The Truth Will Out

[Rozenn Lozach]

If it was possible, Rozenn paled even further when Torquil appeared in the foyer. He wasn’t alone. There was a woman over his shoulder and a baby tucked into his arm. Her stomach lurched and for a frantic second her mind was adamant that it wasn’t Torquil; he hardly looked like himself. But it was him, there was no one else it could be. She’d half hoped that it was all some sort of misunderstanding but there she was. Cecily MacFusty. The woman married to her MacFusty.

No! Not hers. He had never been hers.

Her body shook and she couldn’t move, was rooted to the spot as Torquil walked towards her, still holding the boy...his son. She stared at the boy as though he were some sort of strange and alien creature but no matter how she tried, she couldn’t deny that the boy looked very much like Torquil and was quite content in his arms. When he reached towards her, Roz finally moved though only so much as to turn her face away from his touch.

She was there, his wife. How could he pretend she wasn’t? His apology, his words that were meant to soothe fell more like blows against her. Her stomach churned and she swayed again; it felt like the world was spinning apart. How could he say such things to her in front of his wife. She wanted to run, to get away but she was rooted in place, even as his wife started towards them. Mac appeared to be livid and the compulsion to keep him away from Tor, to protect the MacFusty she had thought was her rose up in her but she quashed it. She had no right to defend Torquil MacFusty or anything else for that matter.

She was an interloper. She didn’t belong no matter how much she wanted to. She’d caused discord and pain to a family she held dear and in that moment there was nothing she could do to fix it except perhaps to leave. Her gaze strayed towards the door, expression neutral though anyone could practically feel the waves of hurt and confusion drifting off her.

  

[Torquil MacFusty]

Torquil was far more interested in making sure that Rozenn was all right than anything else at the moment, but she had barely responded to him. In fact, she was staring at Connor like she had never seen a baby before. He shifted the sleeping lad slightly so that she could see him better. "Thes is Connor, mah son." His family generally knew that he'd been conceived because of the tea fiasco, but this hardly seemed like the appropriate time to bring that up. "Ah tryst, mah love, Ah'll explain everythin'."

First he had to deal with Mac, and as reluctant as he was to give Connor back to Cecily she was the only option. However Rozenn had been told, she obviously needed more time to process things. He turned to his wife -- for the moment, still his wife -- and gently handed over their son. "Bide in th' castle," he said firmly, "an' lae Rozenn aloyn. She's hae enaw ay a shock."

Which was his fault; he should have figured out how to tell her that he was married earlier, should have figured out how to explain everything to her.

Then he turned to Mac. "Ah always look a damned idjit in this thing, but Ah'm tryin' tae deal wi' thes mess. Cor, Ah ken it's a mess, but there's only sae much one chell can dae."

  

[Malcolm Macfusty]

"Well that's nice," Mac said, "That ye know it's a mess, I mean. That really clears things up after you've spent weeks screwing everyone over, doesn't it?" The sarcasm was palpable - it didn't suit him much, but he was pissed off enough to resort to it anyways.

"You screwed over my friend," Mac said, "You screwed over her -" he cocked his head towards Miss Lozach, who looked as though she was in some sort of shock "- but that's not really my problem. You screwed over my friend."

He would have been offended anyways - his brother was being an asshole - but Cecily was his friend, and she deserved better than to be left just because her husband was an idiot -

He couldn't think about this anymore. It was going to make his head explode. So instead Mac stepped forward and slammed his fist into Tor's nose.

  

[Cecily MacFusty]

Cecily didn't want to stay in the castle. However she had Connor again and didn't want to push it. It was nice to see Mac reacting so angrily, so obviously on her side, even if it was all a bit fraught. Perhaps staying in the castle wouldn't be too bad. Although, she did feel bad about causing a rift between Tor and his brothers, something just felt very unfair about it all.

"Well, you lied to her and screwed her over, of course she's shocked." Cecily muttered, not intending to be heard but certainly wanting to retort something, so she muttered it anyway. Cecily very unashamedly was enjoying the woman's (did Tor say Rozenn?) facial expression. Not because of her, Cecily would pity her if it hadn't have been her fault that Cecily's marriage had collapsed. Just Cecily hoped that Tor was upset by it, which was a nice thought.

A nice thought followed by a nice action. Cecily would have been lying if she had said that she didn't enjoy it when Tor was punched. It was great. She hoped it hurt.

  

[Rozenn Lozach]

What was she supposed to say? That his son was lovely--he was--or how handsome he would grow to be? Was she supposed to fuss over the baby like she might have had he had any other father and had his mother not been married to the man that she had only just two days ago admitted to loving. She’d told him of her family the day before, of her brothers and sisters and their Breton heritage...he hadn’t even told her that he was married! She didn’t know what else there was to explain, the facts were simple. Torquil MacFusty was married to a woman who was very much alive. Rozenn had made an incorrect assumption and hadn’t bothered to ask and so was just as much to blame as Tor who hadn’t thought to tell her.

She watched, silent, as Tor handed Connor back to his mother...to his wife. She was still trying to wrap her head around that. It played out in slow motion, like some enchanted photograph. Mac wasn’t appeased and Roz flinched as he drew attention back to her. Torquil’s brother clearly didn’t care for her and she couldn’t say she blamed him. No, she rather blamed herself for her oversight and lapse of judgment.

Swallowing the bile that kept trying to creep up her throat, Roz moved for the first time since Torquil had appeared with his small family and made the first sound as well when Mac hauled back and slammed his fist into Tor’s face. With a growl, she reacted more out of instinct than logic and lurched forward, intent on getting between the two men before a single thought stilled her. She didn’t belong here.

The sight of Torquil’s blood only made her unsettled stomach worse and when she glanced over at Cecily and found her looking to be some sort of combination of amused and smug, she knew she couldn’t stop her unruly stomach for long. Turning, she started towards the door, slow at first but picking up the pace until she’d gathered her skirts and was running. She didn’t belong here, she had no right to be here, to care that Torquil was hurt. That right belonged to his wife and it made her want to scream that the woman seemed almost pleased that her husband was in pain. What kind of awful person...her stomach lurched. She was some kind of awful person and had no right to judge.

  

[Torquil MacFusty]

Tor grunted when Mac punched him; he heart Rozenn's growl and his stomach did a little flop. She still cared; maybe he hadn't ruined everything.

Carefully, he felt at his nose; it was almost definitely broken. "Ooch." The stuffy, puffy feeling of his broken nose made his accent even thicker, even harder to understand. There was blood on his suit already, and if it didn't come out he was going to have to replace the damn thing.

Then Rozenn ran for the door, and Torquil swore loudly. He didn't care if Mac was radge at him, didn't care if Cecily was hurt -- all he cared about at the moment was Rozenn. He should have told her before, should have found a way to tell her that he was getting out of his marriage, that it wasn't her fault and that he'd brought up divorce for the first time months before he'd even met her. That he'd first suggested it when Connor had been born ...

Ignoring both brother and wife, Tor tore off after Rozenn and caught her outside the castle. He grabbed her by the shoulders and spun her around to face him, hoping beyond hope that she'd listen to him. That she'd believe him.

"Ah was gonnae fin' a way tae teel ye. Ah didne pure techt fur onie ay thes tae happen. Ah ne'er loo'd Cecily; Ah only merrit 'er coz aam an divit. Connor's frae th' tea scandal, an' Ah loove heem but that's wa Cecily an' Ah e'en got tae th' point whaur we got merrit. Ah've wanted it ay thes fur months, mebbe since th' beginnin'. Ah loove ye, Rozenn. Ye."

  

[Rozenn Lozach]

She’d just slipped through the heavy door and was looking frantically for some place to be sick when the door was shoved open and she was spun around. It took all her willpower not to spill her stomach all over Tor and his ridiculous suit. As it was she was so pale as to look almost green and didn’t seem to improve as he spoke.She stared up at him, dark eyes large as she struggled to understand him. His brogue was out of control and his words distorted by what was almost certainly a broken nose.

Despite everything else going on, all the confusion and hurt she was trying to drag down into a little box before it could escape, she didn’t like seeing him hurt. She wanted to leave--needed to leave--but she couldn’t leave him like that. A trembling hand slipped into the pocket of her robe and retrieved her wand. Taking a deep, ragged breath, she lifted her wand and with a faintly murmured incantation, set his nose to rights with a disconcerting pop.

From what she’d been able to discern from his words, he hadn’t ever wanted to marry Cecily. Something about the tea scandal and Connor. Be that as it may, regardless of how unhappy he was in his marriage--and she didn’t like that he was unhappy for any reason--it was no excuse for either of their behavior. She loved him, she couldn’t deny that and wouldn’t but there was no place for her in his life; at least not one that she would take. She wouldn’t settle for being a mistress and she wanted no part in breaking up a marriage, even if Torquil insisted that he’d wanted out well before having met her.

Shaking her head, she took a step back and slid her wand back into her pocket. Her stomach was churning wildly and she needed to get away before she threw up on the man she loved and couldn’t have. The man she had abandoned reason for so foolishly. She should hate him for putting her in this position but she couldn’t. She blinked away tears and took another step back. Her thoughts and emotions weren’t completely under control but she thought she could manage without messing up too badly. She looked into his brown eyes and hugged herself about the middle, her neutral expression finally cracking to show a glimpse of her devastation before she disappeared with a crack.

  

[Torquil MacFusty]

She didn't say anything; she just fixed his nose and then shook her head and disappeared, disappeared from Lews Castle and disappeared from his life.

Tor collapsed. He hit his knees as though her disappearance had cut the strings holding him up, tears already spilling from his eyes. A sob ripped through his body and he dropped further, his hands clutching against the courtyard ground as though somehow he could cling to Rozenn, or at least to the spot where she had disappeared from. The hole was back, bigger than before, ragged like it had not been since Calista had first died. She was gone, gone as firmly as if she had died; he had destroyed everything.

He wasn't aware of what was going on around him, didn't know if Mac and Cecily were still there or gone. Cecily could have taken Connor back to France and he would not have noticed. Rozenn was gone, his love was gone, and he was alone again. He would always be alone, and that knowledge after the hope of the past weeks was too much for him to stand.

  

[Cecily MacFusty]

Cecily didn't follow Tor. Something between the mix of having him leave, allowing her to just wander off and be alone and seeing him run after that girl of his just summoned all of her emotions at once. One thing was for sure, he would never run after her like that. He would have watched her leave, and probably with great satisfaction too - even before he had decided that this Rozenn woman was his one true love.

With them gone, she just wandered off with Connor. She was going to cry on her bed again, that seemed like a nice plan. Even though she had literally just been on her own in Paris (how strange it was to think that), the last few minutes had been action-packed to say the least - she needed to be alone again.

  

[Malcolm Macfusty]

Mac let out a long-suffering sigh. He looked behind him to see that Cecily had fled - he felt a pang of worry for her but figured that if she wanted company, she would have asked for it.

Instead, he dragged his brother into Tor's room in the castle and left him there. This had been more than enough ridiculous drama for the day - Mac disapparated with a pop!, and hoped that he would never have to deal with this again.