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“Happens it was necessary. The ladies made quite a ruckus when they arrived. They needed to get settled.”
“Ladies? I thought the duchess was making a solitary visit.”
“Vicky gave us the details at breakfast a few days ago, which ye clearly dinna recall.”
Grant had a dim recollection of the discussion. He’d been studying an agricultural journal at the time, so the details had escaped him.
“A companion of some sort, wasn’t it?”
Angus shook his head. “Yer hopeless.”
They cut through the square, whose trim lawns and tidy paths were a favorite daytime haunt of the nursemaids and their charges from the surrounding mansions. Now it was quiet, softly lit by the glow of street lanterns and lamps in nearby windows.
Grant suddenly had a bad feeling. “Grandda, whom did the duchess bring with her?”
“Well, she’s a bonny young lass,verrabonny. And she’ll be that happy to meet ye, I ken.”
Grant came to a halt, looking up at the darkening sky. “Really? This again?” Most of the Kendricks, and especially Angus, were annoyingly inveterate matchmakers. “I bloody well don’t have time for you or anyone else playing Cupid, Grandda.”
“I’d never play Cupid. He was a bloodySassenach.”
Grant stalked off, leaving his grandfather to scamper after him. “You’re failing to grasp the main point,” he said when Angus caught up. “And Cupid was Greek, by the way.”
Angus ignored that. “Speaking ofSassenachs, this lassie’s a rich one. And she’s Sabrina’s cousin, too.”
“Splendid, but I’m not on the lookout for a wife, even Sabrina’s cousin.”
“Have I mentioned that she’s bonny? Rich and bonny?”
Grant stopped at the foot of the marble steps of Kendrick House and gave his grandfather a stern look. “First of all, you don’t give a damn about money. And secondly, I’m too busy to deal with such nonsense. Logan is depending on me, remember?”
“Fah,” Angus scoffed.
Grant forced himself to remain calm. Most Kendricks tended to yell when frustrated, but Grant always made a point of doing the opposite. “Now, Angus—”
The old man started up the steps. “Och, fine. Ye can sit in a corner and be yer usual gloomy self. Not that the bonny lass will have time for the likes of ye, anyway. She’ll be too busy keepin’ her wee sister in line. That one’s waitin’ to pop off like a bottle rocket, I reckon.”
“Good God, just how many people did the duchess bring with her?”
“Including the maid and the grooms?”
“You’re incredibly irritating.” Grant rapped on the door, ignoring his grandfather’s chuckle.
Will, the under-butler, answered. “Good evening, Mr. Grant. I hope you had a productive day.”
“I did, until a lunatic Highlander forced his way into my office.”
Will didn’t bat an eyelash. “The family and guests are beginning to gather in the drawing room, sir, but you and Mr. MacDonald have time to change.”
“Thank you. I’ll just be . . .”
The words died on his tongue as he caught sight of a young woman floating down the staircase. He blinked, and then blinked again.
Grant was used to living with beautiful women. His sisters-in-law were all stunners, the sort that stopped men dead in their tracks.
This girl, though? She was just a wee dab of a thing. If lost in thought, a man might pass her on the street and never notice. But with a closer look, there was something . . . something fey about her, as if she’d just stepped out of a fairy ring in a deep Highland glen.
That impression grew stronger as she reached the bottom of the stairs, her skirts seeming to drift on a mountain breeze. The gown was eccentric and charming, a confection of pink silk and white lace that skimmed over her figure. An extraordinary number of gold spangled ribbons encircled her slender waist and cascaded down the front of the gown, some gently flaring as she came toward them. As she passed under the huge chandelier of the center hall, she seemed to shimmer, as if a thousand tiny stars were embedded in the fabric of her gown.
