“Yes, that does seem stupid,” Beth agreed.
“Aye, but me mother was no’ a stupid woman,” he assured her. “I can only think that she was so frustrated that she was no’ getting her way fer once in her life, that she lost her temper and ran off at the mouth.” Scotty shrugged. “Whatever the case, me father’s response was to lock her in the tower and ensure she was watched at all times so that she could no’ concoct or take anything that might end the pregnancy, or otherwise rid herself of it. And then he waited, and on the day that she went into labor, he sent for the priest, and had him wait in the Great Hall while he went up to her room. He told her she was having the baby. Not only that, but he was ensuring it would survive by taking it away from her the moment it was born. He said he’d then announce my birth to the world and present me to the king as his child by her. She would be ruined . . . unless she married him and made me legitimately his heir.”
“Just a minute,” Beth protested. “Are ye telling me, with all her sleeping around and all the babies, she wasn’t already ruined?”
Scotty grinned at her disbelief. “So long as it was only the men who knew what she got up to, she was safe. After all, they were all hoping to get into her bed again. But if a woman got wind . . .” He shook his head. “Then she would ha’e been ruined fer certain.”
“Humph,” Beth muttered with disgust, and then sighed and said, “She married your father?”
Scotty nodded. “I gather she argued, fought, cursed and swore. But in the end she had no choice. Were she ruined, he told her he would ensure she was sent to a nunnery where her hair would be shorn and she’d be on her knees the rest o’ her days and kept far away from men. And he probably could have done that,” he assured her. “He was good friends with the king, and if the king specified a certain abbey . . .”
“Your father played hardball,” Beth said with approval.
“Aye.” He grinned. “So she agreed. The priest was called up, and me mother married me da just moments ere I came squalling into the world.”
“I bet ye were a beautiful baby,” Beth murmured, rubbing her fingers over his chest, and then she added, “And I bet you’ll give me beautiful babies.”
Hugging her tight, Scotty kissed the top of her head. “As many as ye wish and are allowed by law.”
Beth chuckled into his chest. “Very romantic, m’laird.”
“Hey, I’m the head o’ the UK Enforcers. I have to include that last part,” he said defensively.
“I suppose,” Beth relented and hugged him back, before asking, “So, what happened next?”
“Me father still feared she might do away with me, so took me away from her at once, and handed me over to a nursemaid who raised me fer the first five years o’ me life in a cottage on the estate.”
“Away from yer father?” Beth asked with a frown.
“He visited daily,” Scotty assured her. “And me nursemaid was a wonderful woman. She was his own nursemaid as a child. However, she was very old and died when I was five. My father then deemed me old enough fer it to be safe to allow me around me mother and brought me to the castle to live.”
“And your mother?” Beth asked, suspecting she already knew the answer. After all, there was a reason he hated his mother.
“She loathed me,” Scotty said solemnly. “And made no effort to hide it. Most o’ me childhood after five was spent being tortured by her. There were subtle little cruelties that me father would no’ notice, and then there were much larger cruelties when he was no’ around, after which I was threatened that if I told him she would cut me tongue out, scalp me or kill me father . . . and so me childhood went,” he said dryly.
“I’m sorry,” Beth murmured, hugging him and wishing she could take those memories, and the pain they must have caused, away. The thought made her blink in surprise as she understood what Scotty had been feeling, but then he started talking again, and she pushed the thought aside to listen.
“Despite having married me da, the woman had no’ given up her whoring ways. If she wanted something, or could gain something, she slept with whomever she thought could give it to her, or just anyone she wished. By that time me da would ha’e nothing to do with her and, I’m sure, sorely regretted marrying her. Although he would never admit it, at least no’ to me. To me he said that all the misery she caused him was worth it to get me.”
“I’m sure it was,” Beth said solemnly.
Scotty shrugged and continued, “Da died when I was eighteen. To this day I suspect she poisoned him. He was a strong, healthy man, and there were no signs o’ a weak heart before his attacked him. However, even if she did no’ poison him, she was the cause o’ his death. They were arguing, and she was spewing her venom all over him when he suddenly clutched his heart and fell over.”
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—”