Page 73 of Hit Me With Your Best Scot
“I wouldnae be if she was after me for my title,” Coll returned, working to keep his voice level. These were the same questions the rest of the family would ask, and Niall was likely being more delicate about it than others would be. “I’m more worried that she’ll nae leave the stage long enough for me to show her Scotland.”
Niall snorted. “If ye wanted to find a way to put Francesca onherdeathbed, telling her ye want to marry an actress who willnae leave the stage after ye wed her would likely do it.”
A great deal of the facts they knew about Persephone Jones weren’t true. That one, though, troubled him even more than the coming brawl with the MacTaggerts, because she loved acting, and he couldn’t imagine her giving it up voluntarily. He had no idea if the pull of the stage would be stronger than him and his responsibilities in the Highlands.
Chapter Sixteen
“That is a step
On which I must fall down, or else o’erleap,
For in my way it lies.”
MACBETH,MACBETHACT I, SCENE IV
The guests were gone. Well, all but one of them, anyway. Lady Aldriss had gone about it so skillfully that Temperance hadn’t even noticed until the parents of the bride disappeared into the grand house and she turned back to see empty tables all around her.
For a moment, it looked to be a standoff, with the MacTaggerts and Oswell-MacTaggerts huddled around one table, and her alone at the opposite end of the garden. Their numbers had thinned; Niall had run off on Coll’s heels, taking a good share of footmen and grooms with him.
Coll had gone to her house, which was apparently on fire. The thought had stuck in her mind more as words than anything that had meaning. The only sharp bits were the names that kept jabbing at her. Flora and Gregory were her family. And Hades… Oh, she hadn’t even thought to remind Coll about her fierce little cat.
A figure sat opposite her. Temperance wiped the sudden tears from her eyes and looked up. “My lady,” she said, the sound of her own voice small and distant.
“I owe you an apology,” the countess said. “I doubted your tale about someone attempting to harm you.”
“I keep doubting it myself,” Temperance conceded with a faint shrug. “Taken separately, they’re just… minor things. Sandbags falling where I’d just been sitting, a bucket full of bricks falling from the scaffolding in my direction. But then someone ran my hired hack off the road several days ago and overturned it, and they simply drove away. And now…” Another tear ran down her cheek, and she brushed it away.
“You haven’t received any odd notes or threats?”
“I receive odd notes almost constantly, my lady. A surprising number of people—mostly men—evidently believe I am the fictional character I portray onstage.” She grimaced. “At first, I even thought Coll might have been in pursuit of Rosalind.”
“But he wasn’t.”
She shook her head. “No.” A handkerchief was pressed into her hand, and she dabbed at her eyes again. “Thank you. And then he said he’d told you that he meant to marry me, and I was—I was mortified.”
“But you’re not mortified now?”
Temperance looked up, meeting Lady Aldriss’s sharp gaze. Sheshouldstill be mortified; she’d chosen to make her way as a commoner, and Coll remained very much a viscount, courtesy title or not. They weren’t equals because she’d intentionally made certain they weren’t. And yet… And yet.
“Lord Glendarril is very persuasive,” she said aloud.
“I would say forceful rather than persuasive, but yes, he can be.”
“Youremain mortified, however, if I’m not mistaken.” Taking a breath and reminding herself that he had been ready for this battle before she’d learned that her house was very likely burning down, Temperance attempted to focus her thoughts. Mentally, though, she had to compliment the countess on her timing, if not on her compassion.
“Did he tell you that I’ve ordered him to wed, and within the next seventeen days?”
“Yes.”
“Eloise tells me that despite your choice of address, you have actually never been married.”
“That is correct. I never have seen why it makes a difference, but even the illusion of a husband makes a female more acceptable, even if said husband is nowhere to be found.”
The countess narrowed her eyes just a little. “You have claws, then, I see. Interesting.”
“I may at this moment be losing all of my earthly possessions, my lady. That makes me feel as if I need to protect what I have left, even if that is only my pride.” She set down the handkerchief. “I am in love with Coll. I find his forthright nature and fierce spirit to be admirable. I have told him that we shouldn’t marry, and I have pointed out the problems it would likely cause for both of us. As you said, you have ordered him to marry. If he is going to spend his life with a woman, I would prefer that it be me.”
“He has brothers, you know. Lord Aldriss could well cut him off if he does choose to marry you, and the title will go to Aden.”
