Page 79 of The Highlander Is All That

Elizabeth threw up her hands. “How can you know what is best for me? I’ve never cared for balls and jewels and prancing with the ton.”

“Heresy.”

“I would rather live in Scotland.”

Esmeralda clutched her pearls. “Never say it.”

“It’s true.”

“Scotland is lovely,” Ranald felt obliged to put in, which earned him a grateful glance from Hamish and a glower from Esmeralda, who rose and began to pace.

“This is a disaster,” she wailed. “A disaster of monumental proportions.”

Hamish and Elizabeth exchanged a glance. “It’s not that bad, really,” Elizabeth said.

“It is. It is. What on earth will we tell Twiggenberry?”

“The very thing I was planning to tell him all along. No.”

Hamish nodded. “He does stink.”

Esmeralda whirled on him. “That does not signify!”

“It does if his intended throws up on him,” Hamish said.

Ranald cleared his throat to cover a laugh. “That does tend to put a damper on a wedding.”

Esmeralda’s face went from red to an odd shade of purple. “Stop it. Both of you.” She was speaking, of course, to Hamish and Ranald. “Please go. All of you,” she said. “I feel a megrim coming on.

And, for the first time in the St. Claire household, Ranald suspected, a megrim really was a megrim.

* * *

Anne found Ranald in the study nursing a whisky. There was no doubt something had happened—their aunt’s howls had been unmuted—but Anne had no idea what it was.

It was clearly bad.

When she stepped into the room and closed the door, he turned. “Ah. It’s you,” he said with a hint of relief.

“Who did you think it might be that you would dread so?” she asked with a smile.

He chuckled, but it was a sound bereft of humor. “Anyone else. I swear. I couldna handle anyone else right now.”

She took the seat next to him by the fire. “What happened?”

His grimace was dark. “Are you sure you want to know?”

“How will I know,” she said on a chuckle, “until you tell me?”

“Excellent point.” He caught her gaze and said solemnly. “You willna like it.”

“There are many things I do not like that I still manage to live with.”

“Another excellent point. All right then, your aunt and I walked in on Elizabeth and Hamish and they were kissing.” He stared at her as though he expected a fit of the vapors. He seemed disappointed when she did not comply. “Did you know?”

“That they’ve been kissing? Yes, Elizabeth told me.”

He shook his head and raked his fingers through his hair. “Why did you no’ tell me?”