The outer door to the town house they had leased for the Season opened and closed. Booted feet pounded on the stairs, then her parlor door burst open. “Mother”—Cormac strode into the room with all the vigor of his youth—“did ye go on yer morning visits to-day?”
“Aye, we did.” He smiled, and for a moment she thought she was looking at Simon. “Don’t stand there grinning like a loon. Why do you ask?”
“There is a Sassenach lady staying with Lady Theo. Have ye met her?”
“Aye,” Morna said slowly.
“Is she as pretty as they’re all saying she is?”
“I don’t know as I’d—”
“Oh aye, Cormac,” Fee interrupted, “she is. All the London ladies are beautiful, and dressed so fine.”
“Well then”—he tapped the end of his sister’s nose as he had since she was a babe—“I’ll give you the pleasure of introducing me.” He glanced around as if he would share a great secret, then said, “And I’ll introduce you to a fine London gentleman looking for a wife.”
Fee’s eyes grew round. At least the girl wasn’t immune to men. “Is he handsome?”
“Better looking than my horse, and you know how beautiful Ivarr is.”
She punched her brother’s arm. “And does he have a long blond tail?”
Cormac coughed. “No, lass, ye’d be nay wanting a devil.”
“That’s enough foolishness from both of you. Cormac, you know better than to speak in such a brogue here.”
He gave Morna a wicked smirk, so like his father’s used to be. “Perhaps the English lady will like it.”
The devil.She cast her eyes at the ceiling. “It’s past time to eat ourdinner and dress for the ball. I understand both the lady and gentleman will be there.”
Glasgow, Scotland
Lord Simon Cavendish stepped gingerly down the gangway onto the dock. His body swayed as if it were still out at sea. It would most likely take a few days for the feeling to go away. It was the same each time he spent more than a week onboard. “Where are we spending the night?”
“The Tontine Hotel, my lord,” his valet, Hailing, answered. “Mr. Oxley’s gone to get a hackney, and I’ve arranged a cart for the trunks.”
Simon nodded. His groom would also arrange for a strong pair of horses. It had been over sixteen years since Simon had set foot in this country. Sixteen years since he vowed never to return. Yet the fact that he had two children—if the second lived—and knew them not, had eaten at him every day of each month, of each year. And Morna. Holy God, he’d tried to stay away from her, but after the last time, when she’d caught with child again, he knew he couldn’t continue to give her children to be raised by that bastard MacDiarmid. Despite her protestations of loving only him, she had not met him the night he sailed.
How young and stupid they’d been to think they could trick her father and old MacDiarmid. If only they’d run away, or said their vows in a church instead of an inn. Simon gave a harsh laugh. If only he’d not been too noble to hold her to hastily made promises, or so naïve he didn’t know a lie when he heard one. It wasn’t until long after he’d left that he discovered that under Scottish law they’d been legally married. The question now was, had she known?
It mattered not. She’d rejected him and could go to hell. He was here to claim his children, and no one would stand in his way.
“Did you say something, my lord?”
“No, Hailing. I was just thinking how odd it was for a man who hates sailing to own a shipping line.”
“You’ve made a good job of it though, my lord.”
“That I have.” Simon wondered if his son would like to take over the business in a few years.
He was relaxing with a glass of smooth Scotch whisky in his hotel room, when Oxley knocked on the door and entered. “My lord, I’vehired a yellow bounder for the journey to Edinburgh. It won’t be comfortable, but it will get us there almost as fast as the mail. The company sent word to have horses ready for the changes. We’ll be but one night on the road.”
“Does that include our little detour?”
“Yes, my lord.”
“Well done, Oxley.”
“I’m right glad to be home. Almost there, in any event.”
