Beth hugged him silently, knowing how the loss must have hurt him. Scotty hugged her back and kissed her forehead before continuing.
“O’ course, after having endured her viciousness and cruelties fer most o’ me life, I hated me mother. But the final straw was when she tried to convince me to buy her fine new silk fer the funeral, by offering to bed me,” he said with disgust.
“Her own son?” Beth asked aghast.
Scotty nodded, his mouth tight. “It was the only way she knew how to interact with a man, I suspect. But at the time I was so enraged . . .” He shook his head. “So the moment I was named clan leader, I made it clear to her that I would stand fer no more o’ her nonsense. That she would be a good woman, and comport herself as a lady, or she would be cast out.”
“And did she?” Beth asked. “Comport herself as a lady?”
“Fer two years,” Scotty said grimly. “She had no choice but to toe the line. Her beauty had begun to fade, and her lovers had grown sparse. If I had cast her out as I promised, she would have had nowhere to go, and no sweet lover to rescue her from penury and rough living.”
Beth nodded. “And what happened after two years?”
“She got wind o’ a man she thought might help her. He had a certain reputation fer getting rid o’ problems. And there were rumors that he had murdered a certain laird or two. So she sent a messenger to him with a parchment requesting his help. In it, she claimed I was cruel and abusive and so on and so forth. What she did no’ realize was that he was an immortal. No’ that she would’ve kenned what that was anyway, and she may not have even cared had she known. She probably would have tried to seduce him into making her one.”
Scotty paused and frowned over that possibility and then gave a shudder before hurrying on. “As I say, he was an immortal and read the messenger’s mind and knew there was something amiss. Apparently, all the messenger had on his mind was sex with me mother. His thoughts on me were respect and fear, but the fear made the immortal wonder, so he decided to find out what was what. Either he had a mother bent on filicide, or—”
“Excuse me?” Beth leaned up to stare at him with one eyebrow raised. “Filicide?”
“That’s what ’tis called when a parent kills their child, whether ’tis mother or father, killing son or daughter. It comes from filius, the Latin word for son.”
“Oh.” She nodded solemnly and then rolled her eyes and said, “Well, la-di-da! Aren’t we clever?”
“Aye. I learned Latin centuries ago,” Scotty said with a grin. “Jealous?”
Chuckling at his teasing, Beth kissed his chest and said, “Get on with it. What happened with the immortal?”
“Oh.” He paused a moment to shift his thoughts back to his story, and then said, “He let me mother believe that he would carry out her plan, and arranged to come to the castle. But he really intended to find out what was what. If I truly was a cruel, abusive bastard, he’d do as she requested. However, if she was bent on filicide,” Scotty said, emphasizing the word with a teasing grin, “then he would warn me so that she could no’ hire someone else to kill me once he refused the contract.”
“Hmm, a killer with a conscience,” Beth said with interest.
Scotty nodded. “So, he came to the castle while I was away for the day, and was seated at the table when I returned. Me mother, no’ kenning he’d already read her mind and had her number, introduced him as Lord Aequitas, just passing through, who would be staying the night, and—”
“Were ye angry?” Beth asked curiously. “Did ye suspect he was a lover or something and she was misbehaving?”
Scotty chuckled and shook his head. “He was only a couple years older than me. At least, he did no’ look much older than me, so I did no’ for a minute think he was interested in me old mother. And there was the whole hospitality thing, so I was no’ angry that he was there.”
“Oh,” she said, almost disappointed.
“Anyway, me mother introduced us and then just sat there grinning. I think she actually expected him to slay me right there in the Great Hall in front o’ one and all. Or perhaps she was just gleeful thinking I would soon be out o’ her hair.” Scotty shrugged. “Anyway, he did no’ slay me in the Great Hall, and after dinner, me mother suggested the three o’ us retire to the solar fer a drink. We did, but once there he turned to me and announced that me mother had hired him to kill me. He then handed me her letter with all its claims of abuse and such and crossed over to pour himself a drink.”
Scotty grimaced. “Me mother had a fit, asked him what he was doing and ordered him to get over there and kill me. At which point he informed her that he had no intention o’ killing me. In fact, he had come to warn me o’ her plans so I might safeguard meself in future. He then went on to say that she was a base whore, with no conscience, and not a speck o’ human warmth, while I was an honorable young man trying to do right by me people and, frankly, were he in the mood to kill anyone that night, which he wasn’t, it would be her and not me.” Scotty pursed his lips briefly, and then said, “Mother did no’ take disappointment well.”
“I suspected as much,” Beth said solemnly.
“She sort o’ grunted at the man with disgust, and then snapped, ‘Give me that letter’ and rushed toward me.” Scotty paused briefly and then said, “I truly thought she was coming to grab the letter . . . and she did. She took it with one hand as her other hand came up with a knife in it, and she stabbed me in the neck.”
Beth stiffened against him, a growl of fury sounding low in her throat. Scotty’s mother was as bad as, and perhaps worse than, her father had been. Truly it was a wonder she and Scotty had turned out as well as they had.
“It was a mortal wound,” Scotty said solemnly. “I would ha’e died, but the immortal, feeling responsible fer me situation, turned me. Although I did no’ ken that was what he was doing at the time. All I kenned was that I was bleeding out on the floor o’ me castle, and then he ripped into his own wrist, tore out a mouthful o’ flesh and pressed the gushing wound to me mouth. It felt to me as if I were drowning on the blood, and . . . well, after that things got hazy. But I do recall his telling me mother that he was making me immortal. She could never kill me. He told her that I would never age or die, while she would fade away to a toothless, wrinkled old crone and then molder in the grave.”
“Nice,” Beth said with satisfaction, quite sure Scotty’s mother would have been infuriated at that thought, but then tipped her head and asked with curiosity, “Who was this Lord Aequitas?”
“I do no’ ken,” Scotty admitted solemnly. “I never saw him again after that night.”
Beth’s eyebrows rose. That was bad. An immortal was never supposed to turn a mortal and leave them to their own devices, which made this guy a—“Rogue?”
Scotty considered her question with a frown, but then shook his head. “I do no’ ken. I’ve wondered that meself. Sometimes I think aye, and other times nay.”
“But he killed people, and he turned you and then left you alone. That’s—”
“He only killed people known to abuse and kill people under their power,” Scotty said solemnly. “I looked for him for a long time and learned that much about him.”
“Oh,” Beth breathed. That seemed kind of admirable. Lord Aequitas had been a sort of medieval character much like the Equalizer.
“And he did no’ leave me alone,” Scotty continued. “He did leave MacDonald, but he got a message to the closest immortal in the area, who happened to be Magnus Bjarnesen.”
Beth’s eyes widened incredulously. “Magnus? Did he know him? What was the message?”
“The message was that Laird MacDonald had been turned and needed assistance and training. Magnus headed for MacDonald at once to look into the situation. He found me and me mother, saw me mother buried and saw me through the turn, controlling me people as necessary to prevent interference. Once I was through the worst of it and able to talk, I learned he knew no Lord Aequitas, and he didn’t recognize me description of the man.” Scotty shrugged. “I never learned who Aequitas was, if that was even his real name.”