The Earl's Convenient Wife (Harlequin Romance)

by Marion Lennox

  ‘You idiot. You king-size madwoman. To walk back into the McBride realm...’

  Shut up, she told her witches, but they were ranting and she lay in the narrow cot in Maggie’s tiny attic and held her hands to her ears and thought she was going mad.

  Something hit the window.

  That’ll be more witches trying to get in, she told herself and buried her head under the pillow.

  Something else hit the window. It sounded like a shower of gravel.

  Rory used to do this, so many years ago, when he wanted to talk to her and her father was being...her father.

  The ghost of Rory? That’s all I need, she thought, but then another shower hit the window and downstairs Maggie’s Labrador hit the front door and started barking, a bark that said terrorists and stun grenades were about to launch through the windows and a dog had to do its duty. Wake up and fight, the dog was saying to everyone in the house. No, make that everyone in the village.

  There was an oath from Maggie’s husband in the room under Jeanie’s, and, from the kids’ room, a child began to cry.

  And she thought...

  No, she didn’t want to think. This was nothing to do with her. She lay with her blanket pulled up to her nose as she heard Maggie’s husband clump down the stairs and haul the door open.

  ‘What do you think you’re doing?’ Dougal’s shout was as loud as his dog’s bark. ‘McBride... It’s McBride, isn’t it? What the hell...? You might be laird of this island, but if you think you can skulk round our property... You’ve woken the bairns. Shut up!’ The last words were a roar, directed at the dog, but it didn’t work the way Dougal intended. From under her window came a chorus of frenzied barks in response.

  Uh-oh. Jeanie knew those barks. Abbot and Costello! Alasdair was here and he’d brought Eileen’s dogs for the ride.

  And then it wasn’t just Maggie’s dog and Eileen’s dogs. The neighbours’ dog started up in response, and then the dogs from the next house along, and then the whole village was erupting in a mass of communal barking.

  Lights were going on. Maggie’s two kids were screaming. She could hear a child start up in the house next door.

  Should I stay under the pillows? Jeanie thought. It had to be the wisest course.

  ‘I need to speak to my wife.’ It was Alasdair, struggling to make himself heard above the din.

  His wife. She needed more pillows—the pillows she had didn’t seem to be effective.

  ‘Jeanie?’ That was Maggie, roaring up the stairs. ‘Jeanie!’

  ‘I’m asleep!’

  ‘Jeanie, you know how much I love you, but your man’s roaring in the street and he’s woken the bairns. Either you face him or I will, and if it’s me, it won’t be pretty.’

  Alasdair wasn’t roaring in the street, Jeanie thought helplessly, but everyone else was. Everyone in Duncairn would know that the Earl of Duncairn was under Maggie’s window—wanting his wife.

  Everyone knew everything on this island, she thought bitterly as she hauled on jeans and a sweatshirt and headed downstairs. Why broadcast more? As if the whole mess wasn’t bad enough... She didn’t want to meet him. She did not. She’d had enough of the McBrides to last her a lifetime.

  Dougal was still in the doorway, holding the dog back. He’d stopped shouting, but as she appeared he looked at her in concern. ‘You sure you want to go out there, lass?’

  She glowered. ‘Maggie says I have to.’

  There was a moment’s pause while they both thought about it. ‘Then better to do what Maggie says,’ he said at last. Dougal was a man of few words and he’d used most of them on Alasdair. ‘Tell him to quiet the dogs. I’ll be here waiting. Any funny business and I’m a call away. And don’t be going out there in bare feet.’

  Her shoes were in the attic, two flights of stairs away. At home...at the castle...she always left a pair of wellies at the back door, but here it hadn’t been worth her unpacking.

  The only Wellingtons on the doorstep were Dougal’s fishing boots.

  But a girl had to do what a girl had to do. She shoved her feet into Dougal’s vast fishing wellies and went to meet her...her husband.

  * * *

  He’d found out where Maggie lived. That had been easy—the island boasted one slim phone book with addresses included. He hadn’t meant or wanted to wake the house but she’d told him she’d be sleeping in the attic. All he’d wanted was for her to put her head out to investigate the shower of stones, he’d signal her down and they could talk.

  The plan hadn’t quite worked. Now the whole village was waiting for them to talk, and the village wasn’t happy. But as a collective, the village was interested.

  ‘Have you run away already, love?’ The old lady living over the road from Maggie’s was hanging out of the window with avid interest. ‘Well, it’s what we all expected. Don’t you go letting him sweet-talk you back to his castle. Just because he’s the laird... There’s generations of lairds had their way with the likes of us. Don’t you be trusting him one inch.’

  She might not be trusting him, he thought, but at least she was walking towards him. She was wearing jeans, an oversize windcheater and huge fishermen’s boots. Her curls were tumbled around her face. By the light of the street lamp she looked young, vulnerable...and scared.

  Heck, he wasn’t an ogre. He wasn’t even really a laird. ‘Jeanie...’

  ‘You’d better hush the dogs,’ she told him. ‘Why on earth did you bring them?’

  ‘Because when I tried to leave they started barking exactly as they’re barking now.’ He needed to be calm, but he couldn’t help the note of exasperation creeping in. ‘And your guests have already had to make do with half a shelf of whisky instead of a full one, and bought biscuits instead of home-made. What did you do with the shortbread? If the dogs keep barking, we’ll have the castle empty by morning.’

  ‘Does that matter?’ But she walked across to the SUV and yanked open the door. ‘Shush,’ she said. They shushed.

  It was no wonder they shushed. Her tone said don’t mess with me and the dogs didn’t. She was small and cute and fierce—and the gaze she turned on him was lethal.

  She glowered and then hesitated, glancing up at the lit window over the road. ‘It’s all right, Mrs McConachie, I have him... I have things under control. Sorry for the disturbance, people. You can all go back to bed now. Close your windows, nothing to see.’

  ‘You tell him, Jeanie,’ someone shouted, and there was general laughter and the sound of assorted dogs faded to silence again.

  But she was still glowering. She was looking at him as if he were five-day-old fish that had dared infiltrate the immaculate castle refrigerators.

  Speaking of food... Why not start off on neutral territory?

  ‘I don’t know how to make black pudding,’ he told her and her face stilled. The glare muted a little, as if something else was struggling to take its place. Okay. Keep it practical, he told himself, and he soldiered on. ‘Two of your guests, Mr and Mrs Elliot from Battersea, insist they want black pudding for their breakfast. And Ethel and Hazel want porridge.’

  ‘Hector and Margaret adore their black pudding,’ she said neutrally, and he thought, Excellent, this was obviously the way to lead into the conversation they had to have.

  ‘So how do you make it?’

  ‘I don’t. Mrs Stacy on the north of the island makes them for me and she gets her blood from the island butcher. I have puddings hanging in the back larder. You slice and fry at need. The shortbread’s on top of the dresser—I put it where I can’t reach it without the step stool because otherwise I’ll be the size of a house. The porridge is more complicated—you need to be careful not to make it lumpy but there are directions on the Internet. I’m sure you can manage.’

  ‘I can’t.’

  ‘Well, then..
.’ She stood back, hands on her hips, looking as if he was a waste of space for admitting he couldn’t make porridge. ‘That’s sad, but the guests need to find somewhere else as a base to do their hill climbing. They might as well get disgusted about their lack of black pudding and porridge tomorrow, and start looking elsewhere immediately.’

  Uh-oh. This wasn’t going the way he’d planned. She looked as if she was about to turn on her heels and retreat. ‘Jeanie, there was a reason you agreed to marry me.’ He needed to get things back on a sensible course now. ‘Believe it or not, it’s still the right thing to do. It was a good decision. You can’t walk away.’

  ‘The decision to marry? The right thing?’

  ‘I believe it still is, even though...even though your reasons weren’t what I thought they were. But long-term, it still seems sensible.’

  ‘It did seem sensible.’ She still sounded cordial, he thought, which had to be a good sign, or at least she still seemed neutral. But then she continued: ‘But that was before I realised you think I’m a gold-digging harpy who’s spent the last three years sucking up to Eileen so I can inherit the castle. Or maybe I did know that, but it got worse. It was before you inferred I’d married twice for money, three times if you count marrying you. You thought I was a tart the first time you saw me and—’

  ‘I didn’t.’

  ‘Come off it. When Alan introduced us you looked like you’d seen lesser things crawl out of cheese. I concede the way I was dressed might have swayed you a little—’

  ‘A little!’ He still remembered how he’d felt as Alan had ushered her into his office. Appalled didn’t begin to cut it.

  ‘Alan said it was a joke,’ she told him, a hint of defensiveness suddenly behind her anger. ‘He said you were a judgemental prude, let’s give you a heart attack. He said you were expecting him to marry a tart so let’s show him one. I was embarrassed to death but Alan wanted to do it and I was naïve and I thought I was in love and I went along with it. It even seemed...funny. It wasn’t funny, I admit. It was tacky. But Alan was right. You were judgemental. You still are. Eileen kept telling me you were nice underneath but then she loved Alan, too. So now I’ve been talked into doing something against my better judgement—again. It has to stop and it’s stopping now. I’ll get the marriage annulled. That’s it. If you don’t mind, my bed’s waiting and you have oats to soak. Or not. Lumpy porridge or none at all, it’s up to you. I don’t care.’

  And she turned and walked away.

  Or she would have walked away if she hadn’t been wearing men’s size-thirteen Wellington boots. There was a rut in the pavement, her floppy toe caught and she lurched. She flailed wildly, fighting for balance, but she was heading for asphalt.

  He caught her before she hit the ground. His arms went round her; he swung her high into his arms and steadied. For one moment he held her—he just held.

  She gasped and wriggled. He set her on her feet again but for that moment...for that one long moment there’d been an almost irresistible urge to keep right on holding.

  In the olden days a man could choose a mate according to his status in the tribe, he thought wryly. He could exert a bit of testosterone, show a little muscle and carry his woman back to his cave. Every single thing about that concept was wrong, but for that fleeting moment, as he held her, as he felt how warm, how slight, how yielding her body was, the urge was there, as old as time itself.

  And as dumb.

  But she’d felt it, too—that sudden jolt of primeval need. She steadied and backed, her hands held up as if to ward him off.

  Behind them the door swung open. Dougal was obviously still watching through the window and he’d seen everything. ‘You want me to come out, love?’

  ‘It’s okay, Dougal.’ She sounded as if she was struggling for composure and that made two of them. ‘I...just tripped in your stupid wellies.’

  ‘They’re great wellies.’ That was Maggie, calling over Dougal’s shoulder. ‘They’re special ones I bought for his birthday. They cost a fortune.’

  ‘I think they’re nice, too,’ Alasdair added helpfully and she couldn’t help but grin. She fought to turn it back into a glower.

  ‘Don’t you dare make me laugh.’

  ‘I couldn’t.’

  ‘You could. Go away. I’m going to bed.’

  Enough. He had to say it. ‘Jeanie, please come back to the castle,’ he said, pride disappearing as the gravity of the next few moments hit home. ‘You’re right, I’ve been a judgemental fool. I’ve spent the last few hours trawling through Eileen’s financial statements. I can see exactly what she has and hasn’t given you. I can see what a mess Alan left you in. I can see...what you’ve given Eileen.’

  She stilled. ‘I don’t know what you mean.’

  ‘For the last three years you’ve made this castle a home for her,’ he told her. ‘I know Eileen’s official home was in Edinburgh, and she still spent too much time in the office, trying to keep her fingers on the company’s financial affairs. But whenever she could, she’s been here. When she became ill she was here practically full-time, only returning to Edinburgh long enough to reassure me there was no need for me to keep an eye on her. I thought she was staying here because she needed to keep an eye on you. I thought this was simply another financial enterprise. But tonight I spent a little time with your guests and some rather good whisky—’

  ‘I didn’t leave any good stuff behind.’

  ‘I made an emergency dash. I spent a little time with them and they talked about why they’ve come back every year since you started running the B & B. They talked about how they and my grandmother talked about you and they talked about fun. How you and Eileen enjoyed each other’s company, but that they’d always been welcome to join you. How Eileen sat in the library like a queen every night and presided over the whisky and talked about the estate as it’s been, about my grandfather’s ancestors and hers. It seems it didn’t matter how often they heard it, they still loved it. And they talked about you, Jeanie, always in the background, always quietly careful that Eileen didn’t do too much, that she didn’t get cold, that she didn’t trip on her stupid dogs. And then I looked at the wages and saw how little you’ve been paid. And Elspeth...’

  ‘Who’s Elspeth?’ She sounded winded.

  ‘My secretary. I asked her to do some long-overdue background checks. With the information you gave me this afternoon the rest was easy to find. She tells me that, as well as almost killing you that last night in his unpaid-for sports car, Alan died in debt up to his ears. He left you committed to paying them, even though most of them were to gambling houses and casinos. But somehow you seem to have become jointly responsible. I know Eileen would have paid them off, but they were vast debts, eye-watering debts, and you refused to let her help. You declared yourself bankrupt and then you accepted a minimal wage to stay on at the castle.’

  ‘You have—’

  ‘Been learning. Yes, I have. I’ve learned that this marriage arrangement gives you one more year in the castle but that’s all it gives you. I’m still not sure why you agreed to marry me, but I’m pathetically grateful you did. Jeanie, I’m so sorry I misjudged you. Please come home.’

  ‘It’s not my home.’

  ‘It is a home, though,’ he said, gently now. ‘That’s what I didn’t get. You made it Eileen’s home and for that I can never thank you enough.’

  ‘I don’t want your thanks. Eileen let me stay. That was enough.’

  ‘And I know I don’t have the right, but I’m asking you to stay longer.’

  ‘But not as your wife.’

  ‘Legally as my wife. We both know that’s sensible.’

  ‘I don’t do...sensible. I’m not very good at it. I have three dumb marriages to prove it.’

  ‘Then do gut instinct,’ he told her. ‘Do what you think’s right. Think back to
the reasons you married me in the first place.’

  ‘That’s blackmail again.’

  ‘It’s not. I know I stand to gain a fortune by this transaction. You stand to gain nothing. That’s what I hadn’t understood. But we can work things out. If the company ends up in my name, I can buy the castle from the bankruptcy trustees. I intended to buy it from you anyway, but I can arrange for you to be paid more—’

  ‘I don’t want anything,’ she snapped. ‘Don’t you get it? Don’t you understand that there’s nothing you can offer me that I want?’

  ‘You do want another year in the castle. At the end of the year—’

  ‘Don’t even say it,’ she told him. ‘I will not be bought.’

  Silence. What else could he say?

  He could fix things if she let him. Duncairn Enterprises was extensive enough to soak up the purchase of the castle at market price. He could also settle a substantial amount on Jeanie when her bankruptcy was discharged, but he knew instinctively that saying that now would count for nothing. Right now, he had enough sense to know it would make things worse.

  This woman—his wife—had married for a reason. She knew the good the company did. She knew how much the castle and the company meant to Eileen. He just had to hope those reasons were still strong enough.

  ‘Jeanie, do you really want to get on that ferry tomorrow?’ he asked. ‘The dogs want you back at the castle. The guests want you. This does seem like cutting off your nose to spite your face. Please?’

  ‘So...it’s not just the porridge.’

  ‘Not even the black pudding.’

  ‘Alasdair...’

  ‘There’ll be no strings,’ he said and held up his hands. ‘I promise. Things will be as you imagined them when you agreed to this deal. You’ll have a year’s employment. You can use the year to sort what you want to do next and then you can walk away. There’ll be no obligation on either of our parts.’

  ‘No more insults?’