Page 77 of Hit Me With Your Best Scot
Persephone nodded. “I’m not always listened to, but I do give my opinions.”
“It occurs to me that you’ve played a fair number of strong, clever women.”
“Thank you, my lady. I like to think there’s a reason I found them interesting.”
Hmm. Coll had said she was quite intelligent, and after two brief conversations—or one-and-a-half, rather—Francesca had no reason to dispute that. “To return to my original line of inquiry, you are a very pretty young woman who has portrayed legendary romantic figures, and you have been pursued by more than one wealthy, handsome, and titled gentleman. Why is it that you’ve set your sights on Coll?”
“I’m nae certainIwant ye to answer that,” her oldest son muttered.
Persephone glanced up at him with a brief smile before she faced Francesca again. “The answer is in your question, I think,” she said slowly. “I have played some very romantic heroines, and I have known men in pursuit of those heroines. One even refused to call me anything butJuliet. Coll ran into me backstage, and I… Well, he is very handsome, you know.”
“Yes, I know,” Francesca returned dryly. “Do go on.”
“We spoke and, well, it turned out he had come back there to escape… something, and he hadn’t seen me onstage at all. He only saw… me. Which sounds very silly, I suppose, but I have been a great many people in my life, and he’s the first man I’ve known to value the me underneath them all.”
It didn’t sound silly. Francesca sent a quick look toward Angus. Either he was being uncharacteristically quiet, or he’d learned a few things in the time they’d been apart. She didn’t know which one she found more unsettling.
“Well, then,” she said aloud, her voice catching, but hopefully not enough for anyone else to hear. “If the two of you can figure out how in the world you mean to go on together, I—we—have no objections to your union.”
“You don’t?” Persephone said in a very small voice.
“No. There will be a great deal of gossip, and I cannot say that I approve of your remaining onstage, but I am not marrying you. What I am going to do is make certain everyone knows the two of you have been inseparable from the moment you met. My sons began this Season by upending it, and I see no reason they should conclude it in any other way.”
“That means she wishes ye happy, I reckon,” Angus put in. “As do I.”
Coll swung Persephone into his arms and kissed her. The passion Francesca saw was nearly enough to make her blush, but it did demonstrate to her that she’d made the correct choice. Commoner or not, no one she’d been able to find suited Coll better than this woman. And he’d found her for himself, the discouraging of which had been her mistake to begin with.
A moment later, Persephone batted Coll on the chest,and he let her loose. “Are you certain, my lady? My lord? The scandal—”
“People will talk. I don’t care. I am certain,” Francesca stated.
Persephone took a small step forward. “Then I think you should know something.”
Behind her, Coll frowned. “Persephone, ye dunnae—”
“Family, yes?” she interrupted. “You trust them.”
“Aye, I do.”
“Then so shall I.” Squaring her shoulders, the actress folded her hands primly in front of her waist. “I am not Persephone Jones,” she said quietly. “Or rather, I have only been Persephone Jones for the past seven years. Prior to that, my name was—is—Temperance Hartwood.”
Chapter Seventeen
“Let us speak
Our free hearts each to other.”
MACBETH,MACBETHACT I, SCENE III
“Och, what a night,” Coll said with a groan, turning over in the comfortable bed of the yellow room to see Temperance grinning at him from the pillow next to his. “What’s got ye so amused?”
“You barely got to threaten anyone yesterday,” she returned, leaning closer to touch her mouth to his. “And yet, here we are.”
“Aye, here we are. For now. If ye keep telling everyone about yer true identity, though, I may expire in the next day or two.”
“I didn’t tell everyone. I told your parents.”
“And my two brothers, my three sisters, and one near-brother. For the devil’s sake, lass, I’m glad ye trust me and mine, but ye ken I’d have married ye whether yer true name was Persephone Jones or Temperance Hartwood or Mary Dairy.”
