Gentle Tyrant Page 7

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  LAURIE had quite expected Rod to be somewhere in the vidnity of the stable when she went to fetch Brownie, but he was nowhere to be seen. It was Saturday afternoon and he usually joined her for a ride on Saturdays, unless he was wanted for some chore around the estate, usually one designated by Quin. Apparently he was wanted today and had already gone out, for she noticed that both Quin's grey and Rod's Arab were missing from their stalls. Obviously he was out somewhere with Quin on estate business,. and she swallowed her disappointment and resigned herself to riding alone. During the past few days. she had denied herself the pleasure of riding because she was frankly unwilling to face Rose McAdam again since her accident and the ensuing accusations against herself. She seldom saw her during working hours, but Rose McAdam also rode and it was possible she might bump into her if she came to the stable, so, until today, she had stayed away. She knew that the other woman was fully recovered from her accident and was up and about again, because Rod had told her so. He had also said that she showed no sign of leaving yet, much to his regret, and Laurie wondered how much longer the visit was going to be 116 I extended. There was no doubt that Russ enjoyed having his son with him, even though it involved having to tolerate his mother being there as well, and if only she had been prepared to stay at the hotel and not keep visiting the house, it would have been better for everyone. But while Quin was such an attraction Rose McAdam was unLikely to either stay away from the house or leave altogether. It was such a pity, Laurie thought, that Russ could not spend more rime with the boy. He was much less able to be a constant companion to him than most Fathers were because of his disablement, and Laurie felt deeply for him having to watch Colin go off .riding w walking without him. She knew it must pain him more than he would ever idmit, for she had seen the hurt look in his eyes when he boy rode off with Quin or, very occasionally, with lod. He seemed a sensitive, thoughtful boy, however, nd he quite often spent time with his father when he rould probably have preferred to be out of doors. For that Laurie could forgive him a lot even his wild j accusations against herself after his mother's accident. If Of his two uncles he seemed to prefer Quin, a choice J which rather puzzled Laurie, because she would have (thought their characters far too different for there to j have been any rapport between them. Quin too seemed I fond of the boy, but it was possible, of course, that he was more attracted to his brother's ex-wife than he allowed anyone to know, and that, his affection for Colin stemmed from an affection for his mother. She pondered that question as she rode Brownie out .117 of the stable yard and skirted the trees, heading for the open moor. As far as she knew there was no. legal impediment to a man marrying his brother's divorced wife, but if Quin McAdam did have that in mind then it was taking him a long time to come to the point. It was four years since the divorce and Rose Mc-Adam was a determined woman, so it could not be for want of encouragement. More likely, she guessed, it was because of the embarrassment it could cause them all with the two brothers working so closely together. She decided to ride out towards Killie Sloe for a change today and enjoy the warm breeze that tempered another hot, sunny day. There were no clouds holding a threat of rain today, only a clear sweep of bright summer blue overhead and shimmering round the distant hills like a vast swathe of bright silk. The hills themselves glistened hazily in the heat, and looked to be even closer than usual. But Laurie knew that distance could be very deceptive in such conditions and instead of allowing herself to be lured by them she made her objective a small dark tree-filled hollow that lay about half-way between Clach Aros and the hills. When she reached Killie Sloe old Margaret Mc-Kinnon would almost certainly ask her in for a cup of tea and some of her delicious little honey cakes. She smiled to herself at the thought of those honey cakes, a favourite since childhood, and clucked her tongue softly at Brownie, urging her along a little faster. It was several weeks since she had seen old Margaret. Not since she and her grandfather had moved out of Clach Aros had she ridden this way, and for a 118 moment her courage failed her. Old Margaret had known her since she was a tiny child and she had always been the young lady at 'the house'. ' When she was very small she had called her wee Laurie, but never since her teens. She had become Miss Laurie then and treated with the same respect her grandfather commanded. It was going to be very difficult now that their circumstances were not so very much better than their former tenants'. It was doubtful if Margaret McKinnon had even absorbed the full meaning of the change yet, Laurie thought. Angus McKinnon had loved and worked on the Blair estate for all his grown LIfe, and when he died his widow had been allowed to stay on in the tiny cottage. Such generous gestures had helped, in part, to undermine the financial strength of the estate, but Laurie could not find it in her heart to blame her grandfather. Old Margaret, however, would probably find it difficult to realise that the Blairs were no longer her landlords, for she was nearly ninety years old and did not take kindly to new ways. It was worth a moment to wonder how she had greeted Quin McAdam on his first visit to her. That he would have called on her, Laurie had no doubt, for he had very properly called on all their tenants when they took over the estate. It gave her a moment's satisfaction to imagine old Margaret's indignant reaction to his arrogance. The tiny cottage stood right at the edge of Killie Sloe, and long before she reached it Laurie could see its neat, whitewashed walls standing out starkly against 119 the dark green of the backing trees. Brownie was familiar with the sight of it too, and she hastened her pace without encouragement at the prospect of sugar lumps and cool, sweet water from the burn. It seemed Like a lifetime ago when she had last come out here, Laurie thought, and shook her head over the prospect of explaining the passage of events to the old woman. Her welcome was as warm as she had expected, and the old woman clasped both her hands in her own gnarled ones, her incredibly wrinkled face creasing further into smiles of welcome. 'Come away in,' she bade Laurie, in her soft, gentle voice, Still retaining a hold on one of her hands even while she led the way into the one small living-room the cottage possessed. It was spick and span and shiny as a new pin, as it always was, and the old woman murmured soft words of welcome and, endearment in the Gaelic as she signed Laurie to the best chair. It would not have done for Laurie to refuse, even though her instincts prompted her to, for the old woman was very proper in her protocol and would have been only shocked and uneasy if their positions had been reversed. 'It's lovely to see you again, Mrs. McKinnon,' Laurie told her, raising her .voice to make herself heard. 'It seems such a long time since I was here last.' ' 'Tis too long by far,' the old woman agreed. 'Ye'll take some tea, Miss Laurie?' 'Thank you, I'd love some,' Laurie smiled, her wish granted. She dared not offer to help either, but instead stayed in her chair and talked 'to her hostess as she prepared them tea. 'There's a lot happened since I was 120 here last,' she went on, wondering just how much the old woman knew. 'Aye, I heard.' The old lady shook her head slowly, . in genuine regret. 'You you know we had to sell Clach Aros?' Mrs. McKinnon nodded. 'I heard,' she said. 'An' 'twas a sad day. Miss Laurie. Sad indeed when a family Like the Blairs have to give up their home an' all.' 'We we miss it terribly,' Laurie told her, glad to unburden herself to someone who would understand. For a moment the bright old eyes, much less effective than they looked, studied her gravely. 'I heard you were grievin' badly over it too. Miss Laurie,' she said, her soft voice almost bringing Laurie to tears. 'I I am,' Laurie admitted. 'At least, I'm getting a little more used to it now.' Margaret McKinnon nodded. She had the gift of making folk talk, Laurie remembered, and she would have liked nothing better than to tell the old woman everything about the McAdams, and all the things that had been troubling her for the past couple of months. 'I heard, though,' old Margaret went on in her soft, persuasive voice, 'that Mr. Blair himself is bearin' up well, an' takin' the changes much better than yeself, Miss Laurie.' 'You heard that?' She stared for a moment, knowing it must have been Quin who had told her so much, for as far as she knew her grandfather had not visited the cottage since their move. But it
was not easy to imagine Quin being persuaded to say so much, even to such a gifted listener as Margaret McKinnon. 121 When Laurie looked at her again, the old eyes held a surprising hint of mischief as she looked over one shoulder. 'Mr. McAdam told me about it,' she informed her, and Laurie frowned. 'I expected he would have been to see you,' she said. 'He came an' saw me an' told me all about the way it was with you,' she told her. Her lack of any show of anger or indignation came as a shock to Laurie and she looked at the old lady curiously as she set out her best cups and saucers. 'You mean Quin McAdam, of course?' she guessed, wondering if by any chance Rod had been delegated to visit her instead, but the old lady was nodding her head. 'Mr. Quinton McAdam,' she agreed precisely. 'A very pleasant young man.' 'You Liked him?' Laurie had a nasty sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach when she saw yet another should-be ally lost to Quin's dubious charm. 'Indeed I did,' Mrs. McKinnon assured her. 'He was so sympathetic about takin' the house an' all; So sympathetic, Laurie thought bitterly, that he's now trying to turn it into a tourist sight. 'Was he?' she said. 'Much better to have a man Like that in the house, Miss Laurie,' her hostess told her gravely, 'than one o' those foreign people who'd not know the way to treat a place Like Clach Aros.' The temptation to tell her the plans for the house was there, but Laurie resisted it, partly because she could not give Quin the satisfaction of accusing her of gossiping. 'I'm glad you like him,' was all she said. 122 'He's a gentleman,' old Margaret informed her with an air of one who knows what she is talking about. 'A fine gentleman like Mr. Blair himself, an0 I'm glad that the two of them are good friends.' So he had even told her that, Laurie thought wryly. He had missed out nothing. 'I I suppose you know that we live in the lodge now?' Laurie ventured, watching her pour boiling water into the teapot, and the old lady nodded sadly, as she put tiny honey cakes on to a plate and set them on the table. 'Aye, I heard,' she said. 'But there's worse places. I dare say, an'' mebbe it'll not be for too long.' She glanced at her shrewdly as she poured out their tea. ''Ye're workin' for the new laird, are ye not. Miss Laurie?' 'I'm working for one of .them,' Laurie allowed, seeing that no stone had been left unturned. 'There are three of them, you know.' 'Aye.' The neat white head nodded wisely. 'Ye still have yon wee mare, I see,' she added, and Laurie detected a hint of curiosity in her voice. 'Yes, I have,' she agreed. 'At least, they allow me to take her out sometimes. I don't own her now.' 'No matter,' the old woman told her. ' Tis another good sign.' 'Oh?' Laurie eyed her curiously. 'Do you know something I don't. Airs. McKinnon? You made a remark just now that maybe we wouldn't be in the lodge for very long.' 'Aye, well, mebbe ye won't,' Mrs. McKinnon said knowingly. 'I I don't understand you.' It was too much to 123 hope that there was something, some hope, that they would be able to go back to Clach Aros. Perhaps her grandfather and Quin had produced a solution that she knew nothing about. The old woman stirred her tea and smiled gently. 'Marriages have saved many a fortune, Miss Laurie,' she said softly. "An' there's a fine, handsome young man with no wife an' just waitin' for the right woman.' 'Mrs. McKinnon!' Laurie stared at her, remembering the mischievous look she had surprised earlier. It was not only the idea itself that stunned her either, but the possibility that . the old woman had mentioned something along the same lines to Quin while he was there. Margaret McKinnon could see nothing wrong in marrying simply to regain possession of what was rightly hers, and the fact that Quin McAdam was an attractive man would merely make the proposition even more desirable. But Laurie could only think of how she could possibly face him again after this. 'You you didn't say anything like that to Mr. McAdam, did you?' she asked, praying the answer would be no. 'Och, now don't je fash yesel', Miss Laurie,' she soothed. 'He'd not take notice of an old woman's ramblings, even if I had.' 'But you didn't, did you?' 'No, no though I did ask if his wife Liked the country.' 'You're an incorrigible matchmaker, Mrs. McKinnon!' Laurie scolded her, smiling despite her own apprehension. 'You always were, so Grandpa said; The old woman was offering cakes, a small gentle smile on her face, but keeping her eyes downcast, perhaps because she detected a note of disapproval in Laurie's voice. 'Ah, there now, mebbe I was,' she admitted. 'But it would be a fine thing,, would it not?' she added softly. 'For you ta marry the new laird.' 'It would not,' Laurie declared firmly, biting into a cake and savouring its wonderful sweetness for a moment before continuing her argument. 'For one thing,' she went on, 'Mr. McAdam and I very seldom see eye to eye on anything.' The neat white head nodded understanding. 'He'll be a man who knows his own mind, I .don't doubt,' sEe said with some satisfaction. 'He's arrogant and unfeeling,' Laurie insisted, uncaring that she was maligning her hostess's new landlord. 'I could no more marry Quin McAdam than than fly to the moon,' she finished, somewhat lamely she had to admit, in view of recent events. 'Aye weel ' Another little smile doubted the finality of the statement. 'He's a braw man for a' that, an' he's a man tae get what he wants, I've nae doubt.' Laurie did not question the meaning of her last words; for she thought the conversation had gone quite far enough along those lines. She had come to Killie S'-3C expecting to find old Margaret McKinnon mourning the changing ownership of Clach Aros and indignantly refusing to recognise the new laird. Instead, while she was certainly in sympathy with their predicament, she was far from condemning Quin McAdam as the heartless, arrogant cause of their humiliation and was even bent on marrying her off to 125 him. Like her grandfather, she seemed to like the interloper and made her feel as if she was being unreasonable because she didn't. Laurie had left the cottage at Killie Sloe with an uneasy heart. No one, it seemed, was prepared to see her point of view with regard to Quin McAdam, and she foresaw a lonely battle against him in the future if she was to save Clach Aros from being a public showplace. If everyone was so ready to fall in with his plans, it was obvious that they would fall in with anything he might propose for Clach Aros, and the idea gave her a sudden feeling of loneliness. She wished Rod was with her, for then she. felt she would have had an ally. He was fond of his brother, but not blind to his faults, and, while they had never actually said much on the subject of Clach Aros's proposed new role, she still felt sure that he would be on her side and dislike the idea intensely. ' What she must now try and do, she thought, was to seek his firm support and try and persuade him that, no matter how Quin pushed the idea, he must stand firm and refuse to lend it his support. They were all equal partners, she knew, and probably if Rod refused, Russ would allow his finer feelings to prevail as well, and not allow himself to be bulldozed into supporting Quin. It was with that prospect firmly cut and dried in her mind that she turned Brownie towards home and gently urged her on faster. She was within half a mile of Clach Aros when she saw two riders coming from the direction of Glen Cummin, and looked forward to meeting with Rod. The two -horses were easily recog126 f- nisable and so was the rider of the grey, but it was '' not Rod who was riding Suli, the black Arab. It was, , she suspected. Rose McAdam. She was herself spotted at almost the same instant and Quin raised a hand in greeting. Tempted to ignore it, she eventually waved a hand, confounding the luck that had brought Rose McAdam across her path after all, and especially in company with Quin. He would probably find some kind of confrontation between Rose McAdam and herself quite amusing, she thought, although her conscience reminded her that it had been he who had persuaded Rose not to take. her accusations any further. Laurie had no desire to come into any closer contact with either of them, and she put her heels to Brownie, hoping to be back and unsaddled before they arrived. It was rather a vain hope, but worth a try, she thought, and urged Brownie on to greater efforts. She had no doubt at all that had Quin been alone he would have given chase and caught up with her, but his companion would have no such desire, and they were soon left behind her. She unsaddled Brownie and rubbed her down carefully, seeing her settled contentedly in her stall, then she turned to leave and almost bumped into Quin with the other two horses just coming into the stable. She had been so lost in thought that she had heard nothing of their approach, and she let out a startled gasp whe
n she almost colided with him, her eyes round and surprised and her lips parted. 'Hello!' he grinned, still blocking her way out. 'Are you still bent on running away?' She looked behind 127 him and the two horses, and he laughed. 'It's all right,' he assured her. 'Rose went into the house.' That at least was a relief, she thought, but she still bit her lip anxiously. It was quite ridiculous, of course, but suddenly old Margaret McKinnon's drastic solution for getting back Clach Aros kept coming to the forefront of her mind, and she could not help wondering whether she had said more than she admitted to Laurie about it. Laurie hastily lowered her eyes when he held her gaze for too long, but not before she had been made discomfitingly aware of the half amused look in his eyes and the intriguing way dozens of tiny lines crinkled at the corners of them when he smiled. 'I'm sorry,' she said hastily, and stepped back. 'I'm blocking your way.' 'In a hurry to escape as usual,' he guessed, leading his two charges in, and turned to smile at her over his shoulder. 'You're always in a hurry to leave when you see me, aren't you, Laurie?' 'No no, of course I'm not,' she denied, and was startled at the way her heart reacted when he laughed softly. 'Good, then perhaps you'll give me a hand, will you?' 'Yes, yes, of course.' 'You take Hamish; he told her, handing over the grey. 'And make sure he doesn't bully you he will if you let him.' She led the big grey into his stall warily, and took off his saddle, finding it just about as high as she could reach as she hauled the heavy thing from his back. 128 I Hamish shifted, anxious to be free of it, and she let out a small squeal of surprise when the unexpected move put her off balance and landed her face down between his feet, the saddle wedged uncomfortably underneath her. 'Laurie, what ' Quin came round the edge of the stall and grabbed her hastily from between the grey's restless hooves, pushing her back against the side of the stall. 'Are you all right?' he asked, and when she nodded, lifted her chin with one hand and looked down at her. 'You're sure?' 'Yes, yes, I'm perfectly all right, thank you.' 'That's O.K., then.' He gave her a long hard look for a moment before bending to recover the saddle from the floor. 'What happened?' he asked a moment later, J and Laurie shrugged, brushing straw and clinging pieces of hay from her clothes. J 'I was off balance and he moved,' she told him I shortly. QUID hung up the saddle, then came back and stood looking at her for a moment in Silence, a smile tilting his wide mouth at one corner. 'It was my fault,' he said. 'I forgot what a midget you are. I shouldn't have S asked you to do it; ; 'I could have managed perfectly well; Laurie protested, feeling as if she was being treated rather Like a child who has been given a task just beyond her capabilities. 'But you fell flat on your face, and I'm sorry.' 'You don't have to be,' she insisted. 'If he hadn't moved unexpectedly I could have managed quite well; 129 He grinned, looking at the big grey, looming beside them. 'He could have eaten you for lunch,' he said. 'I should have realised you couldn't reach properly.' Laurie glowered at him. 'He's not too big for me to handle,' she argued. 'And I wish you'd stop talking to .me as if I was a sweet little five-year-old!' 'Holy mackerel!' Quin breathed piously. 'You're not a sweet little anything, my child. I never saw such a snappy little devil in my life. What gets into you, Laurie? Are you always so determinedly bad-tempered, or am I singled out for the iceberg treatment?' 'I don't ' she began, but he took her arm firmly and drew her out of the cramped confines of the stall, still retaining his hold on her even when she was leaned against the rough stone wall of the stable. 'And don't bother to deny it,' he told her brusquely. 'I'm getting a little tired of being treated as if I had the plague. I suppose I've inadvertently trodden on your sensitive toes again, although I'm damned if I know how or when, so suppose you tell me.' Laurie did not answer, but her pulses were radng wildly as she hazarded a guess at her chances of escape. 'Answer me!' He shook her by the arm he held, and there was an exasperated gleam in his eyes as he looked down at her. 'Don't do that!' She pulled at the captive arm and tried to free herself, but in vain. 'Laurie!' 'I don't have to explain my activities to you,' she retorted, disturbingly aware of how near he was, and that ridiculous suggestion of Margaret McKinnon's whirling persistently round and round in her brain. 130 " 'I'm not asking you to explain your activities to me,' . he told her shortly. 'I just want to know why you're so damned unfriendly towards me, that's all, and I think I'm entitled to that.' 'You're not entitled to anything,' she denied. 'Now let me goV 'Laurie! I warn you, I'm rapidly losing patience withyou!' If only she could have forgotten that idea of marrying him to get Clach Aros back she might have been prepared to call a truce, she thought, but suddenly she had a very real fear of actually liking the idea, and that was simply not to be considered. 'Very well!' His voice had an edge of hardness on it, and the icy look was in his eyes when he looked down at her. 'If you can't be reasonable about it, then you can damned well do without your privileges.' 'My my privileges?' She raised her eyes and looked at him curiously and a little apprehensively. He was smilling, but it was a tight, grim smile that owed little to humour. 'You can't expect to treat me as if I was the lowest form of life and still have things all your own way,' he told her. 'You won't take Brownie out again until I tell you you can.' Laurie stared at him for a moment, unwilling to believe ,she had heard him aright. 'But but you wouldn't,' she said huskily, and he looked down at her steadily. 'I would,' he declared flatly. 'I have.' ; 'But the horses belong to to all of you; she insisted, refusing to recognise his right to deny her her favourite form of relaxation. 'You can't stop me if Rod 131 or Russ, says I can ride.' She knew from the tight-lipped way he was smiling that the ansv er was one she wouldn't like, and she looked down at the spot where his open-necked shirt showed a vee of tanned throat, and waited. 'The horses are nothing to do with the business,' he informed her. 'In everything else we're equal partners, but the horses are different. Suli belongs to Rod, but Hamish and Brownie belong to me. So you can cancel out all the devious little plots you're planning for rolling your eyes at one or other of my brothers. If I say you don't ride, you don't, my girl; it's as simple as that.' 'You you brute! You selfish, egotistical brute!' Laurie declared, her eyes glowing darkly blue between their fringing lashes, and a bright spot of angry colour on each cheek. 'Just because you don't Like being told that that I object to you treating me like a a fiveyear-old, you do a mean, selfish thing like that!' He had a hand either side of her head, resting flatpalmed against the wall, and he leaned towards her, the ice-grey eyes glittering with -an anger that matched her own. 'The way you go on,' he told her harshly, 'you'll be lucky I don't turn you over my knee and really treat you like a five-year-old; 'You you wouldn't dare!' she whispered, her eyes wide and fixed warily on his, not altogether sure that he wouldn't do just that. 'No?' He leaned a little closer and she felt his breath warm on her face when he spoke. 'You wouldn't care to pursue that too closely, would you, Laurie?' 'Quin!' She ducked down under his arm and he, rather surprisingly, chuckled as she moved away from 132 him as swiftly as possible, turning by Suli's stall to ;: smile over her shoulder at him when another possi' bility occurred to her. 'YOU don't own Suli; she reminded him. 'I'll get Rod to let me ride him.' For a brief moment she thought she saw a hint of , anxiety in his eyes, then he shook his head and smiled. 'Rod's got more sense than to let you,' he said. 'I don't see where sense comes into it,' she retorted. 'Rose Mrs. McAdam rides Suli.' 'And gets thrown,' he reminded her. 'And you're a different proposition from Rose anyway. She's bigger, taller and stronger than you. Suli would make mincemeant of you in no time at all; 'There you go again,' Laurie complained indignantly. 'I'm a perfectly capable rider, and Rod knows I am.' if Rod lets you talk him into it,' he threatened, I will personally break his neck before Suli breaks yours. You stay away from that black-hided devil, Laurie, or I'll ' 'You'll what?' Laurie challenged, and laughed at his black frown. 'Laurie!' She turned in the stable doorway and smiled her triumph at him. 'Rod'11 listen to me,' she assured him,. confident she was right. 'And there's nothing you can do about it; 133