Page 59 of Walk on the Wildsyde

“You mean it, Mrs M?” Jimmy said, wide-eyed with shock. “You really want me to?”

“Aye. I do,” Mrs Macready said fiercely, glaring at Reverend Halliday like he might deny it on her behalf. “You are a sweet laddie, Jimmy, and ye deserve a good home, and if ye would like to make yers with me, I’d be glad to have yer company. ’Tis silly me rattling about alone in that house with my bairns grown and Mr Macready gone ten years and more.”

Clara stared at her father, who seemed to be held up purely by the grip Mrs Cameron had on his arm. “I think I’d like to sit down, Flora,” he said in a somewhat plaintive tone.

“Aye, Robert, and so ye shall,” Mrs Cameron said briskly, pulling out a chair and plumping up a cushion before guiding the reverend into it.

He sat heavily and ran an unsteady hand over his forehead before gazing at Jimmy once more.

“You,” he said with reproach in his voice. “Are the boy from London, the one who came to Thorney to escape a beating from some dreadful gang. The one you told me you had sent back to where he had come from, as I instructed you to do,” he added, turning his accusing gaze upon Clara.

“Ye did what?” Mrs Cameron said, pausing in the act of pouring him a cup of tea.

The reverend looked at Mrs Cameron and saw, as they all did, the steely glint in her eyes. “Ye would nae do such an unchristian thing as turn yer back on a child in peril, would ye Robert?” she asked, a tone to her voice that suggested there was only one answer to this question.

“Er… well, I may have been somewhat hasty, I suppose, but I’m so glad that you have found a home with Mrs Macready, er, Jimmy, is it?” the reverend said weakly, giving Mrs Cameron a placating smile before turning to Jimmy again. “That’s good, very good. A wonderful Christian woman is Mrs Macready, so you make sure you mind her and repay her for her generosity.”

“There’ll be nae speak of Christian charity and repaying anything,” Mrs Macready said, startling them all with the force of her response. “He’ll come as my laddie, to be loved like any of my other bairns. I’ll nae have him feel he owes me for every meal or stitch of clothing on his back.”

“Oh, Mrs M!” Jimmy said in a choked voice, starting up from the chair and throwing himself at the lady with such force she staggered. He sobbed against her ample bosom and Mrs Macready blinked hard, hugging him tightly in return.

“There’s nae need for waterworks,” she said, not unkindly as she was sniffing vigorously herself. “I’m glad to have ye, dinnae be forgetting that. It gets a mite lonely with all my bairns grown and gone away.”

“It sounds like the perfect arrangement,” Clara said, finding a lump in her throat at the happiness she could see in both parties’ expressions.

“It is,” Mrs Macready said firmly. “But what of that nasty piece of work who caused all the trouble?”

“He’s being carried to his brother’s house,” Mrs Cameron said, looking pleased to divulge information they did not have. “The ladies have gone with him to explain what happened. I’ve nae doubt Angus will call upon ye in the morning to hear it from yerself, Mr Anderson,” she added.

Hamilton grimaced, clearly not looking forward to that meeting.

“There is rather a more pressing point to discuss, Clara,” her father said, his expression hard. “What is this about you marrying Mr Anderson? As far as I knew, you did not even like the fellow, let alone know him with any degree of intimacy. What has been happening behind my back? I told you she ought not to have gone to that dinner at Angus Stewart’s house, Flora. I told you it—”

“You told me a good many things, and if ye are thinking of telling me Miss Halliday should nae marry a fine fellow like our Mr Anderson, I will be thinking ye have taken leave of yer senses,” Mrs Cameron said frankly. She crossed her arms, and Clara saw with interest that as sweet and kind as she might appear, Mrs Cameron was not a woman to be bullied or put upon.

“This man is the one causing all the trouble, Flora!” the reverend objected.

“He is nae,” Mrs Cameron said with a sigh. “Ye cannae make a man into the devil just to suit yerself, Robert. He’s a good man, nae perfect, none of us is, aye. Are ye so unblemished in the eyes of the Lord?”

Rather fascinated, Clara watched her father consider this. “No,” he admitted. “I have come to see that I have made a good many mistakes, and I’ve been hard on you, Clara. But that only shows that I ought to step in if my daughter is at risk of making a bad marriage.”

“A bad marriage?” Flora repeated, eyes wide with incredulity. “Are ye thinking of finding her a duke? He’s the son of an earl, he’s wealthy and well thought of, and with your influence, perhaps ye could do great things together, aye?”

Clara held her breath as her father considered this.

“I’ll think on it,” he said, his tone grudging.

“Ye will think fast,” Mrs Cameron said tartly. “For I tell ye now, Robert, a house can only have one mistress, so I’ll nae be wedding ye if she is still in residence, for that will be misery for all concerned.”

“Flora, I really don’t think we ought to discuss this—”

“In front of yer daughter? When she is the one most concerned by the decision? Nae, Robert, we’ll have this out now or not at all. Ye asked me to wed ye, and I said yes, but I’ll nae take over a household where yer daughter is mistress and have her resent me when all she wants is to have a home of her own, and rightly so.”

Clara watched, stunned, and not a little impressed by the ease with which Mrs Cameron stood up to her father, who blustered and muttered for a bit longer.

Glowering, he folded his arms. “I want more than I can say, to marry you, Flora, but I cannot in all conscience approve a match between my daughter and a man who not only owns a distillery but intends to run a tavern under my very nose!”

“Aye, well, about the tavern,” Hamilton said, meeting the man’s eyes. “I’ve been thinking about doing something else with it, seeing as how it will need starting over again anyhow, presuming there’s anything left of it,” he added grimly.