Cauldstane (35 page)

In a very small voice, Wilma said, ‘Before I answer, may I ask one question, Mr Sholto?’

‘Oh, please!
Sholto
.’

‘Do you love me,
Sholto?’

‘Yes, Wilma, I do. With all my heart.’

‘Then…’ She glanced nervously at Alec and Fergus who were both smiling their encouragement. ‘This time, Sholto, my answer is yes.’

The MacNabs
whooped and broke into applause, apart from Sholto who limped round the table until he got to Wilma’s chair. As she lifted her face to look up at him, he bent and kissed her, then took her hand and helped her to her feet. Fergus stood and pulled out his chair, vacating it for Wilma who, arm in arm with Sholto, walked round the table to take her place at his side, her face shining with happiness. One by one the MacNabs kissed her and voiced their congratulations. Then it was my turn to hug her and Sholto and wish them every happiness. Finally Rupert shook their hands and offered his congratulations.

As
he turned away, Rupert announced to the room at large, ‘As Wilma so rightly said, there has been much love in this family. Such loyalty. And courage. My friends, this love is surely strong enough to defeat hatred, envy and fear.
Timor omnis abesto
, as the MacNabs say,’ and he resumed his seat chuckling.

‘So, Jenny,’ Sholto said pointing to the laptop. ‘
Any word from Meredith?’

I was back in front of the laptop, but I’d avoided looking at the screen until now. What I read made my heart plummet.

But you haven’t given Alec
your
answer, Jenny. What’s stopping you? There’s something you don’t want him to know, isn’t there? And now you’re wondering if he loves you enough and you’re frightened that he doesn’t. Just how much love
is
there in this wretched family? Enough to send me packing? Do you dare put Alec to the test, Jenny? I wonder… Do you have the guts?

‘I do.’

I’d said the words aloud, firmly, without reading Meredith’s latest message aloud. When I looked up, Alec was watching me. ‘Was that for my benefit?’ he asked. ‘Was it – I hope – my answer?’

My heart began to pound as I struggled to order my thoughts.
‘I was answering Meredith. She’s… she’s needling
me
now. About your proposal.’ A hush descended on the room and I knew it was now or never. I looked round the table at all the expectant faces and said, ‘Before I can give Alec his answer, I have some explaining to do. Rupert and Alec know, but I believe the rest of you don’t, that I have an
alter ego
, Imogen Ryan. Actually, that’s my real name. J.J. Ryan is the
alter ego
. Imogen was a very successful novelist who cracked up some years ago. She overcame her fear of writing fiction by coming back as Jenny the ghost writer. Alec, do you remember you once asked me what I put into my ghosted books to identify Imogen Ryan as the real author? I said I always left my mark, just as you mark your swords with a red kite. Well, I include a little quotation from Shakespeare’s
Cymbeline
. The heroine of that play’s called Imogen. There’s a scene where people think she’s dead and they sing a funeral song over her lifeless body. But she’s not dead, she’s just taken a sleeping potion that makes her appear to be dead.’

‘What’s the quotation?’
Alec asked.

‘
It’s from that funeral song.
Fear no more.
’

‘You’re kidding me
.’

‘No, I’m not. I always manage to get that phrase in somewhere, even if there’s a full
stop between
fear
and
no
. It’s surprisingly versatile. I’m telling you all this because fear has been… well, it’s been my issue for many years now. And that’s why I always put that phrase in my J.J. Ryan books. It was a little nod to Imogen, my other self, my
real
self, who’s fearful. And that’s what I want to say to you about your proposal. Jenny very much wants to accept… but Imogen is afraid.’

‘You
’ve nothing to fear, Jenny. The MacNab curse is nothing but superstition and I’m confident Meredith cannot touch us now.’

‘Actually, I’m not afraid of her. Not any more. I’m afraid that you don’t know what you’ll be taking on.’

‘I agree we haven’t known each other long, but—’

‘No, that’s not what I mean. Alec, I don’t want to sound as if I’m testing you, but if I accept your proposal, it has to be on one condition.’

‘Which is?’

‘That no future disclosure will make you withdraw your proposal in the light of… well, of information received.’

Alec considered, then said, ‘I take it you’re not already married?’

‘
No man’s ever proposed to me, let alone married me. It would be perfectly legal for us to marry. But there’s something that
you
personally might regard as an obstacle.’

‘Would Sholto regard it as an impediment?’

‘No. Definitely not.’

‘Would Zelda?’

‘No.’

‘
Rupert?’

‘No. And he knows what it is.
In fact he’s tried to persuade me I should accept your proposal.’

‘
Thank you, Rupert,’ Alec said with a smile. ‘OK, then, I’ll repeat my offer.’ He stood and reached across the table for the claymore, raised it before him and said, ‘Imogen Ryan, for better or worse and under any conditions you care to name, I swear on this ancient and beloved blade that no future disclosure will make me withdraw or even regret my proposal.’ He lowered the blade and grinned. ‘
Now
will you marry me?’

‘With the very greatest of pleasure.’

Applause broke out again as Alec put down the sword, strode round the table and took me in his arms. He kissed me thoroughly and, still holding me tight against his pounding chest, declared, ‘Go ahead and do your worst, Meredith. If you bring the stones down around our ears, you’ll not touch us. The MacNab men have chosen their women and their women are “steel-true and blade-straight”. They don’t fear death and they certainly don’t fear you. Nor do I. There’s only one thing I fear and that’s fear itself. I will make only one concession to fear: I will fear to lose my loved ones – all of whom are in this room – but I won’t let that fear prevent me from loving them, from living with them and for them.

‘So you see, Meredith, you’ve lost. You’ll not be able to kill us because we all know – as my poor wife and mother did not – what we’re up against. We are united against you
. We shall be looking out for each other. Whatever you put us through, none of us will have to go through it alone. So go ahead. Hurl your hatpins. Chuck your china ornaments. Plague us with your wee tunes. I shall eradicate all physical trace of you from my home and it will be as if you never lived. And if it takes me the rest of my life, Meredith, I promise you, as God is my witness,
I will forget you.
’ He reached for my hand and raised it to his lips. ‘And so will my wife.’

Sholto
wiped a tear from his eye and said, ‘I wonder if I might just say a few words?... They’re for Meredith’s benefit, but I’d like you all to hear them.’ He got to his feet and leaned on the table. ‘Alec, could you hand me the dear old claymore for a moment? I’d like to hold it on this momentous and very happy occasion.’

Alec returned to his father’s side and
handed him the claymore. Raising the sword, two-handed, like a crucifix, Sholto said, ‘This is your last chance, Meredith. The last time anyone will find it in their heart to forgive you. God’s mercy and forgiveness might be infinite. The rest of us are mere mortals. You died a terrible death. A worse death than Liz, though you at least were responsible for your own death. It could have stopped there. It
should
have. You might say you paid for what you’d done. Though some would argue, anyone who blighted a child’s life the way you blighted Alec’s deserves to die many times. I’m not saying that. I’m saying you have
already
died many times. Each time you chose evil instead of good. There are people in this room who had reason to remember you fondly and there’s one among us,’ Sholto said, looking at me, ‘who never knew you, but wanted to tell your story. You could have lived on, Meredith, in the kindly memories of your family and your loyal friend and servant, Wilma. Instead, you chose spite and revenge. You chose to bully. To destroy. You had a talent for making people adore you, but instead you have tried to make us fear you.’

Visibly tired now,
Sholto laid the sword down on the table. ‘But you haven’t succeeded. No one is afraid of you. Or the curse. Not any more. To flout the curse, Fergus and Rachel are prepared to reject marriage. There’s already a MacNab heir on the way. And as she’s about to become part of our family, I hope Jenny will forgive my saying, she’s not so old that there might not be
another
MacNab scion in the near future.

‘
So let’s face it, Meredith, you’ve lost. Love, loyalty and courage have defeated you. With these examples before you – particularly my dear Wilma’s – does it not occur to you that the time has come to spurn the darkness? To move into the light? Good God, woman, do you never wonder, as I do, what it might be like to
rest
?...’

Sholto sank back in
to his chair, apparently exhausted. He closed his eyes and laid his head on the back of his chair. ‘Any word, Jenny? From herself, I mean?’

‘Nothing so far.’

He sat up and waved his hand in the air. ‘Oh, switch the damn thing off! Whatever Meredith has to say, I’m not interested. But I doubt she’ll respond. She wasn’t stupid. She’ll know she’s beaten. Now, could someone please hand round the sandwiches? I’m
famished
.’

I did as instructed and put the laptop away in my bag, then, unobserved in the general
mêlée
, I took out a pen and my chequebook. Wilma stood and reached for the sandwiches, but Sholto laid a restraining hand on her arm. ‘No, Wilma, the boys can do that… Ah,
thank
you,’ he said helping himself from the plate Alec offered. ‘Tuck in, everyone.’ He glanced at his watch. ‘This is our long-past-midnight feast. In fact, it will soon be dawn. At daybreak Rev. Sheridan is going to perambulate around the castle, blessing it and saying prayers. You are all cordially invited to join us.’ Sholto helped himself to another sandwich, remarking, ‘Meredith can’t complain about not being given a good send-off, can she?… These sandwiches are delicious! Do you know, the last time I was this happy, I was on top of Mount Everest!... What’s this?’ Sholto asked as I presented him with a folded piece of paper. ‘A note from Meredith?’

‘
No. It’s my dowry.’

‘Dowry?’
He peered at it and frowned, then, rubbing his eyes, he handed the cheque to Alec. ‘How many noughts is that?’

Alec
stared, then whispered, ‘Six.’

‘I thought so.’
Sholto turned to me and said slowly and clearly, as if speaking to someone of limited intelligence, ‘Jenny, this is a cheque made out to me for one million pounds.’

‘Yes. I’m s
orry to behave in such an ostentatious way, but since your son has taken a vow to marry me, like something out of a fairy tale, I feel at liberty to behave like a fairy godmother. I wish to use my personal wealth for the good of my future family. I also think my future home could do with a bit of refurbishment, frankly. So I’d like you to put that in train while I do things like sell up my London house and organise my Highland wedding.’ I took Alec’s hand. ‘Perhaps ours could be the flagship wedding. The first of many at Cauldstane.’

Fergus
’ eyes lit up. ‘A
double
wedding. You have to admit, that would be a grand publicity stunt. It could get the business off to a flying start.’

‘But, Jenny,’ Sholto protested,
waving the cheque in the air. ‘We can’t possibly accept this!’

‘Why ever not? I’m to become family. What Alec needed to d
o was marry money. But he had no idea how well off I am. Did you?’ I asked, turning to my stunned fiancé.

‘
D’you think if I’d known, I would have proposed?’

‘Exactly. Tha
t’s why you had to make that vow. Because you’re unfamiliar with the ways in which writers can make money, you never suspected a humble ghost writer could be wealthy. You’re presumably also unfamiliar with London property prices, so you had no idea of my potential worth. Nor did you care. But I didn’t want you going back on your proposal when you found out.’

Sholto looked down at the cheque again and murmured, ‘
Well, I’m flabbergasted. Would somebody please pinch me because I think I must be dreaming… This delightful woman is about to become my daughter-in-law and the future mistress of Cauldstane
and
she’s going to bail us all out? I don’t believe it.
Can’t
believe it.’

‘You have to, Sholto. I admit that cheque pretty much cleans out my personal savings account, but
once I’ve sold my house in London – it was my parents’ house, four bedrooms in Crouch End – I’ll have a large sum from the proceeds. I suggest some of it should be invested in setting up Cauldstane as a business enterprise, one that will enable us all to continue to live in the castle, or on the estate, for as long as anyone wants to.’ I turned to Alec. ‘I’m terribly sorry to spring this on you. But you did rather put pressure on me by proposing. And so did Meredith.’