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‘You should not have taken advantage of my servant,’ said Orla, feeling only mild outrage on Sykes’ behalf as the woman was quite capable of taking care of herself.
‘Bah, she was no one’s servant. That grasping bitch only serves herself.’ He chuckled again. ‘As if I couldn’t see through her from the start. ‘Twas no love between us, not even affection, but ‘twas some fine sport while it lasted. Now, I am tired, so off with you, find my son, and get started on my brood of heirs. Unless you want him to carry on visiting Inverness whenever the fancy takes him.’
Orla left the hall feeling angrily territorial, and she determined to find Wolfric as soon as may be and give Rufus his wish.
‘Enough with the spectre of Elva hanging over my marriage,’ she muttered to herself. ‘It is time to stop being a lady and start acting like a Munro.’
Chapter Thirty
Wolfric stared down at the gurgling bairn in the cradle, all fat cheeks and tiny mouth, twitching in slumber. He was surprised by a sudden stab of tenderness.
‘There is a rumour going around that some redcoat deserters had been hanged. I do hope that was not on my account?’ said Elva.
‘I had not heard that,’ he said.
Wolfric turned away from the bairn, irritation wriggling like a worm in his breast. It gnawed at him every time he looked at Elva, even though she looked radiant now that the toil of childbirth had faded – plump-breasted, serenely happy with motherhood. Yet something lingered at the edge of her words that troubled him.
‘It is a shame that the man who did this to you is still at large and goes unpunished,’ he said.
‘While I am punished daily, and now I am to be sent away to strangers, far from here, away from scandal. It is unfair, seeing as your wife courts so much of it, yet she gets to stay.’
The worm sank its teeth in again.
‘My wife is innocent of what she was accused. And it is the best for you and the bairn, Elva. Folk will forever name him a bastard if he grows to manhood in Inverness. In Edinburgh, you can start a new life, and the Symons are good friends of ours, kindly and respectable. You will have protection as their servant and be well provided for. Have I not promised that?’
‘Aye, and you are very kind to me, Wolfric. More than a poor, shamed lass deserves. And at least I have my bairn for consolation.’ Her smile lit up her face, soft with motherly love
‘But can you love the lad, truly, lass, seeing as he is the result of forcing?’ Wolfric locked eyes with her, and Elva’s smile faltered.
‘Tis not his fault how he came into the world.’
‘No, ‘tis not, and he is a fine, sturdy lad with his mother’s looks. As to his father’s character, let us hope he takes after you in that too.’
Silence fell between them for a while, and Elva stared into the fireplace as if it was the most interesting thing in the world.
‘What did you mean when you were in labour, Elva, when you said you could not enter heaven because of a lie?’
She would not meet his eye. ‘Oh, nothing. I was beside myself with the pain of it all and talking nonsense.’
‘I don’t think so. Lass, I have asked around Inverness, in every dark and disreputable corner, and amongst the redcoats at Fort George, and no one has seen a man with a scar on his face with red hair. Such a man would stand out, surely?’
‘But it was him. I told you.’
‘No, it wasn’t. I think you lied about the man who attacked you, lass,’ said Wolfric quietly.
‘No. I was forced. He hurt me. I swear. You saw it with your own eyes.’
‘Well, you lied about something, so out with it. It is time for the truth before you leave for Edinburgh.’
Elva’s bottom lip trembled, and tears filled her eyes, but Wolfric was not swayed. He stood in silence, staring her out until she broke.
‘Alright. I lied just a little, just about what he looked like. Last year, there was an accident. A stranger passing through fell from his horse and broke his neck. A tinker found him and carried his body through Inverness on a cart. I saw the corpse when it passed. The man had a foul scar on his face as if someone had tried to slash it in two, and hair so red, like the heart of a flame. His face was like chalk and set fast in a death mask so awful that it stalked my nightmares for weeks to come. I never forgot it.’
‘So when you had to lie and conjure a villain, you thought of that corpse. Why not tell the truth, Elva?’
‘I had heard you rail about those redcoats who had attacked a lass on Ross land. You were so angry and swore you would champion her cause. You would not have done that for me if you knew I had lain with a man willingly. I would have been banished from Blackreach and left to starve in the hedgerows with my bairn withering inside me.’
‘So you were willing then? You had a lover?’
