Winter's End (23 page)

“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, lass?” 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 passing. 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 crap?”

“Well, I did hear
about it,” she said slowly.

“Well, it’s just what
it is. Bull crap!”

“So why did the
previous owners sell out?”

“Because they were bloody
troublemakers, they were. Started hoarding 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 chores leaving Emma to think about all she had learnt about
the
Kinnairds
that evening.

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.

“Hello, 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 god 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 hoarsely. “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 brimming 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.