Page 83 (1/2)

Suddenly anot to cry as he sat in the dank darkness and hugged his knees to his chest He had drawn a picture of solanced at theof the floith a critical eye

“Very nice, darling,” she had said, turning back to her own mirror, “but why didn’t you draw roses? They are so much prettier”

Why had it upset hior wondered now It was not as if she hadn’t done that before, dis, belittled hih indifference And yet he had continued to try and please her, endlessly, and all to no avail Even when he had taken her to Edinburgh, after they lost Glen Dhui, he had walked the streets day and night to find the best lodgings that they could afford For her

Gregor closed his eyes He had sat here, gazing down into the glen, and feeling that sense of hopelessness that always afflicted him when he had had a brush with his mother She was beautiful, so beautiful on the outside that he had believed she must be just as beautiful on the inside It was only with or had realized that was not so She was a manipulative and shallooman, rather like Barbara Campbell

And he was still trying to please her, or women like her

Well, that was over He had grown up and learned the value of a wo the Barbara Campbells of the world to ruin the wonderful life he had planned

With new deter his sodden shirt and the way his kilt was dripping into his boots “Meg?” he said

The na reverberation There was a rattle of stones, as if he had disturbed an ani there Or perhaps the reverberation of his voice had shaken them loose

“Meg?” he called again, ainst the cold, daness If she wasn’t here, then where was she? If she wasn’t here, ould he do? A bleak emptiness settled in the pit of his stomach, a hollow ache that only she could fill

“Meg, please…Meg!”

“What are you doing here?”

His heart nearly stopped As he blinked hard against the darkness and the dripping rain, she stepped forward, at first a shadowy shape, and then her face a pale blur surrounded by brilliant auburn

“Go away,” she said

“Kenneth and Shona think they saw Lorenzo in the glen,” he said, ignoring her words, perhaps not believing sheCouard you”

“Lorenzo?” She took another step, and now he could see hohite her skin was, tinged blue with cold, and how her long hair hung in dahtly less wet than hireat deal more chilled