The Lord's Highland Temptation (HQR Historical)

by Diane Gaston

  ‘We’ll go away,’ Elspeth said.

  ‘No,’ Hargreave countered. ‘I do not let servants dictate to me.’

  ‘Do not be nonsensical, Mr Hargreave.’ Davina giggled. ‘Lucas is more than a servant.’

  ‘Is he?’ Hargreave raised one eyebrow.

  Lucas shook his head at Davina and she clamped her mouth shut.

  ‘In what way?’ Hargreave asked.

  ‘He’s—he’s our butler,’ Davina replied.

  Hargreave made a derisive sound. ‘Well, I do not allow butlers to dictate to me. So I will take my leave and spare you ladies any unpleasantness.’ He bowed to them and strode off and left the garden through the gate.

  Davina put her hands on her hips. ‘Now do not chastise me, Lucas. I did not tell him anything. And just so you know, we happened upon Hargreave by accident and he desired to ask me about Mairi. She is being so difficult. He does not know how to proceed. He asked my advice.’

  Hargreave needed a fourteen-year-old’s advice on having his proposal of marriage accepted? Lucas doubted that.

  Elspeth spoke up. ‘Well, I am glad he left. I cannot say that I liked him very much.’

  ‘Sound judgement, my lady,’ Lucas said. He turned to Davina. ‘Do you really think he needed your advice?’

  ‘Well, I do know Mairi better than anyone,’ she responded.

  Unbidden, the thought came to Lucas. No, I might know her better, because you cannot see how hard she strives for you and your brother. Still, there was so much of Mairi he did not know at all. So much he wanted to know.

  And never would.

  ‘If you want what is best for her, then perhaps you should honour her decision not to marry a man she cannot like.’ He paused, then asked, ‘How is your sister faring?’

  Davina rolled her eyes. ‘She finds the house party tedious—’ She turned to Lady Elspeth. ‘Forgive me for saying so, Elspeth. You know I do not think it is tedious.’ She spoke to Lucas again. ‘Every day there is an entertainment and tonight there is to be a ball. Elspeth and I will be allowed to come down and dance one set with William and Niven and we are over the moon about it. Mairi is not. But we have a surprise for her. A new dress for the ball. It’s an old one of Elspeth’s mother’s and we have remade it into today’s fashion.’

  Lucas would like to see Mairi in a ball gown.

  He averted his gaze. He thought about her entirely too much.

  ‘I hope you will all have an enjoyable evening.’ He bowed to them. ‘Now I must also leave you.’ He directed a severe look at Davina. ‘Remember, you gave me your word about Mr Hargreave.’

  She rolled her eyes. ‘I remember.’

  * * *

  That evening after Davina and Elspeth had dressed for the ball in Elspeth’s bedchamber with Elspeth’s maid to help them, they burst into the room Mairi shared with Davina.

  ‘You both look so beautiful!’ Mairi said truthfully. ‘And so grown up!’

  The girls beamed with pleasure.

  ‘Elspeth lent me one of her dresses. Is it not lovely?’ Davina spun around.

  ‘Very lovely.’ In fact, Davina looked ravishing. Mairi feared she would turn the head of every man at the ball. She was both proud of her sister and fearful that her allure would prove a danger to her. ‘Have you come to help me dress?’ Mairi asked.

  The girls giggled.

  ‘We have a surprise for you!’ Davina cried.

  ‘Stay where you are,’ Elspeth said as she opened the door.

  A young maid with another gown draped in her arms stepped into the room.

  ‘This is Innis, my maid,’ Elspeth explained.

  ‘And the gown is for you!’ Davina took it from the maid’s hands and placed it against herself to show Mairi what it was like.

  It was a pale green silk with an overskirt of white net that made the cloth shimmer when it moved. The neckline, puffed sleeves and hem were trimmed in narrow white lace with green ribbon laced through it. It was the prettiest dress Mairi had ever seen.

  ‘I cannot wear this!’ she cried. ‘It must belong to someone else.’

  ‘It is my mother’s ball gown from last year,’ Elspeth said. ‘And we asked her if we could make it over for you. She said yes.’

  ‘We’ve been working on it for two days!’ Davina cried. ‘You must wear it.’

  ‘It will go well with your colouring, miss.’ The maid held the dress against her. ‘It makes your eyes look bluer,’ she added. ‘And I have a matching green ribbon for your hair.’

  All three of them looked at her expectantly.

  ‘Very well.’ Mairi did not have the heart to disappoint them. ‘I will try it on.’

  She removed her dressing gown and the maid helped her into the dress.

  ‘Let us see! Let us see!’ Davina cried excitedly.

  She turned so the girls could see first.

  Davina clapped her hands. ‘It is perfect!’

  Mairi turned towards the mirror. The maid was correct. The green gown somehow brought out the blue in her eyes. The bodice fit her figure perfectly.

  ‘Yes. It even fits you very well,’ the maid said. ‘Now we will take the dress off and I will arrange your hair.’

  The young woman used a papillote to create a frame of curls around Mairi’s face.

  ‘What else did you do today besides sewing this beautiful dress?’ Mairi asked the girls while Innis worked. ‘Weren’t William and Niven at the hunt? You were on your own, then.’

  ‘We took a walk in the garden,’ Davina said, adding, ‘Guess who we happened upon?’

  Oh, dear! She’ll say Hargreave. ‘Please do not make me guess.’

  ‘We saw Lucas!’

  Lucas. Mairi’s shoulders relaxed. How she missed Lucas. She’d hardly seen him since—since he’d put his arms around her and held her against his warm body.

  Elspeth looked at her friend. ‘We also saw Mr Hargreave, Davina.’

  Exactly as Mairi had feared.

  Davina waved her hand. ‘That was a trifle. You do not want to hear about that.’

  ‘I certainly do,’ insisted Mairi. ‘Especially as you know I do not want you spending time with him.’

  ‘I cannot like him,’ Elspeth admitted.

  Davina rolled her eyes at her, but turned to Mairi. ‘Really, Mairi. Just because you do not want him—’

  ‘That is no reason for him to befriend you.’ Mairi was tiring of having this conversation over and over with Davina. ‘He has no business passing his time with girls as young as yourselves.’

  ‘If you will listen to me, you will hear the reason he walked with us.’ Davina huffed. ‘He wanted to speak with me, because of you. He wants to marry you.’

  ‘That is his misfortune,’ Mairi said.

  Hargreave had mostly stayed away from her, but not entirely. He’d been exceedingly polite and respectful, but Mairi sensed a simmering resentment beneath his civility.

  ‘I wish you would not talk with him about me.’ Mairi added, ‘Do not talk to him at all.’ She just wanted him to go away.

  And she wished Lucas would stay. She feared he would leave once they returned from the house party. He’d stayed so much longer than the ten days the doctor had dictated.

  That seemed so long ago.

  Perhaps he would stay and become her father’s man of business. He could help her father and mother manage their money. Then she could still see him.

  They merely needed to get through this horrid house party.

  ‘There!’ Innis said. Mairi’s head was a mass of twisted tissue paper. ‘Next we will do your face.’

  ‘My face?’ Mairi looked at her in the mirror.

  ‘Just a tint of rouge for your cheeks and lips. Then a little powder. No one will guess, I promise.’

  Davina tittered. Mairi shot her and Elsp
eth a look. ‘You’ve tinted your cheeks and lips?’

  ‘You did not know, did you?’ Davina moved her face closer.

  ‘No,’ admitted Mairi. ‘But I would not tell Mama or Papa.’

  ‘Of course not!’ Both girls nodded vigorously.

  Innis was true to her word. Even Mairi would not have guessed she’d tinted her cheeks and lips. She was helped into the gown again and sat at the dressing table for Innis to arrange her hair. Innis pulled off the papers, leaving a cascade of curls. When the maid finished dressing her hair, curls framed Mairi’s face and tumbled from the ribbon high on her head.

  ‘That looks very pretty,’ Elspeth said.

  Innis gathered her things. Mairi thanked the girl. ‘You’ve done wonders!’ She must give the girl some vails when they left.

  Mairi put on her pearl pendant necklace and pearl earrings, the two other pieces of jewellery she’d kept besides her garnets.

  Davina surveyed her. ‘She will dazzle everyone, will she not, Elspeth?’

  Mairi did not want men looking at her, but it was too late to change into her old ball gown and dress her hair plainly.

  ‘I suppose we should go,’ she said without enthusiasm.

  The three stepped into the hallway.

  Davina cried, ‘There’s Lucas.’

  Lucas had just left their father’s room.

  Davina hurried over to him. ‘Hello, Lucas!’ She twirled around. ‘What do you think? We are dressed for the ball.’

  Lucas gave Davina a soft smile. ‘You look very pretty, Miss Davina.’ He glanced at Elspeth, but his gaze rested on Mairi. ‘You all look very pretty.’

  Mairi felt her senses flare. Not with anxiety or fear at his admiration, but with something akin to excitement. She remembered that he had once almost kissed her and she yearned to feel his arms around her again.

  ‘Just think,’ Davina exclaimed. ‘We will be dancing at a ball tonight!’

  Lucas’s expression was kind. ‘I hope you will enjoy the dancing, Miss Davina.’

  Davina twirled around again. ‘I know I will! My first ball!’

  He looked over at Mairi and smiled. ‘Can you help her calm down?’

  She smiled back. ‘I will try!’

  Lucas gave Davina a stern look. ‘You must compose yourself, Miss Davina. This is your chance to behave like a lady.’

  ‘Oh, I will, Lucas!’ She sighed. ‘I am just so filled with excitement!’

  One of the gentleman guests appeared at the end of the hallway, stared at them for a minute and turned back, as if lost in the maze of corridors.

  Lucas stepped back. ‘You should be off. Not standing here talking to me.’

  Mairi would have preferred to stay with Lucas, but she needed to be at the ball, if for no other reason than to supervise her wayward little sister.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Mairi, Davina and Elspeth peeked in the ballroom while they waited to be announced. The large room, filled with grandly dressed ladies and gentlemen, was like stepping into the past. Its wood floor gleamed with polish and mirrored the timbered ceiling. The walls were wainscoted and above the wainscoting were set after set of antlers, covering every space of wall up to the ceiling. Chairs were lined along the walls and huge vases in each corner held fragrant flowers. On one side of the room was a balcony where the orchestra tuned its instruments. The footmen, wearing plaid kilts, carried trays of wine and whisky through the crowd.

  Just a few short years before, wearing Highland dress had been a crime punishable by imprisonment or transportation. Now it was becoming a source of Scottish pride encouraged by Sir Walter Scott.

  Eventually it was their turn and the Oxmont butler announced them, first Elspeth and then Mairi and Davina. They greeted the hosts, in this case, Elspeth’s parents. Elspeth and Davina could hardly contain their excitement.

  Mairi shook hands with Lord and Lady Oxmont.

  ‘Are you watching over the girls?’ Lady Oxmont asked her.

  ‘I will certainly keep an eye on them, my lady,’ Mairi said. ‘But I think they have been equally watching out for me. I understand that I have you to thank for this lovely gown.’

  Lady Oxmont looked her up and down. ‘It looks very well on you. And much different with the new lace and ribbon on it.’

  ‘They did a wonderful job.’ Mairi meant that.

  ‘I hope you are enjoying the house party,’ the older woman said.

  ‘Indeed.’ This time Mairi was less than truthful. ‘It has been a very pleasant time. You were very kind to invite us.’

  ‘Well, I knew I needed to entertain Elspeth and she and Davina have always rubbed along well together. And your brother and the Crawfurd boy were the right ages to give them their first dance.’

  Mairi did not miss that the invitation for herself and her parents had been the price the Oxmonts had to pay in order to have Davina and Niven here.

  ‘Mairi, come!’ Davina cried. ‘I see William and Niven.’

  Her mother and father stopped them to ooh and aah over how lovely they looked. ‘You are the prettiest girls in the room!’ her father gushed. Which might have been true, because several of the men in the room seemed to be watching them wherever they went.

  When they finally reached Niven and William, Mairi retreated to a corner where she could watch them, but where she hoped to be less conspicuous.

  The first set was announced, and suddenly, out of nowhere, appeared Hargreave. He bowed. ‘May I have the pleasure of the first dance, Miss Wallace?’

  She hesitated. ‘Very well,’ she said finally, aware that she could not be rude. She wanted to be in the line to keep an eye on Davina and Elspeth.

  He bowed and brought her a glass of wine, but then left and did not return until the music began. But there he was, hand extended to escort her on to the dance floor. The music began and the dancers executed the figures. Davina had a jubilant skip to her step and a joyous smile on her face. She was rapturous and it was impossible not to gaze upon her. But some of the men’s eyes were more than captivated. Including Hargreave’s. When the dance brought him together with Mairi, though, his gaze was only for her, with a gleam that left her unsettled. He spoke to her only of the most mundane things. The food. The other guests. The weather.

  When the set was over, Davina’s expression was crestfallen, but William seemed to cajole a smile out of her. They said goodnight to Lord and Lady Oxmont and the four young people left the ball to go to their own entertainment.

  Hargreave bowed to Mairi and left without a word. Mairi was alone, wishing she were anywhere else but in this ballroom. She took a glass of wine from a passing footman and drank it down too quickly. Now that Davina was safe, there was no reason for her to be there, but she did not wish to attract any attention by leaving through the main door and walking past half the people there.

  The ballroom had floor-to-ceiling windows, though, and at one end, the window was open, even though it was cool outside. Mairi edged her way to that window. If she were outside, she could probably find an unlocked and unattended door that would allow her to sneak back in the house.

  When it seemed like no one was looking at her, she stepped through the open window into the relative quiet of outside. She wrapped her arms around herself and worked her way around the house. Suddenly, a male figure appeared before her in the darkness and she froze in fear.

  ‘Mairi?’

  She breathed again. It was Lucas. She walked up to him. ‘What are you doing out here?’

  ‘I could ask you the same thing,’ he said.

  ‘I—There were too many people in there.’ It was a poor excuse for climbing out of a window.

  But he nodded as if it made perfect sense. ‘I was visiting an old friend in the stables and walked back this way when I heard the music.’

  The bagpipe began the second set.


  ‘Oh, Davina would have loved to dance this! It is a Scottish reel.’ She danced a few steps.

  ‘I do not know the reel,’ he said.

  ‘You do not know the reel? It is a wonderful dance!’ She took his hand. ‘Come. I’ll show you.’ There was a small courtyard around the corner of the building. She led him there. ‘I’ll show you one simple step.’ She lifted her skirts a little, showing her ankles as she kicked side to side and skipped from foot to foot. ‘Try it.’

  He tried it.

  She laughed. ‘Not too badly done.’ She lifted her skirt again. ‘Try it with me.’

  They did the step together.

  ‘Now just skip around me and take my hand, then skip around me again.’

  He skipped around her and took her hand.

  ‘If we were with the other dancers, we’d be weaving in and out and clasping hands with other partners.’ She stopped and he dropped her hand. ‘Now we’ll do it all again, but after two times of clasping hands, take both my hands and we will spin around.’

  He gave her an uncertain expression, then nodded in resolve.

  She laughed. ‘It is just a dance and no one can see.’

  They began the sequence again and when they spun around he laughed aloud. She did not think she had ever heard him laugh. The smile on his face made her heart swell with joy.

  ‘Start again.’ He released her and repeated the sequence without stopping.

  They danced to the bagpipe’s lively notes until Mairi felt breathless and free. How long had it been since she’d felt such abandon? How happy she was to share it with Lucas.

  ‘This time, instead of spinning we skip towards each other and back.’

  In a group of dancers they would hold hands and form a big circle for this part of the dance. Mairi and Lucas would only be an arm’s length apart and when they came close their bodies touched.

  They danced, apart and close, apart and close, and the third time, Lucas threw his arms around her, leaned down and placed his lips on hers. His lips were strong, but tender at the same time. She felt as if his kiss gave her life itself. She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him back with a hunger and need unlike any she’d experienced before.