Dawn on a Distant Shore (78 page)

"How do you
do," she said. "I am Mrs. Elizabeth Bonner, of New-York State."

There was a small
silence, which a jay interrupted with a harsh cry.

"Flora,"
said Lady Isabel softly. "Please tell Cook I will take tea here wi' my
guest. And tell Mrs. Fitzwilliam that I dinna want tae be disturbed."

Elizabeth wished very
much to see Lady Isabel's face, but she must be content with her voice, which
gave no hint of surprise or displeasure.

"But--"

"It is verra rude
tae stare, Flora," she said gently.

The girl nodded.

"Ye may come back
tae sit wi' us after ye've talked tae Cook."

This seemed to
reassure the girl, and she ran off.

Lady Isabel said,
"I prefer tae sit in the shade, if that will suit?"

Elizabeth found her
voice again. "Yes, thank you. That will suit very well." She touched
her handkerchief to her brow, perspiring suddenly in the cool of the garden.

Flora was back very
quickly, out of breath and flushed. She sat on the ground next to Lady Isabel's
lawn chair and tucked her legs beneath herself.

"Ye came
alone," said Lady Isabel. "Are ye verra brave, or just
headstrong?"

"Perhaps I am
both," Elizabeth said.

They sat for a moment
listening to birds calling back and forth in the trees, and then Flora--it was hard
to think of her as the Countess of Loudoun-- surprised Elizabeth and Isabel both.

"Did Carryck send
you, or was it Jean Hope?"

The girl knew the
whole story, then-- certainly she knew more than Elizabeth did of Lady Isabel's
flight from Carryckcastle.

"No,"
Elizabeth said. "Nobody sent me. Nobody knows that I am here."
Except
Nathaniel
, she might have added, but stopped herself.

"O' course they
didna send ye," said Lady Isabel evenly. "Ma faither wadna take sic a
risk. Ye do realize the danger?"

Elizabeth thought the
time for polite conversation was past. She said, "My husband was shot
twice. Yes, I realize the danger very well. But the fact is, Lady Isabel, that
we did not want to be here, and were brought against our will--"

"Moncrieff,"
she interrupted.

"Yes."
Elizabeth nodded. "And that is why I took the chance of coming to see
you."

"Ye want my help
tae get awa'. But what o' yer guidman's faither and his friends?"

Elizabeth paused to
think. Lady Isabel was much better informed than she might have guessed.

"We do not know
where they are, but we can wait no longer. We must start for home."

"I can help ye,
but no' in the way ye'd expect," said Lady Isabel. "They were here yesterday
tae consult wi' my husband and wi' Breadalbane."

Elizabeth thought at
first she must have misunderstood, but she saw by the girl's face that she had
not. "My father-in-law was here?"

"And Robert
MacLachlan and yer cousin Viscount Durbeyfield, as weel."

Elizabeth let out a
sound of surprise. "My cousin Will, here?"

"Aye. Did ye no'
ken they were travelin' tegither?"

"I did not,"
Elizabeth said, pressing two fingers to the bridge of her nose to stem the
sudden ache there. "The last I saw of my cousin was in Canada. I assumed
he was still there."

"He was here
yesterday," said Flora quite firmly. "I shook his hand."

Elizabeth struggled
with this unexpected news. What if it were a lie, nothing more than a subterfuge
meant to put her off her guard?

Lady Isabel read her
thoughts without any effort at all. She said, "You doubt my report, and
wi' guid cause. Flora, describe the gentlemen wha came tae see the earl
yesterday."

This was a task that
suited the girl, and she sat up straight, and thoughtfully described all three men
exactly, down to Robbie's florid complexion and the scar on Hawkeye's left cheekbone.
They had been here; yes, she could accept that. But under what circumstances?

"And where are
they now?" Elizabeth asked.

Lady Isabel said,
"They left early this morning for Carryckcastle. Ye must ha' crossed paths
wi' them."

Elizabeth stood
abruptly, and then sat again. "But--"

"Mrs.
Bonner," said Lady Isabel very gently. "Calm yersel'. Nae harm has
come tae them. The viscount made sure o' that."

"She's
confused," said Flora, watching Elizabeth closely.

"Yes, I am,"
Elizabeth said. "Why would the Campbells--why would you make an alliance
with my father-in-law and let him go on his way without interference, when my
husband was attacked and almost killed?"

Lady Isabel spread out
her hands on her lap. "Because they came here tae ask for safe passage,
just as you have."

"Mr. Bonner swore
an oath," supplied Flora, not meeting Elizabeth's gaze. "Never to
come back to Scotland."

"I see."
Elizabeth's thoughts were moving very quickly. She wanted to get back to
Nathaniel and give him this good news--his father and Robbie were alive and
well, and they were all ready to go home, right away. But it was almost too
sudden to comprehend, and too many matters remained unsettled. Will, in Scotland--when
Aunt Merriweather had gone to such trouble to remove him from danger of
transportation for sedition. And all of them on the way to Carryckcastle. What
kind of reception would they get there, when they announced their intentions?

And what of Carryck?
She looked up at Lady Isabel, trying to see something of her face, but failing.
She had been expecting the intense young lady of the stories she had been told,
impetuous and angry; instead she had found a frail woman much older than her thirty
years, perfectly in control of her emotions. But then her inheritance was safe
now; she would have her revenge on her father and Jean Hope. Elizabeth saw now
how foolish she had been to have thought that the rift between Lady Isabel and
her father might be so easily addressed, and still she could not go away
without trying.

She said, "I am
very thankful for this good news, of course. We will start back to
Carryckcastle much relieved. Is there any message you would like me to take to
your father?"

Lady Isabel's gloved
hands moved fitfully over the lawn of her gown. "Aye," she said
finally and she lifted her arms--it seemed a considerable effort--to raise her
veil and drape it back over the crown of her hat.

Elizabeth drew in a
sharp breath. Isabel looked a great deal like the portrait of her mother that hung
in Elphinstone Tower, but at first glance it seemed she had painted her face
for a masquerade. Her skin was mottled stark white and bronze and something
close to black in large patches over her face and neck. As shocking as the
condition of her complexion was, the resigned expression in her eyes was far
worse.

"Ye can tell my
faither that I've been punished for my sins. First I bore Walter two deid
bairns, and then this--" She raised a gloved hand toward her face.
"This will be the death o' me. Carryck will be aye satisfied tae hear
it."

"Oh, no,"
Elizabeth said, more shocked at this idea than she was at Lady Isabel's poor
ruined face. "Surely not. Not to see a child of his suffer so."

"Ye dinna ken ma
faither, Mrs. Bonner." She said this with a bitterness that Elizabeth
could not counter.

"Is there nothing
to be done for you?" Elizabeth asked. "Perhaps Hakim Ibrahim--"

"The best doctors
and surgeons have all been to see her," said Flora almost huffily, as if Elizabeth
had accused her of not taking sufficient measures. "None of them can say
what is wrong with any certainty, and none of them offer her any cure."

"Everythin'
possible has been done," agreed Lady Isabel. "But the surgeons do
agree on one thing--the attacks are comin' closer tegither, and I willna
survive much longer."

"I am so
sorry," Elizabeth said, and then her voice faltered; what was there to say
that would not sound insincere or even dishonest? "Is there nothing else I
can do for you?"

"There is one
thing," said Lady Isabel, pulling down her veil again. "Wad ye be sae
kind as tae take a letter tae Faither Dupuis?"

Elizabeth had not been
expecting this--
a letter to the priest?--
and she waited too long to
answer.

Lady Isabel went very
still, and her voice came cooler. "I see it wad be an imposition--"

"No," said
Elizabeth. "No imposition at all. But I fear I may not be able to deliver
it. Yesterday evening it seemed that Monsieur Dupuis would not live out the
night. Perhaps he did not."

The crisis came on
very quickly--first Lady Isabel was sitting and then she had fallen back in her
chair, her whole body shaking. Flora leaped up from the ground to bend over
her, and Elizabeth did the same.

Isabel had begun to
perspire so heavily that the neck of her gown was already wet through. She moaned
and rolled to her side, retching.

"A doctor,"
Elizabeth said. She was shaking, too. "We must summon her husband."

"Walter's left
for Edinburgh, and she doesn't want a doctor," said Flora, her face ashen
but her voice steady. "They can't do anything for her. Help me lift her,
please, so I can hold her head in my lap." And then, raising her gaze to
look Elizabeth directly in the eye: "This will pass in ten or fifteen minutes.
She would want you to stay."

The convulsive
trembling seemed to subside a little when they had settled her more
comfortably, but her breathing was very fast and shallow. They had removed her
hat and Elizabeth saw that her face with its unnatural coloration was swelling
visibly. She shook her head and moaned again.

"Is she in great
pain?"

"Just in her
back," said the girl, in such a composed way that Elizabeth knew she must
have seen these attacks many times before. "I believe the nausea is much
more of a trial to her. But she has nothing on her stomach to bring up, you see."

Something of the
girl's calm communicated itself to Elizabeth, and she watched silently for a
moment as the shaking subsided and Lady Isabel's breathing began to return to
normal. Flora stroked her brow gently, with the loving touch of a sister. Or a
daughter, thought Elizabeth. She must have been quite young when Isabel came to
take up residence with them. It was not surprising that they had formed a close
bond, one of them an orphan by fate and the other by choice.

"What do you
think brought this on?" she asked.

"She is very fond
of Monsieur Dupuis," Flora said. "If she speaks of Carryckcastle at
all, it is of him."

Elizabeth turned her
face away, torn between distress--had her news of Dupuis's condition brought on
this crisis?--and confusion. Did Flora know that Dupuis was a Catholic priest,
and that Isabel had been raised in the Roman faith? Would she have shared such
sensitive information with a child, even one as dear to her as this girl must
be?

"It is
passed," said Flora. "Isabel, come, you must change out of this damp
gown."

Slowly Lady Isabel
righted herself. She looked about with some confusion and then her gaze settled
on Elizabeth.

"Mrs.
Bonner," she said, her voice so weak that it was hard to make her out.
"I must see Monsieur Dupuis afore he dies. Do ye think there's any chance
o' that?"

"I
suppose--" Elizabeth faltered. "I suppose there might be. But in your
condition ..."

"I must see
him," said Lady Isabel. "Flora, call for the carriage
straightawa'."

In a half hour of
intense activity all was made ready. From a chair in the hall--she was too weak
to walk or even stand--Lady Isabel directed the preparations. She would brook
no discussion of doctors; she would not allow Flora to accompany her.

"Think," she
said to the despairing girl. "Think what Breadalbane wad make o' it, should
he hear ye're at Carryckcastle. Do ye want a war foucht ower ye?"

The housekeeper,
weeping openly, brought a hastily packed bag to the footman.

"Dinna greet,
Mrs. Fitzwilliam," Isabel comforted her. "It will aa be weel in the end."
Then she turned to Elizabeth.

"Shall we send
word ahead so that your guidman can make ready?"

"No," said
Elizabeth. "I think it would be better if I told him of this ... change of
plan."

Lady Isabel simply
assumed that they would travel with her, and Elizabeth did not even think of
opposing her. She did not like to imagine what would happen if she were to have
another crisis alone in the carriage. And the quicker they were to return to
Carryckcastle--she thought of Hawkeye and Robbie and Will coming face-to-face
with Moncrieff--the better.

"We will come by
the Black Bull in a quarter hour," said Lady Isabel.

Elizabeth was almost
out the door before Flora caught up with her. The young girl wiped her face with
the back of her hand and drew in a deep breath to steady herself.