However appalled Robert was by Mac Gordon’s familiar manner, he seemed quite pleased by the compliment.
Realizing with a twinge of guilt that he’d never praised Robert’s efforts, Nicholas leaned forward and pushed thebundle toward Mac Gordon. “Regardless of what happens, you should keep this until I announce my choice.”
Holding up his hands as if the cloth had burst into flames, the older man shook his head and, laughing more, backed away. “There’s no need. You’ll see, my lord. You’ll not find a better manager in all of Scotland. Or a more clever, bonnier bride. So you keep thefeileadhand shirt for when you need them.”
With another wink, he was gone.
God save him, the man was like some sort of gnome. A stubborn, amusing, sprightly gnome.
“Does he really think you’ll ever wear afeileadh?”Robert wondered aloud.
Nicholas could hardly see himself wearing that skirted garment, either. He had gotten used to it on the Scots, but he couldn’t envision himself striding around Dunkeathe with bare knees. So he shook his head as he undid the bit of rope holding the bundle together, to reveal a white linen shirt and a long length of very fine, soft wool woven in a square pattern.
“That’s a lot of cloth,” Robert observed.
Nicholas did the bundle up again. “Which I’ll never wear,” he said as he carried it over to the chest that held all the rolls and records of the estate. He opened the lid and moved around parchments, then placed the bundle in the bottom. “There it’ll stay until it’s time for the man and his niece to leave.”
“Then you really don’t consider Lady Riona a possible bride?”
“No.”
“What are these other matters you wish to discuss, my lord?” Robert inquired as Nicholas lowered the lid.
“I said that so those men would leave,” Nicholas confessed without regret or embarrassment. “I’ve had just about my fill of Lord Chesleigh in particular.”
Robert smiled. “Yes, I can see that, and I can see why,” he said. “I’ll go ensure that the chambers for your sister and her family are prepared.”
Nicholas nodded a farewell, and when the steward was gone, he started to pace. Maybe he shouldn’t have asked Riona to take over the supervision of his kitchen. He should be trying to ignore her as much as possible. Another fortnight, and he’d make his choice of bride and his financial troubles would be at an end. His hold on his estate would be secure. He would have some influence among the powerful men at court.
He couldn’t risk losing that. Not for a woman who would bring nothing to the marriage except herself, no matter how competent she seemed. Or how tempting.
“WHAT DO YOU MEAN,you don’t know anything about supervising kitchen servants?” Percival demanded as he stared at Eleanor with blatant disbelief. “Are you some kind of simpleton?
Eleanor cringed. “I’ve never had a chance to learn.”
“Your mother never, ever, taught you how to manage servants?”
“I was too young to be taught much before she died, and you’ve never let me—”
“Damn your parents for making you a millstone around my neck!”
Eleanor could bear his criticism of her, but when Percival cursed her parents, she glared at him with all the hatred she felt. “I despise you!”
“I don’t care,” he retorted. “Except that it should make you that much more anxious to marry Sir Nicholas to get away from me. But now you tell me you’re useless as a chatelaine.”
He picked up one of her combs made of ivory, ready to throw it at her, when the sounds of a commotion in the yard stayed his hand. He marched to the window to see what was happening. “That must be Nicholas’s sister and the Scot she married.”
He whirled around, a gleam of malicious delight in his eyes. “The man she had to marry because they were found in her bedchamber together, in the middle of the night.”
Eleanor started for the door.
He intercepted her. “Where do you think you’re going? To Sir Nicholas, to tell him what a loathsome beast I am? You could, but I doubt that would inspire him to choose you, or I’d suggest it myself.
“Here’s what we’re going to do instead, dear cousin. You’re going to seduce him. You’re going to find a way to get into his bed and become his lover. Then I’ll ‘discover’ you together and he’ll have to marry you.”
“That’s despicable!” she cried, trying to get around him.
“So what, if it works?” Percival demanded as he grabbed her arm and held her. He ran his gaze over her face, and then her body. “You shouldn’t have a great deal of trouble seducing him, Eleanor.”
