Page 86 of The Highlander Is All That

Elizabeth blinked at Lady Jersey, then mopped her eyes. “What . . . do you mean?”

Lady Jersey stood and cupped her hands. “This is about your family. About your reputation. How many offers do you think your sisters will have with this hanging over their heads? Do you really want to rob them of their futures? Their opportunities?”

Oh.

Oh dear.

Visions of Anne and Victoria and dear Mary flitted through her head, and her heart ached. She couldn’t put her own happiness before theirs. Could she?

Seeing Elizabeth falter, Lady Jersey pressed her point. “It is the only way.”

Elizabeth glanced at her aunt, who grimaced and nodded.

“I’m afraid she’s right,” the duchess said sympathetically. “If you want to avoid a scandal, this is the only way.”

How devastating that they were right.

She could walk away if this were only about her. But it wasn’t.

It wasn’t. It was about the people she loved most on earth.

People she couldn’t bear to disappoint or tarnish or wound.

And so it was that, the night of the Moncrieff ball, Elizabeth St. Claire became engaged to Lord Wallace Twiggenberry.

And everything within her died.

* * *

It couldn’t be so.

It couldn’t be.

How could she have said yes?

How could she have agreed?

Hamish sank deeper into his chair in the Sinclair House library—the very place he had kissed Elizabeth just this morning—and tossed back his drink.

This had begun as the most wonderful day of his life and ended as the absolute worst.

The woman he loved had—willingly—given herself to another man.

He wanted to die.

On that note, he rose and made a markedly staggered way to the window, where there was another carafe of . . . something. He poured another drought—some of it into his cup—and headed back to his seat. The room spun, but not as much as his world, which was whirling in tatters around him.

“There you are.”

“Go the fook away.” He didn’t want to see Ranald, or anyone.

“I know you’re upset.”

Hamish stilled, then fixed Ranald with a sardonic stare. “Really?”

“Do you want to talk?”

“I want to drink.”