’m nae a wee laddie anymore. Heaven alone knows what ye might see,” Lyall protested as his mother bustled through his bedroom door.

“Don’t be daft,” she said, rolling her eyes. “Anyway, I know very well you’ve been up since dawn. Fretting yourself to death, I don’t doubt. Did you eat any breakfast, at least?”

“Aye,” he replied with a sigh, for there was no point in trying to fob her off or act indignant. She’d been in alt since she’d arrived at Wildsyde yesterday, with his father and brothers in tow for the wedding this morning. “Sheenagh made me an enormous plate of sausages and eggs, said I needed to keep my strength up,” he added with a snort.

His mother laughed and handed him a small pile of letters. “Well-wishers, I assume?”

He glanced at the post and nodded. “Aye, I reckon. Did Georgie arrive yet?”

“Yes, your sister arrived just before I came up. Jack has taken little James and Rochford to see Adaira. He wasn’t the least bit intimidated by the duke, you know. Oh, Lyall, you should have seen him. Jack is so pleased to have little cousins. He kissed baby Isla very sweetly and said how pretty she was. And he said it was almost as good as having a little brother, for James is already following him around like a lamb. You and Luella must hurry and have children so he can have a proper family around him.”

“Give us a chance, Ma,” Lyall remonstrated in exasperation, though he had every intention of doing just that.

Jack had been so happy to discover Luella was marrying him that Lyall had been touched more than he’d been able to express. The boy badly needed a father, and Lyall was ready to do his utmost to fill that position. He figured he’d best get some practice in before they had bairns of their own, in any case. It was no hardship, for he was very fond of the lad, who had a good heart and already felt like part of the family.

Sitting down on the bed with the letters his mother had handed him, Lyall looked them over. There were several notes from his friends, congratulating him with varying degrees of rudeness. The one from Larkin made him exclaim out loud, though.