by Lucy Gillen
GENTLE TYRANT by LUCY GILLEN Laurie couldn't help resenting the three McAdam brothers who had bought her beloved home, but she had to admit that Russ who had taken her on as his secretary couldn't be nicer to work ss. for, while Rod was an absolute charmer. It was the third brother, the tyrannical Quin, who presented the real problem! OTHER Harlequin finances by LUCY G1LLEN 1425 GOOD MORNING, DOCTOR HOUSTON 1450 HEIR TO GLEN GHYLL 1481 NURSE HELEN 1507 MARRIAGE BY REQUEST 1533 THE GIRL AT SMUGGLER'S REST 1553 DOCTOR TOBV 1579 WINTER AT CRAY 1604 THAT MAN NbXT DOOR 1627 MY BEAUTIFUL HEATHEN 1649 SWEET KATE 1669 A TIME REMEMBERED 1683 DANGEROUS STRANGER 1711 SUMMER SEASON 1736 -THE ENCHANTED RING 1754_THE PRETTY WITCH 1782 PAINTED WINGS 1806 THE PENGELLY JADE 1822 THE RUNAWAY BRIDE 1847 THE CHANGING YEARS ]861 THE STAIRWAY TO ENCHANTMENT 1877 MEANS TO AN END 1895 GLEN OF SIGHS 1908 A TOUCH OF HONEY
Many of these titles are available at your local bookseller, or through the Harlequin Reader Service. For d free catalogue listing all available Harlequin Romances, send your name and address to; HARLEQUIN READER SERVICE, M.P.O. Box 707, Niagara Falls, N.Y. 14302 Canadian address: Stratford, Ontario, Canada N5A 6W4 _ or use order coupon at back of book. Harlequin edition published November 1975 SBN 373-01928-9 Original hard cover edition published in 1973 by Mills & Boon Limited. Copyright Lucy Gillen 1973. All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization 6t this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now Imown or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the permission of (he publisher. All the characters in (his book hove no existence oufsidte (he imagination of (he Author, and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing (he same name or names. They are no( even tiistantly inspired by any individual known or unJmown to the Author, and all the incidents are pure invention. The Harlequin trade mark, consisting of the word"HARLEQUIN and the portrayed of a Harlequin, is registeredin the United States Patent Office and in the Canada Trade Marks Office. Printed in Canada 1928
CHAPTER ONE
LAURIE was already half turned in the saddle before last-minute recognition pulled her up short, her back stiff and straight, and resentment in every line of her slender body. It showed too in her deep blue eyes as she held her head high, a light wind lifting the black hair from her neck and tossing it into a wild mane that fell in part over her forehead and gave her an almost primitive beauty. She fitted so perfectly into her surroundings that it was difficult to imagine her anywhere else. ' . The neat litde bay mare she rode would have extended a more warm welcome to the newcomers, recognising her stablemate, but her rider held the reins too firmly to allow her to do so, with hands that were much too tightly clenched. 'MissBlair!' The voice called her again and, while she could not completely ignore it, she could and did refuse the en-couragement of turning her head to greet him. She had no doubt at all of the identity of the newcomer and that it was Quin McAdam who was about to join her. She would, too, have rather it had been anyone but him, no matter if her grandfather did accuse her of being unsociable towards him. She could not bring herself to be 5 any different. He rode up alongside her and, sneaking a sidelong look at him from under her lashes, she was forced, however grudgingly, to recognise and acknowledge the confident ease with which he sat the big grey he rode. There was an air of arrogant self-confidence about him that even the big stallion would not dare to challenge, and it was one of. the reasons for Laurie's dislike of him. He always, somehow, managed to make her feel so small and insignificant, and as if her resentment and dislike of him were regrettable but quite understandable. Possibly even amusing at times. He was, in fact, smiling at her nqw, in that imperturbable, self-confident way that angered her. His hair was so fair that it looked almost white in the bright sun, and his light grey eyes, almost ice-like in the deeply tanned face, regarded her steadily. The warmth of expression in them at the moment, she -suspected, was mostly- amusement at her attitude towards him, and she hastily averted her own eyes, sweeping down the long lashes to hide the expression of dislike she knew was there. 'Going my way?' he asked, and regarded her with a speculative and tolerant gaze, as he always did. That hint of tolerance was another reason why she disliked him, had he but realised it, for it would have been so much more satisfactory for her if he had been less tolerant. If only he had not so evidently realised just how she felt about losing Clach Aros, and sympathised, she could have hated him with an easy conscience. A harsh and uncompromising lack of un6 derstanding would have been so much easier to deal with. Tm not sure which way I am going yet,' she told him, as discouragingly as possible. Tm just riding, Mr. McAdam, and I'm not in any particular hurry, either.' She remembered the number of times in the past month when she had seen him riding like fury across the open moor, as if both he and his mount answered some irresistible call. Not for anything would she have , him know that the sight of them flying along in the distance, so completely in harmony and looking not quite real, had filled her with a strange and disturbing sense of excitement. Tm not in a hurry either,' he assured her, still smiling. His deep and, she had to admit, rather pleasant voice, was tinged with the faintest of accents, betraying a number of youthful years spent in Canada. He had confided as much to her grandfather. His easy and immediate friendship with her grandfather was another point against him, in Laurie's eyes, for she felt that her one solace in the loss of Clach Aros was not as completely in sympathy with her as he should have been. 'Is it O.K. if I tag along with you?' he asked, and she could see no reasonable way of refusing. 'I can hardly stop you if you want to come,' she told him ungraciously. 'After all, it is your land we're on, isn't it?' He made no reply for a moment, but the glance he gave at her unfriendly face recognised her resentment and the reason for it. He rode beside her for a while, holding the grey to a pace better suited to her own 7 smaller mount, and she carefully kept her gaze straight ahead of her and her chin angled discouragingly. She would have been forced to admit, had she been quite honest, that her dislike of him stemmed almost entirely from the fact that he was the new owner of Clach Aros. He was the one who had actually bought the house, and her feelings would have been precisely the same towards anyone who took away the house and lands that had been in her family for nearly three hundred years. In any other circumstances she would probably have found him a very attractive man, despite his arrogance. But as it was he stood not the remotest chance of being even liked, as far as Laurie was concerned, although some small niggling twinge of conscience sometimes told her she was probably being unreasonable about it. She had loved Clach Aros so much that parting with it had been heartbreaking, and she had wept bitterly when her grandfather had told her of his decision to put it on the market. He could not, he explained, maintain the old house any longer and he would' not let it fall into dereliction as so many others had done. There had been very little time to dwell on the possibility of the old man changing his mind about it, for the Offer from the McAdam brothers had come almost at once. So, with a few remnants of furniture and the more necessary comforts of life, the two of them had moved into the small lodge at the far end of the treelined drive. It was the last step down for the Blairs, Laurie realised bitterly. Less than fifty years before the castle 9 had been sold to pay the heavy expenses and duties for the rest of the estate, and the family had moved into the old house. Now they were reduced to living in practically the smallest building on the estate, while this interloper and his brothers had moved in and become the proud owners of Clach Aros. Laurie saw it as the last humiliating step and resented it bitterly, although her grandfather seemed to have accepted it far more passively and appeared much less disturbed by the move. It was also rumoured that the newcomers had also bought the castle, which was now a thrivin
g hotel. Whatever the truth of that was, Quinton McAdam, as the estate manager of the brothers' partnership, had decided to take the house after only one viewing, and had signed the contract without delay. It had been he too who had taken the unexpected step of allowing Laurie and her grandfather the freedom of the estate. He had also suggested that Laurie might still like to ride the little bay mare she was so fond of and could not possibly take with her. The mare could still be stabled in her old quarters, he said, and Laurie could have her whenever she wanted. It was an invitation she would, in her resentment, have refused, but she had always had a soft spot for Brownie and she could not resist the opportunity to take her out sometimes. It was, ironically, this last generous offer that had condemned him even further in Laurie's eyes, for she saw it only as an empty and rather patronising gesture, designed to salve his eonscience. It would have been unthinkable to live anywhere else but in the proximity of Clach Aros, and the little lodge cottage had proved less uncomfortable than she had expected, although she missed the space and gradousness of the old house. As her grandfather was seemingly content enough, she supposed she should have been too, but somehow the idea of this tall, iceeyed stranger living in her beloved Clach Aros angered her beyond reason, and she could not hide it. There were compensations, of course, like the view of the seemingly endless moor stretched out before them as they crested the brow of a low rise, with the soft greeny-blue swell of the distant hills sweeping upwards into the mellow summer sky, patterned with still white clouds. And the dark gleam of Cummin Loch laid like a huge mirror on the summer green turf and heather, looking only a short walk away, instead of the two miles or so it really was. Although she had lived there all her life, the country still enchanted her with its ever-changing face. It was always beautiful, with a timeless and enduring beauty that could adapt to anything the elements provided, from the warm-scented summer days, as now, to the bleak, cruel winters that glittered with ice and obliterated all sign of life with deep snow. She could not, she felt sure, have lived anywhere else and been happy and content. Not that she really felt either at the moment, although the familiar panorama was already caving some effect on her mood as it always did. She was aware suddenly, as they paused at the top of the rise, that her companion was looking at her, almost tentatively, as if he was unsure whether or not 10 to speak of something that was in his mind. And that .in itself was unusual enough to make her-curious. 'How are you settling down in the lodge?' he asked, and she looked at him sharply, suspecting that was not what was primarily in his mind. 'As well as we can,' she told him. 'It's not easy to adjust, but ' She shrugged, leaving the rest of the sentence unsaid. 'Your grandfather seems to have adapted very well,' he said, and there was a faint smile round his mouth, as if to suggest that she had been less adaptable. 'He tells me he quite enjoys it.' Laurie looked at him, her blue eyes darkly shadowed. 'What else could you expect him to say?' she asked bitterly. 'He's a proud man and he's making the best of a bad job, because he knows he has to.' 'But you're determined not to,' Quin McAdam said softly, and smiled wryly when she glared at him. 'You have no right to make remarks like that,' she told him. 'But you ha ve- made up your mind not to settle down there, haven't you ?' he asked. 'Clach Aros is was my home,' she told him, her voice husky with emotion when she spoke of. it. 'I loved the old house, and I'hated leaving it.' 'As your grandfather, I expect.' She looked at him warily, recognising again that he was laying the blame for her unhappiness at her own door. 'He does miss it, of course,' she said. 'But I I idon't think he feels quite so badly about it as I do.' S 'Either that or he has the intelligence to accept i,things as they are.'I' 11 t?. 'Hobson's choice!' Laurie retorted sharply, and he smiled again. 'Possibly,' he agreed. 'But wisdom comes with age, so they say. If it's necessary to live in the lodge, your grandfather has enough wisdom to accept the fact, and make the best of it. Why won't you try and do the same,.Miss Blair?' She stared at him for several minutes, at a loss for words, when it came to trying to make him understand how she felt. 'Oh, you wouldn't understand,' she told him despairingly at last. 'I understand perfectly,' he told her quietly. 'What I can't understand is the almost psychopathic hatred you've developed for me, just because I we bought Clach Aros. It simply isn't reasonable.' 'You wouldn't understand,' she said again, keeping her face averted. 'I know how you must feel,' he acknowledged. 'But it requires a great deal of money to keep up these old places, you must realise that.' 'I do realise it.' Her bottom lip was trembling so that she bit on it hastily before he realised how near to tears she was. She looked like a strange and beautiful mixture of child and woman, with her black hair tossed in the wind, and the dark, shiny threat of tears in her deep blue eyes. Quin McAdaaa watched her for a moment with a warmth in his eyes for the wild, gamin beauty of her, then shook his head slowly. 'Your grandfather tells me you're talking of taking job,' he said then, and Laurie turned her head and looked at him suspiciously. 12 'He told you that?' She hated the idea of being discussed-in her absence, by this interloping stranger. 'He had no right to talk about my affairs with a perfect stranger.' 'Oh, for heaven's sake, child, stop sitting on your dignity!' Exasperation lent an edge to his voice and a harder, impatient look to his eyes, so that she hesitated to object to the way he called her 'child'. 'The fact simply happened to crop up one day in conversation, and I suggested that you might like to work for my brother.' Laurie looked at him for a moment uncertainly, her lips parted in surprise, her eyes wide and only half believing. 'You you thought I might ' she began, and he nodded briskly. 'Russ, my eldest brother, needs a secretary, and as your grandfather tells me you can type and do shorthand, I thought you might be interested in working at Clach Aros, that's all. Now stop bristling like an indignant hedgehog, Laurie, and consider it seriously.' His use of her Christian name, combined with his manner, gave her a confusing few minutes, and she tried to think clearly. She had no desperate need to work, it was true, but the idea of doing so was really a form of defiance for her circumstances. She refused- to merely be reduced to genteel poverty , without doing something to help herself. Also, vaguely at the back of her mind, was the quite unlikely and ambitious idea of one day being able to buy back Clach Aros and living there again although the salary of a .shorthand-typist was unlikely to meet that demand. Certainly there would be advantages to working at 13 the house and being so close to home at the same time. The only drawback that she could see was that she had never met either of his brothers yet, and she imagined they would be only slightly varied versions of him, and therefore not exactly the type of employer she had in mind. 'Does does your brother know you're going to ask me?' she ventured, and he smiled, as if he already sensed her weakening. 'He knows I intend asking you when I have the chance,' he told her, 'I don't often have the opportunity of speaking to you.' , She urged the bay mare down the gentle slope, her mind tossing the idea to and fro as she tried to decide what to do. The idea of working at the house appealed to her, she had to admit, and perhaps his brother was not too much like him. 'I I'd like to see your brother,' she said at last when he joined her, the two horses jogging along gently, side by side. He raised one brow and smiled. 'Even if it's only to see how much like me he is?' he guessed softly, and Laurie bit her lip at being read so accurately. 'You don't like me, do you, Laurie ?' She refused to look at him, but kept her eyes resolutely on the rolling magnificence of the scenery around them, wishing he would not watch her so closely. 'You can't altogether blame me for not liking you,' she told him shortly. 'You do rather go out of your way to be as annoying as possible, don't you ?' 'Do I?' She turned then and looked at him steadily, feelling 14 a flick of some strange elation when she met his eyes. 'You know you do,' she challenged, and he laughed softly. 'Well, give Russ a chance,' he said. 'He's not a bit Like me, I promise you.' Laurie considered for a moment, hoping he told the truth. 'Very well, Mr. McAdam,' she said. Til come and see your brother and see if he thinks I'll suit him.' He ran his cool, expressive gaze over her from head to foot and smiled slowly. 'Oh, you'll suit him,' he said.
'But don't take my word for it. Come up about three this afternoon, will you ?' Laurie had never been interviewed for a job before, ahhough she had learned shorthand and typing as part of her school curriculum. Miss Robertson had believed in equipping her young ladies for all eventualities, and secretarial work was very ladyLike, she considered, if they should ever be brought to earning their own Livings. Laurie thought her grandfather looked at her rather anxiously as she gave a final experimental swing to her black hair before setting off along the drive to the house, and she kissed him reassuringly and smiled. 'Don't worry. Grandpa,' she told him. Til probably be sent off with a flea in my ear if his brother does turn out to be Like him. But at least Quin McAdam won't have the satisfaction of saying that I refused to try for the job.' Her grandfather shook his head at her, but smiled as he watched her walk up the familliar gravel drive to the 15 house, a suspicious brightness in his-eyes for the proud way she carried her head, and the slim straightness of her back. Laurie herself felt as if there was a solid, cold lump of ice in the pit of her stomach, and reallised, as she got nearer the house that she really wanted this job, no matter how off-hand she had been about it to Quin McAdam. There was a heart-aching famillarity about the big, dark oak doors, and it was hardest of all to have to ring the bell and wait for admittance instead of running up the two worn stone steps and straight into the big panelled hall. It was only seconds before the door opened, and Quin McAdam smiled down at her, stepping back to allow her to come inside. 'He's waiting,' was all he said, but he seemed in no particular hurry. It was over a month since Laurie had been inside Clach Aros and it seemed as if nothing had changed. There were one or two different pieces of furniture in the hall, certainly, but they had been able to take very little with them to the lodge and apparently their taste had suited the McAdam brothers well enough for them to leave it unchanged. The same mellow dark wood smeuing of wax and glowing in the dimmer light of the hall. The wide sweep of, the old staircase with most of the old Blair ancestors still looking down from the walk. There was no room in the cottage for those huge oil paintings and apparently the McAdams were either bereft of painted "ancestors of their own or were content to leave the Blairs in occupation for the time being. 16 , Even the big shaggy rugs were still there, and the huge grandfather clock she had loved so much as a child. For a moment she felt a lump in her throat at the sight of it all, and when she looked at Quin "McAdam she saw an understanding softness in his eyes which was quite unexpected and not a little weakening to her composure. He said nothing, but turned after a moment or so and led the way across the hall to what had once been a small and seldom used sitting-room. It was furnished now as an office, although several of the original armchairs still stood against the walls, but the enormous fireplace had been panelled in and an electric fire put in the hearth. The man at the desk did not get up when they came in, but he smiled and extended a hand when his brother introduced him. It took Laurie several minutes to reallise that Russell McAdam was confined to a wheelchair, and she wondered what stroke of misfortune had put him there. He was possibly about forty years old, and quite Like his brother superfidally, although much less blond and certainly less arrogant, but there were sharp lines that drew at his mouth and long deep furrows beside a rather aristocratic nose. A man who had suffered, Laurie guessed, and Liked him as instinctively as she disliked the younger man. 'Please sit down. Miss Blair,' he told her. 'I'm so glad you dedded to come and see me.' 'Mr. your brother said you needed a secretary,' Laurie said. 'I hope you don't think I'm here under false colours Mr. McAdam. I mean I've been trained, 17 at school, but I've never actually had a job before.' He smiled reassuringly. 'Have you any idea what your speeds were?' he asked, and she nodded. 'Fifty typing, and about ' She bit her lip anxiously, trying to remember. 'I can't remember exactly what my shorthand speed was, I'm afraid, but I was top of my class and I expect I could soon pick up again.' 'Well, actually your typing is what matters most to me,' Russell McAdam assured her. 'I'm one of those strange people who would much rather write down in longhand than dictate.' A wide, pleasant smile encompassed her. 'I can't think and talk at the same time.' Laurie smiled, encouraged. 'I don't think I could either,' she told him, and he laughed. 'Do you think you'd like to work here?' he asked then, and she knew he was thinking of how she was probably feelling, being back in famuiar surroundings. T I think so,' she said. 'But I think I should impress on you, Mr. McAdam, that I haven't done anything with my shorthand or typing since I left school. Will I be fast enough for you?' Russ McAdam smiled, his gaze sweeping over her face. 'It can't be so many years since you left school, surely,' he suggested gently. 'You're very young, my dear.' For a moment she could have sworn she detected a faint Likeness to his brother in his comment and she flushed defensively, her chin uprilted. 'I'm twentyone,' she informed him, and almost sensed his brother smilling, even though she did not look at him. 'Well, I think you'll do fine. Miss Blair,' Russ told 18 her gently. 'We'll get along well enough, I think, and I'm sure you'll soon pick up speed as you go along.' 'Thank you.' Laurie was aware of Quin McAdam just behind her still, his long length leaned lazily against the door, and she wondered at his having stayed for so long. 'Aren't you going to give Miss Blair a test of some sort, Russ?' he asked his brother. 'I mean, she might be kidding you.' Russ shook his head, vaguely displeased at the suggestion. 'That won't be necessary,' he told him. 'I'm sure Miss Blair wouldn't lie about what she can do, and I'm almost as much concerned with liking my secretary as with her other abillities. When can you start. Miss Blair?' A little bewildered by the speed of it all, Laurie blinked for a moment uncertainly. 'Well any time, I suppose,' she said at last. 'I'm free to start any time, Mr. McAdam.' 'Then how about starting in the morning?' he suggested. 'It would start you off with a nice short week and break you in gradually. A good idea?' 'Lovely thank you,' Laurie said., her mind whirling. 'I'll be here in the morning. Oh er what rime?' 'About nine o'clock?' She nodded. 'Good, then I'll see you in the morning about nine. Miss Blair.' 'Thank you.' She stood up. 'Goodbye, Mr. McAdam.' ; Her new employer looked at her smilingly, leaning back in his wheelchair, his rather nice grey eyes look;1 ing at her speculatively from below their thick brows. s 'Would you like to look around the old place while ! '19 you're here?' he asked softly. 'I'm sure Quin would willingly show you around, if you'd Like to see how little we've changed it.' 'I I could see from the hall,' she said, uncertain if she either wanted to be shown round or have Quin as her guide. 'And in here too, it's all very much the same.' The grey eyes were kindly and understanding. 'You love Clach Aros, don't you?' he asked. 'I'm sorry I mean I'm genuinely sorry that it was necessary for you to have to give it up, but we shall treat the old place with the respect it deserves, I can promise you that.' Laurie felt a suspidous lump in her throat. He was so much more kind and human than his brother. 'Thank you,' she said again huskily. 'I I know you will.' 'Would you Like to walk round?'-he asked, and she glanced at his brother before shaking her head slowly. 'I I don't think so,' she said. 'Not yet I don't think I really want to yet.' 'I understand.' He smiled at her again. 'You'll get used to being here again when you're working for us,' he added. Tes, yes, I expect I will.' She glanced at Quin, a hasty glance from beneath her heavy lashes. 'I expect it seems a bit silly to some people,' she said. 'But I really did hate leaving Clach Aros and and it takes a bit of getting used to.' 'Of course it does.' He too glanced at his brother. 'Don't blame us too much, my dear. Someone had to buy it, and at least you know we shall look after it and appreciate it, don't you?' 20 'Yes.' She felt very small and vulnerable with Quin McAdam's tall figure towering over her, and wanted very much to go somewhere quiet and private and cry like a baby, all because Russ had been so kind and understanding. 'I'll take you home.' The offer was unexpected and she looked up hastily at the ice-grey eyes watching her, a small, quiet smile just touching his mouth. 'There's no need,' she told him, and added, 'thank you,' as an afterthought. Nevertheless he walked with her to the door and down the steps to the drive, then she turned
her head and looked at him, wondering if he meant to accompany her anyway. 'You'll be happy working for Russ,' he told her suddenly, and she smiled instinctively. 'I think I shall,' she agreed. 'I Like him.' He laughed softly, his fingertips .just touching her arm as he walked beside her along the drive. 'I thought you would,' he said. 'I told you he wasn't much Like me, and he isn't, is he ?' She deliberately misunderstood him, and pursed her lips in consideration. 'You look quite a lot aLike,' she said. 'We were more alike to look at until Russ shattered his legs in a car crash.' He sounded suddenly harsh and bitter, as if the accident had been his own. 'I'm I'm sorry.' She was not quite sure whether to leave the subject or pursue it. Quin made the decision for her, however, by laughing shortly and dismissing it. 'He's better looking than me,' he declared. 'That should be a point in his favour.' 'And he's not as fair as you are,' Laurie said. 'But 21 otherwise there's a definite likeness.' 'He isn't as bossy either, you think?' he suggested, and smiled. 'That makes a fcig difference, doesn't it?' He was seemingly bent on trying to bait her into an argument .and Laurie stuck out her chin. 'It certainly does,' she agreed shortly. 'In which case,' he told her with a smile, 'you should like Rod better than either of us. He's the charmer of the clan, and more your age too.' 'Rod?' 'My youngest brother,' he explained. 'The afterthought, we always called him, because .he arrived more than twelve years after I did.' 'Oh, I see.' She chanced being thought inquisitive and looked up at him. 'He doesn't live here with you?' 'Not at the moment, no. He's been away for the past month tidying up loose ends, but he'll be here next week and I'm quite sure he'll approve of you being taken on. Rod's what is known as a romantic, I believe.' 'Is that bad?' She sounded vaguely on the defensive because she had always thought of herself as something of a romantic and she disliked the hint of patronage she thought she detected. !i He shrugged, one brow raised, suspecting how she felt. 'It depends on your point of view, I guess. In business it can be a bit of a drawback.' 'And you don't like romantics ?' He shrugged again, a small slow smile tilting the comer of his mouth as he looked down at her. 'Again it depends,'he said. 'You're not one, obviously.' 'Me?' He laughed shortly. 'Not me,' he agreed. 'I ._. 22 learned my business acumen in a much harder school than Rod did, and I've knocked around a damned sight more too. I've no rosy illusions about anything, even about beautiful girls. Rod automatically thinks they're helpless and need protection.' 'But not you?' He was laughing at her, she felt sure, and she could not imagine what on earth had possessed her to become involved in such a conversation with him. 'Not me,'he said. 'He sounds rather charming and and gallant,' she told him, her nose in the air because he was belittling something she felt was altogether desirable in a man. 'I'm looking forward to meeting him.' 'Well, you should hit it off, both being of the same mind,' he told her. 'And he's a walkover for any beautiful girl, so you'll be able to wrap him right round your little finger with no trouble at all. For one thing he's feeling much more consdence-stricken about taking over Clach Aros than Russ and I are, so you'll have that in common too.' Laurie looked at him reproachfully from under her lashes, her eyes darkly blue. 'You shouldn't sound so so disparaging,' she told him. 'He is your brother, after all.' He laughed softly, and his light eyes studied her speculatively for a moment. 'Oh, don't you worry about Rod,' he told her quietly. 'He can take care of himself, romantic or not.' 23
