Chapter 27 #2
“The banns were posted this morning.”
“The what were posted?” Cat sprang to her feet.
“You and Thane. Getting married in a month.” Andra finally seemed to realize that this was news to Cat.
“Goodness, didn’t he tell you the plan? The minister set aside the date.
And I heard that Struan and Kai sent word to several newspapers in Edinburgh, since that’s your home, and folks must have a chance to see the announcement.
Tacita said it would be quite a surprise. ”
“Yes, primarily to me. Thane never asked! And if he had, I’d say no!”
“But you’d be such a fine match. And everyone likes you here. You don’t like Kinlochlie?”
“It’s not Kinlochlie. It’s Thane.”
“He’s a good man.”
“I’m sure you think so,” Cat said, too tartly. “Anyway, it doesn’t matter. I’ll rip the banns down.”
“Um, but they’ve been posted just so the person after you will—”
“I don’t care what any paper may say! I’ll die before I marry him.”
She stormed off, leaving an open-mouthed Andra behind.
Cat could take it no longer. Alone in her guest chamber, she had never felt more acutely isolated.
She had put her trust in Thane, but he had betrayed her in a more fundamental way than she ever could’ve imagined.
Even with the other men at the house, the men who had demonstrated a willingness to help her out of a sense of shared friendship, she couldn’t put aside the fact that they were Thane’s comrades first. She knew that when it came down to it, they would side with him.
The solution of a quick marriage surely seemed entirely reasonable to men who were used to solving problems in the most expeditious way.
The fact that it would destroy her own life was irrelevant.
And now they’d decided to skip ahead and just carry that plan out without even letting her know.
So there was only one thing left to do.
Cat packed a small quantity of items that she had brought along with her, the items she absolutely needed and wouldn’t trust to let out of her custody…including a few bank notes she’d hidden in the folds of a gown. It was just enough, she hoped, to suffice for a few days’ travel.
Very early the next morning, she went down to the main hall, where she customarily took breakfast. She ate heartily, though without exchanging more than the bare minimum of polite pleasantries to others who passed through the room, mostly servants.
When she had eaten her fill, she addressed Janet, who had come in to see if she needed anything else.
“Yes,” said Cat, lifting a paper she’d written the night before.
“Please give this to Mr MacPhearson. There is no need to wake him. It is not a matter of urgency. It merely tells him that I have decided to visit his sister Effie for the next few days. He will understand that I need a change of scenery.”
The maid took the folded note with a small curtsey. Cat could read the worry in her eyes, for even though the servants had never been explicitly told what was happening, it was clear that they knew something well beyond the typical social interaction was afoot.
“I have already packed a small bag sufficient for a short visit, and I intend to ride there as soon as I am finished with my breakfast. I have no wish to trouble the household more than I already have done.” She gave the housemaid a grateful smile.
“Truly, I have felt very well cared for while I’ve been here. ”
The maid curtseyed once again, this time with a slight coloring to her cheeks. It never hurt to offer a compliment, particularly when it was true.
Once again on her own, Cat rose from the table and returned to her bedchamber just long enough to put on the riding habit she’d borrowed from Effie and grab the bag that she had packed the night before.
She went down to the stables and requested one of the boys to saddle up the horse she typically used on rides.
She also let him know that she was riding to Effie’s home and intended to keep the horse there for the duration of her visit.
“Though of course if the horse is needed, someone can come and collect her.”
“Don’t see that happening,” the stable boy said. “The master has more than he needs.”
Cat didn’t trust herself to reply to that, so she merely thanked the stable boy after he helped her saddle up and slung her bag across the horse’s back.
Cat rode out of the gates, mentioning to the guard posted there that she was heading to Effie’s.
The man gave her a polite nod, and told her to be careful.
Once free of the gate, Cat encouraged the horse to a trot, and then a gallop, moving in the direction of Effie’s home.
Cat was pleased that she had spent the last several days acquainting herself with the area, because by now she knew the best points along the way where she might be momentarily unobserved by the various watchers that Thane had placed all around his estate and the approaching roads and tracks.
Cat rode nearly the entire distance to Effie’s home, only veering off before the house itself came into view because she didn’t want anyone to notice her arrival.
At the point where the rolling hills created a small valley, she abruptly turned her horse to the left and rode down the slope into a small copse of trees.
Once under the cover of the green canopy, Cat slowed her horse’s progress and picked her way through the woods, following deer trails as best she could.
She waited about an hour, half expecting some thunderous pursuit from Thane.
But no one interrupted her solitude at all.
It was perhaps the first time since the beginning of this entire saga that Cat felt she had been left truly alone.
Once she felt certain that no one was coming for her, Cat resumed her ride, this time sticking to clumps of bracken and small woodlands, moving in a very large half circle around Kinlochlie to reach the stones that she had noticed on her first ride.
As expected, the circle of stones was completely deserted.
Cat left the horse tethered to a branch in the nearest arm of the woodlands close by.
On foot, she moved swiftly toward the stones and retrieved the bag she had dropped there the day before.
Part of her had hoped she would never need to do this, and that planning her escape had merely been a mental exercise.
But at this moment, another part of her was glad she had done so.
She walked the bag back to the horse and added it to her load.
Mounting was somewhat of a struggle, until she found a fallen tree that she could clamber up and use as a stepping stool to swing herself onto the horse.
Then she rode through the woodlands once again, aiming for the village to the north.
Go back, Cat, ye wee numpty!
She inhaled, not ready for her brother’s voice to ring out so loudly in her heart.
Brodie continued to tell her in no uncertain terms that she was behaving like a fool.
But in a characteristic fit of contrariness, she pointed out that her behavior over the last several days had been a fine example of foolishness, and this could hardly be worse.
Brodie’s voice inside her was silent, and Cat had to conclude it accepted her point.
Thus, as she wrestled with dueling impulses within her own mind, Cat began her solitary journey. She had seen what came of trusting a man to help her. Now she was on her own.