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“Tut-tut, Grace!” he admonished. “Is it not time you began to call me by my Christian name? You do know what it is, don’t you?” There was a twinkle in his eye as he said it, and in spite of her dislike of him, she smiled.
“Yes, Robert,” Grace answered.
“Call me Rob,” he told her. “All my friends do.”
‘Perhaps I should give him a chance,’she thought.‘Maybe I have not seen his good side yet.’
She gave him a quick but thorough appraisal. He was not an unattractive man by any means; in fact, if she had never seen Fergus, she might have considered him handsome. He was very much like his brother, but shorter and slimmer, and his eyes were grey rather than blue. He wore no beard, and the bone structure of his face was not as chiseled and well-defined as his brother’s. Neither did he have such sensual lips, since they were thinner than Fergus’s, which she longed to kiss.
Of course, she reminded herself, looks were not everything, and it was the person inside that counted. She remembered the conversation at their midday meal that had nearly sent her to sleep and had to stop herself yawning at the very thought of it.
“Come,” Robert said, taking her hand. “Have you seen the top of the highest tower yet?”
“No, not yet,” Grace answered, smiling. This was something she was genuinely interested in since the tower at Inverleck Castle stretched several hundred feet into the air and could be seen for miles around. Even though she was not good at coping with high places, she was determined not to allow her future husband to see it. She would show no weakness that he could possibly use against her. However, she knew that if she wanted a quiet life, there should be no more arguments like the one they’d had earlier.
“I am looking forward to seeing the view from the top,” she told him. “It must be spectacular.”
Robert was still holding her hand as they walked away from his study. Grace’s first instinctive reaction was to pull away from him straight away, but she resisted the impulse, telling herself that she must become used to him touching her. If he was going to be her husband, she would have to accustom herself to much more intimate contact, after all. The thought made her shudder inwardly.
They climbed what seemed like an endless upward spiral of stairs, and Grace was surprised that Robert had to stop a few times to catch his breath.
The first time, she bent down to look into his face and asked, “are you well, Rob?”
He glared at her. “I am quite well!” he answered irritably. After a few more seconds, he straightened up and began to climb again. He did not apologize for his rudeness, Grace noticed, but she let it wash over her. She had not really expected him to do so. When they were obliged to stop again, and yet again, she said nothing, but merely waited for him to recover.
When they finally reached the top step, Robert looked as though he might collapse, but straightened himself up and went to peer over the crenulated edge of the turret.
Grace felt queasy at the thought of looking down from such a great height, but as she looked at Robert’s back, she was determined not to let him win what had become a contest of wills.
‘If he can do it, then so can I,’she thought mutinously. She stepped forward to look over the wall, and her knees turned to jelly. She felt sick suddenly, and clutched at the stone to keep herself from falling over, then closed her eyes so that she could not see the world spinning in front of her. When she opened them again, the view in front of her had come to a standstill, but she found that she was looking straight into Robert’s eyes. However, he did not look concerned about her. Rather, he looked…triumphant?
Grace felt a surge of rage, but fought to contain it, and in a moment her face assumed a genuine expression of wonder, as she turned to look out over the magnificent view in front of her.
“Are you all right?” Robert asked, at last assuming a worried air. “You seem a bit shaken.”
“I was, for a moment,” she admitted as she finally let go of the wall. Then she waved her arm to indicate the panorama spread out before her. “But look at this. This is heaven on earth.”
Robert almost visibly preened himself. “I agree.” His voice was filled with pride.
Grace was taking no notice of him. Her eyes were admiring the dark grey clouds scudding across the paler sky above them, with an occasional patch of blue showing here and there. It seemed so close she could almost touch it.
Her gaze dropped to the horizon, where the rounded tops of gentle green hills met the sky. They were crisscrossed by grey dry stone walls, each one built by the hands, sweat and labor of hundreds of people over many years. Grace always wondered about those legions of people every time she looked at them.
The green hills were dotted liberally with hundreds of black-faced sheep, but here and there, Highland cattle, with their long shaggy coats and impressive horns, could also be seen. Most had half-grown calves by their side. Grace’s father had a whole herd of them, and she had always been surprised by how their gentle nature contrasted with their fearsome appearance. Now the great, formidable beasts were mere dots in a sea of green. She made herself a promise that she would go to visit them one day.
There was a small forest of dark spruce and pine trees that followed the contour of the hill on the castle’s eastern side, behind which the sun rose every morning. Grace wondered how many secrets the trees held under their eaves. How many secret lovers’ trysts had taken place there?
She felt a wave of sadness wash over her at the thought; she and Fergus would never kiss under those branches, or make love lying on the forest floor in the dappled shade. She had fantasized over this scenario many times, since daydreaming was as close as she would ever come to achieving it.
She shook herself out of her reverie and looked down at the view directly below them. It was just as fascinating, but in a different way.
There were narrow layers of turrets just below, each one becoming wider as it approached ground level. The last one had a long flight of stairs down to the smaller courtyard, adjacent to which were the stables, and beside that, the larger courtyard where the men practiced their military skills.
‘How long did it take to build this castle?’she thought.‘It must have been a hundred years at least. It is such a wonderful place, but I don’t want to live here, unless it’s with Fergus.’
She sighed, and the sound did not go unnoticed by Robert, who looked at her keenly. “Are you quite well, Grace?” he asked again.
‘Is he deliberately trying to annoy me, or can he just not help it?’she thought angrily. “I am well, M’Laird,” she replied, composing her face into a smile again.
