Beyond Reason by Gwen Kirkwood

Author:Gwen Kirkwood [Gwen Kirkwood]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780719815188
Publisher: Robert Hale
Published: 2014-12-04T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

Fingal was concerned about his mother with the harsh winter weather, so he hired a horse to ride to Crillion Keep on the first Saturday afternoon the roads were passable. Maggie was not at home so he called on Peggy next door.

‘Mother is staying up at the Big Hoose.’ She explained about Janet being so ill and Mr Saunders insisting she stay at the Keep. ‘He has been wonderfully generous and kind. Mother and I have taken turns at nursing her.’

‘Janet is here?’ He could barely wait for Peggy to give him the details of Janet’s flight from Braeheights.

Maggie saw Fingal pass the kitchen window on his way to the back door of the Keep. She opened the door before he could knock, delighted as always to see her only son.

‘I’m fine, laddie,’ she assured him as she drew him through into the large kitchen. ‘I’ve told ye often not to worry about me when I have Peggy and Donald so close, and Mr Saunders is a most considerate employer. Did Peggy tell you we have a visitor here, though? I reckon ye’ll want to see her, though she will na ken ye,’ she warned. ‘She’s still very ill with the fever.’

‘How can this be? How did Janet come to be here?’

‘Peggy has aye been a second mother to the lassie. Where else could she go? Anyway I dinna think she had the strength to go any further. I thank God she reached the stable.’ She explained how Donald had carried her here, almost frozen to death.

‘Why did she come at night, in the snow? Why is she here, at the Keep?’

‘Mr Saunders thought it best and I am glad. We can keep her warmer here. He and Mrs Mossy watch over her during the day. Peggy and I take turns to stay with her at night. She drifts in and out o’ the fever. The only word she’s uttered that I can catch, is your name, Fingal. She was clutching the wee book you gave to Andrew. She didna want to let it go.’

‘I must see her,’ he said urgently. ‘So many Sundays I have journeyed all the way to attend our own wee kirk but Janet has never been there. What can be wrong, Mother?’

‘I fear she must have run away frae Mr Foster. Nothing else would drive her out wearing only her nightgown on such a night.’

‘You think he has harmed her?’ Fingal asked, a muscle pulsing in his lean jaw.

‘We don’t know, laddie. She must have been badly frightened to flee like that. It’s obvious she hadn’t planned to do it.’

‘I’ll kill him if he has—’

‘Hush, hush, son. Don’t say such things,’ Maggie McLauchlan said in alarm.

Fingal was dismayed when he saw Janet’s slight figure tossing and turning restlessly beneath the blankets. Josiah Saunders watched the concern, compassion – and was it love in his troubled gaze?

‘I fear she is worse today,’ he said quietly, ‘but Doctor Carr warned us this might happen. He said it would be the beginning of the end.

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