Page 55 of A Two-Faced Laird
Aidan turned and treated his father to a few of the kind of words the Laird had no idea his son even knew. The Laird’s eyes widened with shock, but a moment later he recovered and spoke sternly to the guards.
“Take him away, lock him in his bedroom and stand guard outside. He goes nowhere without my permission.”
Aidan did not waste his time or energy resisting, but allowed himself to be led away by the guards. However, he directed a venomous glance back at his father as he left.
Aidan Findlay was not finished yet!
As he was being led away, he heard a shout from behind him, and Lady Findlay came running up to them.
“Let him go!” she cried, pulling at one of the guards’ sleeves. “Where are you taking him?”
“Laird’s orders, Milady,” the man told her. “We have tae take him tae his room an’ lock him in.”
“You will do no such thing!” Lady Findlay’s face was a mask of outrage, but when she looked at Aidan, her expression softened.
“What is happening, son?” she asked.
“May we speak in private, Mother?” Aidan asked, nodding at the men who were holding him.
Lady Findlay murmured her assent, and they went up to Aidan’s bedroom, where they went inside, but Lady Findlay ordered them to leave the door unlocked.
“There are two of you, after all,” she pointed out.
The men took their positions on each side of the door, then mother and son sat down in front of the fire.
“Tell me what is happening, for heaven’s sake,” Lady Eleanor demanded. “Have you murdered someone?”
The question was not serious, of course, and Aidan smiled grimly.
“No, but something equally serious,” Aidan replied. “I have refused to marry Fenella.”
Eleanor Findlay did not know whether to be sad, angry or relieved. Sad, because Aidan quite clearly loved Edina, angry with her husband for forcing this fate on him, but relieved because if he married an Anderson family member it would solve many problems.
When he married Fenella, there would be a tight bond between the Andersons and the Findlays, which would give both families a measure of security they would not otherwise have had.
All this passed through her mind as she gazed at her handsome son, then she leaned forward and put her arms around him.
“I know what it is like to love someone you cannot have,” she said sadly. “Before I had to marry your father, I was in love with another boy. His name was Gavin, but he was only a farmer’s son, and we met when I sneaked out one night to go to a local ceilidh.
I was fifteen, and your grandfather, who, as you know, was one of the most cold-hearted men you could ever meet, had his sights set on your father. We both knew that, but we kept on meeting in secret until we were found out. Your grandfather was beside himself with fury, and would not believe me when I told him I was…untouched. He made me marry your father within a week so that if I was pregnant, I could say the baby was early. Lewis arrived a few years later!”
Aidan laughed.
“So you’re the reason I am such a devil!” he exclaimed. “Mother—I never guessed!”
Eleanor giggled, then ran her hand over his thick reddish-brown hair and looked lovingly into his face.
“If I had married Gavin, my life would have been so different.”
She moved her arm in a wide sweep to indicate the space around them.
“I would not have all this, but neither would I have had my two wonderful sons, who mean the world to me.”
She paused, and her eyes filled with tears.
“When Lewis left us, I was devastated, and I could hardly hold myself together for a while, but I had to, for your sake.”
“Why did you not tell me?” Aidan asked, puzzled.
