Hope Everlastin' Book 4

HOPE EVERLASTIN’

Book 4

by

Mickee Madden

***

Smashwords
Edition

© 2011 by Mickee
Madden

****************************************************

Smashwords Edition, License
Notes

This ebook is licensed for
your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or
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with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each
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Cover design by Mickee
Madden

***

For Steve and our children
Gwen, Steve and Brehan, and our

grandchildren Eric Brandon,
Dameon Michael and Christopher. Aunt

Donna. Steven and Mary, and
their children Ashley and Patrick.

Matt and Grace, and their
children Erik, Kahl, and Alby. Gerri and Anna.

***

Sandy, mentioned first in
this list because she loves to whine,

Marsha, Rosella, Guy and my
son, Steven, Jr. for critiquing me

through another book. Thank
you!

***

Denise Little.
Always.

***

Donna Kater, Heather Moon,
Cindy Stapleton, Trisha Mitchner,

Kathleen (Meeka) Lombardo,
Angie Wheat and Betty Cimarolli.

Just because.

***

Also, my heart-felt thanks
to the readers, especially those whose

inspiring letters keep me
pounding at the keyboard with new purpose.

***

Last but not least, Lachlan,
who is of the belief there can

never be too much written
about him.

***

Glossary

anither/another —
aught/anything — bahookie/buttocks — brither/brother

canna/cannot — corbie/crow —
couldna/couldn't — craiture/creature

daith/death — didna/didn't —
dinna/don't — faither/father — haud yer wheesht/

hold your noise —
havena/haven't — ither/other — mair/more

mair'n/more than —
maist/most — mither/mother — na canny/unnatural

naught/nothing — orra/odd —
shouldna/shouldn't — thegither/together

verra/very — wasna/wasn't —
weel/well — willna/will not / winna/won't

wouldna/wouldn't

***

For information on up-coming
e-books by Mickee Madden

please contact her at:
[email protected]

Aberdeen,
Scotland

***

On a storm-driven night at
three minutes before midnight, Ciarda MacLachlan Baird gave birth
to her fourth and last son, Lachlan Iain MacLachlan Baird. In front
of dying embers at the hearth, she'd suffered her labor alone while
her husband and sons attended to the business of completing a
merchant ship across town. She was a woman accustomed to a solitary
existence. From the time her sons could walk and talk, they became
solely Guin’s, their father's, to mold into his future
partners.
His
heirs.

She ceased being their
mother; was instead the woman who cooked and cleaned for them. By
the third son, she expected no more from her family.
Ever.

Until this
night.

From the instant Ciarda had
conceived this child she'd known he would be different, and had
feared his birth more than she had feared anything in her life. No
longer, though. Not only did he bear the dark red hair of her
forefathers, but she sensed through something more powerful than
maternal instinct that he would always be
her
son, one whose destiny had yet to
be written.

In the years to come,
Ciarda cherished Lachlan above all else. It saddened her to watch
him struggle for his father's attention and approval, and to prove
himself worthy of participating in the family business, something
his brothers, for whatever reasons, were bitterly against. Lachlan
was younger than Angus by seven years, Gavin by ten, and Patrick by
twelve. By the time he had a fair idea of what his father's
business entailed, his brothers were gradually taking
over.

Lachlan was never one to
settle for the odd jobs meted out to him by the older Baird males.
He was blessed with a sharp, inquisitive mind and a talent for
succeeding at whatever he applied himself to. His mother had once
told him his brothers felt somewhat threatened by his ability to
learn and adapt. She always encouraged him to experience life and
all it had to offer, often telling him that the world did not
revolve around the Baird business nor the dictates of his father
and brothers, and that of all her sons, he alone was a true
MacLachlan.

Unlike his siblings,
Lachlan was a dreamer. As a boy he had an imaginary friend named
Onora, who he believed was his guardian angel. She often told him
in his dreams that the world was his to explore. Told him that as
long as he kept his mind open to all possibilities, the secrets of
life would offer themselves to him.

During his formative years,
he seldom did anything without consulting her first. He respected
her wisdom and trusted her to watch over him.

In between working odd jobs
for his father and brothers, Lachlan met a Frenchman named Millard
Barluc, a moderately known swordsman at the time. He'd taken a
fancy to seven-year-old Lachlan and was pleased by the boy's
request to satisfy his curiosity about the history of the sword.
Soon, he began teaching Lachlan swordplay, which two years later
led to Lachlan taking fencing lessons from another Frenchman,
Charles LaForte, a friend of Barluc's. The training he received
from both mentors helped him to develop irrevocable confidence and
self-esteem, and taught him to discipline his growing impatience
with his father and brothers.

When Lachlan was twenty,
his maternal grandfather died. Lachlan took it harder than even his
mother. It was then that Barluc told Lachlan and his parents that
he was planning to enter a swordsmen's tournament which would span
most of Western Europe during the next two years. He wanted Lachlan
to go with him.

Ciarda didn't want her
youngest son to leave, but Guin insisted it was time Lachlan was
cut free of her apron strings. Lachlan went with Barluc, but only
because of his father's propensity to take out his displeasure of
his son on Ciarda.

Lachlan made good use of
the tournament circuit during the ensuing two years. He competed
and won more often than not against contestants in his category,
then turned his small winnings into a sizeable fortune through
various gambling endeavors during their travels. Barluc would shake
his head in wonder at Lachlan's good luck at cards and dice. Would
shake his head and laugh when Lachlan bested gypsies at their own
games.

The Lucky
Baird
, he called Lachlan. The nickname
spread across Western Europe, and usually greeted Lachlan when he
and Barluc arrived at a new city. Wielding steel or gaming, he met
each challenge with a grin and an attitude of that win or lose,
life was a grand experience.

Lachlan didn't spend all of
his time competing and gambling. He also took every opportunity to
mingle with merchants, seamen, dockmen and the owners of shipping
companies, accumulating an inside understanding of what happened
after a ship was built and claimed by its owner. He studied
comparative building techniques of other countries and, during the
tournament's stay in Italy, learned the art of Italian molding. His
insatiable craving for knowledge and outgoing personality made it
easy for him to approach strangers and gather information. Whether
his friends and acquaintances called him
"The Crazy Scot"
or
"The Lucky

Baird,"
he was duly accorded the respect he earned.

However, the man Lachlan
had become still could not sway his father and brothers' opinions
of him.

When he returned to
Aberdeen, he was grief-stricken to discover that his mother had
died eight months prior. No one had made any attempt to let him
know. His resentment for his father and brothers grew tenfold, for
they refused to tell him how his mother had died. Months later, a
family acquaintance, Giles Towne, finally spoke up while sharing a
lager with Lachlan at a local pub.

Ciarda had broken her neck
during a fall down the staircase in her home.

According to Towne it had
been a terrible accident. During the man's conversation, though,
strange images flashed through Lachlan's mind. Of his parents
arguing about him at the top of the wide staircase. Of Guin shoving
Ciarda in a fit of rage. He could hear his mother's bones breaking
as she tumbled down the wide steps. Could hear her silence when she
sprawled onto the first floor landing, where she remained
motionless and pale while her husband remained atop the staircase,
his hands balled into fists at his sides.

Lachlan never again
questioned her premature death, but he would always harbor an
aching void in that part of his heart that was hers
alone.

Guin Baird had retired
shortly after his wife's death, and remained a recluse in the
family home. The business was in dire tax arrears, and was on the
verge of closing. Lachlan obtained a shrewd barrister to draw him
up a contract with his father and brothers. In exchange for
investing a portion of the fortune he had amassed into the company,
he would own fifty-one percent of the business. Resentfully, they
signed the document, but not before warning Lachlan the maneuver
was considered a blow against the "family."

Regardless, Lachlan took
over the reins. During the next ten years, despite his brothers
fighting his decisions at every turn, Baird Ships excelled, from
cargo ships to schooners.

Lachlan worked with the
builders, teaching them all he'd learned from the craftsmen in
France, Italy, and Germany. The demand for luxury ships was
especially on the rise, and the contracts for schooners the
business received were almost more than the employees could build
within the allotted time. Somehow, deadlines were always met, and
the company expanded year after year.

Still, the older Bairds
looked upon Lachlan as an outsider.

Once, when Lachlan was
twenty-seven, his brother Angus had commented that Lachlan would
always be a MacLachlan. He'd said this disparagingly, as if their
MacLachlan lineage were something to shun.

Granted, Angus, Gavin, and
Patrick Ian had their father's fair coloring, light brown eyes, and
light brown hair, while Lachlan bore his mother's dark auburn hair
and near-black eyes. He was taller and more broad-shouldered. His
features were more chiseled than rounded like theirs. But coloring,
bone structure and size should not have been enough to cause their
refusal to accept him. No matter how often or how forcefully he
demanded to know the basis for their animosity, his brothers
remained smugly reticent.

With his father barely able
to look at him and not through him as he had all of Lachlan's life,
Lachlan decided at thirty to sell his share of the business to his
brothers, and for an exorbitant sum, at that. One that he felt
would justify the others ridding themselves of him forever. As an
added bonus to leaving, all of his mother's belongings were given
to him, including the relics and furniture she'd brought into the
marriage. It was as if his father and brothers wanted all trace of
her stripped from the house. Stripped from their lives.

Wealthier now than the
Baird men collectively, he moved to the lowlands, where he
eventually built Baird House.

He returned to Aberdeen
only to find himself a proper Highland bride then returned to his
estate with Tessa Aiken and her brother, Robbie, full of dreams for
their future.

Soon after, his still
bride-in-name-only, and Robert Ingliss—who he discovered was her
lover, not her brother—murdered Lachlan and walled him up in the
tower of the Victorian mansion. It should have been the end
of
"The Lucky Baird."