Land of Heart's Desire by Catherine Airlie Read Free Book Online Page B

would be.” Dame Sarah’s voice remained unchanged. “I had written to him, you see. But no matter! He will come again, I have no doubt.”
    Christine’s face was scarlet now.
    “Why didn’t you tell me you had written to him?” she demanded. “I have made rather a fool of myself, haven’t I?”
    “Not necessarily, my dear. It would depend upon what you actually said,” her grandmother pointed out. “And you can explain to him when you meet him again.”
    “I won’t apologize,” Christine flashed, “if that’s what you mean! He could have explained to me! He didn’t say you had asked him to call.”
    Dame Sarah shook her head, but there was an understanding smile in her eyes.
    “It was no more than a suggestion,” she said. “I thought we might be able to clear up a few difficulties that have arisen over rights of way and that sort of thing if we met and discussed it personally.”
    “And he came, post-haste,” Christine suggested, “hoping to talk you into a sale before he had gone!”
    Dame Sarah would not argue.
    “You have all the hot blood of the MacNeills in you, Christine!” she smiled. “But you will learn, in time.”
    Christine turned silently away. It was obvious that her grandmother had no intention of discussing the situation any further in front of their guest. The relationship between Rory and Finlay Sutherland’s agent at Ardtornish had been an uneasy one, but it was possible that Dame Sarah hoped for a different approach from the new laird himself.
    Christine sat in a rather frozen silence for the remainder of the tea hour, letting Hamish do all the talking, and when he finally rose to go she followed him from the room.
    “The old lady is still in full command!” he remarked briefly as they went down the stairs. “Dame Sarah to the last gasp!”
    “And why not?” His remark had disconcerted her, even irritated her. Everyone seemed bent on saying the most outrageous things! “She’s still the head of the family and she makes her own decisions.”
    He looked amused.
    “Then the little flare-up I stumbled on at the end of the drive this afternoon was purely a personal matter,” he suggested, “between you and Sutherland?”
    “There was nothing personal about it,” she flashed. “I told him he wouldn’t be able to buy Erradale at any price. That was all.”
    In the dim grey light that poured down from the deeply-set windows he turned her to face him, smiling in his charming way.
    “Not at any price, Christine!” he said softly, kissing her full on the lips. “But take care, my love! He looks to me a man who might get his own way, sooner or later!”
    When he had left her she felt shaken and unsure. The day had held far too much conflict to be dismissed with the lightheartedness of other days, and Hamish’s abrupt kiss had held no more promise than the one he had given her at fifteen beneath the rowan on the edge of the Ardtornish burn. She did not understand why he had come back to Croma. Certainly not to kiss her again nor to set out in Archie Campbell’s boat in search of sharks. Not entirely.
    An hour ago she might have been eager enough to hope that Hamish, with all his other loves forgotten, had returned to Croma to find her, but some strange inner sense suggested that this was not quite so. The fact that he had come should have been enough, of course, and she tried to tell herself that it was, but the uncertainty persisted.
    She found it impossible to go back to the turret room immediately, with Hamish’s light kiss burning on her lips, and two hours stretched between her and their evening meal. The moor seemed to be the answer to her restlessness, but she did not go back along the drive to reach it.
    Instead, she took the path that went along the cliff top to the shore, and after a moment she realized that she was going in search of Callum.
    For years Callum McKinnis—Callum of the Second Sight—had been her mentor and friend. She had gone to him when she