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“What’s wrong with making a little visit?” she asked. “After all, it’s less than a day’s ride from Kinglas. In fact, I’m quite surprised none of us thought of the idea until now.”
“One generally waits for an invitation first,” Royal said sarcastically.
“She’d probably shoot you if you showed up at her door unannounced,” Nick commented. “You didn’t exactly part on the best of terms.”
“It wasn’t that bad,” Royal muttered. Yes, she’d still been furious with him about the failed elopement, but she’d also given him an astonishing, bone-crushing hug before shoving him away and stomping out to her carriage.
“And shehaswritten to you over the winter,” Victoria pointed out.
Nick glanced at Royal, clearly surprised. “Really? With the exception of Victoria and Kade, she made it clear she thought the rest of us were idiots. Especially you.”
“Chuckleheaded nincompoopwas her exact description for me,” Royal said.
“Then, why—”
The door opened and his grandfather stomped in, sparing Royal the need to explain Ainsley’s erratic conduct. He wasn’t really sure why she’d written to him, except that she’d sounded rather lonely and bored. But her tone had also made it clear she harbored a lingering irritation with all things Kendrick.
“Ye all look as queer as Dick’s hatband,” Angus said as he joined them at the tea table. “What’s afoot?”
“My dear wife has just suggested that Royal visit Lady Ainsley Matthews as a cure for his melancholy,” Nick said.
Their grandfather’s bushy eyebrows bristled like agitated tomcats. “What? That bloody woman can tear the hide off a man just by lookin’ at him—that’s if she doesn’t stab the puir lad first.”
“She’s not that bad,” Royal said, irritated by his grandfather’s somewhat accurate assessment.
“Indeed not,” Victoria added. “Lady Ainsley is a lovely girl.”
“She’s a looker, I’ll grant ye,” Angus said. “But have ye forgotten her behavior on the elopement? Because I have not.” He directed his scowl at Royal. “Her high and mightiness treated us like muck on her boot heel.”
“Of course I remember. I was there, wasn’t I?”
It wasalletched in Royal’s mind with hideous clarity. In addition to Ainsley, his grandfather, and his idiot twin brothers, Royal had been dealing with two other young ladies from Glasgow whom the twins had been courting for several weeks. The lasses had initially been enthusiastic elopement participants.
Ainsley, however, had not been willing, and Royal had completely misread her. After he scooped her up that fateful night and dumped her into his carriage, she’d exploded in a fury of thrashing arms and legs, all but unmanning him. Fortunately, her foot had landed on his bad thigh instead of an even worse spot. Royal had practically passed out from the pain, but at least it had brought her up short.
Once he’d recovered himself, he’d explained the plan to a still furious Ainsley. She had then surprised him by declining his offer to return to Glasgow, saying she’d rather be ruined forever than marry the Marquess of Cringlewood. An aborted elopement with Royal, she’d decided, would be enough to generate the sort of scandal necessary to ruin her reputation and convince Cringlewood to leave her alone.
She’d then spent the rest of the trip north ordering his family about like a bunch of lazy servants and fighting almost constantly with Angus.
“One can hardly blame her for being angry,” Royal said. “After all, I did kidnap her.”
“And then subjected her to three horrible days caring for a castle full of sick people,” Victoria replied in a humorous tone. “It’s a miracle she didn’t shove you off the battlements as repayment.”
On top of everything else, one of the twins had slipped off the coach step and broken a leg on the way to Kinglas. After their arrival home, half the family and staff had promptly come down with a severe cold, pitching the entire household into chaos. Nick and Victoria, who’d followed the elopers in hot pursuit, had ably managed the crisis with assistance from Royal and—surprisingly—Ainsley, who’d turned out to be a rather competent nurse.
“Angus, even you must admit Lady Ainsley acquitted herself well under the circumstances,” Victoria said.
“I’ll give ye that,” the old man grudgingly acknowledged. “The lass did better than I expected. But I still say she’s aSassenachharridan, and our Royal shouldna have anything to do with the likes of her.”
Victoria shook her head. “I’m concerned about her. She said a few things while she was here that quite worried me. I regret I didn’t have the opportunity to follow up on them.”
“You were too busy getting arrested for murder,” Royal said, “so I think you can be excused for the oversight.”
Nick frowned. “The less said about that incident, the better. I will not have anyone upsetting my wife with reminders of that exceedingly unpleasant time.”
“Yes, dear,” Victoria said in soothing tones, patting his arm. “Although everything did turn out for the best, so all’s well that ends well.”
Nick’s mouth quirked up. “Now you’re just managing me, love.”
