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“Thank you, Molly,” Janice replied. “By the way, how is your mother?”
Molly’s mother was recovering from a fever, and the young woman had been very anxious about her. Now, however, her face brightened up.
“She is very much better, mistress, an’ she sends her thanks for the medicine ye sent. I am ever sae grateful tae ye.”
Janice smiled and patted Molly’s shoulder, then went to see her father. When Bernard arrived, he was just in time to see the door closing behind her.
* * *
“Da? You wanted to see me?” Janice asked, as she entered the room.
Her father was sitting behind the desk, working on the estate accounts, and he looked up as she came in and gave her a warm but weary smile.
“Come in, sweetheart,” he said, closing the ledger he had been writing in. He looked white and drawn, and Janice felt infinitely sorry for him.
She poured them each a glass of wine and pulled a chair close to her father’s so that she could hold his hand. They sat in comfortable silence for a while, then the laird put down his glass on the desk and turned to her, smiling.
“I am so proud of you,” he told her softly, lifting up her hand to kiss it. “You are the best daughter a man could have. I wish you had known your mother. She always wanted a daughter, and she would have loved you so much.” He paused to wipe his eyes, which had filled with tears. “And you are so like her. She ran this household like a military camp. She was strict but fair, and all the servants loved her. She was just like you, except that you are a little gentler. I wish she could see you now.”
“I wish I could see her too,” Janice said sadly. They had had this conversation a hundred times, but Janice knew it comforted him, so she never complained. “Da, you asked to see me about something important. What is it?”
He smiled at her, a sad, gentle smile. “I wish I could give the lairdship to you, but I cannot. I worry about what will happen to the estate, but you know that.” He gave an exasperated sigh, then took both of her hands in his and looked straight into her eyes. “But I am more worried about you. When I am gone, you will have the right to live here for as long as you live; you know that. But I want you to be happy. I want you to marry and have children and live a long and fulfilling life, as I have done. Half the reason I invited so many young men here was that you could perhaps find someone you could fall in love with. Have you seen no one?”
He looked so hopeful that Janice felt wretched at having to disappoint him. How could she say that the only man who attracted her was the guard who was sharing William’s room? He expected her to marry a young laird or the son of a laird—someone with property or wealth, not a devastatingly handsome but relatively penniless guard, even though he had good connections.
“No, Da. There is no one,” she said at last. “Perhaps my standards are too high, or perhaps I scare them away.”
The laird laughed. “If that is the case, they are not worthy of you because you are a fine young woman.”
“I think you are perhaps slightly biased, Da.” Janice drained the last of her wine and made to stand up, but the laird caught her arm and bade her sit down again. She obeyed but looked at him, puzzled.
“I need your advice, which is why I called you here today,” he told her. “I am going to employ a steward to work with your brothers. I don’t think the estate can survive otherwise.”
Janice was horrified. “Da! You do not need to do that.” She jumped up and paced across his study before turning to face him. “You know that I have been acting as your steward for years. Use me. I am experienced, I love doing the work, and most of all, I love the estate. It is my home and always has been. It is so special to me, and it would never mean the same to a stranger.”
The laird looked indecisive. “But what about a husband? Children?” he asked. “Surely you are not going to deny yourself all of those?”
“Da, if I ever do marry, which I think is very unlikely, it will have to be to a fair-minded man who understands the situation. If I do not find one then I will still have a roof over my head and enough to eat, clothes on my back, and people to look after me. I will want for nothing.”
Laird Stewart sat back in his chair and regarded his daughter shrewdly. “You know that this would be a purely unofficial position and that whoever wins the lairdship will receive all the credit for it? You will be doing all the work for no recognition.”
“So?” Janice shrugged. “Those who matter to me will know, and I don’t care about anyone else. My life will go on, Da, just as it always has, and so will the castle and the estate.”
“I have always been here, though,” the laird pointed out. “I have done the bulk of the work, and you have done the rest. You will be doing this all on your own now. Will this not be too much of a burden?”
“If it is then I will ask the official laird to employ someone.” She shrugged. “I am young, Da. I still have health and energy. Let me do this, please.”
The laird frowned. “Let me think about it,” he said, then brightened up. “You really must change that dress, Janice. It looks as though you have rolled over in a bog.”
She giggled. “I am going to bathe before I see anyone. Please consider what I suggested, Da.” She kissed his cheek and then left, leaving him to ponder.
* * *
Janice was in such a hurry to reach her bedchamber before being intercepted by one of her guests that she forgot to look where she was going and bumped into the same solid chest she had encountered the night before.
Bernard laughed as he steadied her, and as he looked down into her startled grey eyes, he said, “We really must stop meeting like this, mistress.”
For a moment, Janice was mesmerized. She was so close to his face that she could have counted every bristle on his cheeks and chin and smelled the peculiar musk of his body. He had grasped her arms to steady her, and she almost felt sorry when he relaxed his grip and let her go.
