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Chapter 30
After enduring fifteen minutes of pounding on his office door, Fraser finally relented and answered, only to find his fiancée’s father standing in the doorway. Moonlight backlit the old man, casting his face in darkness and turning his frizzy hair ghostly white. The fellow looked as though he’d just escaped Bedlam.
Fraser wondered if he might be making a mistake marrying into such a peculiar family. “Are you drunk, sirrah?”
“Where is she?” Elspeth’s father demanded, standing on his tiptoes to scan the darkened hallway.
Fraser stepped forward to block his view. Not that there was anything to hide—he’d deny the man simply on principle. The dinner hour had come and gone, and what sort of man went banging about Aberdeen at such a time? “What brings you here at this hour?”
Farquharson met his eyes. “Elspeth never came home. Girl said she was coming here. ”
“Ah. ” Fraser’s mind raced, remembering their earlier meeting. They’d fought, the chit claiming she didn’t want their marriage. Could she have run away?
He stepped back to indicate that although the man wasn’t entirely welcomed, he’d be allowed inside.
“Well?” The old man stayed his ground, and his challenging tone raised him incrementally in Fraser’s estimation. He’d not have figured her fath
er to have spine. “Was she here or wasn’t she?”
“She was here,” Fraser said, wondering all the while if the girl had found herself another man. What else but an illicit dalliance would send her running into the night? Who else but a man would give her the courage? Rage surged in his gut like acid, but he tempered his words. “We had a bit of a disagreement. And she left. ”
“A disagreement?”
“Aye, she’s a silent thing, but willful,” Fraser said tightly. Was she even still a virgin? He refused to be manipulated by an impoverished old man and his wheyfaced offspring. “I’ll certainly not take credit for her disappearance. She obviously needs a shorter rein. ”
“Inconstant creature,” her father grumbled. “I wanted a son, you know. A lad wouldn’t go gadding about Aberdeen, going God knows where. A lad would know how to take care of business. ”
Business. He mustn’t forget this all came down to business. Though he had to admit he’d been swept up in the thrill of the chase. She wasn’t as timid as he’d first thought, and the challenge was more exhilarating than he’d expected.
Fraser clapped her father’s shoulder, adopting an easy attitude. “Come in and we’ll discuss this as men. She seems a bit skittish about being wed. No more than that. ”
Farquharson nodded, seeming to jump to some conclusion. “She’s not much experienced with men. ”
“Clearly. ” Though he begged to differ on that account.
Elspeth was a clever slip of a thing who clearly understood what their betrothal meant for her family’s finances. He’d wager it was an entirely different enticement that gave her cold feet—likely she’d met herself some strapping buck. But he chose to offer her father a different excuse, saying simply, “She’s young yet. ”
He nodded, growing easy. “She is, at that. ”
Turning his back on the man, Fraser hid a smile as he shut the door. Listening to Farquharson speak, one would think his daughter still bore the first blush of youth. In truth, the girl could’ve been married off ten years past, if only her father had two merks to rub together for a dowry.
“It was a foolish argument,” Fraser assured him. “Nothing to fash yourself over. These young girls can be unpredictable when it comes to men. ”
“Not my Elspeth. She’s a quiet one, as you’ve seen for yourself. Men have never bothered with her. ”
Fraser shot him a look. “You can’t tell me I’m the first to engage her attentions. ” She was a meek sort of creature, but not without her appeal. He wondered what the family might be hiding. “Surely she’s expressed an inter-est in marriage before this?”
Unless it’d been money, not a husband, the father had been waiting for. Fraser scowled, thinking the old man had cast a line, and he’d bitten.
Her father shrugged. “She doesn’t seem to pay men much mind. ”
Nor men her, Fraser reckoned. And this was the girl who’d decided she didn’t need an alliance with him? Little did she know he was doing her a great honor.
“She just has an eye for her books and her studies,” the old man added.
Fraser grunted his agreement, but his thoughts were elsewhere. She’d fooled her father. He’d wager the girl had her eyes on something—or someone—other than books and studies. He’d give her this: the little doxy was sharp. He’d enjoy bringing her to heel.
He endeavored to keep the studied joviality in his tone. “Either way, these girls can be as silly as peahens, thinking a quarrel and a tease will kindle a man’s ardor. I’m sure her protests were no more than that. ”
