The Earl's Convenient Wife (Harlequin Romance)

by Marion Lennox

  ‘What were you thinking?’ she demanded of the departed Eileen.

  And then she thought: Eileen hadn’t been thinking. She’d been hoping.

  Those last few months of her life, Eileen had stayed at the castle a lot. Her normally feisty personality had turned inward. She’d wept for Alan, but she’d also wept for Alasdair.

  ‘His parents and then that appalling woman he almost married...they killed something in him,’ she’d told Jeanie. ‘If only he could find a woman like you.’

  This will was a fanciful dream, Jeanie thought, kneading her scone dough. The old lady might have been in full possession of her faculties, but her last will and testament was nothing more than a dream.

  ‘She mustn’t have thought it through,’ she said to herself. ‘She could never have thought we’d walk away from what she saw as irresistible temptation. She’d never believe we could resist.’

  But Eileen hadn’t had all the facts. Jeanie thought of those facts now, of an appalling marriage and its consequences, and she felt ill. If Eileen knew what she’d done, it’d break her heart.

  But what could she do about it now? Nothing. Nothing, nothing and nothing. Finally she stared down and realised what she’d been doing. Kneading scone dough? Was she out of her mind?

  ‘There’s nothing worse than tough scones,’ she told the world in general. ‘Except marriage.’

  Two disastrous marriages... Could she risk a third?

  ‘Maybe I will,’ she told herself, searching desperately for the light side, the optimistic bit of Jeanie McBride that had never entirely been quenched. ‘Eventually. Maybe I might finally find myself a life. I could go to Paris—learn to cook French pastries. Could I find myself a sexy Parisian who enjoys a single malt?’

  She almost smiled at that. All that whisky had to be useful for something. If she was honest, it wasn’t even her drink of choice.

  But since when had she ever had a choice? There was still the overwhelming issue of her debt, she thought, and the urge to smile died. Alan’s debt. The bankruptcy hung over her like a massive, impenetrable cloud. How to be optimistic in the face of that?

  She glanced out of the window, at the eagles who soared over the Duncairn castle as if they owned it.

  ‘That’s what I’d really like to do,’ she whispered. ‘Fly. But I’m dreaming. I’m stuck.’

  And then a deep masculine response from the doorway made her almost jump out of her skin.

  ‘That’s what I’m thinking.’

  Her head jerked from window to doorway and he was standing there. The Lord of Duncairn.

  How long had he been watching? Listening? She didn’t know. She didn’t care, she told herself, fighting for composure as she tossed her dough into the waste and poured more flour into her bowl. McBrides...

  But this man was not Alan. She told herself that, but as she did she felt a queer jump inside.

  No, he wasn’t Alan. He was nothing like him. They’d been cousins but where Alan had been out for a good time, this man was rock solid. Judgemental, yes. ‘Harsh’ and ‘condemnatory’ were two adjectives that described him well—and yet, gazing at the man in the doorway, she felt the weird inside flutter that she’d felt in the library.

  Attraction? She had to be joking.

  He was her feudal lord, she told herself harshly. She was a peasant. And when peasantry met gentry—run!

  But for now she was the cook in this man’s castle. She was forced to stay and she was forced to listen.

  ‘Jeanie, my grandmother’s treated us both badly,’ he said and his tone was one of conciliation. ‘I don’t know what you wanted but you surely can’t have expected this.’

  She started at that. The anger she’d heard from him had disappeared. What came through now was reason and caution, as if he wasn’t sure how to proceed.

  That made two of them.

  ‘She hasn’t treated me badly.’ She made herself say it lightly but she knew it was true. Eileen had had no cause to offer her a job and a livelihood in this castle. There’d been no obligation. Eileen’s action had been pure generosity.

  ‘Your grandmother has been very, very good to me,’ she added, chopping butter and starting to rub it into the new lot of flour. The action was soothing—an age-old task that calmed something deep within—and almost took her mind off the sex-on-legs image standing in the doorway. Almost. ‘I’ve loved living and working here but jobs don’t last forever. I don’t have any right to be here.’

  ‘You were married to Alan. You were... You are family.’

  It was as if he was forcing himself to say it, she thought. He was forcing himself to be nice?

  ‘The marriage was brief and it was a disaster,’ she said curtly. ‘I’m no longer your family—I’m your grandmother’s ex-employee. I’m happy to keep running the castle until it’s sold but then... Then I’m happy to go.’ Liar, liar, pants on fire, she added silently to herself. It’d break her heart to leave; it’d break her heart to see the castle sold to the highest bidder. She had so little money to go anywhere, but there was no way she was baring her heart to this man.

  Right now she was almost afraid of him. He was leaning against the doorjamb, watching her. He looked a warrior, as fierce and as ruthless as the reputation of the great lineage of Duncairn chieftains preceding him.

  He was no such thing, she told herself fiercely. He was just a McBride, another one, and she needed to get away from here fast.

  ‘But if we married, you could keep the castle.’

  Jeanie’s hands stilled. She stood motionless. In truth, she was counting breaths, or lack of them.

  He’d said it as if it were the most reasonable thing in the world. If you give me a penny, I’ll give you an apple. It was that sort of statement.

  Ten, eleven, twelve... She’d have to breathe soon.

  ‘Maybe it’s reasonable,’ Alasdair continued while she wondered if her breathing intended starting again. ‘Maybe it’s the only sensible course of action.’ He’d taken his jacket off and rolled his sleeves. His arms were folded. They were great, brawny arms, arms that gave the lie to the fact that he was a city financier. His kilt made him seem even more a warrior.

  He was watching her—as a panther watched its prey?

  ‘It’d get us both what we want,’ he said, still watchful. ‘Alone, we walk away from everything we’ve worked for. Eileen’s will is a nightmare but it doesn’t have to be a total disaster. We need to work around it.’

  ‘By...marrying?’ Her voice came out a squeak but she was absurdly grateful it came out at all.

  ‘It’s the only way you can keep the castle.’

  ‘I don’t want the castle.’

  That stopped him. His face stilled, as if he wasn’t sure where to take it from there.

  ‘No matter what Eileen’s will says, the castle should never be my inheritance,’ she managed. She was fighting to keep her voice as reasonable as his. ‘The castle’s my job, but that’s all it is. You’re the Earl of Duncairn. The castle’s your ancestral home. Your grandmother’s suggestion might be well-meant, but it’s so crazy I don’t believe we should even talk about it.’

  ‘We need to talk about it.’

  ‘We don’t. I’m sorry your grandmother has left you in such a situation but that’s for you to sort. Thank you, Lord Duncairn, for considering such a mad option, but I have scones to cook. I’m moving on. I’ll work until the lawyer asks me to leave and then I’ll be out of your life forever.’

  * * *

  Whatever he’d expected, it wasn’t this. A straight-out refusal to even talk about it.

  Okay, it was how he’d reacted, he decided, but he’d had an hour’s walk to clear his head. This woman clearly hadn’t had time to think it through.

  To walk away from a castle... This castle.

/>   What else was she angling for?

  He watched her work for a bit while she ignored him, but if she thought he’d calmly leave, she was mistaken. This was serious.

  Keep it as a business proposition, he told himself. After all, business was what he was good at. Business was what he was all about. Make it about money.

  ‘I realise the upkeep would be far too much for you to keep the castle long-term,’ he told her, keeping his voice low and measured. Reasoning as he talked. Maybe she was still shocked at not receiving a monetary inheritance. Maybe there was anger behind that calm façade of hers.

  ‘The company has been funding long-term maintenance and restoration,’ he continued, refusing to see the look of revulsion on her face. Revulsion? Surely he must be misreading. ‘We can continue doing that,’ he told her. ‘If at the end of the year this inheritance goes through and you don’t wish to stay, the company can buy the castle from you.’

  ‘You could afford that?’ she demanded, incredulous?

  ‘The company’s huge. It can and it seems the most sensible option. You’ll find I can be more than generous. Eileen obviously wanted you looked after. Alan was my cousin. I’ll do that for him.’

  But at that she flashed him a look that could have split stone.

  ‘I don’t need looking after,’ she snapped. ‘I especially don’t need looking after by the McBride men.’

  He got it then. Her anger wasn’t just encompassing Eileen and her will. Her anger was directed at the McBride family as a whole.

  She was holding residual anger towards Alan?

  Why?

  He and Alan had never got on and their mutual dislike had meant they never socialised. He’d met Jeanie a couple of times before she and Alan had married. Jeanie had worked as his grandmother’s part-time assistant while she was on the island. On the odd times he’d met her she’d been quiet, he remembered, a shadow who’d seemed to know her place. He’d hardly talked to her, but she’d seemed...suitable. A suitable assistant for his grandmother.

  And then Alan had married her. What a shock and what a disaster—and Jeanie had been into it up to her neck.

  Until today he’d seen her as a money-grubbing mouse. The fire in her eyes now suggested the mouse image might possibly be wrong.

  ‘Jeanie, this isn’t about looking after—’

  ‘Don’t Jeanie me.’ She glowered and went back to rubbing butter. ‘I’m Mrs McBride. I’m Duncairn’s housekeeper for the next few weeks and then I’m nothing to do with you.’

  ‘Then we’ve both lost.’

  ‘I told you, I’ve lost nothing. The castle’s my place of employment, nothing more.’

  ‘So you wouldn’t mind moving to Edinburgh?’

  Her hands didn’t even pause. She just kept rubbing in the already rubbed-in butter, and her glower moved up a notch.

  ‘Don’t talk nonsense. I’m moving nowhere.’

  ‘But you are moving out of the castle.’

  ‘Which is none of your business.’

  ‘I’m offering you a job.’

  ‘I don’t want a job.’

  ‘If you don’t have the castle, you need a job.’

  ‘Don’t mess with me, Alasdair McBride. By the way, the kitchen’s out of bounds to guests. That’s what you are now. A guest. The estate’s in the hands of the executors, and I’m employed here. You have a bed booked for the night. The library, the dining room and your bedroom and sitting room are where you’re welcome. Meanwhile I have work to do.’

  ‘Jeanie...’

  ‘What?’ She pushed the bowl away from her with a vicious shove. ‘Don’t play games with me, Alasdair. Your cousin messed with my life and I should have moved away then. Right away.’

  ‘I want to help.’

  ‘No, you don’t. You want your inheritance.’

  ‘Yes,’ he said and he lost it then, the cool exterior he carefully presented to the world. ‘Yes, I do. The Duncairn financial empire is colossal and far-reaching. It’s also my life. To break it up and use it to fund dogs’ homes...’

  ‘There are some very deserving dogs,’ she snapped and then looked under the table to where Eileen’s two dopey spaniels lay patiently waiting for crumbs. ‘These two need a home. You can provide for them first.’

  ‘Look!’ He swore and hauled his phone from his sporran—these things were a sight more useful than pockets—and clicked the phone open. He flicked through a few screens and then turned it to face her. ‘Look!’

  ‘I have flour on my hands.’ She glowered some more and she looked...sulky. Sulky but cute, he thought, and suddenly he found himself thinking...

  Um...no. Not appropriate. All this situation needed was a bit of sensual tension and the thing was shot. He needed to stay calm, remember who she was and talk sense.

  ‘Just look,’ he said patiently and she sighed and rubbed her hands on her apron and peered at the screen.

  ‘What am I looking at?’

  ‘At a graph of Duncairn’s listed charitable donations made in the last financial year,’ he told her. ‘The figure to the left represents millions. It scrolls off the screen but you can see the biggest beneficiaries. My grandfather and my grandmother after him refused to make Duncairn a listed company, so for years now the profits have either been siphoned back into the company to expand our power base, or used to fund worthwhile projects. AIDS, malaria, smallpox... Massive health projects have all been beneficiaries. Then there are smaller projects. Women’s refuges, otter conservation, even dogs’ homes.’

  And Jeanie seemed caught. ‘Those bars are...millions?’ she whispered.

  ‘Millions.’

  ‘Then what was Eileen thinking, to leave the lot to just one cause?’

  ‘You know what she was thinking,’ Alasdair said wearily. ‘We both do. She was blackmailing us into marriage, and as far as I can see, she’s succeeded. I have no choice.’ He sighed. ‘The value of the castle ought to be enough for you, but if it’s not, I’ll pay you what you ask. I’ll mortgage what I have to. Is that what you’re after? You can name your terms but look at the alternative to us both. Use your head. I have no expectations of you, and I’ll expect nothing from you as my wife. Eileen’s will says we have to share a house for one full year before the inheritance is finalised, but I have a huge place in Edinburgh. I’ll fund you well enough so you can be independent. Jeanie, do this, if not for the charities I represent, then for you. You’ll earn even more than the castle this way. You’ve won. I concede. We’ll marry and then we’ll move on.’

  And then he stopped. There was no more argument to present.

  There was total silence and it lasted for a very long time.

  * * *

  Marriage...

  Third-time lucky? The thought flashed through her mind and she put it away with a hollow, inward laugh. Lucky? With this man?

  What he was proposing was purely business. Maybe that was the way to go.

  This was a marriage for sensible, pragmatic reasons, she told herself, fighting desperately for logic. She could even feel noble, saving the Duncairn billions for the good of all the charities it assisted.

  Noble? Ha. She’d feel sullied. Bought.

  He thought she’d walk away with a fortune. If he only knew... But there was no point in telling him about the bankruptcy hanging over her head.

  ‘Would you like to see through the place in Edinburgh?’ he said at last. ‘It’s good, and big enough for us never to see each other. I’ll have contracts drawn up that’ll give you a generous income during the year, and of course we’ll need a prenuptial agreement.’

  ‘So I don’t bleed you for anything else?’

  ‘That wasn’t what I was thinking.’ But of course it was. It was an easy supposition—a woman who’d angled for the castle would no doubt think
of marriage in terms of what she could get. ‘But the castle will be worth—’

  ‘Shut up and let me think.’

  Whoa.

  This woman was the hired help. She could see him thinking it. She was his cousin’s leavings. The offer he’d made was extraordinary. That she would tell him to shut up...

  He opened his mouth to reply, she glared—and he shut up.

  More silence.

  Could she? she thought. Dared she?

  She thought suddenly of Maggie, her best friend on the island. Maggie was a fisherman’s wife now, and the mother of two bright boys. Maggie was solid, sensible. She imagined Maggie’s reaction when...if...she told her the news.

  You’re marrying another one? Are you out of your mind?

  She almost grinned. It’d almost be worth it to hear the squeal down the phone.

  But...

  Act with your head. Do not be distracted, she told herself. You’ve done this in haste twice now. Get this right.

  Marriage.

  For a year. For only a year.

  She’d have to live in Edinburgh, on Alasdair’s terms.

  No. Even the thought left her exposed, out of control, feeling as she’d vowed never to feel again. No and no and no.

  She needed time to think, but that wasn’t going to happen. Alasdair was leaning back, watching her, and she knew if she left this kitchen without making a decision the memory of this man would make her run. Physically, he was a stronger, darker version of Alan.

  Alan had betrayed her, used her, conned her, but until that last appalling night he’d never frightened her. But this man... It was almost as if he were looking straight through her.

  So leave, she told herself. It’d be easy, to do what she’d first thought when the terms of the will were spelled out. She could stay with Maggie until she found a job.

  A job, on Duncairn? There weren’t any.

  She glanced around her, at the great kitchen, at the big old range she’d grown to love, at the two dopey dogs at her feet. This place had been her refuge. She’d built it up with such care. Eileen had loved it and so had Jeanie.