Winter's End Part 19

"Don't settle to love anyone else than what your heart truly deserves. Because when you do find it, you stop searching for that love anymore." He watched her carefully. "I found my Rebecca. I don't need another. I'm content and peaceful to wherever life leads me."

Theodore's words stayed with Emma long after he left. Will she ever find her Rebecca?

She ate with the children, cleaned up and then strolled towards the parlour. Ethel was there, her eyes closed, her head resting on the back of her favourite chair.

Emma looked at the clock and noticed that it was past ten. Ethel usually went to bed at nine.

"Ethel," said Emma, touching her elbow, softly. "Do you want me to call Nancy to take you up to your bedroom?"

Her tired eyes opened and she shook her head. "Not now la.s.s. May be later."

"Okay. Whenever you're ready, just let me know. I'll be right here."

Emma paced slowly to the windows that overlooked the driveway. She leant against the frames. The darkness hovered over the driveway, broken by the small door lamps. In the far distance, specks of light moved, the only signs indicative of the highway.

"He isn't coming back," said Ethel. "Not tonight."

Emma's eyes lowered, sadly.

"He's hurt la.s.s," Ethel said. "He does that whenever he's hurt. He runs away. Unfortunately, that's all he knows. As a child, he was tormented in school. They called him 'devil sp.a.w.n'. They told him to stay away from them in case he brought the Kinnaird curse upon them. Children can be wicked sometimes." She let out a tired sigh. "The first time he ran away, he was eleven. Theodore found him in a tentative deer hunter's shelter in the hills. Good old Theodore. He always knew where the boy was or how he was feeling. I don't know what I'd do without Theodore.

One day, when Christopher was thirteen, he brought home a friend. Ethan Wells. Lovely child. They did everything together. They even fell for the same girl when they were seventeen. Her name was Leah. They met her in London but it was Christopher she was attracted to. He was so very happy. They started corresponding through letters. He used to even take special visits to see her whenever he could. And when he moved to start university in London, they were seriously dating, in love and planning a whole new course for their lives. Well, at least Christopher was. And then one day, he found her in bed with Ethan. She had been s.h.a.gging him ever since he had arrived in London but it was clear that it was Christopher's money she wanted. Christopher, the sole heir of the Kinnaird Estate. I suppose it was really a curse in some strange way. He never could love or trust anyone since."

"What happened to the girl?"

"Moved on to some other rich man's son. Ethan didn't want her. She said so when she begged Christopher to take her back. And when he refused, she went straight to the papers. "Ethan has the charm. All Christopher has is money and a curse," the girl told the reporters." Ethel grew quiet. "And then he ran away. For good. He's run so far that even Theodore can't bring him back to me anymore. He returns once or twice a year to see me. But that is all.

Three years after his first successful movie, he began building the boathouse. So whenever he does visit, he can have a place to run to if he wants.

Twenty-one years I've waited and this is the first time since he's moved to America that he's stayed as long as this with me."

Emma put a hand over Ethel's palm, caressing her wrinkled fingers with her own. And when she glanced up at her, she saw the tiredness setting around the older woman's eyes.

"You will wait for him, la.s.s?" said Ethel. "Until he returns?"

"I will," Emma smiled.

"Then you had better take me to bed. I'm too tired and too old to do this anymore."

Emma helped her out of the chair and they strolled towards Ethel's bedroom together, arm in arm. Inside, Emma helped her into her night gown and then pulled the bed covers back for Ethel.

Scrambling into it slowly, Ethel let out a small chuckle. "Kinnaird curse, indeed! I've been blessed child. So very blessed. To have the family I had. A loving grandson. And to have Theodore and Nancy. And then came you and your children. I am truly blessed. Light of my old days, your children are."

Emma smiled as she tucked the covers around her.

Ethel continued. "You know when my Mary was young, she fell madly in love with this young man from Glasgow while she was visiting cousin Gertrude. But one day, there was an accident in the factory he worked. The shelf brackets gave way, collapsing over him. The poor boy died instantly. Mary was distraught. She could never bring herself to love or marry again.

One day, she insisted on visiting the boy's mother and so I went with her. Rosanna was her name. But when I did see her, she was so very strangely at peace that I had to ask her.

"Why?" I said. "This was your only son and yet you are so content with his pa.s.sing. Are you not angry at life, at the builder who put up the shelf, at the factory owners for not ensuring their employees' safety?"

"But why should I?" she replied. "I had foreseen his death when he was born. I'm just grateful he lived as long as he did. He's given me enough love to be able to live the rest of my days in peace."

You see, Rosanna had a gift of clairvoyance. She never wanted it but she couldn't help it. She was born with it. However she never used it. She always kept her opinions, her foresight to herself. She believed in people trying to live their lives in the way they think they should and not depend on predictions to influence their decisions.

Rosanna became the only friend that I ever had. I often visited her in her little flat in Glasgow, sitting with her talking about my troubles and she listened. One day, as I sat and cried out my heart for Christopher, she said this to me. "In his forty-first year, he shall burn in the flames of fire and find peace."" Ethel chuckled. "I thought the woman had finally lost her mind." She reached out and touched Emma's wayward auburn strands that framed her face. "I wish she was alive today to tell her that she was right."

Emma smiled and kissed her forehead. "Goodnight, Ethel."

Ethel let out a sigh and closed her eyes. "Goodnight child."

She heard noises in the kitchen and found it was Nancy cleaning up.

"I've put Ethel to bed, Nancy," she informed.

"Thanks Miss," said Nancy.

"How's the family?" asked Emma.

"Oh, they're fine. My sister's daughter is getting married in a few months. I will have to ask the lady for a few days off."

"I'm sure she won't mind. And I'm here if she needs anything."

Nancy smiled. "You know, you're the best thing that's happened to this family in a long time."

Emma smiled back. "Nancy," she started hesitantly. "Why is everyone so apprehensive of the Kinnaird family?"

"Because they're fools," said Nancy, bluntly. "They don't know any better."

"So why wasn't any one buying the property I did?"

"Your number 21? What? Have you been listening to that Kinnaird Curse c.r.a.p?"

"Well, I did hear about it," she said slowly.

"Well, it's just what it is. Bull c.r.a.p!"

"So why did the previous owners sell out?"

"Because they were b.l.o.o.d.y troublemakers, they were. Started h.o.a.rding in that fine place of yours. Never fixed their fences too. Their sheep used to cross over to the Kinnaird meadow. Mrs. Kinnaird had a huge tiff with them after they also began poaching the estate deer. But when they entangled with Theodore, they went too far. Oh, I remember Theodore giving young Ian Fletcher a face-full of fist. Not bad for a man of sixty, is it now?" she chuckled. "Yeah, they said they would take it to the courts. Mrs. Kinnaird threatened to tangle them so badly in the court system, they'd be begging to stop. They knew she was serious. Our Mrs. Kinnaird is a very intelligent woman, she is. She did some investigation of her own and found that the Fletchers were involved in some serious dirty business. She said if they didn't sell out and move, she would take it all to the police. They'd be locked up so long, the only way they'd be back out into the world was when they were dead.

They agreed. But knowing their criminal reputation in Skye, no one would go near the Fletchers. With Mrs. Kinnaird breathing down their necks each day, they even lowered the price to get rid of the property. But no one dared do a dealing with the Fletchers. And then you came along. After you purchased it, the Fletchers started spreading rumours that the Kinnaird Curse was for real and that the meadows were haunted by the dead Kinnairds."

Nancy shook her head unbelievingly. "In all this craziness, the only one good thing that came off it was you."

Grumbling inaudibly, she returned to her ch.o.r.es leaving Emma to think about all she had learnt about the Kinnairds that evening.

CHAPTER 17.

Emma stood staring out her window from the library. It was almost one o'clock in the day and Chris had still not arrived home.

She tried to resume work on her computer but her mind kept drifting to his absence. A knock sounded at her door and she looked up to find Theodore walking in. Her spirits lifted. Perhaps he had returned.

"Mrs. Cameron," he said. "You have a guest in the living room. It's Mr. Richard Winston."

"Oh," said Emma, her heart sinking. "And Chris? Is he still not home?"

"Not yet, Miss," said Theodore. He paused at the door. "But he always does return, Miss. He will come back."

When Ethel heard that Richard Winston had arrived to see Emma, she deliberately strolled to the living room.

"Mr. Winston," she said on seeing him seated and waiting for Emma. "How are you?"

Richard looked at her grimly. "Hopeful, Mrs. Kinnaird."

Ethel nodded. "It is always good to be hopeful. But do you think it is wise to hope for something that might not be the right fit for you?"

"The right fit is what I know it is and not what someone thinks it is."

"Great words, Mr. Winston. But not as great a business ploy. I, on the other hand, have long learnt to cut my losses while I'm ahead."

"I've heard you're a shrewd business woman, Mrs. Kinnaird. However, you still surprised me when I discovered much later that the multi-million dollar contract that I frantically ran to accept in London came from one of your subsidiary companies. A certainly intelligent ploy to keep me away from Emma."

She smiled. "Mr. Winston, you are one of the best architects in the United Kingdom. Trust me when I say that I wouldn't have risked an obscenely expensive contract for anyone, even my dearest Emma. There are other ways I could have achieved the same. But when I discovered your remarkable merits, I couldn't help shooting down two birds with one bullet."

She turned to walk out of the living room. "One more thing, Richard," she added. "I may never have won Emma if you hadn't had left her side that day."

Emma entered the living room and saw him standing at the fireplace, engrossed in his thoughts.

"h.e.l.lo, Richard," she said.

He glanced up at her. His blue eyes had dulled. His stubbled beard told her he hadn't shaven for a while.

"You married," he said.

"I did," she replied.

"Did you want to marry so badly that you accepted the first offer that came by you?" he remarked, sarcastically.

She took in a deep breath, trying to calm herself. "Why did you come Richard?"

"Why did you do it?"

She didn't reply.

"You could have waited," he said. "I did. All these years haven't I waited for you?"

She glared at him. "Why?" she snapped. "Why did you? And yet when I came running to you, you hesitated. You had to think. You had to wait some more!"

"You don't jump blindly into a marriage, Emma. You think about the consequences. I am a man of standing in society and business. You married my brother, for G.o.d sakes. You were my sister-in-law."

"You had twelve years to think of consequences. And in all those years, you never once thought I was worth it. Not when Robert started dating me, not when he took me to visit your family for the first time, not when he proposed and married me out of his spite for you and certainly not in all those years he lied to me, conducting illicit business and scandalous affairs while I pretended I didn't know any of it! Lying to myself! Believing that I had the best life I could ever possibly have! Not once did you fight for me Richard! And yet I see you fighting each day to keep a contract. Do you know how that makes me feel? The truth of the matter is Richard, I fell in love with you first. Long before Robert. You pushed me away. I ran to you first. Gave you the choice to marry me first. Each time, Richard, you were the first. Not Robert, not Chris. You! And each time, you pulled back! You did!"

He pulled her into his arms tightly. "Come back to me," he said hoa.r.s.ely. "Come back. Leave all this and return with me today. I promise, I won't hold back anymore. I love you, Emma."

"But I don't love you anymore," she whispered back. "It's too late, Richard."

He cupped her face, his raspy breath against her. "Please," he begged.

"You don't love me," she whispered, tears streaming down her face.

"Get your hands off my wife!" demanded Chris, enraged.

He was standing at the door, seething furiously on seeing Richard holding Emma in his arms. He clutched his fist tightly in an attempt to control the burning rage coursing through his body.

Richard pulled away from Emma. An awkward silence drifted among them.

Emma flushed and turned away from the two men, her eyes still br.i.m.m.i.n.g with tears.

"Do you mind if I see the kids before I leave?" asked Richard, slowly.

"No," she said, wiping her tear stained face.

Richard looked at her, his eyes beseeching her silently. He then withdrew quietly, walking out of the room.

Chris gave her a fiery glare. "I'm leaving tomorrow," he said. "I just came by to tell you that." He turned around to exit the room.

"Will you return?" she asked.

"I don't know. As you well know, that's where my life is," he said sharply. "And until you're here, I'm not sure if I ever want to come back. Perhaps when Gran finally realises that this marriage isn't working, I will return for a divorce." He stormed out of the room, slamming the door loudly behind him.

They avoided each other for the rest of the day. Chris learned that Richard did meet the children before he left. He could tell from the glow in their faces that they were really happy to see their uncle. Even if he wanted to strangle the man, Chris knew that he really did love the children.

However that didn't excuse Emma falling into the arms of another man other than her husband. She was his wife. Even as he thought of it, it spewed a renewed rage through him.