The Fairbairn Girls (24 page)

She was clinging to him like a child. ‘Yes, please,’ she said in a muffled voice. ‘You’ll stay here a bit longer, won’t you? I don’t want you to go.’

Holding her in his arms, Shane looked unflinchingly into her eyes. ‘I promised I’d stay with you now and for ever,’ he said passionately. ‘I’ve got managers to run the pubs and I don’t pay dogs in order to bark myself. I’ll look after you, Georgie, and I’ll do everything I can to look after your family.’

‘Thank you,’ she whispered gratefully. ‘I don’t know what I’d do without you.’

During the next twenty-four hours Shane held the reins of Lochlee in a cool and businesslike manner. Once he’d notified the rest of the family he ordered the housekeeper to have the necessary bedrooms prepared, checked with Cook that she had sufficient supplies to feed up to twenty guests for at least a week and gave her
carte blanche
to order anything she needed at his expense. Then he asked Georgie who the family lawyer was so that he could contact him, too.

Shane didn’t mention the words ‘death duties’ to Georgie. That would become the lawyer’s job in due course, but he privately feared the Fairbairns hadn’t only lost their beloved son and heir, but that they would also lose Lochlee Castle in order to pay the inheritance tax on what was left of the estate.

By the following afternoon Laura, Lizzie and Diana had arrived with Humphrey and Robert and Beattie had telegrammed to say she’d be coming on her own the next day, as Andrew was regretfully caught up with business affairs but would be arriving at the end of the week.

The girls went straight to their mother’s room where they found her prostrated in her bed, incoherent with grief. The doctor came twice a day to give her a sedative but it soon wore off and nothing anyone said could comfort her.

Meanwhile, Shane talked to Humphrey and Robert as they drank whisky and smoked cigars in the study.

‘It’s the irony of the situation that is so appalling,’ Humphrey said dolefully. ‘The Peace Treaty was signed only a few hours after Henry was killed? How devilish is that?’

Robert shook his head. ‘Damned bad luck.’

‘I suppose there’s no chance of the eldest son showing up now, is there?’ Shane asked. Georgie had told him about Freddie and how they hadn’t heard from him since he’d disappeared with all the family jewels seven years ago.

‘I wouldn’t have thought so,’ Robert replied in surprise. ‘You’ve heard . . .?’

‘Yes,’ Shane cut in. ‘Georgie told me everything. So technically had Henry become the eldest son?’

Humphrey nodded. ‘Yes, I believe so. Lizzie told me at the beginning of the year that Freddie had been legally declared dead.’

‘So . . .?’ Shane hesitated before continuing. ‘Does that mean that Henry had already become the Earl of Rothbury? Sorry, but I don’t know much about the titled aristocracy.’

Robert smiled. ‘My dear chap, titles are a minefield which most of us trip up over, even if we’re listed ourselves. But yes, poor Henry had already become the Earl of Rothbury, the last Earl of Rothbury now, and that’s sad in itself.’

‘There are no distant cousins or anything?’ Shane persisted.

‘We’d have heard if there had been. Our mother-in-law would have winkled them out from the pages of the peerage years ago,’ Humphrey remarked dryly. ‘Can you imagine it? Nine daughters and only two sons? Talk about the family being cursed.’

‘I’m trying to think of ways for the family to avoid paying more death duties than they need,’ Shane explained, ‘but Henry’s death now means they’ll have to pay inheritance tax for the third time in seven years. First Georgie’s father dies. Then Freddie is declared legally dead earlier this year, so the Inland Revenue must already be working on what is owed. Now with Henry’s death, will there be anything left?’

The three men looked at each other in stunned silence.

‘I see what you mean,’ Robert said hollowly. ‘It’s pretty devastating, isn’t it?’

‘It’s a flaming disgrace,’ Shane growled, ‘and I blame the government.’

‘What will they do?’ Humphrey asked. ‘It’ll kill the mother-in-law if she has to leave here and she still has three daughters to look after, too.’

‘I don’t want to push my way in,’ Shane said, smiling slightly self-deprecatingly, ‘and I’m new to the family, unlike you two gentlemen, but I can afford to buy a very big house and offer Lady Rothbury and the younger girls a home as soon as Georgie and I are married. That might ease the situation a bit.’

Robert and Humphrey stared at him, feeling both embarrassed and ashamed. They’d joked with Lizzie and Diana about Georgie’s ‘lower class’ boyfriend and how unlike her it was when she was such a snob, and now here they were, realizing he was a thoroughly decent and compassionate man, making a generous offer which should really have come from one of them.

‘My dear chap,’ Humphrey said, determined not to sound patronizing, ‘that’s most awfully good of you but let’s hope it doesn’t come to that . . . What I mean is,’ he floundered, his cheeks turning red, ‘I’m sure there will be enough money left to house them on the land here and we’d all chip in anyway, wouldn’t we, Robert?’

‘Naturally,’ Robert agreed, helping himself to more whisky.

Later that day Laura came slowly down the stairs from her mother’s room and found Humphrey standing alone in the great hall, gazing up at one of the many family portraits of past Earls. He looked up when he heard her footsteps. ‘How are you, Laura, my dear?’

‘Desolate,’ she replied in a small voice.

‘How is your poor mama?’ he asked as he followed her into the drawing room.

Laura looked at him, her face pale and drawn and her hazel eyes deeply troubled. ‘I don’t think she’ll ever get over this. She’s suffered so much tragedy but this is different. Henry wasn’t only her favourite child. He was the future of Lochlee and all it has stood for, for generations. She was so sure he’d marry and have lots of sons.’ Laura looked down at her clasped hands. ‘Now he’s gone.’

Humphrey watched her struggling with her emotions, not knowing what to say that would bring comfort.

Laura raised her head and looked at him sadly. ‘Before Henry left he told me his plans when he returned were to make money by having paying guests stay here, like a sort of private hotel, so he could earn enough to buy back some of our land – at least enough to enable the guests to go shooting and fishing. Mama would have been strongly opposed to the idea, of course, but Henry was determined.’

‘I’m sure Henry could have pulled it off,’ Humphrey agreed. ‘I believe that one day a lot of people with stately homes to run will be forced to commercialize their estates in one way or another.’

‘Do you think so?’ she asked, surprised. ‘Henry thought it was the only answer. Now we’ll never know.’

‘I think your mother is stronger than you realize. Are you able to stay here for a while?’

‘Yes. I’ve left one of my staff in charge and she’s very capable. I can stay here as long as I like because there’s really nothing to keep me in Edinburgh,’ she added poignantly.

Humphrey glanced swiftly at her face. Some deep inner pain had come to her mind as she’d spoken and he felt sure it had nothing to do with Henry’s death.

‘Do you have much time for a social life?’ he asked ingenuously.

‘No time whatsoever,’ she replied with finality as she rose from her chair. ‘Now I’m going out to get a breath of fresh air before I go back to sit with Mama again.’

Georgie strolled slowly by Shane’s side in the formal garden on the south side of the castle where, in spite of the sometimes harsh weather, a profusion of plants flourished. Exhausted by a mixture of grief and stress, she was depending more and more on Shane, who was the only person who could soothe her. ‘I wish you’d known Henry,’ she told him.

He smiled down at her. ‘In a way I feel as if I did. I’ve heard so much about him from you and the others and I’ve seen his likeness since he was a child; I think we’d probably have got on all right.’

‘Oh, definitely,’ Georgie agreed. ‘He loved this place so much and he had so many plans. We used to play croquet on the lawn over there. Henry always won and Freddie got so angry one day he threw his mallet down on the ground and it broke. Papa was furious with him.’

‘Never played it myself,’ Shane admitted. ‘Darts is more my game.’

As they strolled round to the other side of the castle, Georgie stopped suddenly and gave a cry of shock.

Shane looked at her and then at where she was staring, her expression both surprised and fearful. ‘What is it, love? I don’t see anything,’ he said.

‘It’s gone! Dear Lord, it’s gone! What does that mean?’ she exclaimed fearfully.

Shane stepped forward but she pulled him back. ‘No, don’t go that way,’ she said hurriedly. ‘Not until we’ve found out what happened to it. It’s either good or terribly bad.’ She spoke falteringly, leaning heavily on his arm. Then she whispered, ‘Surely nothing more can happen?’

‘Sweetheart,’ Shane said firmly as he turned to face her. ‘How can I comment when I don’t know what you’re talking about?
What’s
gone?’ Georgie looked at him with glazed eyes. ‘The Rowan tree, of course. It’s been cut down.’

‘Have you heard?’

There was as much commotion in the servants’ hall as there was in the drawing room. Talk of dark forces in the night, or perhaps even the ghost of Eleanor trying to lift the curse was spoken about while others muttered that Henry’s spirit had removed the tree.

‘It was definitely there yesterday,’ Laura said, ‘because I remember seeing it through the window.’

‘Let’s have a closer look,’ Robert suggested, marching towards the front door. ‘Perhaps it’s just been blown down by the wind.’

Shane went with him. ‘I wanted to look closer but Georgie was in a dreadful state and she wouldn’t let me go near. Why is everyone so interested?’

Robert looked at him. ‘You’re Scottish? And you don’t believe in the Rowan tree’s ability to cast both good and bad spells on a family?’ he asked half-jokingly.

‘I’m Irish,’ Shane protested. ‘Shamrock is the nearest we get to good luck. Unless it’s an Irish-bred horse running in the Grand National.’

‘It is hard to take seriously,’ Robert conceded, ‘but the Fairbairns have certain tragic reasons for believing they’ve been cursed by an illegitimate relative who has a grudge against them all.’

Humphrey caught up with them as they walked to where the Rowan had previously stood. ‘Lizzie said we were to look for clues as to who might have hacked the tree down,’ he panted breathlessly.

‘What sort of clues?’

‘Gardening tools, I suppose, or maybe farming tools?’

Robert started pacing around the grass some ten feet from the terrace that surrounded the castle on the west side. ‘It stood about here, didn’t it?’ he asked in a puzzled voice.

The grass seemed undisturbed and there was no sign of wood shavings or broken branches or twigs anywhere. It looked as if the tree had simply vanished into thin air, leaving no trace behind.

‘It was on this side of the castle, wasn’t it? Are you sure it wasn’t on the east side?’ Humphrey asked uncertainly.

‘Don’t ask me, I’ve never noticed the flaming thing,’ said Shane.

‘It was definitely here,’ Robert insisted, rattled. ‘It can’t just have simply disappeared. It doesn’t make sense.’

At that moment one of the upstairs windows in the castle opened and Laura leaned out.

‘This is the right spot, isn’t it, Laura?’ Humphrey called out.

‘It grew about six or seven feet to your left,’ she called down.

The three men wandered in a small, bewildered circle, studying the grass and testing the ground with their polished brown brogues.

‘Laura, how can you be so sure?’ Shane asked with mild frustration.

Laura was very sure. She was standing in what had once been Eleanor’s bedroom and remembered how she’d looked down in anguish at the Rowan tree, which grew exactly in line with the window, the day they’d found her sister’s body on the terrace below.

‘I know that’s where it was,’ she replied firmly. ‘Whoever destroyed it must have partly uprooted it, too. I can see from up here that it’s new turf you’re all standing on.’

The men moved swiftly to one side, as if they’d been told it was hallowed ground.

‘One of the gardeners must have done it after we’d all gone to bed last night. I suppose he didn’t want to upset the family,’ Humphrey said as they wended their way back inside the castle.

Robert nodded. ‘Yes. The guest rooms are all on the other side of the building so that’s probably why none of us heard anything.’

‘So who sleeps on the side overlooking where the tree used to be?’ Shane inquired.

‘It’s Eleanor’s room but it’s never used now, and next to it is Freddie’s old room.’

‘Did you go into Freddie’s old room?’ Diana whispered urgently to Laura, whom she had cornered in the library.

Laura looked at her blankly. ‘Freddie’s room?’ she repeated in surprise. ‘No. Why should I? And why are you whispering?’

‘Robert wondered if Freddie had secretly returned. Maybe he got rid of the tree to break the spell of bad luck once and for all.’

Laura looked at her incredulously. ‘You can’t mean it? Freddie here? I hope to God you’re wrong.’

‘I don’t know whether Robert’s right or not. He hasn’t said anything to Humphrey or Shane but as you were in Eleanor’s room he just wondered . . .’ Her voice faded and she shook her head. ‘What do you think we should do?’

Laura rose. ‘Let’s go and look in his room now,’ she said firmly. ‘I suppose Robert also thinks Freddie magically made the tree disappear in the night too?’ she scoffed.

‘Well, his body has never been found,’ Diana shot back. ‘If he managed to get into Scotland without being recognized this is the one place where he could hide without ever being discovered. Some of the rooms on the top floor haven’t even been opened up for years.’

As they climbed the stairs they met Georgie on the landing. ‘Where are you off to?’ she asked.

‘We thought we’d sit with Mama for a while,’ Laura replied evenly.

As soon as Georgie had gone down to the drawing room they hurried up another flight of stairs and then along a corridor past Eleanor’s old room until they came to another door.