Page 31 of Highlander’s Lust
“And ye, of course, are such an expert at lies, no’ so, me laird?”
It took the last scrap of her dignity to stand tall and walk out of the study without looking back. She flinched when she heard the sound of the wainscoting wall splintering into a thousand fragments behind her as Laird Brisbane took his anger, frustration, and misery out on the thin wooden paneling, but Jean did not look back. She walked straight up to Eby’s chambers, to the small parlor the maid had adjacent to her room as befitting her status as a lady’s maid.
Entering without knocking, Jean said, “Start packing a trunk with me clothes, I bid ye, Eby. We will send for the rest of me things later. I am leaving Laird Brisbane forever.”
Eby dropped the embroidery she had been doing and stood up from her armchair so fast, the tambour frame fell off her lap and onto the carpet.
“Ye’re leaving, me lady? Where are we going?”
Jean could hold back the fountain of tears no longer. She burst out crying.
Eby ran to her mistress and wrapped her arms around her. “There, there, dear lady, don’ cry. Time heals all wounds. Give yerself time, that’s all.”
Jean sniffed and hiccoughed and was eventually able to say, “I w-want to go home. I want me mither and faither.”
Eby comforted her. “Nay, me lamb. The time for running home to yer parents is over. Come here and sit down. Tell me what has happened to cause ye such heartache.”
Jean recounted to her maid everything she had overheard. Eby stayed silent through it all. When Jean had finished, Eby said, “Och, me dearie. To tell truth, I am surprised such a thing has no’ happened to his lairdship afore. The auld laird, the auld Ramsay goat, must have taught his son some tricks to stop the possibility of it occurring...still, that’s neither here nor there. I agree, ye must leave. It’s time ye taught that jakey dobber a lesson. Me own cousin has a cozy farmstead close by, he being a prosperous cattle farmer of some renown. He is married to a lady—second cousin on the auld laird’s distaff side o’ the family—and they will give us a warm welcome there. There are a few things I wish to find out down in Carnachscallie; staying with me cousin will give us the chance to do it. Now, sit here and drink some o’ this delicious cordial I made while I go to yer dressing room to pack.”
Before Eby bustled out of the door, she turned to Jean. “If ye are no’ encouraged by his lairdship throwing the whisky onto the floor, ye should be! ‘Tis a most excellent sign.”
Jean raised her tear-ravaged face to answer her maid, “Ye dinnae ken, Eby. I hate him now!”
The maid laughed as she shut the door behind her. “Ha! Ye cannae hate where there’s no love!”
