by Karen Ranney
“But I truly can’t marry you,” she said, determined to be honest.
“Why not?” he asked, kissing her cheek. She pressed her fingers against his lips, wishing he wasn’t so kind, so honorable.
“I’ve made a great many mistakes in my life,” she said. “But between London and Andrew shooting me again, I’ve learned a valuable lesson.”
“That life is short?”
She shook her head. “That I have to make up for those mistakes. I have to be a better person.”
“You can’t be a better person married to me?”
She frowned at him again.
“I only care about who you are now. I like this Catriona. I admire you. I like talking to you. I like being with you.”
“Are you certain you’re not infatuated with the girl I was?” she asked. “Perhaps you see the memory of her instead of me.” She looked away. “She was beautiful.”
“I’m not infatuated,” he said. “I’m afraid it’s gone beyond that.” He cupped her cheek, gently turning her face. “I see your beauty, Catriona.”
For several long minutes he studied her scars, never once flinching. When the agony of inspection was finished, he smiled down into her face.
“I see your beauty,” he said again. “Perhaps one day you will, too.”
“I’m not a good person, Mark,” she said, shaking her head. “Not like you. I’ve been selfish and mean. I’ve hurt people and ridiculed them. I’ve been deliberately unkind. I’ve been shocking.”
She placed her fingers over her scars, wishing she were beautiful for him. He smiled at her, reached over, and peeled her hand away.
“I don’t like one of my patients,” he said. “She complains constantly. I think she’s vain and shallow. All her ailments are between her ears.”
He bent to kiss her temple.
“I could go the rest of my life without seeing my father again. He’s ruthlessly pompous.”
Her frown was having no effect on his smile.
“I put a frog in my tutor’s bed once and castor oil in my father’s port. He figured it out, eventually, but not before he had a fitful night.”
A strangled giggle escaped her.
“I confess to wishing I was paid more for all the work I do in Old Town, and there are times when mankind disgusts me.”
“All in all,” she said, “those flaws make you a better person.”
“While yours make you human. Neither of us is perfect. Together, we can help each other be better, don’t you think?”
“I don’t deserve you,” she said.
He pulled back and smiled at her.
“Pardon me, but where have you put Catriona Cameron? The woman who called me an irritating boor?”
“She was truly arrogant, was she not?”
He traced her bottom lip. “She was afraid,” he said. “Everything she knew as certain and sure had disappeared, and she was trying to find herself.”
She studied him. “You knew about Andrew,” she said, the thought having occurred to her after the shooting. “That’s why you set Mr. MacLean to follow me.”
“I didn’t know about him specifically,” he said. “I suspected the same person was responsible for both events.”
“You never said anything.”
“Would you have told me about Andrew if I had?”
She wasn’t entirely sure.
“He belongs to the past, don’t you think?”
She nodded.
“So do all your sins, real or imagined.”
When he smiled, she frowned at him once more. “You are a stubborn man, Mark Thorburn.”
“Your perfect match, Miss Cameron,” he said, laughing. He bent closer and kissed her again.
“This is love, isn’t it?” she asked a few minutes later. “This feeling of being miserable all the time?”
“Are you miserable?”
She nodded. “I only feel right when I’m around you. As if you belong to me and I’m not whole without you. It’s bothersome.”
“Have you any other symptoms?” he asked, brushing his knuckles against her chin.
He smelled so wonderful. She lay her head on his shoulder, content to stay there forever.
“I can’t sleep well.”
“Very disturbing. I shall have to find a treatment,” he said.
“I lied,” she said softly. “I haven’t been eating well. I find that I have no appetite.”
“That’s a troubling symptom as well.”
She raised her head and cupped his cheek tenderly, smiling into his eyes.
“What do you think I should do, Dr. Thorburn?”
“Put yourself in my hands,” he said.
“Will this situation last long?”
“Being in love? I think it will.”
She sighed heavily. “Then I shall have to become accustomed to it.” Closing her eyes, she smiled as he pulled her into his arms.
Did love blind people to the truth? When he looked at her, he saw someone better than she knew herself to be.
Loving him in return was both exhilarating and frightening. Loving someone deeply changed a person, didn’t it?
She might even become a better person. One who charmed others. One who made them smile or made their days pleasant. Instead of complaints, she would deal in hope and thankfulness, exactly the emotions she felt right now.
How odd that because of the accident, she’d been made over. Or maybe it wasn’t the accident at all. Perhaps it was Mark, and because she’d fallen in love.
“Share my life with me, Catriona,” he said, kissing her temple.
“You just want me in your bed,” she said, tilting her head back to smile at him.
“Well, yes,” he said, grinning at her. “Byde weill, betyde weill.”
“Everything comes to him who waits?”
“I’m a patient man, within reason.”
Wouldn’t that be a delight? To retire each night with this handsome man? To wake to feel his hands, his lips, on her? To laugh with him, talk with him, and love him? To share her insecurities, and her doubts, with the one person who knew her better than anyone?
“Don’t you want me in your bed, in your life? In your heart?”
“Oh yes,” she said, leaning forward to kiss him again. A moment later she pulled back. “What did you say?”
He grinned at her. “Baa.”
“ ‘Baa’? As in the sound a sheep makes?”
“Something my grandfather said,” he admitted. “I’ll tell you in a moment,” he added. “But right now I’m more interested in kissing you.”
Explanations would have to wait, because he was right, a kiss was vastly more important than anything else.
Author’s Notes
The Edinburgh Fire Brigade is one of the oldest in the UK.
William Banting’s diet, published in a pamphlet entitled Letter on Corpulence Addressed to the Public in 1863, is considered by many to be the first low-carbohydrate diet.
In the middle- to late-nineteenth century, medical care was available to the poor in Scotland, but only if they applied for poor relief. Those who hadn’t applied, or couldn’t qualify, had to be treated as charity patients.
Those on poor relief had the services of a parish doctor—if they could see him. In the city of Glasgow in 1875, for example, only one doctor existed for every twenty thousand inhabitants.
Charlotte Square does exist in Edinburgh’s New Town. Built in the nineteenth century, it was an address for the wealthy. I took the original layout of the square and expanded it.
Welcome to the
World of Karen Ranney
Keep reading to find out what other wonderful romances Karen Ranney has in store for you.
The Lass Wore Black
Third in line for an important earldom, Mark Thorburn is expected to idly wait to take up his position. Instead, he devotes himself to medicine, a life’s work that leads him to the door of famous beauty Catriona Cameron.
The victim of
a terrible accident, Catriona has refused to admit even the most illustrious physicians to her lush Edinburgh apartments. But what if a doctor were to pose as a mere footman, pretending to serve her every need . . . would she see through such a ruse?
Entwined in the masquerade, Mark manages to gain Catriona’s trust, only to find that somehow she has captured his heart at the same time. But when their passion becomes the target of a madman bent on revenge, Mark will have to do more than heal her body and win her love . . . he’ll have to save her life as well.
A Scandalous Scot
One scandal was never enough . . .
After four long years, Morgan MacCraig has finally returned to the Highlands of his birth . . . with his honor in shreds. After a scandal, all he wants now is solace—yet peace is impossible to find with the castle’s outspoken new maid trying his patience, challenging his manhood . . . and winning his love, body and soul.
Jean MacDonald wants to leave her past behind and start anew, but Ballindair Castle, a Scottish estate rumored to be haunted, hasn’t been the safe haven she envisioned. Ballindair’s ancestral ghosts aren’t as fascinating as Morgan, the most magnificent man she’s ever seen. Though their passion triggers a fresh scandal that could force them to wed, Jean must first share the secrets of her own past—secrets that could force them apart, or be the beginning of a love and redemption unlike anything they’ve ever known.
A Scottish Love
Shona Imrie should have agreed to Gordon MacDermond’s proposal of marriage seven years ago—before he went off to war and returned a national hero—but the proud Scottish lass would accept no man’s charity. The dashing soldier would never truly share her love and the passion that left her weak and breathless—or so she believed—so instead she gave herself to another. Now she faces disgrace, poverty, and a life spent alone for her steadfast refusal to follow her heart.
Honored with a baronetcy for his courage under fire, Gordon has everything he could ever want—except for the one thing he most fervently desires: the headstrong beauty he foolishly let slip through his fingers. Conquering Shona’s stubborn pride, however, will prove his most difficult battle—though it is the one for which he is most willing to risk his life, his heart, and his soul.
A Borrowed Scot
Who is Montgomery Fairfax?
Though she possesses remarkable talents and astonishing insight, Veronica MacLeod knows nothing about the man who appears from nowhere to prevent her from committing the most foolish and desperate act of her life. Recently named Lord Fairfax of Doncaster Hall, the breathtaking, secretive stranger agrees to perform the one act of kindness that can rescue the Scottish beauty from scandal and disgrace—by taking Veronica as his bride.
Journeying with Montgomery Fairfax to his magnificent estate in the Highlands, Veronica knows deep in her heart that this is a man she can truly love—a noble soul, a caring and passionate lover whose touch awakens feelings she’s never before known. Yet there are ghosts in Montgomery’s shuttered past that haunt him still. Unless Veronica can somehow unlock the enigma that is her new husband, their powerful passion could be undone by the sins and sorrows of yesterday.
A Highland Duchess
The beautiful but haughty Duchess of Herridge is known to all the ton as the “Ice Queen.” But to Ian McNair, the exquisite Emma is nothing like the rumors. Sensual and passionate, she moves him as no other woman has before. If only she were his wife and not his captive . . .
Little does Emma know that the dark and mysterious stranger who bursts into her bedroom to kidnap her is the powerful Earl of Buchane, and the only man who has been able to see past her proper façade. As the Ice Queen’s defenses melt under the powerful passion she finds with her handsome captor, she begins to believe that love may be possible. Yet fate has decreed that the dream can never be—for pursuing it means sacrificing everything they hold dear: their honor, their futures . . . and perhaps their lives.
Sold to a Laird
Lady Sarah Baines was devoted to her mother and her family home, Chavensworth. Douglas Eston was devoted to making a fortune and inventing. The two of them are married when Lady Sarah’s father proposes the match and threatens to send Lady Sarah’s ill mother to Scotland if she protests.
Douglas finds himself the victim of love at first sight, while Sarah thinks her husband is much too, well, earthy for her tastes. Marriage is simply something she had to do to ensure her mother’s well-being, and even when her mother dies in the next week, it’s not a sacrifice she regrets.
She cannot, however, simply write her mother’s relatives and inform them of her death. She convinces Douglas—an ex pat Scot—to return to Scotland with her, to a place called Kilmarin. At Kilmarin, she is given the Tulloch Sgàthán, the Tulloch mirror. Legend stated that a woman who looked into the mirror saw her true fate.
Douglas and Sarah begin to appreciate the other, and through passion, Douglas is able to express his true feelings for his wife. But once they return to England and Douglas disappears and is presumed dead, Sarah has to face her own feelings for the man she’s come to respect and admire.
A Scotsman in Love
Running from their pasts
Margaret Dalrousie was once willing to sacrifice all for her calling. The talented artist would let no man interfere with her gift. But now, living in a small Scottish cottage on the estate of Glengarrow, she has not painted a portrait in ages. For not even the calming haven in the remote woods can erase the memories that darken Margaret’s days and nights. And now, with the return of the Earl of Linnet to his ancestral home, her hopes of peace have disappeared.
From the first moment he encountered Margaret on his land, the Earl of Linnet was nothing but annoyed. The grieving nobleman has his own secrets that have lured him to the solitude of the Highlands, and his own reasons for wanting to be alone. Yet he is intrigued by his hauntingly beautiful neighbor. Could she be the spark that will draw him out of bittersweet sorrow—the woman who could transform him from a Scotsman in sadness to a Scotsman in love?
The Devil Wears Tartan
A man in the shadows
Some say he is dangerous. Others say he is mad. None of them knows the truth about Marshall Ross, the Devil of Ambrose. He shuns proper society, sworn to let no one discover his terrible secret. Including the beautiful woman he has chosen to be his wife.
A fallen woman
Only desperation could bring Davina McLaren to the legendary Edinburgh castle to become the bride of a man she has never met. Plagued by scandal, left with no choices, she has made her bargain with the devil. And now she must share his bed.
A fire unlike any they’ve ever known
From the moment they meet, Davina and Marshall are rocked by an unexpected desire that leaves them only yearning for more. But the pleasures of the marriage bed cannot protect them from the sins of the past. With an enemy of Marshall’s drawing ever closer and everything they now cherish most at stake, he and Davina must fight to protect the passion they cannot deny.
The Scottish Companion
Haunted by the mysterious deaths of his two brothers, Grant Roberson, 10th Earl of Straithern, fears for his life. Determined to produce an heir before it’s too late, Grant has promised to wed a woman he has never met. But instead of being enticed by his bride-to-be, Grant can’t fight his attraction to the understated beauty and wit of her paid companion.
Gillian Cameron long ago learned the danger of falling in love. Now, as the companion to a spoiled bluestocking, she has learned to keep a firm hold on her emotions. But, from the moment she meets him, she is powerless to resist the alluring and handsome earl.
Fighting their attraction, Gillian and Grant must band together to stop an unknown enemy from striking. Will the threat of danger be enough to make them realize their true feelings?
Autumn in Scotland
Abandoned by a rogue
Betrothed to an earl she had never met, Charlotte Haversham arrived at Balfurin, hoping to find love at the leg
endary Scottish castle. Instead she found decaying towers and no husband among the ruins. So Charlotte worked a miracle, transforming the rotting fortress into a prestigious girls’ school. And now, five years later, her life is filled with purpose—until . . .
Seduced by a stranger
A man storms Charlotte’s castle—and he is not the reprehensible Earl of Marne, the one who stole her dowry and dignity, but rather the absent lord’s handsome, worldly cousin Dixon MacKinnon. Mesmerized by the fiery Charlotte, Dixon is reluctant to correct her mistake. And though she’s determined not to play the fool again, Charlotte finds herself strangely thrilled by the scoundrel’s amorous attentions. But a dangerous intrigue has drawn Dixon to Balfurin. And if his ruse is prematurely revealed, a passionate, blossoming love affair could crumble into ruin.
An Unlikely Governess
She had no recourse but to accept the position . . . and no choice but to fall in love.
Impoverished and untitled, with no marital prospects or so much as a single suitor, Beatrice Sinclair is forced to accept employment as governess to a frightened, lonely child from a noble family—ignoring rumors of dark intrigues to do so. Surely, no future could be as dark as the past she wishes to leave behind. And she admits fascination with the young duke’s adult cousin, Devlen Gordan, a seductive rogue who excites her from the first charged moment they meet.But she dares not trust him—even after he spirits them to isolation and safety when the life of her young charge is threatened.
Devlen is charming, mysterious, powerful—and Beatrice cannot refuse him. He is opening new worlds for her, filling her life with passion . . . and peril. But what are Devlen’s secrets? Is he her lover or her enemy? Will following her heart be foolishness or a path to lasting happiness?
