Call of Glengarron (23 page)

“But even so, even if all you had imagined was true, you could still have lived a life that most people would have envied.”

“Such a remark gives away your plebian background,” he sneered. “You could never be anything but a nobody, Lucy Calvert. My God—imagine Glengarron falling into your hands.”

“I wouldn’t want it,” I said quietly.

“Not if Craig went with it?”

I was silent.

Lennox shifted in his seat. “Well, we can’t hang about here all night. You’d better pass young Jamie over to me.”

But I clung all the tighter. “What ... what are you going to do?”

“There’s a deep gorge just ahead of us. I thought perhaps the jeep could run off the road by the bridge and go over the edge with you in it. Such an unfortunate accident, and quite certain death, of course.”

“You wouldn’t dare. How could you possibly explain ... ?”

“Oh, that would be quite simple. I shall say that the brakes failed as we were taking the bend. I managed to grab Jamie and jump clear, but for some reason, though I shouted at you to do the same, you didn’t.”

“And you seriously imagine anybody would believe such a story?”

“Really, Miss Calvert. Are you suggesting that the Laird of Glengarron could conceivably be a liar?”

“You’d never get away with it.” But I knew his supreme self-confidence was justified. His word would be accepted without question.

“I’ll get away with it, all right. And when, looking disheveled and exhausted, I stumble into the nearest village, having carried Jamie in my arms for a full four miles, I shall insist upon leading the search for you with ropes and lights and men. Then, my dear girl, I shall be not only believed, but honored too, for my heroic efforts.”

“You ...  Oh you ... ”

“Now, now—let’s keep our tempers.” His arm  reached out lazily to turn the ignition key. The motor fired and he opened the door on his side and put one foot to the ground. “Come on, give Jamie to me.”

My mind spun. Was I tamely going to submit to murder without fighting back?

Lennox could sense my whirling thoughts.

“Don’t try anything silly,” he warned me. “If you do, it’ll be Jamie as well....”

The only choice he offered was to die with Jamie, or to die alone. But there must be some other way....

“How do I know you’ll take care of Jamie if I gave him to you?”

As I was speaking I gently eased the sleeping child off my lap to the seat on the farther side of me, freeing my arm for action.

“You have my word,” Lennox said with a pained dignity.

I had to encourage him to talk a bit more to get him off guard for just a vital split second.

“It’s all very well to give me your word, Mr. Lennox,” I argued. “But Jamie’s life is at stake....”

“Come along, girl.”

“You can do what you like with me,” I said, putting submission into my voice. “But promise me that you won’t let any harm come to Jamie....”

“Haven’t I just told ...” snapped Lennox, raising his arms in exasperation.

With a sudden movement I put both hands against his chest and pushed with all my strength. With Lennox already partly off-balance with one foot still in the jeep, my unexpected thrust sent him crashing to the ground. I heard a startled grunt of pain.

I didn’t delay an instant. I whipped into the driver’s seat and even as my feet connected with the controls, my fingers found the handbrake and released it. The engine screamed as I trod hard on the throttle, the clutch engaged with a horrible jerk, and the jeep leaped forward. The open door swung shut with a bang, latching itself.

In the pale gleam of the sidelights I could only just make out the narrow road, curving steeply downward. The bridge seemed to jump at me from out of nowhere. Before I could wrench the steering around, the nearside front wheel had caught the edge of the parapet. The jeep veered violently across the road, and crashed into the wall on the other side.

We stopped dead, and the engine stalled. But the sudden silence that followed was immediately broken by the thunder of falling stones. A section of the bridge’s wall had dropped sheer into the gorge below.

That was the fate Lennox had planned for me.

Even now, I still hadn’t managed to escape it. My wild attempt to get away had achieved nothing. Worse than nothing, in fact, because now I had involved Jamie too.

He must have rolled off the seat onto the floor when we hit the wall, and he was wailing thinly, a pathetic sound.

I had to feel around for him, and when I touched his arm he murmured my name.

“Darling, are you all right?”

“My arm hurts,” he sobbed, sounding dazed.

“Poor Jamie.” Carefully I gathered him up and held him to me.

“I want my daddy.”

I wanted Craig too. I longed for him.

If only I could go back a few hours in time. If only I had been guided by my instinctive trust in him. If only ...

There were footsteps on the road, the noise I had been listening for with dread. It sounded as if the man was stumbling as he ran—possibly he was injured by his fall. But I knew he would be upon us with seconds.

Should I try and make a dash for it? But I’d be at a hopeless disadvantage, with Jamie in my arms.

I waited, rallying every ounce of courage. At this final showdown I wasn’t going to give in easily. Now, with Jamie awake, I hadn’t anything at all to lose—I was fighting for his life as well as for my own. Lennox was certainly much stronger than I, but with luck his fall had handicapped him. And age was on my side. I had at least a thirty-year edge on him.

He was almost on the bridge now, horribly near. Feverishly I fumbled around for a weapon. My fingers found a short piece of wood, half pushed under the seat. It was surprisingly heavy as I drew it out.

This was a vicious weapon indeed—a sharp-bladed ax like the one I had seen Angus MacRae using to mark trees for felling.

Lennox came running up. “That was ... that was a very stupid thing to do,” he panted. “I warned you of the consequences ... of any attempt to get away.”

I clutched the ax handle tighter, and it gave me a menacing sort of comfort. But it was a terrifying weapon. Too brutal— too final...

One of the jeep’s sidelights was still working and in its reflected glow I could see that Lennox was shrugging his right shoulder, massaging it with his other hand. I guessed he’d fallen heavily when I shoved him.

“Come along now,” he barked impatiently. “Get out.”

“Certainly not.”

I reckoned I had a slight advantage while I was inside the jeep with the door closed between us. I brandished the ax so that he could see the glint of its metal head.

“You keep away, or I’ll hit you with this.”

He jumped at that, taking several paces back. But almost at once he began advancing on me again with smooth encroaching steps. In a low, mesmerizing voice he said, “You wouldn’t dare to use that thing on me, Lucy, now would you ... ?”

“I will if I have to,” I cried.

Jamie must have sensed that something was badly wrong. Though he clung to me with a choking grip, he whimpered: “I want my daddy. I want my daddy.”

Lennox switched immediately to a bright coaxing voice. “Hello there, Jamie. I will take you home to your daddy, if you like. You just come on out of there.”

To my dismay Jamie started to clamber across my lap, and I had a job to hold him back with my one free hand.

 “You’re staying right here with me,” I said through clenched teeth.

“But I want to go home,” he sobbed.

Lennox took advantage of the distraction by coming a confident step nearer.

“You are only delaying the inevitable, you know. Why not come and get it over with?”

“Keep away.”

But Lennox edged closer still. He was trading on my female lack of stomach for violence. He misjudged me, though, if he really thought I wouldn’t strike out to defend Jamie. Trembling with every nerve, I raised the ax higher.

Lennox halted abruptly, standing quite stiff. I thought he must be daunted at last by my show of determination, but then I realized he was alerted to some new sound.

My own ears were filled with the noise of my thumping heart, but whatever it was Lennox heard caused him to make a sudden impetuous lunge at me. He shot out an arm, grabbing for the ax through the open window. Though I held it back, beyond his grasp, he reached inside with both hands, pulling at my shoulder, struggling to get hold of the weapon.

All I had to do was to bring the ax down hard. One single smashing stroke would finish him....

My fingers, tight around the wooden shaft, seemed paralyzed. My whole arm was rigid and useless.

In that split second I raged at myself for being so spineless. This man was a self-confessed murderer. He was going to kill us both, Jamie and me. He was going to fling us into the deep darkness of the gorge.

But still I couldn’t make myself hit out at him. Still I couldn’t swing that cold sharp steel at living flesh.

Lennox could sense my impotence. He abandoned his struggle for the ax, and instead, made a grab for Jamie, trying to drag the little boy away from me.

That gave me the courage I needed. I shut my eyes and ...

Before I could strike that final savage blow Lennox had jumped aside. “Come out of there, you stupid bitch,” he screamed. But now his voice contained no threat. He was a frightened man.

And then I heard it too. I heard what had put fear into Lennox. It was the noise of a motor, a noise that for me carried hope, the promise of safe deliverance. Whoever it was, would have to stop. Nothing could pass us with the jeep blocked across the narrow bridge. Whoever it was, friend of Lennox’s or complete stranger, the very presence of another human being would be enough to prevent him carrying out his murderous plan.

Lennox was staring back up the road. I glimpsed stabbing headlights as the oncoming vehicle dived into the hollow near the bridge. It came charging on at full speed until it was only yards away from us. As it swung around the last bend I heard brakes shrieking, and I knew the driver had spotted us.

I waited for the crash, but it didn’t come.

I heard a confusion of running feet and shouting. Two figures came into the beam of the headlights. One was limping badly.

“Craig,” I yelled at the top of my voice.

There was another shout—a weird scream of anger, of frustration, of terror. I saw Lennox dart away and jump up onto the parapet of the bridge. He ran a few steps along the top, his figure silhouetted against the night sky. And then, with a sort of magnificent, horrifying grace, he flung himself outward, diving into the black space.

Sickened, I covered my ears with both hands, fending off the dreadful sound I knew must follow.

I was glad to have Jamie to worry about during the next couple of days. His demands helped to push my nightmare memories into the background. I lied unashamedly, twisting facts to hide the fearsome truth. Luckily, he’d been too sleepy to have more than a hazy recollection of that dreadful night. I managed to keep up the fiction that our ordeal had been just a game—an extravagant game of tracking.

Maybe in taking good care of his son, I was giving Craig the best possible help at this difficult time. But all the while I was wishing I could do more for him. There was so much he had to see to, so many things to be sorted out. And his badly wrenched ankle didn’t make it any easier. He was hobbling around with the aid of a stick, and I could see he was still in considerable pain.

Glengarron Castle was a gloomy place, filled with disquieting emptiness. I saw very little of either Isabel Lennox or Fiona, and even the servants seemed to keep to the domestic quarters.

On the second day, as I came downstairs from putting Jamie to bed, I found luggage piled in the hall and Craig’s aunt and cousin on the point of leaving.

I could well understand Isabel Lennox’s need to get away. After what had happened, life at Glengarron would be unbearable for her.

Whether or not Craig had told her the whole story, I didn’t know. I guessed he would have spared his aunt as much as he could, but there was a lot she had to be told. And as it turned out there was also a lot that she in turn was able to tell Craig.

He came to me later in the small sitting room, where I was trying to while away the evening hours. Limping heavily across the room, he flopped into a chair facing me. I thought he looked desperately tired, with a sort of grayness about his face.

“You’d better hear it all, Lucy,” he said in a low voice. “And then we can put it behind us.”

Craig began right at the beginning, careful to leave nothing out. Alistair Lennox, it seemed, had never been the comfortably-off Glasgow exporter everyone had supposed. Neglecting the business his father had left him, he’d spent wildly, sinking deep into debt. He had owed a great deal of money to his brother-in-law.

“My father’s death must have come as a godsend to him,” Craig said, speaking in a cold clipped tone. “He certainly seized his chance with both hands. In fact, it was so damned convenient that I can’t help suspecting ...”

“You mean—that was murder, too?”

Craig made a little gesture of anger and futility.

“I wish I could be sure it wasn’t. But there was something my aunt said that made me wonder. I don’t think she intended to mention it, and I got the feeling that she herself had all along been
afraid
to believe it. Anyway, what she let slip suggested that when Uncle Alistair was leading the rescue operation, he may have deliberately left my father lying injured in the snow, and only ‘discovered’ him when it was too late.”

“Oh no ... !”

I could appreciate Craig’s bitterness. For years he had felt nothing but grateful admiration for his aunt’s husband. And now Craig knew that Lennox’s motives in taking over the running of Glengarron had not been noble at all, but quite the reverse. Whether he’d actually had a direct hand in the death of Craig’s father we should never know, but I could well imagine it. The man’s cunning mind worked in such a way. I remembered him planning to extract the maximum advantage for himself out of my death. He had boasted about it to me.