Part 11 (2/2)
”Another hunting party?” Brigham asked.
”I had in mind something a bit different” At the sound of approaching carriage wheels, Ian smiled and tapped out his pipe. ”A ball, my lads. It's time we did a spot of entertaining. And the la.s.s who comes visiting is, I believe, a very pretty reason for dusting away cobwebs.”
Brigham twitched the curtains aside in time to see Serena dash down the steps toward the waiting carriage. A dark-haired girl descended and launched herself into Serena's arms. ”Maggie MacDonald.”
”Aye. She's of marriageable age, as is my own first daughter.” He set his gaze on Brigham's back a moment. A man would have to be blind, he thought, not to see that there was a tune playing between his young guest and his daughter. ”Nothing more reasonable than to hold a ball to introduce them to a few suitable young bucks.”
Fighting back annoyance, Brigham let the curtain fall into place. He didn't want to look at Serena now, with the sun falling on her face and her eyes dark with laughter. ”It will do well enough, I suppose.”
Coll only scowled at the toe of his boot. ”I don't care for it. Bringing another giggling female into the house now. d.a.m.ned if I'm going to find myself cornered into taking her for sedate rides and listening to talk of the latest bonnets when we should be polis.h.i.+ng our swords.”
Ian merely rose to open the salon doors. ”I've no doubt that Rena and Gwen will entertain her well enough without you.” The moment the doors were opened, women's voices and laughter poured through. Coll grumbled and stayed stubbornly in his seat. ”There's the la.s.s.” Ian's voice rumbled to the ceiling. ”Come here and give your Uncle Ian a kiss.”
Smiling, Maggie danced across the hall. She laughed when he lifted her off her feet, but Fiona scolded him. ”The girl's already been b.u.mped enough on the journey. Go in and warm yourself by the fire, Maggie.”
With her arm still tucked in Ian's, Maggie stepped into the room.
Manners prevented Coll from scowling, and he began to rise reluctantly.
Then, manners or not, his mouth fell open. She still looked hardly bigger than a doll beside his broad-shouldered father, but the skinny, smudge- faced pest he remembered had miraculously been replaced by a slender vision in dark blue velvet. Her hair, dark as midnight, fell in curls beneath a hat that framed her face. Had her eyes always been that beautiful, like the loch at twilight? he wondered as he managed to close his mouth. Had her skin always looked like fresh cream?
Maggie smiled at him. Then, because she had planned her moves carefully during the journey, she turned to curtsy to Brigham. ”Lord Ashburn.”
”It's a pleasure to see you again, Miss MacDonald.” He took her offered hand and brushed his lips over her fingers. Behind Ian, Serena's breath came out in a quiet hiss. ”I trust your journey wasn't too taxing.”
”Not at all.”
Because Maggie's hand was still in Brigham's, Serena couldn't prevent herself from stepping forward. ”You remember Coll, don't you, Maggie?” With a little more force than was necessary, she pulled Maggie away from Brigham and toward her brother.
”Of course I do.” Maggie had practiced a friendly, almost impersonal smile in front of her mirror night after night in preparation for this first meeting. Though her heart was pounding, she put her practiced smile to use now. He was even more handsome than she remembered, taller, broader, even more exciting. Growing up had taken so long, but now, at this moment, it seemed worth it ”I'm happy to see you again, Coll. I hope your wound is healed.”
”Wound?” He took her hand, feeling unbearably clumsy.
”Your father explained that you were wounded on the way from London.” Her voice was mild as a spring morning. She wondered he couldn't hear the furious thundering of her heart. ”I trust you've recovered?”
”It was nothing.”
”I'm persuaded it was a great deal more than nothing, but it's good to see you up and about again.” Because she was afraid that if her hand stayed in his another moment she would faint with delight, Maggie drew herself away and twirled around. There was a blush in her cheeks now that she prayed everyone would take for excitement from the journey. ”It's wonderful to be here again. I can't thank you enough, Uncle Ian, Aunt Fiona, for asking me to come.”
Refreshments were brought in, seats were taken. Rather than making the excuses he had prepared, Coll found himself jockeying for the chair nearest Maggie. Brigham took advantage of the situation and leaned close to Serena as he pa.s.sed a plate of cakes.
”Will you try one of these, Miss MacGregor?” he asked. Then, in a quiet voice that was covered by the conversation: ”You've been avoiding me, Rena.”
”That's ridiculous.” She took a cake and wondered how she had been maneuvered to the fringes of the party with him.
”I agree completely. Avoiding me is ridiculous.”
Her cup rattled in its saucer. ”You flatter yourself, Sa.s.senach.” ”It's gratifying to see I make you nervous,” he said quietly, then turned and continued in a normal tone, ”Gwen, I must tell you how charming you look in pink.”
He never tells me I look charming, Serena thought as she bit, almost viciously, into her cake. He never gives me gallant bows and pretty compliments as he did with Maggie. With me it's barbs and snarls. And kisses, she remembered with an inward s.h.i.+ver. Deep, dark kisses.
She wouldn't think of it-or of him. When a man treated a woman that boldly, he wanted only one thing. She might have been raised in the Highlands, but she was no fool when it came to the ways of the English aristocracy.
She would be no man's mistress. Certainly she would be no Englishman's mistress. No matter what magic he could make her feel, no matter what wonders he could make her dream of, she would never shame herself or her family. If she avoided him, it wasn't that she was afraid, it was that she was being sensible.
”Daydreams, my love,” Brigham murmured, making her jump. ”I hope they are of me.”
”They are of cows to be milked,” she said between her teeth. When he chuckled, she put up her chin and prepared to speak to Maggie. Her friend, at that moment, was bubbling with laughter and smiling beautifully at Coll. Her brother, Serena noted, was flushed and gla.s.sy- eyed.
”Apparently Coll doesn't find Miss MacDonald a nuisance after all,”
Brigham commented.
”He looks as though he's been hit on the head with a rock.”
”Or struck through the heart with Cupid's arrow.” Her eyes widened at that, then narrowed consideringly. In a moment she had to smother a chuckle of her own. ”Who would have thought it?” Too amused to do otherwise, she leaned closer to Brigham. ”Do you suppose he'll start spouting poetry?”
He caught a whiff of her hair and imagined burying his face in it. The woman was made to drive him mad, snapping one moment, smiling the next. ”Men have been known to do worse when so afflicted.”
”But Coll? Coll and Maggie! A few years ago he couldn't wait to dust Maggie off his boots.”
”And now she is a beautiful woman.”
A little pang of jealousy warred with friends.h.i.+p. ”Aye,” Serena murmured, and wondered fleetingly what it would be like to be tiny and fragile. ”You certainly seem to think so.”
His brow lifted at that, and then a smile ghosted around his lips. ”For myself, I've come to prefer green eyes and a sharp tongue.”
She looked at him then and blushed despite herself. ”I have no way, my lord, with drawing room flirtations.”
”Then that is perhaps one more thing I shall teach you.”
Choosing to retreat rather than fight with a dull sword, Serena rose. ”Let me take you up, Maggie, and show you your room.”
Maggie's company was precisely the distraction Serena needed. It had been nearly two years since they had been together, but time and distance were swept away. They talked late into the night, rode out together into the forest, walked for miles in the hills. As always, Maggie spoke whatever was in her heart, while Serena kept her innermost thoughts close. The fact that her friend was still in love with Coll didn't surprise her. The fact that Coll seemed equally besotted with Maggie did. It pleased her. Though Serena had never believed, as Maggie always had, that Coll would fall in love with her friend, she couldn't deny what was happening in front of her eyes. He made dozens of excuses to be in their company, when just two years before he had made twice as many to be out of it. He listened to Maggie's cheerful ramblings as though she were the most fascinating person on earth. And with the sharp and always critical eye of a sister, Serena noted that Coll was taking great pains with his appearance.
She even had it from Mrs. Drummond that Coll was asking Parkins's advice on his wardrobe.
She would have laughed about it if she had not felt constant p.r.i.c.kings of jealousy. More than once she had caught herself sulking when she thought of how rosy and dreamy being in love had made her friend. And how nervous and unhappy falling in love was making her. The weakness infuriated her, and made her only more determined to see that Coll and Maggie had their hearts' desire.
Coll accompanied them on some of their rides, which meant they more often than not rode as a foursome, including Brigham. The new situation gave Serena as much pleasure as it did discomfort.
The weather was brisk, but the bite of winter was easing. In another month, Serena thought, the trees would be greening and the first hardy wildflowers would brave their way out to the sun. For now, there was the slap of a March wind on her face as she rode. The spring thaws had not yet come, and the ground still rang hard under the horses' hooves, but there were birdcalls and occasional bright flashes of wings as the horses disturbed the midmorning quiet. Ice and frost had melted from the trees, leaving them wet and glistening.
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