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It looked like one, too. It was simultaneously comfortable and intimate, yet extraordinarily fancy. It wasn’t the kind of place I’d expect to find in a small Scottish town on the edge of the mountains, but here I was.
Standing in it.
This place seemed like a bundle of mysteries just waiting to be unravelled, and my mind was already ticking over all the ways I could become utterly obsessed with its secrets and history.
“Lord Kinkirk.”
I turned my head from my perusals of the restaurant and looked at the host’s station. The middle-aged man behind there smiled warmly at William, who extended his hand for the older man to shake.
“Mr. McGowan,” William replied. “You look well.”
“I am, thank you. Yourself?”
“Very well, thank you. I have a table booked for two this evening.” William rested his hand on my upper back.
Mr. McGowan looked at me. “Ah, I see. Miss…?”
I hesitated. “Brown,” I finally settled on using my mother’s maiden name. “Grace Brown.”
He smiled warmly and checked the papers in front of him. “Lord Kinkirk, Miss Brown, may I take your coats?”
We glanced at each other before proceeding to remove our outerwear. Mr. McGowan took them and passed them to a younger member of staff behind him to hang up before he picked up two leather-bound menus from the rack next to him. “Please follow me.”
William motioned for me to go first, so I fell into step with Mr. McGowan and followed him through the restaurant to a back corner where we were led to a round table with two places set, slightly out of the way.
He pulled out my chair for me, and I thanked him as I took my seat.
“Thank you,” William said, taking his menu.
“Thank you,” I repeated, taking mine when it was offered to me.
“I’ll have someone over soon to take your drinks order.” He inclined his head towards us and left us to it.
I looked at the large window to my right, the fancy leather menu, and finally, to William. “Let me guess—this is the best table in the place?”
He fought a smile. “The title can come in useful.”
I laughed, opening the menu. “I’m sure it does.”
He flipped to the back of his menu to the drinks. “I didn’t know your last name was Brown.”
Well, half of it was.
“You never asked,” I said brightly, flipping through the pages for the drinks menu. “I didn’t know I needed to offer that information.”
“Now who’s bad at communication?”
“If you’d asked, I’d have told you,” I lied.
Heck, I wasn’t even telling him my real surname. Just the end bit. There was a whole other name in there he didn’t know about.
“I’m going to stop arguing with you,” he said, looking at the menu. “I keep losing.”
“Aw, but it’s so fun.” I scanned the white wine list. “This place is more expensive than I thought it would be.”
He peered over at me, and one eyebrow twitched up into a little questioning arch. “I wouldn’t have brought you here if I couldn’t afford it, Grace.”
“I know that, but it makes me uncomfortable.”
