Gad, she looked breathtakingly lovely, with her hair drawn back in a loose bun at the back of her slender neck, and wearing a travel gown of softest forest green whose only adornment was a lace fichu to modestly hide her cleavage.
Of course, since he’d endured agonizing dreams of desire over Miranda last night, his gaze was on the ample bounty that lay beneath the lacy strip of cloth and not the fichu itself.
She spared a moment to greet Lowery and Montrose, then came toward him with a smile that melted his cynical heart.
He realized it would not do to sit there like a dolt and gawk at her splendid bosom, so Bram rose to greet her. “I thought ye’d sleep in on this miserable day.”
She nodded. “I meant to, but I was too restless.”
“Why?” he asked, although he already suspected the reason.
She glanced over at her late husband’s relations. “Because of them. Well, because of their wives, to be precise. I wanted to see them off and make certain that if they had anything rude to say, they would say it to me and get it out of their system. I do not want them hurting Gwenys any more than they already have.”
“Ye have my word of honor, I’ll no’ let them harm the sweet lass.”
She cast him an endearing smile. “She already adores you, did you know?”
“And what about ye, Miranda?”
She nodded. “I appreciate the way you are protecting both of us. It feels nice. Truly nice. I have been on my own for so long, I’ve forgotten what it feels like to have someone looking out for me. But do not make too much of my admission. I am too set in my ways to change the life I have made for myself.”
He refused to believe she was closed off to love. She was not set in her ways so much as afraid of opening her vulnerable heart and having it crushed, as her husband had done all those years ago.
“Is Gwenys awake yet?” he asked, preferring to change the topic, since it would only upset her and they were in public.
Miranda shook her head and gave a soft laugh. “No, she’s still sleeping. She’s quite the sound sleeper, as I’ve come to realize after Mongo abducted me and she was not even aware. But I am grateful she was fast asleep when Douglas arrived to assure her that I was safe.”
“Aye to that. It would have pained me mightily had she spent hours in torment wondering what had happened to ye.” He raised his cup of coffee. “But here’s a toast to Gwenys and sleeping soundly. The words I exchanged with her father moments ago might have overset her. Dinna worry, I was aspolite as possible when conveying to him that anyone who insulted Gwenys would answer to me.”
“Bravo, Solway,” she said with another sincere smile that warmed him to his bones. “Thank you for this. Truly, I am so grateful for your kindness toward my niece.”
He ordered tea for Miranda and found it pleasant to have her beside him as he drank his coffee and she performed intricate surgery on her tea, adding sugar, milk, lemon, and honey in strictly measured proportions, and then stirring them into her cup with serious concentration.
But the satisfied smile on her face when she finally sampled her concoction and found it to her liking was quite fascinating to him.
She took genuine pleasure in the smallest things. Sipping a cup of tea. Warming her hands on the teapot.
He thought she might also be taking pleasure in sitting beside him. He surely was feeling the perfection of spending time with her.
Despite her elegance and excellent sense of fashion, she was not at all pretentious. In fact, she was neither ostentatious nor demanding. He had met her with her temper ablaze, but this was not who she truly was. He would better describe Miranda as thoughtful, a little too vulnerable, and modest at heart.
Even her jewelry was modest, but it could be that he had not seen her wearing ornate jewels because they were traveling. Yet he did not think so. He liked her simple hoop earrings and the small cameo brooch she had pinned at the base of the fichu.
Of course, this immediately drew his eyes to her bosom again.
He turned away and cleared his throat. “The weather looks bad. I hope ye plan to stay indoors and rest, which is the entire purpose of our remaining in York another day.”
“Oh? I thought you said that you had business to attend to while we were here.”
Ah, yes.
He’d sort of made that up.
Well, hedidhave matters of finance to address with his York bankers, but that could have been attended to with a letter delivered by messenger this morning. He did not need to go to the bank in person.
But he would. He wanted Miranda to believe he was a man of his word.
Which he was. Everyone he’d ever dealt with knew he was honest.
