Chapter 12
TWELVE
‘Well. Here we are again,’ Tam Blackwood clasped his hands behind his back.
‘Here we are.’ She nodded, filling the awkward silence.
Three days after she’d arrived, Sorrel had finally plucked up the courage to drive over to the Inn to see what she could do to help, and transfer Catriona and Angus the money they needed to help with the repairs.
She’d met Tam outside; he’d suggested that he go through his estimate for what would be needed to make it right.
The money wasn’t the issue for Sorrel. She knew that she wanted to help repair the Inn, because it was her sisters’ home, and she cared about keeping it.
Anyway, Uncle James had offered to contribute, so she wasn’t worried about the cost now.
The issue was her relationship with her parents, and the fact that they’d made her keep a horrible secret for years, against her will.
She’d sat with her work laptop the evening before, with a cup of tea and a biscuit in the quiet drawing room at Balhennie Castle, and plucked up the nerve to deal with what she’d been putting off.
Luckily, she and Simon had just finished a renovation project and were yet to start the next one, so there was nothing that she had to cancel in terms of workmen or supplies.
Instead, she checked the file of all their current investments and mortgages, and then spoke to her solicitor, Ava, on the phone.
‘Well. This is a surprise,’ Ava had said, when Sorrel explained everything. ‘So, you want to… what? Dissolve the company?’
‘I want to know what it would take to do that, yes. And what my other options are,’ Sorrel said, firmly.
‘You should speak to Simon first. This is a huge decision. You don’t want to make it based on a simple misunderstanding,’ Ava said, kindly. ‘Even if he has had an affair, your relationship is repairable. If you want it to be.’
‘Hm. I’m not sure that I do. I don’t deal with betrayal very well,’ Sorrel said, thinking about her mum and dad.
She had cashed in some of her savings to help with the repairs at the Inn, thinking that she could pay herself back if she sold the company to Simon or they just sold off all their assets.
She didn’t know what would happen, but the one thing she wasn’t worried about any more was money.
She had enough – more than enough – to keep her going for a while.
Until she decided what it was that she would do next.
But the task ahead of her was steep, and she didn’t just mean the repairs at the Inn. Sorrel knew that was just bricks and mortar.
The real repairs were within herself, and her family.
‘So, this is the estimate.’ Tam handed her a piece of paper; as he did so, his forearm brushed hers. A tingle of electricity shivered deliciously through her.
He was standing in the doorway, leaning against the doorframe. Dressed in overalls with a T-shirt underneath, Sorrel thought that it was almost impossible not to notice how the fabric gripped his toned biceps. She blinked and looked away.
‘Okay.’ She took the paper, grateful to have something else to focus on, and started to look through the figures. ‘Wow. Rewiring too?’
‘Yep. The electrics are ancient. Your dad won’t get insured again if we don’t fix them now.’
Sorrel swore under her breath. The cost for the repair of the foundations because of the flooding was high enough, but now there seemed to be cost upon cost adding on to the total.
‘Coffee? The lads went to the coffee shop and brought back a spare. None of your instant from a jar.’
‘Oh. Yes, I’d love one. Thanks.’ She took the hot beverage in its cardboard cup from Tam; this time, his fingers brushed hers. Goodness – was it at all possible for him not to touch her? She felt herself blushing, which was completely ridiculous.
‘We found something else, by the way. You know that I gave you the ribbon and the newspaper article before?’
She nodded. ‘Yeah. They’re at the castle for safekeeping.’ Sorrel had tucked both items away in the old wooden bureau in her bedroom.
‘Good. Well, there’s also this. Seems like the old Inn is full of little secret treasures.’ He handed her a dark wood box, approximately the size of a shoe box.
‘What is it?’
‘Open it.’ He watched her with a glint of excitement in his eyes.
There was a burnished bronze lock on the outside, but it wasn’t locked. Inside, the box was lined with burgundy satin.
Sorrel glanced at what was inside, and looked up at Tam in surprise. ‘Is this…?’
‘That’s what I thought. You can’t quite believe what you’re seeing. But I think it’s real.’
‘Oh my… wow.’
Carefully, Sorrel reached into the box. Inside was an ornamental dagger.
She held it up in the light, awed at the discovery.
It was heavy. Longer than she would have expected, with a shiny silver blade and ornate Celtic knotwork running along the blade and covering the pommel.
The hilt was shaped like a cross, set with a large, square emerald on each arm, another in the centre, and one at the end.
The pommel – Sorrel somehow knew that the pommel was the knob at the end of the hilt – was designed in the shape of a crown and studded with diamonds.
‘I think it’s the dagger that Emma Gordon was supposed to have stolen.
’ Tam observed. ‘I think the stones in the hilt are real emeralds.’
‘My goodness. It must be so valuable.’ Sorrel said, awed.
‘You’re not wrong there. The jewels alone would be worth maybe hundreds of thousands.
They’re massive, and old.’ Tam reached over and traced the line of the dagger in her hands gently with his forefinger.
‘This is Balhennie property. Lost for all these years. What are you going to do with it?’ he asked.
‘I guess we should give it to Uncle James; he keeps all the kind of stuff from the Balhennie history. We can hardly mount it on the wall in the caravan.’ She had used a sarcastic tone, and she felt bad for it as soon as she saw Tam’s face.
‘No, obviously. I meant, you could sell it. I’m sure your dad would appreciate being able to finish paying for the repairs. Pay you back, too,’ Tam suggested.
‘I’m sure you’re right, but he can’t just sell it without asking Uncle James; that would be weird. It belongs at the castle.’
‘Well, I had to give it to you, so, there you go.’ He shrugged. ‘A bit of the Balhennie history, maybe. I mean, if it’s the same dagger as Emma Gordon was supposed to have stolen, what’s it doing here?’
‘No idea. Where did the builders find it?’
‘Hidden up in the fireplace. It’s been wedged up there on a little shelf inside the chimney for all this time – what?
A hundred and fifty years?’ He gestured to the wide inglenook fireplace at the centre of the Inn’s kitchen.
When they were children, Sorrel and her sisters played in the recess, but Catriona yelled at them if she found out; it hadn’t been a working fireplace for some years, but there was a wood burner in the centre, and if it was on, it got hot to the touch.
‘Something like that.’ Sorrel nodded. ‘That’s amazing. So, if Emma Gordon stole it, she hid it here. Why?’
‘I don’t know. It may not have been her. There’s a letter in that box too. I didn’t want to open it without you.’ Tam handed over an envelope, foxed with age. He kept another piece of paper that had been folded over.
‘A letter?’ She opened the envelope. ‘Hm. It sounds like a love letter,’ she said, scanning it and then reading it aloud.
My dearest Matthew,
By the time you read this, I will be gone. The ship sails from Southampton for the New World in three days, and I plan to be on it.
If you want the future that we dreamed of together, meet me there. I will wait on the dock for you until it’s time to depart.
Two hearts that know each other shall never be parted, my dear Matthew. Whatever happens to me, and whatever happens to you – and whatever you hear about me – know that I truly loved you. What was between us was real.
Your,
Emma xxx
‘Emma Gordon?’ Tam took the letter from her and looked at it.
‘Maybe. It’s a coincidence if it’s not.’ Sorrel raised an eyebrow. ‘What does yours say?’
‘This one’s not a love letter. It’s a court summons. Look…’ Tam showed it to her. At the top of the paper was an embossed, official-looking royal crest, with the title SUMMONS in an elaborate copperplate script.
The form was mostly filled out in flowing handwriting.
‘Sessions district of Portree, County of Skye,’ Tam read.
Complainant, Dougal Balhennie, Laird
Defendant, Miss Emma Gordon
Whereas a complaint has been made to me that: On the day of 7th March, 1883, Miss Emma Gordon of Balham, London SW, is charged with fraud and embezzlement in the amount of a hundred pounds.
She is also charged with evading capture and escaping from Scotland, with the intention of emigrating to Australia.
It is noted that Miss Gordon is also accused of stealing a valuable ceremonial dagger from Balhennie Castle, though the dagger in question has not been recovered or found on Miss Gordon’s person.
Miss Emma Gordon
This is to command you to appear as a defendant on 28th June, 1883, at Portree Court, before such Justices as shall be there.
Signed, J. W. Harris, Justice of said County, dated 1st June, 1883.
‘Oh, my…’ Sorrel’s hand flew to her mouth.
‘Well, we knew she was a criminal, right? A con artist, of a kind.’ Tam frowned. ‘Stealing, fraud and embezzlement.’
‘I know. But we don’t know her story. I want to know it. Don’t you? This is kind of intriguing.’
‘It is. You’re right.’ Tam looked at the paper in his hand again. ‘I mean, it doesn’t say anything about whether she was charged. This is just a summons. And remember, the newspaper article said she was hiding up in Duntulm Castle, so I don’t know if she managed to escape on the boat or not.’
Tam gazed at her. ‘You know, this is nice.’
‘What? Finding ancient daggers?’ Sorrel quipped. It was certainly distracting her from her real-life problems, which were breaking her heart.
‘Yeah. That. But also, I missed hanging out with you. Talking. The usual stuff.’
‘Oh.’ She looked away, unsure of how to respond.
I missed you too. Terribly, was what she wanted to say.
‘It’s been a long time,’ she said, instead, her voice soft.
‘I’m surprised your partner’s not here with you. Did he have to stay in London? Look after the business, I suppose.’ Tam blushed a little. ‘Sorry. It sounds like I’ve been stalking you or something. I haven’t; Bluebell told me you had someone. That’s all.’
Sorrel wondered if that was Tam’s way of testing the water.
Maybe he felt bad about saying he missed Sorrel, knowing that she had a partner.
Though it was a totally reasonable thing to say to someone you hadn’t seen for ten years, because of who they had been to each other, she could see the reason he might feel cautious.
‘Hm.’ She didn’t want to talk about Simon, now, anyway. Not to Tam. ‘He’s… busy.’
‘Oh.’ Tam nodded. She could see the question in his face, but he didn’t voice it.
‘So, you’re doing well, busy with work? Apart from this, obviously.’
‘I’m doing okay, aye. Built the work up over the years. People seem to be happy with what I do. I enjoy it.’
‘It’s funny that we both ended up in sort of the same area of expertise,’ she said.
‘Ha. Yeah. You’re a bit more successful than me, though.’ Tam raised an eyebrow. ‘Ms Fancy Property Developer.’
Sorrel shrugged. ‘I did okay. I had a talent for it.’
‘Had? You’re not continuing?’
‘I don’t know what I’m doing right now, if I’m honest.’ Sorrel gave Tam a bright smile that didn’t reflect her feelings.
‘You’ll work it out. You always do,’ Tam said, carefully.
‘I guess so.’
She raised an eyebrow. ‘What about you? I bet you have a nice place now.’ She changed the subject before Tam had time to ask her anything else about herself. She didn’t want to talk about that. Not yet.
‘Aye. I’ve got a wee place in Portree.’ Tam nodded. ‘I was over in Staffin for a while, then moved.’
‘I… my aunt told me about Beth. I’m so sorry,’ Sorrel said, into the silence that stretched between them.
He nodded again, and looked uncomfortable. ‘Right.’
‘I’m sorry… I didn’t know whether to mention it… I just didn’t want you to have to say it. You don’t have to talk about it at all – it sounds like a terrible thing to happen. I just wanted to say, I know, and I’m so sorry that happened to you.’
‘Thank you. It was really hard. She was… she was a lovely person. I’m sorry. I still find it really hard to talk about.’
‘Of course.’ Sorrel wrapped her arms around herself. She felt so sad for Tam; she wanted to wrap him up in her arms and hug him tight, but she knew that she’d lost the privilege of doing that years ago. Now, she could only ever be an acquaintance – maybe, one day, a friend.
‘Listen, Sorrel. It was a traumatic time, when you left. I won’t deny it, but that was then. Beth was a light in my life that I’ll always be grateful to have had. You would have liked her, I think. But both of those things were then. This is now.’ He held out his hand to her. ‘Truce?’
‘Okay. Truce.’ She took his hand and shook it. She still had a mountain of feelings to contend with, but she wanted to talk to Tam. She wanted to be his friend again.
God, she had missed him so much.
‘Good. I’m glad you’re back.’ Tam squeezed her hand, and let it go.
‘You know, I did miss you like crazy. But you never know where life is going to take you. I never knew that Beth would come into my life, even for the short time that she did. And if you hadn’t left, you never would have had such a successful business. Maybe it was all fate, eh?’
‘I hadn’t thought of it like that before. Maybe. Yes.’ She smiled, feeling the tension leave her body for the first time in days. Tam had that effect on her. He could always make her feel safe.
‘There’s nowhere you can be that isn’t where you’re meant to be.
John Lennon said that.’ Tam looked around him: at the blue sky, and the trees rustling their leaves in the breeze.
‘I think about that all the time. And I make an effort to be grateful that I am where I am, every day. I’m grateful I’m alive, Sorrel.
I’m grateful for every day that the sun rises.
Because there are no guarantees in this life. That’s what I’ve learned.’
‘That’s beautiful,’ she said; life could feel like it had a surreal sense of humour sometimes, but it could also take your breath away.
‘Life is beautiful, if you believe it can be.’ Tam smiled down at her, his eyes twinkling with warmth.
She swallowed hard, looking back up at him, feeling a little dizzy.
Being around Tam always made her feel good: safe, warm, positive.
She found herself longing for the moment, just days ago, when he’d reached for her hand.
If he did it again, she knew that she wouldn’t pull her hand away this time.