The Pursuit (12 page)

M
ELISSA
sat back in the coach opposite Lincoln. It was plush. The interior was spacious, would seat eight, perhaps even ten, very comfortably. But she wasn’t comfortable. Neither was he. Their dread was contagious.

She sighed. “Tell me, then. And if you turn out tae be a monster, I swear I’ll be really annoyed wi’ you.”

He blinked, then laughed. “Thank you. I
was
beginning to sound too serious, wasn’t I?”

“A wee bit, aye,” she mumbled.

“I’ll try to keep this in perspective and not bore you with incidentals. You do need to get back before dawn, after all.”

She rolled her eyes at him. He did seem a little more relaxed—less tense, at least—after such silliness. There was value to teasing—occasionally.

“Some background first, or it will seem very
odd, my reaction to your uncles. You see, what I felt back then went beyond anger. It was more desperation, but there was a reason. I was left with a void in my life after my father died. I didn’t lose only him, I lost my mother as well, since I rarely saw her after his death.”

“She went away?”

“No, she just wasn’t available anymore. She tended to lock herself away in her room, where I wasn’t allowed, to mourn in private, so I rarely saw her. Being an only child, I was left starved for companionship.”

“You had no schoolmates?”

“I wasn’t enrolled in the local school, it being so far from home. I had a tutor. An excellent teacher he was, but he was a dour sort of fellow who didn’t encourage personal conversations. And then I met your Uncle Dougall. He filled that void, became my best friend—my only friend, really. I loved him. He became the brother I’d never had.”

“Aye, I’d been told you were good friends wi’ Uncle Dougi but that you started a fight wi’ him that ended it. Why did you do that?”

“I didn’t—at least, it wasn’t intentional. We were at the swimming hole where we had first met—where I met you as well,” he added with a smile.

She grinned, was relieved that she felt like grinning. “I know that my uncles had been going there for years. I didna know it was such a popular meeting place though.”

“It wasn’t, really. I never knew anyone else ever to use it, other than the MacFearsons and myself. That day there were four of us—two of his older brothers had joined us. They’d been talking about a fight they’d witnessed recently. Dougi was claiming he could do better. I teased him that his fists were the size of a girl’s and would be better left to swatting flies. I was in the habit of teasing him. He was used to it. He usually enjoyed it and gave as good as he got. To this day I don’t know why he took offense that time. The only thing I could reason was that it was because both his brothers had heard the remark and laughed over it. But for whatever reason, Dougi got angry and insisted on putting it to the test.”

“So
he
started the fight?”

“If you can call his taking a swing at me ‘starting it,’ then yes,” Lincoln said. “But not in my mind, because he couldn’t do me any real damage. We were the same age, but in the two years I’d known him, I had grown a great deal and he hadn’t caught up yet.”

“Aye, Ian One said as much, that Dougi couldna have won the fight and you knew it.”

Lincoln nodded. “I would never have fought him, no matter the provocation. My hands were up only to hold him off. I was trying to assure him I’d only been teasing, when he tripped and fell into me.”

Melissa’s eyes flared wide with the realization, “Dinna tell me he broke his own nose on your fist.”

Lincoln blushed somewhat. “I know it sounds
silly—sounds impossible, actually—and his nose
wasn’t
broken. It had merely started bleeding. It was the worst luck, that he should fall at that exact angle, just as I was raising my hand to push him back, and his nose should connect with my hand. It surprised me more’n it did him. I was frankly appalled and started to apologize, even though it wasn’t my fault. I didn’t get a chance to. The blood running down to his upper lip took the humor out of it for his brothers, and they both jumped me.”

Melissa winced, but she offered, “If you knew them at all, that shouldna have surprised you.”

“It didn’t. It infuriated me, because I wasn’t given a chance to set things straight with Dougi immediately, but it didn’t surprise me. They were always quick to stick up for each other, especially the older brothers for the younger. I actually admired that—when they didn’t take it to extremes. With me they took it to extremes.”

“Perhaps because they saw it as a betrayal.”

“I came to that conclusion as well, though not until years later. I don’t know how I got home that day—at least, I have no memory of it. Because I was beat up pretty badly, for once I even had my mother’s attention again. I do remember that, and I even let her coddle me in bed for a day. That was a strange mixture of feelings, being glad that she was noticing me again but angry that I had to get hurt for it to happen. Yet there was also an urgency. I still had to set things right with Dougi. And the urgency won out.”

“So you sought Dougi oot, wi’oot giving yourself a chance tae mend first?”

“Tried to. Unfortunately, all his brothers had heard what had happened by then—their version anyway—and were up in arms about it. I got to see Dougi, though not alone. Four of his brothers stood there to keep me from getting close to him. Their attitude didn’t make it easy to apologize, but I did so, only to hear them scoffing that I wasn’t sincere. Whether Dougi believed them or not, he wouldn’t accept my apology. And his brothers wouldn’t even let me see him after that, to try again. Which was when I lost my temper with the lot of them.”

“You didna think tae let the matter settle down first afore you tried again?”

“Do you really think that would have made a difference with your uncles?”

“It might have. It was at least another option tae try. But perhaps that didna occur tae you?”

“No, I admit I wasn’t thinking very clearly at the time. I was devastated. As I saw it, I’d lost the best friend I’d ever had over some stupid teasing that had gone awry, and the rest of the MacFearsons weren’t going to allow me to correct it. My rage over their interference just got worse and worse. And my mother added guilt to the issue, ordering me not to leave the house and to stay away from them, neither of which I could do at that point. It was paramount that I get to Dougi to make things right with him.”

“Sae you felt guilt for ignoring your mother’s
directives, sorrow for the whole mess, and rage because m’uncles united tae keep you from fixing it. Aye, some powerful emotions tae be plaguing such a young child.”

He gave her an odd look. “You make it sound so very simple.”

She blushed. “Nae, I’m no’ trying tae make the matter seem trivial, just trying tae picture what all o’ that would do tae a young laddie.”

“I wasn’t complaining about your assessment, I’d just never looked at it from such a simplistic view myself. At the time, however, I wouldn’t have been able to if I’d tried. There was also some pain involved—quite a bit, frankly—since I’d ended up with a few broken bones from that first encounter and a few more from the next. Looking back, I
know
that pain clouded my reasoning, but I just couldn’t see it happening. To anyone else it probably did make me seem somewhat crazy. But in my mind I had a goal that
had
to be met, to get to Dougi, even if I had to plow through his brothers to do it.”

She leaned forward until she could touch his hand. “Pain can do strange things tae you—aside from hurting.”

He smiled at her. “I suppose it can. To be honest, my memory
is
rather vague on what happened after that. I’m sure I kept trying to see Dougi. I know there were more fights. I vaguely remember pounding my fists bloody on a locked door—I assume it was my own—and climbing out the window eventually, which broke another
bone or two, because my hands hurt too much to be able to grip the sheets I’d tied together. I remember my mother crying over my injuries. I just don’t remember which ones or at what point. But I probably could have brought tears to a stone by then, I was so beat up. I remember the pain being constant, that nothing would make it go away, and it was too great to even allow sleep. I think the lack of sleep may be why my memories are in such a jumble.”

“But you did finally sleep?”

“Yes, if you can call being drugged sleeping,” he replied sourly. “And for a very long time I was kept that way. He was a very gruff doctor we had, the only one available in that area. His motto seemed to be ‘If you can’t reason with a patient—then don’t.’”

“For how long?”

“I have no idea, really, though when I finally came out of it, I was almost completely mended.”

“But you could think clearly again after that?” she questioned.

“Oh, yes, and was met with the amazing news that I’d lost my home. I was to live with my Uncle Richard in England thereafter.”

Melissa sat back with another sigh. It was impossible to miss the bitterness that had entered his tone. It didn’t surprise her. To grasp everything that had occurred to him, and at such a young age—it was more than she could stomach.

“Perhaps that was for the best. Or were you done butting heads wi’ m’uncles?”

He shrugged. “I’ll never know. It wasn’t something I had time to think about, when I was told as soon as I awoke that I’d be leaving the next day. It was apparently easier for my mother to ship me off than to deal with my problem.”

“But what could she have done?”

“Got the matter resolved.”

“How? You think she could’ve reasoned with the MacFearsons, when there’s no Scot more stubborn than they are? They decided you were crazy, or capable o’ crazy actions, which is pretty much the same, aye. You could’ve behaved like a saint from then on, but they wouldna have trusted you tae no’ go crazy on them again, and for that reason they wouldna have let you near Dougi again.”

“Is it because you’re a woman that you’re taking my mother’s side? Or do you really believe that?”

She rolled her eyes at him. “Neither. I merely know my uncles. And I’m telling you, you could ne’er have left Scotland, could have lived there till now, just miles away from them, but they would’ve kept you away from Dougi. The only way you could e’er have talked tae him again would have been tae find him alone. And even if
he
forgave you and wanted tae go on as before, it wouldna have happened. They would have forbidden it, and then they would’ve been the ones fighting—wi’ each other. Sae I’m thinking that if you couldna leave the matter go and forget you e’er met them, then ’tis better all around that you went tae live elsewhere.”

“But I was never given a chance to make that decision. I can’t say if I would have given up or not. But I’ll never know, because I wasn’t there to find out.”

“Ah, sae
that
is the bitter root you still carry? No’ that m’uncles put a wall ’tween you and Dougi, but that you werena there tae try tae break it down or no’.”

He made such a sour face over her conclusion that she laughed. He might have taken offense, but he didn’t. He even smiled at her.

“I rather like it that you aren’t afraid to disagree with me,” he said.

“Och, glad I am tae hear
that,”
she said with a show of exaggerated relief, then added seriously, “But there’s nothing tae disagree about in this case. Hearing the whole o’ it, wi’oot being one o’ the participants, I can only guess at the causes. The ifs and maybes are redundant. What happened back then canna be changed. It happened. That it’s come back tae haunt you in an unexpected way is what needs tae be discussed.”

“Indeed,” he agreed. “Being told who you are related to was a shock, but nothing in comparison to being told to stay away from you.”

“I take it you’ve been abiding by their wishes?” she guessed.

He nodded. “Only because I assumed you’d been talked to as well and were in agreement with them. But when Justin paid me a visit—”

She cut in, “Ah, so that’s why he suggested I call on your womenfolk.”

“He didn’t tell you why?”

“Nae. I can only assume he spoke wi’ one o’ m’uncles and was asked tae stay oot o’ it.”

Lincoln sighed. “Apparently. But what I cannot comprehend is why they would go to the trouble of seeking me out to warn me off, yet make no effort whatsoever to tell you they’d done so and why. Do
you
know why they would neglect to mention any of this to you?”

“That’s easy enough tae guess.”

“Then enlighten me, because it seems as if they don’t care what state of mind this has left you in, and if that’s the case, then why do they care who courts you?”

She suggested, “You’re letting your opinion of them color your assumptions. Tae answer why they might think it best no’ tae mention this tae me, you should know that there were a few lads who showed up tae court me at home. M’uncles managed tae scare them off, no’ intentionally, but the lads had heard the ’legend,’ o’ course. M’uncles could’ve merely looked at them wrong, and they’d have run for the hills. But because o’ that—and ’twas only recent—they’d probably rather I didna know they’d done it again, this time intentionally.”

“That’s it?” he said incredulously. “They’d rather let you think the worst of me—that I could state my intentions and then proceed to ignore you—rather than simply explain why they don’t think I’m the right man for you?”

“Well, there’s also the fact that although I love
them dearly, they have no real control o’er what I will or willna do,” she replied.

“You mean you’re not obliged to obey them?”

“That’s a wee bit inflexible, tae put it that way. I’d hear them oot, o’ course, and if they make sense, I’d likely agree wi’ them. But when it comes tae the rest o’ m’life, nae, those decisions are mine tae be making.”

“And your father’s? Your uncles seem quite certain that he’ll change his mind about me and do some forbidding of his own.”

She winced. She hadn’t had time yet to think how her parents would view all this. For that matter,
she
hadn’t had time yet to mull it over, other than to consider her first instincts, which were that he wasn’t crazy, just a victim of a strange set of circumstances that had got out of hand. But her uncles could be quite persuasive when they were all of them banded together in a common cause. Not that her father would bend under such heavy odds if he were of a differing opinion. But still, Lincoln would have to have something strongly in his favor for her father to support him against such odds.