The Unreliable Death of Lady Grange
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Ihave at last managed to secure some rudimentary writing paper, a quill and ink. And so I write down my account to dispatch with a kindly envoy, in the vain hope that my husband, Lord Grange, once advised of my pitiful circumstances, might set about arranging my repatriation to civilised society. If not, perhaps one of his eminent colleagues on the bench in Edinburgh might concern themselves, but that is unlikely. Or my adoring children?
Admittedly, some are too young, but Charles is now twenty-three and surely able to plead on his mother’s behalf once he hears news of me, although he is of course busy with his new position at the Court of Session. And so, my only hope is that Mary, though a mere girl, might be permitted to intercede on my behalf through her husband the Earl. My Angel must be so distraught.
I am ill and weary and exceedingly disquieted living here in this godforsaken place, with no one for company but a glaikit serving wench. The only sound, apart from the roaring of the wind and the crashing of the waves, is the squawk of the seabirds: the shrill puffins, the screeching guillemots, the harsh, croaking solan geese.
The inhabitants speak in their still largely indecipherable tongue and I can expend only so much energy using signs and gestures. It is tiresome and monotonous, but not as cruel as the means by which I arrived in this barbaric place. And now I abide here, the only Lady so far from civilisation and my beloved family.
But I am jumping ahead. I ought to begin this tale in 1708 when I was but eighteen years old. I had travelled from Edinburgh down the coast into East Lothian one unusually warm day in early May. I was with my mother and sister and we were to visit the splendid grounds of Preston House, which were open to the public every Saturday afternoon. The three of us strolled along the shaded alleys between the tall hedges of elder and briar.
I noticed a tall young gentleman at my side. The man inclined his head and asked if I should like to take a walk with him. ■