Page 4 of The Highlander’s Unexpected Wife

Erin tossed her head. “Of course, I can have my pick. Mister MacLean danced with me.”

“Jamie MacLean?” Alison asked. “Oh, he is very handsome.”

“Indeed, he is. Lord Myerson also danced with me. He asked if he could call on me.”

“See.” Alison clapped her hands. “You can choose any man. Do you have a tenderness for any of them?”

Erin shrugged. “Tenderness is for schoolchildren.”

“Perhaps. But a woman should at least like her husband.” Alison leaned closer and said in a conspiratorial tone, “Lord Myerson seems like a very nice man.”

“He is.” A faraway light entered her eyes. “Mister MacLaren is probably in love with me.”

“How delightful,” Alison cried.

Erin’s gaze hardened. “He is a fool.” She arched a brow. “Now, tell me, what have you heard from Robert?”

Sweet Robert. Alison could scarcely believe her own nuptials were so close. Robert’s term in the navy was nearly finished. Upon his return, in six months, he would make her his wife. A jolt of nervous energy thrummed through her at the thought of the boy who had become a man. They’d known one another since she’d been fourteen and him fifteen. Promised since she’d been seventeen, there had never been a doubt that she would become Mrs. Robert Thomson.

How she wished they had wed before he’d left. But Robert’s father had served in the navy, but Robert was determined to make his mark as his father had, then return to work as a solicitor. She would become a bride as an old maid of twenty-two.

“I have received no other letters after the one I received a month ago. But, as I told you then, Robert is just as excited as I.” She smiled, remembering his sweet sentiments. “Next week, I will begin wedding preparations. The dress, the guest list. The wedding will be intimate.” She smiled at Erin. “You will attend, of course.” She released a breath for fear tears would follow. “He does not want a delay once he returns.”

Erin regarded her. “You worry about me, yet you are to marry a man you have seen fewer times than I have seen Viscount Weston over the last four years.”

Alison smiled. “I feel as if I have known Robert my whole life. I love him.”

“He is boring.”

“He is respectable.”

“He is not attractive.”

“Not true,” Alison cried. “He simply doesn’t have the ravishing good looks of—well, Cameron Hunter—but neither has he a penchant for amoral behavior. Robert will make a fine, practical husband. Passion can rule a man. I want a husband with a level head on his shoulders.”

Erin’s eyes sparkled. “Good. We are agreed. You marry Robert. He is perfect for you. You have much in common.”

Alison gave a mock frown. “You are calling me boring.”

“Never!” Erin laughed. “You are practical.” She smiled. “Which is a good thing, for I am not. Now enough. I need to borrow a dress. I cannot return home like this. Help me fix my hair and sew my bodice”

Alison’s good humor vanished. She couldn’t let the viscount get away with ravishing Erin. He’d sent her home in a carriage alone. The man was a beast.