"And you shall have that. But I thought... these lasses like living here in Edinburgh, where they can all go to school."
"Lily and Daisy are not old enough for school," Rosie pointed out. "And we would rather live in the Highlands and be with you and Aunt Katie."
"The Highland air would be good for them," Kate said. "They could live with us at Kilburnie, and we will of course be staying in Edinburgh several times a year. You will be going back and forth often, now that you've decided to resign your commission, help Uncle Walter manage Fraser's Fancies, and establish the new flax business, too."
He glanced at his nieces, all three, their soulful, innocent gazes turned up toward him. "Live with us?" he asked. His heartbeat deeply, slowly. "At Kilburnie?"
"You are not only their guardian, but their beloved uncle. And you will want to spend more time with your family. You know that your little family will soon be expanding," she said softly. "Who knows how soon." Her eyes sparkled as she looked at him.
He realized, standing there, that Kate was working her charm on him again—they all were. He laughed softly, glancing at them, each one so beautiful and dear to him.
"Uncle Wattie and Aunt Effie are fine and kind to us," Rosie said, with the quiet touch of natural wisdom that reminded him so much of her mother, "but we do like the country."
"We dinna like to be in the city all the while," Lily said. "The bells are loud."
"Down," Daisy said, "down," while she squirmed to get away from Kate's damp wiping cloth and out of Alec's arms.
Without answering Kate or the older girls directly, Alec set the little one down and put her hand firmly in Rosie's. Frowning, his mind whirling, he looked down at Lily.
"Well, show me what you've done," he said, a little more sternly than he meant.
"There," she said, pointing. "For you and Aunt Katie."
He studied the blobs of glossy, dark chocolate on the table, and realized they were not shapeless blobs after all, but chocolate poured into the small iron molds used for puddings and fruit sorbets. "What's this?"
"Eating chocolate," Rosie said. "Uncle Wattie made a thick chocolate sauce for dipping the liver in, but we dinna like liver and chocolate, so we wanted to make something else."
"Wedding chocolate," Lily said proudly.
Alec tapped one of the molds with a finger. Instead of oozing over the side, it was hard to the touch. His fingertip cracked through the thin shell, and he realized it was filled with lemon custard. He frowned. "What did you do?"
"We added sugar to the chocolate, because you like to take your chocolate that way, without the nasty pepper," Lily said, wrinkling her nose a little.
"But it got very thick," Rosie went on, "and so we poured it in the pudding mold, and then thought we might put some lemon pudding in it. We didna want
the liver at all, you see," she added, like a prim lady rather than a little girl.
"I see," he murmured. He tasted the mix of lemon pudding and chocolate shell on his finger. "Rosie, that's very good. It's excellent." He dipped his finger into the ruined mold again and held out his finger for Kate.
She licked his fingertip. She should not have done that, he realized, for it shot straight through to his groin like a bolt from heaven.
"Oh, my," she said. "That is delicious." She looked at Alec.
His heart was tumbling over, turning, his breath quickening. "Aye," he whispered. "Ladies, that's very good chocolate, and I will recommend to Uncle Wattie and Aunt Effie that you all have a reward for discovering a very good chocolate."
"Will you take us to Kilburnie with you?" Lily asked quickly. "We would be so good."
"Good," Daisy fussed, holding up her hand.
"We would be very well behaved lasses," Rosie promised, nodding. "We wouldna muck about in the kitchens at all there. At least, we wouldna let Daisy come wi' us."
Alec laughed, looked at Kate. "I suppose we could take them to Kilburnie with us ... for as long as they like."
Kate smiled, her face brightening, and he saw again that glow, that golden beauty about her almost like a halo at times, a brilliance of spirit that he thought she did not even know she possessed. He preferred not to tell her, so that he could savor it all to himself.
And he realized how very much he would love to have the children living with them, forming a real family. After all, that was what he had always wanted, so long ago, though for a while he had not dared to dream about it.
Now here it was, arrived and offered, and all he had to do was accept it.
"Very well, we will discuss the rest of this later, but you will come to Kilburnie with us," he told the girls, who began to whoop and jump about. "Go on upstairs now, the mucky lot of you, and wake Aunt Effie just as you are. That will be her reward for falling asleep."
Kate smiled. "Go on, and be careful with Daisy on the stairs," she told them. "And my darlings, tell Aunt Effie you will need baths and fresh gowns. The bonny dresses that we had made for the wedding are ready for you upstairs. Aunt Sophie knows just where they are." Rosie and Lily giggled with delight. Then each one took Daisy's hands and headed for the corridor.
"Will you come upstairs?" Rosie asked, looking back.
"Aye, soon," Alec answered, watching Kate. "I'd best help Aunt Katie get cleaned up. She's all covered in chocolate." As the children left through the door leading to the back stairs, he reached out and took her by the waist.
"I'm not quite covered in chocolate," Kate said, laughing.
"Enough for me, and you are so very"—he kissed her, drawing his lips over hers tenderly—"so very sweet like this"—and he tasted her with his tongue, so
that she caught her breath against his mouth and pressed herself to him, cupping his face in her hands.
"Sweetness," she murmured against his mouth, "is not what I am best known for, sir."
"I am partial to tartness as well, so we'll get along fine," he whispered, and while his lips met hers in a deep, wild kiss, he traced his hand over her bodice, where her creamy bosom swelled, lush and so soft, the incredible feel of it making him feel urgent, desperate, unable to wait. Lowering his head, he pushed aside her translucent lace kerchief, whose demure charms had been distracting him for several minutes. He kissed the top of her breast, dipped his fingers inside the rim of her stiffened bodice, and felt her sway in his arms as if her knees gave out.
"Alec," she said breathlessly, "where can we go?"
"The pantry," he murmured, lifting his head to kiss her mouth again, "where we can lock the doors at both ends. Or the cool storage room, just behind that wall—" He pushed her a little that way, while he bent to kiss her bared shoulder.
"Oh," she breathed. "Cook will be back soon," she said, circling her arms around his neck. "There is a little place out the back door, past the kitchen garden." She took his hand and tugged. "Where the chocolate is stored—the place that's full of tins and boxes and crates."
"Excellent thought," he said, and stopped then to sweep her up into his arms, kissing her, his tongue meeting hers, tasting the rich warmth of chocolate and
inhaling its sweetness in her hair, upon her skin, filling his senses until he could hardly bear it. "No one will come out there—they have more than enough cocoa in this kitchen to keep them out of the storage shed for quite a while."
"At least until it's time to dress for our wedding," she breathed, tracing her tongue lightly around the shell of his ear while he carried her through the back door.
"Oh, at least," he agreed, stopping long enough to capture her lips again, drawing back as he carried her down the path through the kitchen garden and hurried toward the shed. "And when the ceremony is done, would you like to slip away to the storage shed again?"
"I would love it," she whispered. "And I love you. I would go anywhere with you—anywhere at all."
"Let's start with this, then," he said, and reached out with one hand to open the shed door and carry her inside.
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Keeping Kate (lit), Sarah Gabriel - Keeping Kate
Sarah Gabriel - Keeping Kate Page 28
