Prologue
Once upon a time, long, long ago, a soldier was hiking home through the mountains of a foreign land. The way was steep and rocky, black and twisted trees clung to the edges of the path, and a cold wind blew bitterly against his cheeks. But the soldier didn’t hesitate in his stride. He had seen places both more fearsome and stranger than this, and few things had the ability to make him shiver anymore.
Our soldier had fought most bravely in his war, but many soldiers fight bravely. Old, young, fair of face, and those who misfortune stalks, all soldiers go to battle the best that they are able. Often it is more a matter of luck than justice that determines who shall live and who shall die. So, in his courage, his honor, his very virtue, our soldier was perhaps no better than thousands of his fellows. But in one respect, our soldier was very different. He could not tell a lie.
Because of this, he was called Truth Teller….
—from TRUTH TELLER
Chapter One
Now dark began to fall as Truth Teller made the crest of the mountain and saw a magnificent castle, black as sin….
—from TRUTH TELLER
SCOTLAND
JULY 1765
It was as the carriage bumped around a bend and the decrepit castle loomed into view in the dusk that Helen Fitzwilliam finally—and rather belatedly—realized that the whole trip may’ve been a horrible mistake.
“Is that it?” Jamie, her five-year-old son, was kneeling on the musty carriage seat cushions and peering out the window. “I thought it was ’sposed to be a castle.”
“’Tis a castle, silly,” his nine-year-old sister, Abigail, replied. “Can’t you see the tower?”
“Just ’cause it has a tower don’t mean it’s a castle,” Jamie objected, frowning at the suspect castle. “There’s no moat. If it is a castle, it’s not a proper one.”
“Children,” Helen said rather too sharply, but then they had been in one cramped carriage after another for the better part of a fortnight. “Please don’t bicker.”
Naturally, her offspring feigned deafness.
“It’s pink.” Jamie had pressed his nose to the small window, clouding the glass with his breath. He turned and scowled at his sister. “D’you think a proper castle ought to be pink?”
Helen stifled a sigh and massaged her right temple. She’d felt a headache lurking there for the last several miles, and she knew it was about to pounce just as she needed all her wits about her. She hadn’t really thought this scheme through. But, then, she never did think things through as she ought to, did she? Impulsiveness—hastily acted on and more leisurely regretted—was the hallmark of her life. It was why, at the age of one and thirty, she found herself traveling through a foreign land about to throw herself and her children on the mercy of a stranger.
What a fool she was!
A fool who had better get her story straight, for the carriage was already stopping before the imposing wood doors.
“Children!” she hissed.
Both little faces snapped around at her tone. Jamie’s brown eyes were wide while Abigail’s expression was pinched and fearful. Her daughter noticed far too much for a little girl; she was too sensitive to the atmosphere adults created.
Helen took a breath and made herself smile. “This will be an adventure, my darlings, but you must remember what I’ve told you.” She looked at Jamie. “What are we to be called?”
“Halifax,” Jamie replied promptly. “But I’m still Jamie and Abigail’s still Abigail.”
“Yes, darling.”
That had been decided on the trip north from London when it became painfully obvious that Jamie would have difficulties not calling his sister by her real name. Helen sighed. She’d just have to hope that the children’s Christian names were ordinary enough not to give them away.
“We’ve lived in London,” Abigail said, looking intent.
“That’ll be easy to remember,” Jamie muttered, “because we have.”
Abigail shot a quelling glance at her brother and continued. “Mama’s been in the dowager Viscountess Vale’s household.”
“And our father’s dead and he isn’t—” Jamie’s eyes widened, stricken.
“I don’t know why we need to say he’s dead,” Abigail muttered into the silence.
“Because he mustn’t trace us, dear.” Helen swallowed and leaned forward to pat her daughter’s knee. “It’s all right. If we can—”
The carriage door was wrenched open, and the coachman’s scowling face peered in. “Are ye getting out or not? It looks like rain, an’ I want to be back in th’ inn safe and warm when it comes, don’t I?”
“Of course.” Helen nodded regally at the coachman—by far the surliest driver they’d had on this wretched journey. “Please fetch our bags down for us.”
The man snorted. “Already done, innit?”
“Come, children.” She hoped she wasn’t blushing in front of the awful man. The truth was, they had only two soft bags—one for herself and one for the children. The coachman probably thought them desolate. And in a way, he was right, wasn’t he?
She pushed the lowering thought away. Now was not the time to have discouraging thoughts. She must be at her most alert and her most persuasive to pull this off.
She stepped from the rented carriage and looked around. The ancient castle loomed before them, solid and silent. The main building was a squat rectangle, built of weathered soft rose stone. High on the corners, circular towers projected from the walls. Before the castle was a sort of drive, once neatly graveled but now uneven with weeds and mud. A few trees clustered about the drive struggled to make a barricade against the rising wind. Beyond, black hills rolled gently to the darkening horizon.
“All right, then?” The coachman was swinging up to his box, not even looking at them. “I’ll be off.”
“At least leave a lantern!” Helen shouted, but the noise of the carriage rumbling away drowned out her voice. She stared, appalled, after the coach.
“It’s dark,” Jamie observed, looking at the castle.
“Mama, there aren’t any lights,” Abigail said.
She sounded frightened, and Helen felt a surge of trepidation as well. She hadn’t noticed the lack of lights until now. What if no one was home? What would they do then?
I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it. She was the adult here. A mother should make her children feel safe.