Page 36 of One Forbidden Kiss with the Laird (The Cinderella Shepherd Sisters #2)
‘S he left about an hour ago,’ Shaun Fettle said. He was a young boy who worked at the Lost Sheep, clearing the tables and making whatever gristly stew was on the menu for the day. He was only about fourteen, tall and gangly with a shock of dark hair.
‘She left?’
‘Aye. After that snooty cow from Taigh Blath came to see her. Miss Shepherd came and settled her bill after and asked the best way to get to Glasgow to catch the coach to London.’
‘She’s only been here a few hours.’
Shaun shrugged, as if it were none of his business.
‘What did you tell her? About how to get to Glasgow?’
‘I told her my brother was taking the cart to Oban today ready for the market tomorrow and he wouldn’t object to a passenger as pretty as her.’
Callum turned and left immediately. An hour’s head start was not much, especially when they were travelling in Thomas Fettle’s rickety old cart with his ancient horse in the bridle, but he didn’t like the idea of Selina getting further and further away from him.
He walked briskly to the large house a couple of miles away where Bruce lived and rapped on the door, surprised when the big man opened the door himself.
‘Can I borrow one of your horses?’
‘Of course. Has that canny lass run away from you?’
‘Aye. Somehow I have driven her away, but I am eager to fix my mistakes.’
‘I am glad to hear it. Let’s get Bessie saddled and you on your way.’
‘Thank you, Bruce. You are a true friend. I have something I need to discuss with you later, a business proposition, but first I need to go and ask Selina for forgiveness.’
‘Settle the matters of the heart first and then matters of business later. Finally, I think you might be seeing sense.’
Bruce quickly saddled his horse, watching as Callum mounted.
‘Good luck on your quest.’
Callum nodded his thanks and then urged Bessie forward, finally feeling as though he were moving in the right direction.
He knew the road to Oban well as it twisted through some of the prettiest scenery of the Highlands.
It was a mild day with the sun sometimes peeking out from behind the clouds and a gentle breeze to keep him from overheating.
If he was not so preoccupied with what he was going to say to Selina, he would have enjoyed the ride.
* * *
After about an hour on the road he caught sight of a dust cloud up ahead and felt his pulse quicken in anticipation. He could not see the cart yet, but did not think there was likely going to be any other coach or carriage travelling on this road to Oban.
Ten minutes later he was close enough to call out, but he kept quiet, instead spurring the horse forward into a canter to cover the last of the remaining ground.
Thomas Fettle raised a hand in greeting, pulling his cart to the edge of the road, obviously thinking Callum wanted to go past. Next to him Selina sat with her hands folded demurely in her lap.
For a moment she did not look up, but then she lifted her eyes to meet his and he saw she had been crying.
‘I need to speak to Miss Shepherd, Thomas,’ Callum said. ‘I don’t want to delay your journey, I know it is still a long way to Oban.’
‘Callum…’ Selina said, forgetting about the rules of Society in her distress and calling him by his given name.
‘Please, my love. I really need to speak to you. I promise if you still wish to leave I will escort you to Oban myself.’
She hesitated and Thomas Fettle leaned over to murmur in her ear. Callum caught the end of the sentence.
‘…choice, Miss.’
It felt like the longest wait ever as Selina bit her lip and looked at him, her eyes seeming to search his soul. Eventually she nodded and climbed down from the cart, as Callum dismounted.
‘Thank you,’ he said to her quietly. ‘Thank you for giving me a chance.’
‘Do you want me to wait, Miss?’
‘No, that’s very kind of you, Mr Fettle, but I do not wish to delay your journey to Oban. Thank you for all your kindness today.’
The young man touched the brim of his hat and then gave a flick of the reins, signalling for his ancient horse to start walking forward.
‘You should be at Taigh Blath now, sorting everything out with Sir William.’
‘I don’t want to be there, I want to be with you. I always want to be with you, Selina.’
She grimaced. ‘We spoke of this, Callum—it is one thing to want something, quite another for it to be practical.’
‘Will you give me a chance to talk, to explain?’ He took her hand, running his over her knuckles. ‘Please, Selina.’
‘You’ll take me to Oban after?’
‘I’ll escort you all the way to Glasgow if you decide to go.’
‘There’s no need for that.’
‘I hope not,’ he said, smiling at her softly. ‘I hope you’ll be coming home with me.’
‘You are too charming for your own good, Callum Thomson,’ Selina said, unable to suppress the little smile that tugged at the corners of her lips.
Callum tied Bruce’s horse up to a nearby tree a little off the road and took Selina by the hand again.
‘How do you feel about forgiveness?’
‘My vicar back home would say it is a noble act to forgive someone.’
‘What if that person has been a massive fool?’
‘I harbour no grudge towards you, Callum,’ Selina said, sadness in her eyes. ‘We were just two people who fell in love and could not resist the physical intimacy that came with it.’
Callum recoiled slightly. ‘I am not apologising for that ,’ he said, shaking his head.
‘When we are married we will make love so many times every single week that the one time we did it out of wedlock will be a miniscule proportion and barely worth thinking about.’ He leaned in closer so his lips almost touched her ear. ‘Although now I am thinking about it.’
‘What are you apologising for, then?’
‘For not falling to my knees immediately and asking you—no, begging you to marry me at the first opportunity. I love you, Selina.’
‘I know, Callum, and I love you, too, but I am not the most important thing in your life. I am not what you want to fight for.’
‘I am sorry I ever made you feel like that. You deserve to be worshipped. I know these last couple of years have been difficult, losing your mother and then being treated so terribly by your father. You deserve a relationship where you are celebrated, where you are beloved, not hidden away.’
‘You can’t give me that.’
‘Please give me a chance. Let me show you I can.’
‘What has changed since this morning, Callum?’
‘I took a walk up above the forest, to a spot where you can see for miles. You can see the loch and the forest and the land that the Thomson family used to own. You can see the village and Taigh Blath…’ he paused ‘…Loch View Lodge,’ he corrected himself.
The house was not something he thought he would ever get back and it would be better to start the process of letting it go.
‘I realised that for a very long time I have been carrying a lot of guilt for things that I was not responsible for, things I had no control over. The importance of ancestral lands is drummed into us from a very young age. Even though I knew it was my father’s actions that put us into awful debt, I was the one who signed the papers, who handed over the keys to Taigh Blath, who signed away the rights to the tenant farms and the houses in the village. ’
‘It wasn’t your fault.’
‘No, I know. But for a very long time I have secretly felt it was. My friends, my mother, they have been gently trying to suggest perhaps I have taken on too much of the responsibility for the loss of the land, but I am afraid the message never got through. It took losing you to realise I was the one making all the trouble for myself.’
‘I’m glad you’ve realised that,’ Selina said, looking genuinely pleased for him. ‘But it does not change the fact that if we marry Sir William will take out his anger on the people of Ballachulish.’
‘Perhaps not.’
‘He will. He’s a vindictive man.’
‘I agree, but he is a man of business first, emotion second. If he is hit with a proposition that is beneficial to him, he will find it hard to say no because of a grudge.’
‘You can’t afford to buy the entirety of the estate from him—that was why you agreed to the marriage to Catherine in the first place.’
‘I can’t buy all the estate, but I can buy some of it. Not the house or the grounds, or much of the farmland, but I can buy the tenant cottages in Ballachulish. I have enough saved for that.’
He saw the flicker of interest in Selina’s eyes. ‘You could buy part of the estate?’
‘Yes. I think I had this picture in my mind of the triumphant lord, returning in glory to restore all that had been lost in one swoop. I wanted people to hear the Thomson family name and think of how the estate had been, the tenants secure in their homes, not the drunkard of a lord who lost it all and the green boy who could not keep hold of his inheritance.’ He shook his head.
‘My mother told me pride was my downfall and she was right. I couldn’t see that I didn’t need to do everything, I just needed to do the right thing. ’
Selina looked at him and for a moment he couldn’t tell what she was thinking.
‘Tell me your plan,’ she said and in that instant he felt his heart soar. She was interested, invested in his plan and it meant he had succeeded in the first step of winning her round.
‘Part one,’ he said. ‘We get married. There is no need for the pomp that you English require for your marriage, we could find a minister and tell him we wish to wed.’
‘This is an integral part of your plan?’
‘No,’ he said with a grin, ‘But I would like to be married to you so I thought I’d slip it in there.’
‘Tell me part two,’ Selina said, pressing her lips together to suppress a smile. He liked how she did that, as if she thought she should remain serious, but the smile tried to break through anyway.