Tysen slowly shook his head, back and forth. He had looked deep into himself, seen the truth, recognized what he must do, and now he must act. He turned and walked out of the drawing room, the sound of his boots striking the tile in the front entrance hall sharp in his ears. Those boots of his might be a bit dirty, but they made loud, sharp sounds as they hit the tiles. And yet, deep inside himself, he heard nothing. He felt waves of guilt and shame, but now, thank the good Lord, they were receding in the face of his resolve to make things right. He heard Mrs. Griffin’s voice calling after him, but he didn’t understand her words. Indeed, they weren’t even words to his mind.
When he opened the door to his bedchamber, he saw Colin still seated in the big wing chair, still comfortably reading a newspaper, obviously still at his ease. Colin, excellent man that he was, had learned years ago that it was best just to give Sinjun her head.
Sinjun was now seated on the bed, close to Mary Rose, speaking to her, and his dearest Meggie was on her knees next to Mary Rose, holding her hand, nodding at whatever Sinjun was saying. Then Mary Rose looked up and saw him.
“Hello, Tysen,” she said, and he would have had to be a blind man not to see the leap of pleasure in her eyes at the sight of him, the smile that hadn’t been there but a moment before, there now, sweet and honest, and it was for him, and he thought, She should not so openly give me her joy. Is there no hope for it?
15
THEN ALL HER joy died on the spot and she said, looking down, “I am going to Vere Castle with Sinjun. I plan to be a nanny to Fletcher and Jocelyn. She doesn’t want me to be, but I have to do something to earn my keep, don’t I?”
She was leaving?
“I’m not ignorant. I speak Latin. I can instruct Phillip, perhaps I can also teach Dahling to play the bagpipes. I don’t play them well, but I do know several tunes. I do know how to do things. I won’t be useless.”
“You speak Latin?”
He was gaping at her, distracted for the moment.
“Yes, and also a bit of French, although my accent is not terribly pleasant. Since there are no longer Latin speakers about, why, then, no one can criticize my accent.”
She spoke Latin? How ever had that come about? He got himself back on track, just shaking his head at her. “You’re not leaving Kildrummy Castle,” he said, and he even managed to smile at her. Sinjun opened her mouth, but then he saw that she was staring at him as if she’d never seen him before. Slowly, very slowly, Sinjun got off the bed and stood beside it for a long moment. Then she held out her hand to her niece. “Come along, Meggie. You, Uncle Colin, and I are going to explore the castle. Will you give us a tour?”
Meggie had no idea what was happening here, but she knew it was something very important, something between her papa and Mary Rose. Mary Rose knew Latin? Goodness, what would Max have to say to that? She nearly leapt off the bed and took her aunt’s hand.
Colin calmly folded his paper and rose. He gave Tysen one long last look, then lightly touched his hand to his wife’s shoulder. Tysen heard Sinjun say, “We don’t have to see that dreadful woman, do we?”
“No, we won’t go near the drawing room,” Meggie said. “I want to show you the hidden garden behind Papa’s library. I believe Mr. MacNeily is working in there. He’s Papa’s estate manager, you know. He is very nice. I wish he would stay, but he is leaving Kildrummy soon now. Oliver is coming to take his place, at least Papa hopes he will.”
Colin said, “That will make Douglas gnash his teeth.”
He heard Sinjun laugh. “Oliver would do marvelously well here at Kildrummy.”
Tysen closed the bedchamber door, locked it. He said as he walked back to the bed, “Just forget this nanny business, Mary Rose. Forget teaching Latin to Phillip and bagpipes to Dahling. You aren’t going anywhere.”
Mary Rose had scooted up, feeling more strong and fit than she had even five minutes before. She hadn’t taken her eyes off him. As he spoke, she noticed, for the first time, that stubborn jaw of his. “I must,” she said, and it hurt to say it, but there was no choice. “Surely you see that.”
“No, I don’t see anything of the kind. Listen to me. We all do what we must. The must to be done in this situation is this: you must marry me. You will be the mistress of Kildrummy Castle in Scotland and you will be a vicar’s wife in my home in England. I live in
a village called Glenclose-on-Rowan. My house is officially called the Old Parsonage, but it’s been known for years and years as Eden Hill House.”
“That is a very romantic name for a parsonage.”
“I suppose so.”
He thought inconsequentially that even with that awful pallor, she looked quite lovely sitting there in his nightshirt, her red hair in soft curls around her head and over her shoulders. Her mouth opened again, but nothing came out. He waited. He was good at waiting. Many times it took a parishioner a goodly number of minutes to screw up his courage to confess a sin.
“I cannot. Surely you know that, Tysen.”
“You cannot what? Marry me? I don’t see that there is anything else for you to do.”
“I will not do that to you,” she said, and her voice had firmed up now, and color was coming into her cheeks. “I came here because I wasn’t thinking straight, because I was afraid to go into Vallance Manor with Erickson’s horse wandering around outside the house, just like he was used to being there, as if he belonged there.
“But no matter. I was wrong, very wrong, to come here and involve you and Meggie.” She drew a very deep breath. “I will not allow you to sacrifice yourself because I was a fool.”
He smiled, a calm, clean smile that showed his lovely white teeth and lit up his blue eyes even more. “Forget this sacrifice business. It is nonsense. I should have told you this sooner. I have three children. Max, my scholar and wit, is nine; Leo, who sings like an angel, gets into more mischief than a devil’s spawn, and stands on his head, is seven. You already know my precocious Meggie. They are all good children, but perhaps you wouldn’t wish to be saddled with three stepchildren.”
“Meggie has told me all about Max and Leo.” Then she seemed to fold down. She just sat there, shaking her head back and forth. “No, you are purposely misunderstanding me. Please, Tysen, you know I would love your children dearly. I had accustomed myself to not having children. No, I won’t speak of that. You are being stubborn.”