Page 11 of Highlander’s Lust

Jean was inspired to interrupt him. “Indeed, that’s too kind! And unnecessary. Our coachman can bring the carriage back here once Mither is home safe.”

As happy as Callum was about traveling back to Macanroy Lodge in comfort, he knew the kind of offer Charlie was making would have some strings attached to it. Callum had been thinking about ordering a new traveling carriage from his brother-in-law’s coachmaker in London for some time now. James McDonald informed him that the comfort to be had from such vehicles considerably outweighed their immense cost.

Well practiced in the art of negotiating, Laird Callum Macanroy waited for Charlie to speak first.

“I can see I’m going to have to make my intentions a bit clearer,” Laird Brisbane said, an amused look on his face, as though he were being asked to plan a diverting excursion. “Keep the carriage. In fact, request of me anything ye like, Macanroy. I only ask that ye will consider me as a husband for Jean and grant me permission to ask for her hand in marriage.”

If she had been standing, Jean would have collapsed to the floor at these words. Her instincts had been correct; Laird Brisbane wanted his wenching days behind him, and his eyes had alighted on her to be the one to help him do it! But..but, this came like a bolt of lightning out of the blue. He had met with her once—and that was only for a few hours—and there had been no dalliance or flirting, such as one would expect from such a notorious womanizer as folk made Charlie Brisbane out to be. They had walked and chatted together as if they had been chance acquaintances making small talk before turning in for the night. But for the kiss she could still feel pulsing on the tips of her fingers, she would have written Laird Charlie Brisbane off as simply another keen admirer.

If he considered their meeting before the wake a sufficient amount of wooing, he must be a very impatient man indeed.

Charlie had his eyes fixed on Laird Macanroy to see how his proposal was being received, but Callum was too deep in thought to make a decision too quickly or lightly.

So instead, Laird Brisbane looked at Jean to discern if her feelings of excited expectation matched his own. Their eyes locked and suddenly, the air in the small parlor seemed charged with tingling static, as though a great storm promising hard rain was coming to soak the dry land with moisture.

“How do ye like the sound of marryin’ me, Jean?” his lairdship asked her. “It would make me the happiest man in all the Highlands if ye were to tell me, ‘aye.’”

Callum seemed to bounce awake at these words.

“Now, now, there’s plenty of time for me daughter to make up her mind, Brisbane, so I’ll thank ye kindly for giving her that. This is all very untoward. Have the two o’ ye met before? Y-Ye both seem to have an understanding of one another already.”

Charlie looked over at Jean. She had not told her father about their stolen afternoon in the stables and brewery, of that he was certain. It had been innocent enough, but on the face of it, the girl might have had her hands full with her mother’s illness, so telling her parents about meeting with Laird Brisbane might have slipped her mind.

“Nay, we have nae met before, laird,” Charlie murmured, “but when I saw Jean—Miss Macanroy—I knew I had to marry her...or die.”

Callum looked bewildered. The man was wooing his daughter right in front of him as though he were some kind of lovelorn swain. It was all very romantic. Callum was not so elderly that he could not remember how it felt to be smitten with a girl’s charms, but as Jean’s father, he had a feeling that Laird Brisbane did not know enough about his daughter for him to love her unconditionally. This was lust, pure and simple; the man’s impatience to wed and bed Jean was tangible. But if Charlie Brisbane wanted to bed Jean so badly that the man would part with anything to do so, it was up to Callum to use this to his best advantage. The Brisbanes were a fabulously wealthy and influential clan, and if only Jean could imagine herself married to the man, their alliance would turn the Macanroys into one of the most powerful families in the north of Scotland. And what woman would not relish the idea of being wed to such a fine upstanding example of manhood as Charlie Brisbane?

Callum would not be drawn into making his decision immediately, however. His wife was with child, a long and tedious journey awaited them, and Jean had many options open to her when it came to marriage. Still...a Macanroy and Brisbane wedding would rank high as one of the most important unions in the Highlands. The thought of all that prestige within his grasp was exceedingly tempting. Lachlan and the new bairn would be set for life. Laird Brisbane might even be coerced into accepting Jean without a bride price. Men crazy with love and desire had been known to do strange things. Callum remembered his wife telling him about the story of her half brother, Laird Gilbert MacGill. He had been so keen to marry his bride, Christine MacLeay, he had settled thousands of gold sovereigns on the lady’s father for the chance to call the lovely lady his own forever. And the MacGill alliance had produced many children, proof of Callum’s theory that when two people found each other attractive, bairns would soon follow.

Laird Macanroy stood up. “Fear not that I will nae give yer request every consideration it is due, Brisbane. But as ye say, Jean is a woman worth dying for. Let’s hope it does nae come to that, but seeing as ye have made yer intentions very clear, I must discuss settlements with me wife—but only once we are home and Kirsty is feeling a wee bit better.”

Charlie held up his hand. “Ask of me anything ye wish, Macanroy, and ye can have it, so long as ye give me Jean’s hand in exchange.”

And just like that, Laird Charlie Brisbane made his first offer of marriage.