Page 68 of Hit Me With Your Best Scot
Moving toward the rest of the MacTaggerts, the countess touched a finger to the necklace she wore. To most everyone, it was likely an innocent, unconscious gesture, but to Temperance, with her study of moods and emotions, it spoke volumes. Lady Aldriss wasnervous. Extremely so.
But then she was presently looking at a man—her husband—whom she hadn’t seen in seventeen years.
Seventeen years—very nearly their daughter’s lifetime. Temperance looked at Coll again, at his wary expression, his coiled fists. A man ready to fight his own family over her.
If she simply shook her head at him, he would know that she’d decided that whatever they had—or might have—wasn’t worth fighting for. Everything would go back to the way it had been before they’d met, with the exception, of course, that someone wanted her dead. The idea terrified her, but not as much as the thought of not seeing Coll for seventeen years, or ever again. Of watching him marry some other woman simply because he had a duty to do so. Of watching him leave London without her.
“Husband,” Lady Aldriss said, stopping a few feet from the earl.
He looked at her for a moment. “Wife.” Slowly, he reached out for her hand and brought it to his lips. “Ye look very fine this afternoon.”
She freed her hand. “I look older,” she countered. “As do you. I assume your being here means we’re in agreement about one thing, finally?”
Blowing out her breath, putting out of her head the thought that this would have to be the most brilliant performance she’d ever given, Temperance stepped forward. “Good morning, Lord and Lady Aldriss. Thank you for allowing me to come; I don’t know if Coll has told you,but evidently someone is trying to harm me. He insisted that I would be safe here, and I am exceedingly grateful for the reprieve.”
Everyone looked at her now, but two pairs of eyes, one dark green and one gray, concerned her more than the others. “Of course,” Lady Aldriss said a moment later, her tone clipped. Once a lady was informed that she’d done a kindness, she couldn’t very well turn her back, after all.
“I have no wish to be a point of contention on such a momentous day,” Temperance went on, smiling at Aden and Miranda. “This is a time for family and friends, and I don’t wish to intrude any further than I already have. I should be going.”
“Nae,” Coll said on the tail of that. “I gave ye my word to keep ye safe.”
“If someone’s trying to harm ye, lass,” the earl put in, “and we’ve the means to keep them at bay, then I reckon ye shouldnae be going anywhere but with us to have luncheon.”
“I…” Lady Aldriss closed her mouth over whatever she’d been about to say. “Of course. Coll, we’ll meet you at Oswell House. Don’t delay. We have things to discuss.”
“Oh, I’ll be there for that, dunnae ye fret,” her oldest son agreed.
He took Temperance’s arm, leading her toward the door. “What was that?” he whispered. “This isnae about me doing ye a good turn. I’ll nae have it reduced to that.”
“And I won’t have the lot of you arguing over my lack of breeding in a church,” she returned in the same tone. “Give them a moment to think of me as something other than an upstart after a title, for heaven’s sake.”
Coll cocked his head. “So ye’re a damsel in distress?”
“I am someone who was hopefully able to invoke a little bit of sympathy for a minute or two.” She took a breath.“I want you, Coll. You said you’re willing to fight for us. I reckon I am as well.”
A slow grin touched his handsome face. “Ye reckon, do ye? Then I reckon that now that ye’ve gotten yerself invited to the house, I may nae let ye leave.”
At the moment, that would suit her just fine.
Chapter Fifteen
“Signs of nobleness, like stars, shall shine
On all deservers.”
DUNCAN,MACBETHACT I, SCENE IV
The front entry of Oswell House had been draped with white ribbons and red and white roses. Aden would likely have preferred to vanish somewhere private with Miranda, but even the elusive MacTaggert brother knew better than to avoid the friends and family who had aided him in finding his bride. Coll would have preferred to avoid the luncheon himself, because if there was one thing the MacTaggerts excelled at, it was stating their own damned opinions of everything.
At least with guests present, he might have a few moments of peace with Temperance in the Oswell House garden before he dove into the fray. And peace, he’d begun to discover, had its own attractions. A bit of conversation here, a look or stolen kiss there—things he’d altogether underestimated until he’d met Temperance.
No additional MacTaggert wagons had yet arrived, so Angus had either traveled without luggage, or ahead of it. For a man on his deathbed, his father had made it from the Highlands in impressive time. The earl’s horse wasn’t his usual gray gelding, coincidentally enough named Banquo, but a fast-looking chestnut wearing Angus’s tack. He’d changed horses at least once, then.
It was all a wee bit disconcerting; Angus did things on his own time, and while he growled and bellowed whenever he had the chance, rarely had he ever seemed… unsettled. This now, would be an exception.
Avoiding the group of servants gathered in the foyer to give Aden and Miranda their congratulations and good wishes, Coll led Temperance through the depths of the house and out to the stately garden. A dozen tables had been set, and a long table sat to one side, laden with plates of sandwiches and cakes and fresh fruit and puddings and pies. So much for a simple luncheon—but then Francesca never did anything halfway.
“It’s lovely,” Temperance said, taking a half step away from him as Niall appeared with Amy, Eloise and Matthew on their heels.
