Page 64 of A Two-Faced Laird
Aidan sighed and put his face in his hands. All he could think about now was how to get home to his mother, and how distraught she must be; what a terrible son he was.
Edina’s heart was breaking for him. She knew how much his father had meant to him, and she put her arms around him and embraced him tenderly. The Laird had also been a good friend to her, of course, but he did not mean as much to her as her own father, who was sitting looking at her at this moment. It would break her heart to lose him or her mother, she thought.
Edina withheld her own tears with an effort and became brisk.
“If we are leaving tomorrow, we must be ready,” she announced.
She gently eased Aidan out of his chair and planted a soft kiss on his lips.
“Come,” she said. “Time to bathe.”
She had to hold Aidan that night while he wept, but after they had shared a few happy memories, he was able to fall asleep in her arms.
They left earlythe next morning, and Aidan knew that by the time they arrived at the castle, his father’s funeral would already have taken place. Even in winter, there was only so long a body could be preserved, and the carriage would take at least five days to cover the fifty miles to Achnabreck.
The journey seemed endless, but when they arrived at last in the late afternoon, Lady Findlay was the first to greet them. She ran out of the castle and threw herself into her son’s arms, and they embraced wordlessly for a while before she looked into Aidan’s face and smiled through her tears.
“I am so glad to see you, Aidan,” she whispered, then held out her hand to Edina.
“How are you, Mother?” he asked, looking down into her dear face.
She seemed to have aged since he had last seen her, but perhaps he was looking at the ravages of grief.
“I am coping, my darling,” she replied, with a valiant attempt to smile. “These things take time, so I am told.”
Edina noticed that lady Findlay was dressed in unrelieved black, and cursed herself for having no black clothes at all.
“I am so sorry, Milady.” Edina hugged Lady Findlay. “Please let me know if there is anything I can do.”
“I will, of course, Edina.”
Then she looked from one of them to the other and back again.
“Are you two man and wife now?” she asked hopefully.
Edina nodded, wiping away tears of her own.
“Yes, Lady Eleanor,” she replied. “We are.”
“I am so glad,” Lady Findlay said. “Welcome to the family, Lady Findlay.”
Aidan’s heart skipped a beat.
“The Lairdship is mine?” he asked, frowning.
“Yes, my darling,” his mother replied. “But we will talk about all that later. Come and eat.”
“No,” Aidan said firmly. “Where is Father?”
“With Lewis,” Lady Findlay replied, and fresh tears began to course down her cheeks.
“As they should be,” Aidan whispered.
There was some comfort in knowing that his father and brother were resting together, he thought. It was fanciful, since they were both dead, yet it gave Aidan some solace to think of it.
They went inside and settled themselves in Aidan’s bedchamber. It seemed strange to Edina that she was here and not in her own room.
“We will have to wash the dust off ourselves,” Edina remarked, looking down at her creased and dirty clothing.
