Chapter 5
It had been a strange week. Requiring a dose of normalcy after finding James McGregor once more and agreeing to the most daft proposal he’d ever heard, Struan had invited his friends to the townhome on Thursday evening before the wedding.
(It would be impolite to say that he begged, but that was close to the truth.)
The home was originally purchased by his father.
He’d loved the city, and instilled the same affection for it in his son.
Struan remembered coming here as a young boy along with his parents, which happened several times a year, and always heralded excitement.
His childhood bedroom was on the top floor.
It was more like a nook than a room, but he loved it.
He remembered being taken to see the castle, and all the various sights of the city, and often walking along the banks of the Lieth with his mother before she passed away, and later enjoying the city with his father until he passed too.
Struan always thought of the city as a second home, but after returning from France, it hadn’t felt the same.
His injuries from the war were too significant.
While he appreciated the fact that the doctors in Edinburgh were incredibly skilled, and that thanks to his family’s wealth he could actually afford the care, no amount of doctoring erased the outward damage.
As he moved through the streets, he could feel the eyes of everyone else.
A chance encounter with an old acquaintance became an exercise in awkwardness.
They would either pretend not to notice what had happened to him, or worse, paper it over with platitudes.
He used to love walking through the city, but now he mostly used a closed carriage, unwilling to let himself be seen by either friends or strangers.
The only exceptions to this rule were the men now in this room.
His close comrades from the war: Calan, of course.
And Thane MacPhearson, Duncan MacKenzie, Kai Buchanan.
These men had been with him through the worst, and they were the only ones who could look him in the eye with complete honesty.
They never pretended that he hadn’t gone through hell, and they never made light of the fact.
With them he could be himself, which felt like an increasingly rare opportunity.
So many other people he encountered expected him to either be a hero of the war, or to dismiss it completely and behave exactly as if he’d never enlisted.
He couldn’t play along with either of those wishes.
And he didn’t want to. Not for the first time or the last, he was grateful for the few friends he had.
“I thought you were leaving the city last week,” said Thane, as he took a sip of Struan’s finest scotch.
“You seemed eager to retreat to Linneliath.” He smelled faintly of smoke, since he spent a large part of each day helping to restore Catriona Ross’s house, because he was totally besotted with her.
“Yes, I assumed the same,” added Duncan, who sat near the fire.
“Though of course I’m glad you’ve extended your stay.
I have a feeling that the times that we’ll all be in the same place are limited.
” He looked a little haunted by his own prediction.
He was a burly redheaded man who tended toward bad jokes.
He was an incredibly steady presence, so a haunted look seemed especially alarming on him.
“I had planned to already be on my way, but a few small matters need to be resolved first.” Struan took a seat across from Duncan and gestured for the other men to sit as well.
Calan poured a second drink, and then sank down onto a leather-covered chair, looking as comfortable as if he were in his own home. Then again, Calan knew what Struan was about to announce.
“A few small matters?” Thane grunted. “I seem to remember you using that same phrase right before a battle. Please tell me that you don’t intend for us to storm the enemy’s lines after we finish our drinks. I think the citizens of our fair city would misunderstand.”
“But what is keeping you here?” Kai asked as he sat down. “Not that I don’t appreciate the opportunity to have a quiet evening in. I had no idea how many events occurred in the city, and how many of them require formal wear and polite conversation.”
Calan looked at their younger friend with a smirk. “It’s not as if you find either of those difficult.”
“It’s not that,” said Kai. “It’s just that the invitations don’t ever seem to stop.”
Struan cleared his throat. “Well, I’m afraid that I’ll be responsible for each of you receiving one more invitation.”
Thane asked, “Are you going to host some gathering larger than this one? Novel.” His response was completely understandable. Struan hadn’t been the most gregarious of men before the war and, of course, since returning he hadn’t felt the slightest urge to entertain.
Struan said, “It won’t be large by society’s standards, but what matters is that it’s happening at all. I’m inviting you to my wedding.”
Silence fell over the room. Struan was conscious of all four men watching him. After a long moment in which Struan strongly considered getting up and leaving the room so that he could find a hiding place, Kai said, “Well. This is a surprise.”
Duncan nodded. “You’ve been keeping secrets from us. I thought that your previous engagement had been ended.”
“It was.” That came from Calan, who nearly spat out the words. He said, in a fierce tone, "As if any of us could forget the words of that…woman.”
The woman Calan declined to give a name was Struan’s former fiancée: Isla Abercrombie.
They had gotten engaged before he left to join the army, and he had assumed that after the war, their marriage would be one of his first steps toward the rest of his life.
Instead, she had abruptly renounced the engagement upon seeing him.
Struan had no illusions. She was repulsed by his appearance, though in the letter formally releasing him from the engagement, she did offer the dubious justification of having succumbed to the affections of another gentleman.
Struan explained, “That relationship is over. However, I have been…” He paused.
He’d been about to say I have been fortunate, but the fact was, he didn’t know if it was fortunate or not.
He tried again, saying, “I’ll be marrying a different young lady.
I don’t believe any of you know her.” Of course, Struan didn’t know her either, a fact he kept to himself.
“Who is she?” asked Thane.
“Elspeth McGregor. She lives here in Edinburgh, though after the wedding, we’ll be moving to my home.” He meant Linneliath, his home in the Highlands, which all of the other men implicitly understood.
“Well, that’s wonderful news,” said Duncan. “I’m relieved that the treatment you received at the hands of your former fiancée didn’t cause you to shy away from marriage altogether. We all know how much family means to you.”
It was true. Struan had made no secret of his desire to start a family as soon as possible after completing his service.
He had always looked forward to having children, and watching them grow day by day.
Part of that was surely the warm and loving home his parents had given him, and how horrible it had felt to lose them both too soon.
But it was also true that he simply loved children.
He found them to be fun and raucous and ever surprising.
Children lived life at a different pace than adults.
They saw the world in a different way. He’d always loved talking to children, being delighted by their insights and the way they could cut through the nonsense of the adult world with all its rules and strictures and simply tell you what was.
He dreamed of being a father, of raising his own children, teaching them everything, passing on the lessons his own father and mother gave to him.
He had been unusually close to both his father and mother, who disdained the trends of ignoring one’s own children and leaving them in the care of a nurse or governess.
The dream of a son or a daughter had sustained him in the darkest moments of the war.
Then the war nearly destroyed him. And all but destroyed that dream. Even now he had his doubts that a family was in his future.
“So, when is the happy day?” Duncan asked.
“Um. Tomorrow morning. At ten.”
“Tomorrow…as in the day after today,” Thane said in a remarkably even tone. “Roughly fifteen hours.”
“Er, yes. I hope you all can attend.” He wasn’t sure he could endure the process without his friends present. The idea of marrying a complete stranger, with only strangers looking on, was overwhelming. “I know it’s short notice.”
“Nothing like taking care of the matter quickly,” said Thane.
“Wouldn’t miss it,” Calan said. “I’m curious to actually meet the young lady.”
Struan knew that Calan had seen her, since he took it upon himself to scout out the family over the past few days to ensure there was nothing obviously wrong with them.
He returned the news that the McGregors were not a family that he had any interest in getting to know better, but by all accounts (meaning the accounts of servants and neighbors that Calan had been able to subtly interrogate without their realizing it was an interrogation), Elspeth was the best of the lot.
“You’re not allowed to steal her, Calan,” Thane joked. Calan was a notorious flirt. Thane continued, “Of course we’ll all be there. I assume the lady’s family is hosting the wedding breakfast?”
“There won’t be one,” Struan admitted. “It’s all being arranged a little hastily because I don’t wish to stay in the city longer than I must.”
“The lady must be eager as well,” Duncan said with an unexpectedly sly smile. “And really, there’s no sense in wasting time. I expect we’ll all get invitations to a christening soon enough.”
Struan merely grunted in reply. However, his reaction was taken as an unwillingness to engage in earthy jokes regarding a soon-to-be wife.
A knock at the door interrupted them. “Excuse me, sir,” one of Struan’s servants said. “A package arrived for you, and the delivery boy insists you inspect it first. I tried to explain that you’re busy—”
“I’m sure I can take five minutes away from my demanding social…demands,” Struan said, standing up. “I’ll be back shortly.”
The others laughed as Struan followed his servant out the door.
* * * *
After Struan left the room, Calan moved to the door, listened for a moment, then shut it softly. He turned to the other men. “I assume you have questions.”
“Yes,” said Duncan. “First, do we believe this story about a courtship with a woman he’s never mentioned, conducted over weeks and months without us hearing about it, only to have a wedding announced the day before it’s to happen?”
“We do not,” Calan replied flatly.
“Why would he lie?” Kai asked, puzzled.
Thane frowned. “That’s the question. Calan, you obviously know more than we do.”
“I usually know more than everyone else does,” Calan admitted. “But all the same, I’m not going to share what I know.”
“Why not?” Kai objected.
“Because Struan’s a grown man. He can choose whatever bride he wants. No one has the authority to stop him.”
“It’s not about authority.” Duncan’s voice was little more than a rumble.
“It’s about friendship. Struan’s been through a unique hell, and he might not have his head on straight after it.
This woman could be after his money, or have troubles of her own that a hasty marriage could solve.
So we’re looking out for him. Because that’s what friends do. ”
“What do you think I’ve been doing?” Calan said, looking offended. “Struan did come to me for advice. And thank God, because I was able to verify that the lady isn’t a fortune-hunter, at least.”
“How long have you known?” asked Thane.
“Not long at all. Less than a week.”
Kai gave a little shake of his head. “Which is your way of saying that even though you didn’t discover any information that would put Struan off, you don’t trust the whole situation. All right, what needs to be done?”
“Good man,” Calan said. “Pour yourselves another whisky and we’ll discuss it until Struan gets back. And not a word to him about anything. He thinks he’s got to do everything on his own, and we’ll let him continue to think that if it helps.”
“But what if there’s actually a problem with this woman?” Duncan asked. “Or her family?”
Calan shrugged. “Then we’ll make them regret it.”