And there was not one thing she could do about it.
Not that first thing.
Not that she would have.
She knew better.
And, it must be said, Prentice deserved better.
However, in an unusual moment of courage, three days after their return, she approached her father and told him he’d been wrong. It wasn’t a “tryst” and Prentice wasn’t just “a fisherman” and even if he was, she didn’t care. She loved him, she wanted to marry him and she wanted to spend the rest of her life with him in his village and that was that.
Her father struck her.
Open-handed and brutal.
When her head swung back he did it again.
He had struck her before in her life, not often, seventeen times to be exact (she’d counted, adding those two, it made it nineteen).
But he’d never done it twice in a row.
She’d been stunned and her courage fled as quickly as it came.
She’d been weak. Such a coward.
Always, all her life, a coward.
Just like her mother.
Prentice deserved better than that. She knew that to the depths of her very soul.
“I’ll not listen to you speak of him again,” her father had told her.
She didn’t speak of Prentice again.
Never again.
Her father’s blows had left a bruise and Isabella had learned her lesson.
And she knew whatever happened in his life, Prentice would have a better one without the likes of her in it.
Two days after that, she got the call that Dougal and Annie had been in a car accident.
By some miracle, Dougal had come away unscathed except for a few cuts and bruises.
Annie had not fared so well.
In fact, for two days, it was touch and go if she would survive.
Isabella’s father forbade her to return to Scotland to be with her friend.
It nearly killed her to be away from Annie and Prentice and Dougal.
But she didn’t disobey her father.
Something happened while Annie fought for her life. Not only did Fergus blame Dougal and Annie’s mother, Clarissa (who was divorced from Fergus and still lived in Chicago but she flew to Scotland when Annie was injured) blamed Dougal, but also Dougal blamed himself.
The minute Annie was stable; Fergus had her moved to a hospital in Edinburgh. The minute Annie was able; Clarissa had her flown home to do her rehabilitation.