“We’d originally ridden for Cramond, you see, thinking Will might have tried to visit Mr. Wallace. But we met up with a pair of my footmen we had sent to the village earlier in the day to search for Donovan. They admitted to having dawdled at a pub adjacent to the bridge over the river and swore that my brother could not have gotten past them and into the village without their taking notice.” His chair shifted with a creak. “We were just about to set off again when our old stable master rode up to deliver Kiera’s message. We immediately rode for Banbogle, following the firth’s coastline. That’s when we heard the dog howl.”
That mournful bay that had frightened Will and me to a standstill and alerted us to Donovan’s presence on the stairs beyond.
“And you feared it was the legend?” Alana gasped.
“Yes,” he choked out.
I wrapped my arms around my stomach and sank deeper into my chair, knowing my posture was far from proper, but not caring. I still wasn’t certain how I felt about the howling dog being the supposed portent of Will’s death, but I couldn’t deny it had happened. Not when Gage and Michael, and some of the other residents of Dalmay House, had heard it, too.
While Michael struggled with his emotions, Gage took up the tale. “We arrived in time to find two men dragging a little skiff ashore, and after overpowering them we tied them up and went to search the ruins. We found Mac near the base of the tower knocked unconscious. He was barely breathing and bleeding profusely from another wound to his head. Michael tried to rouse him, but when the wall came crashing down . . .”
It had claimed Mac for its victim as well. Michael barely had enough time to get out of the way of the falling debris.
In honor of his service and sacrifice, Mac had also been laid to rest that morning, in a grave near the Dalmay mausoleum. That way, even in death, he would never be far away from the man he had served so faithfully in life.
“And while Michael tended Mac, Gage, you went in the castle after Lord Dalmay and Kiera,” Philip deduced.
I could feel his gaze on me, even through the fabric of the chair.
“What I don’t understand . . .” he continued, his voice tight with disapproval “. . . is what they were doing there in the first place.”
My spine stiffened, and I fully expected Gage to inform him that I’d disobeyed his order to stay at Dalmay House, but he didn’t.
“Mac realized where Lord Dalmay had gone after Michael and I had already ridden toward Cramond. And fearing he would do himself harm, Mac and Kiera went to Banbogle to try to stop him. They couldn’t have known Dr. Sloane and his lackeys would show up to cause trouble.”
“Oh, my. Were they planning to take William back to that asylum?” Alana asked.
I shifted in my seat, not wanting Philip or my sister to know the truth about Dr. Sloane’s intentions for me. They felt so much guilt after what had happened to me at Gairloch two months prior, and though I knew they would feel some remorse that I had been put in danger again, I wanted them to be spared the added horror of knowing Dr. Sloane’s plans.
“He wanted to silence him. And Kiera. So they couldn’t share what they’d uncovered.”
I sank back in my chair and closed my eyes, grateful for Gage’s discretion.
“What will become of Banbogle now?” Philip asked Michael, ever concerned with estate business. “I imagine you’re not going to leave it standing.”
“No,” he replied, his grief now better under control, though never far from the surface. “I’ve already hired a contractor from Edinburgh to tear it down. I simply can’t bear to look at it anymore. My father should have demolished it years ago.”
I reached up to finger my amethyst pendant, thinking that if he had, Will might still be with us.
I heard Lady Caroline’s gentle voice as she leaned in to murmur something to Michael. I knew he was grateful for her presence, and I was as well, at least for his sake. But I couldn’t stomach the sight of Lady Hollingsworth. I imagined there would be no impediment to Michael and Caroline’s marriage now that he was the Baron Dalmay. I swore that if I saw even the tiniest flicker of satisfaction in her eyes, I would not stop to think before I slapped her. But she behaved with perfect decorum, and we departed Dalmay House without a row.
I returned to Edinburgh with Philip and Alana that afternoon after the funeral. Lucy did not join us. I found I could not ignore her betrayal, and she accepted my decision without a fuss, admitting she wanted to return to Gairloch and her family. So she took the next mail coach north to resume her old position as an upstairs maid, hopefully a little wiser in the ways of men and the world than before.
Gage followed us to Edinburgh to turn over the information we had gathered about Dr. Sloane to the Royal College of Surgeons, while Michael took the same evidence to a local magistrate he respected, trusting the matter of Larkspur Retreat would be taken care of quickly and effectively. And it was. For weeks afterward the newspapers in Edinburgh ran stories about the notorious doctor and his asylum.