Questions for a Highlander

by Angeline Fortin

  Aside from that disturbing moment, he was at his most charming this evening, tossing out witty banter as easily as inappropriate innuendo. She knew it was wrong to think so, but she found the earl wildly amusing. His propensity for making her laugh was suddenly a more appealing quality in her mind than his dashing good looks, though it would have taken a twenty-mule team to extract such an admission from her when she only just admitted to herself this day how his appearance roused such wild feelings in her.

  Her features lit with the anticipation of continuing their repartee as she tripped lightly down the stairs just as Abby and Richard’s butler, Guthrie, opened the front door, allowing another guest to enter. The man who stepped into the hall was so incredibly handsome it nearly took Kitty’s breath away. As he handed his hat and coat to Guthrie, shaking rainwater from his hair, she accessed the newcomer. She estimated him to be about Jack’s age, but, if she were honest, Kitty would have to admit while he was more striking than Haddington, with his dark good looks, he was not more appealing. To her, Jack’s rugged visage was more intriguing and compelling than the sheer masculine beauty before her. However, this man’s familiar features did bring to mind Richard and James MacKintosh as well as another long ago memory, and Kitty knew this could only be Francis MacKintosh, Eve’s new husband. Kitty could almost understand why Eve had changed her mind about ever remarrying.

  She smiled at him in welcome and was rewarded with an adoring smile in return. “Eden, my love,” he called as she continued down. His voice and eyes were filled with such devotion that for a moment Kitty felt a splash of yearning that such a look might be granted her. Before she could correct him regarding her identity, though, his smile turned to a frown. He considered her as she continued toward him then his eyes lit with comprehension and another pleased smile replaced the other more intimate one. “You must be Kitty. I have heard so much about you.” He held out his hand and took hers, placing a light kiss upon it. “I am Eve’s husband, Francis. I did not know you were visiting.”

  “I think Eve might have been waiting to see if you could tell us apart,” she teased, but her expression was curious. “How did you do it?”

  “Do what?”

  “Know I wasn’t Eve?” she clarified. “No one has ever been able to tell us apart at that distance before.”

  “Ahhh,” he nodded, his olive eyes dancing with amusement. “Let me just say that I could pick my wife out of a room of women blindfolded, just as she could me.”

  “Why would Eve ever be blindfolded in a room full of women?” she teased as they wandered toward the parlor.

  He laughed at her jest as Guthrie announced to the occupants of the parlor, “Earl Glenrothes.” Without another word, her new brother-in-law left her and strode across the room, scooping Eve into his arms and kissing her, right before them all! He did so passionately and without reserve. Eve returned the welcome, if it could be called that, in equal measure. Glenrothes towered over her sister much as Jack did over Kitty, and she wondered if Evie relished that elusive feeling of daintiness as much as she did, for it was unusual for them as tall women to look up to a man or to tilt their head back so to embrace or kiss one. Evie looked almost petite next to Glenrothes. Safe, harbored. Cherished.

  “I’d be surprised if he didn’t take her home right now,” a deep brogue whispered conspiratorially in her ear. “Can’t keep his hands off her for more than a moment when they are together.” His voice rose as Jack called out, “Enough of that now! We are eating soon and you know such slop ruins my appetite!”

  Kitty glanced up at Jack, accurately gauging his words as sarcastic, and then back to her sister who was blushing deeply as Francis whispered something to her. She caressed his cheek and kissed him again before wrapping her arms around him and tucking her head under his chin as if she wished she might melt right into him. Kitty could only watch them in wonder.

  Like Freddie and other men of their station, Eve’s first husband had never shown any affection for her in public. The only contact Kitty had ever seen Shaftesbury make with her was having her hold his arm as they entered a room. Even Freddie, who hovered jealously over her, was reluctant to show anything that might be termed affectionate in public venues. She thought Glenrothes’ obvious love, and demonstration of it, was romantic and charming and didn’t hesitate in saying so to Jack.

  “You think so?” He looked at the couple, considering. Jack was still trying to get used to this new Francis MacKintosh. The married man who fawned so over his wife was a far cry from the dark, cynical man who had urged him to find a wife of his own just a few months before. Haddington hadn’t realized, over the years, how dramatically his closest friend had changed from a jovial youth to a grim aristocrat until he had met Eve once more. Rediscovering his Eden, Glenrothes called it, and now he was a completely different man, more like his old self before Vanessa Fane had ruined his life and stolen his humor. Still, their romantic slop was disgusting, robbing his friend of his very manhood.

  Glenrothes was now greeting the others present, kissing Abby and Moira and shaking the hands of his brothers. Even as he did, a large portion of his attention remained on his wife. Though MacKintosh had been away for four days, taking care of business at his family’s estate Glen Cairn, he was acting as though it had been a month. To Jack, it was appallingly emasculating to watch a manly Scot such as MacKintosh kowtow to a mere female for any reason. Charming? Alarming was more like it! It’d be a cold day in hell before he fell so low as to pant after a woman like that!

  Whereas Haddington could only see the awkwardness of the moment, a feeling akin to envy flowed through Kitty. Oh, she was happy that her sister had found someone to love, but just looking at them together made Kitty vividly aware of what was missing in her own life. That heartbreaking romantic attachment left her with an ache of envious longing in her throat. “He loves her so,” she whispered.

  “Horrifying, isn’t it?”

  “Refreshing,” she countered, shaking herself from her moment of misery. “Perhaps you should try it.”

  Jack shuddered and changed the subject, unwilling to pursue such a line of thought. “MacKintosh, come make your greeting over here,” Jack called over his shoulder.

  “Yes, my lord,” Eve seconded, taking her husband by the arm to lead him to her sister. “I would love to have you meet my sister, Katherine Hayes. Kat, this is Lord Francis MacKintosh. Glenrothes.”

  “We just met out in the hall.” Francis greeted her, taking her hand in his once more.

  “It was actually our second meeting,” she reminded him in a teasing fashion. The first time Eve had met Francis many years before, they had had a tryst in his grandmother’s garden that Kitty had interrupted to save Eve from her mother’s wrath. “Come, my lord, do you forget our brief encounter in your grandmother’s garden so long ago?”

  “Aye, it was a magical moment,” he responded with a laugh, earning an inquiring brow from Jack. “You looked so much like my Eden I couldn’t tell you apart back then.” He apparently had no such troubles now, though most people couldn’t tell them apart at all. Even Abby and Moira had difficulties from time to time. He went on. “Jack looks confused, however. I thought he knew of that encounter.”

  “Jack did not know of that encounter,” Lord Merrill muttered under his breath, eying at Kitty suspiciously.

  “Oh, it was years ago in a romantic garden!” Kitty batted her lashes and smiled up at Francis with her hands clasped to her bosom. “Just the starlight and the orchestra playing in the distance. The romance was wonderfully breathtaking. And then he kissed…”

  “I say!” Jack sputtered.

  “Eve!” Kitty finished, and laughed up at Jack while Eve and Francis joined in.

  “Why you!” Jack laughed, and playfully brought back his hand. “Why I ought to – what?”

  Kitty could not help it. When Jack drew back his fist, however good-humored the gesture might have been, she flinched away. Not just a wee wince, but a full dodge of evasion. Now
she gaped at him in horror as he stared back at her in equal measure. For a long moment, their gazes remained locked while the others only gawked at the spectacle Kitty had made.

  In a smooth movement, Eve caught Kitty by the waist and turned her back into the room leading her to a sofa and sitting next to her, saying only with a studied nonchalance, “Kitty, dear, you mustn’t exert yourself so much after the long trial of your journey! I can see that you have overdone it and exhausted yourself!” She clucked like a mother hen, pressing a glass of whiskey into her sister’s hand as she turned and chided Jack. “And you, Haddington, I’m sure that you are well aware that a lady in a tightly laced corset can only take so much amusement before she becomes faint!”

  Eve bent her head to her sister’s, and an exchange of whispers passed between them, ending with a quick shake of Kitty’s head as she clenched Eve’s hand in hers. Abby and Moira, aware now of the true circumstances of Kitty’s marriage, chimed in on Eve’s declaration, lightly berating Jack and agreeing whole-heartedly that this was exactly the case, before launching into a full-scale discussion of just how much a lady could take before lack of oxygen overtook her senses. Richard, along with the other MacKintosh siblings present – James, Connor and Fiona – looked confused, having not paid studied attention to the exchange, but let the conversation take its course. But while Francis eyed Kitty with perceptive sympathy, Jack studied her more seriously as he recalled the few other instances when Kitty had flinched away from his touch or sudden movement.

  Bloody hell, he thought as the truth of the situation dawned on him. Bloody, bloody hell! He understood clearly, now, the mysterious reason why Kitty had run away from her husband, why she wanted to keep her presence in Edinburgh a secret. He understood clearly that he would happily do murder to avenge her. A rage welled up in him unlike any he had ever known. What kind of bastard had she married?

  Unaware of Haddington’s rising fury, Kitty managed to rally herself enough to uphold her end of the conversation at the dinner table. Inwardly, she was still simply appalled with herself for reacting so violently to what was obviously meant as a playful gesture. Her response was just humiliating and she could only imagine what thoughts and conclusions were being drawn in the minds of those present.

  How wonderful a sister she had in Eve! Not only had she provided Kitty the time she needed to recover her senses, but offered to leave immediately if Kitty so wished. She refused to give in to this skittish behavior so easily though. She had to learn to cope with her past, especially when she was surrounded by friends and, strangely, she already included Jack in that description.

  What a gentleman Jack was being! Even though he must have been shocked by her behavior and have a bevy of questions, he had nonetheless managed to look particularly unperturbed by the incident and had been as engaging and humorous over dinner as he had on their previous encounters.

  “Kitty,” Abby addressed her from the foot of the table. “Richard and I were going to take in the opera at the Royal Theater tomorrow night. They’re performing Captain Billy as the curtain raiser before The Nautch Girl and we had thought to invite Eve and Francis days ago, but Eve was just telling me that she saw it during its opening run last year at the Savoy. Why don’t you come along instead? Moira, Fiona and the lads will be there as well.”

  “What is Captain Billy or even The Nautch Girl?” Kitty asked, disappointed that she wasn’t familiar with the titles as she so enjoyed the opera. “I had not heard of either of them before.”

  “They’re comedic opera, Kat,” Eve told her with an encouraging smile. “You should go, it’s most amusing. Solomon did the music.”

  Tempted as she was, Kitty leaned across the table to hiss at her sister around Francis on her other side. “I thought we agreed that I would not go out?”

  Eve’s lips twitched a bit. “Well, you won’t, will you? I will, or it will seem so.”

  “Wouldn’t it seem odd, then, if I go to the opera without Francis?” she wondered.

  Eve’s brows rose and she considered her husband. “I hadn’t thought of that. It would seem a bit odd, would it not?”

  “Nonsense.” Francis shook his head, not really understanding the whole story yet but gathering enough to catch on. “I find that I have suddenly developed an ague. I couldn’t possibly go.”

  “Come on, Kitty!” Moira urged from down the table. “We’ll have a wonderful time! Eve’s seen everything there is to see already. It’ll be nice to experience an opera for the first time with someone who hasn’t seen it as well!”

  “Do say you’ll come, Kitty,” Abby chimed in. “Connor and James might hand us off quickly enough but Richard is a wonderful escort. His snores do not override the orchestra nearly as badly as Francis’ do!”

  “Thank you for the complement,” her husband muttered into his wine. “I seem to recall your own being quite overwhelming from time to time.” He winced when she socked his arm pertly.

  “Very well,” Kitty readily agreed. “I haven’t been to the opera in ages. I shall look forward to it!”

  Chapter 16

  …a lucky guess is never merely luck.

  There is always some talent in it.

  - Jane Austen, Emma

  Glenrothes House

  The next afternoon

  “Good afternoon, Evelyn,” Jack said as he strolled into the morning room the next afternoon, seeing the countess curled in a settee with her son. It hadn’t even occurred to him that it might be Kitty reading to her nephew. Strange he felt he could suddenly tell the sisters apart.

  “Haddington,” Eve nodded in surprise, setting aside the book she was reading to Laurie as Jack made formal bow to her and her son. “If you’re looking for Francis, he’s gone down to Parliament to hear the arguments for that new railway extension into town.”

  “Actually, I thought to speak with Kitty, if she is available.”

  “What’s wrong?” she asked, suspicious of his elegant nicety.

  “Nothing at all.” Jack shuffled uncomfortably before dropping down into the chair across from Eve. He propped his elbows on his knees as he leaned forward, toying with the hat he held in his hands.

  Eyebrows raised, Eve handed the book to her son. “Laurie, love, why don’t you run to the kitchens and find a nice sweet for us to take with our tea?”

  “All right, mummy,” the boy piped, and made a bow to Haddington. “Good afternoon, my lord.”

  “Good afternoon, my lord,” Haddington answered solemnly.

  Eve watched her son go then turned to Jack, wondering at this contemplative demeanor she had never before seen on him. “That is perhaps the most serious expression I have ever seen on your face, my lord.”

  “Perhaps you can help me, Evelyn.”

  “Me?”

  “I am concerned about Kitty.”

  “You should refer to her as Mrs. Hayes, you know?”

  “Eve, please.” He rolled his eyes, but Eve was more taken aback by the emotion his tone held.

  “Fine, what can I help you with?”

  “Kitty. She is…” he swallowed deeply. “Her husband beat her.” The statement fell between them like a cannon and Eve could not stop from meeting Jack’s gaze.

  “I wasn’t aware that Kitty had apprised you of the true nature of her marriage,” she said finally. Kitty might have had quite a lot to say about Jack Merrill in the past couple days, but Eve had definitely not gotten the impression she had taken him into her confidence. It had seemed to Eve to be no more than a flirtation – why her sister would find him appealing, Eve couldn’t comprehend – but she had attempted to make sure her sister was sensitive to the fact that the only thing that attracted Haddington was a fortune to be had, or a lady to bed.

  Haddington shook his head. “She has not.”

  “Then how…?”

  “Let’s just say that I worked it out on my own,” he said, then toyed with the hat again. Nervously, Eve might have thought, if she didn’t know him better. “How bad was it?”<
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  One might almost think that he genuinely cared, Eve frowned. “I’m not at liberty to discuss my sis…”

  “How bad?”

  She assessed him for a long moment, noting the tension in both his posture and voice. It bothered him a great deal, it seemed, the thought of Kitty being hurt by her husband. Perhaps he is coming to care for Kitty, Eve thought, then summarily dismissed the idea. This was Jack Merrill after all. Everyone knew he cared little beyond his own interests. Still, the uncertainty nagged. “Her stories would curl your toes, Jack. I cannot provide the details to you. They are not mine to share. If she wants to tell you, she will.”

  “She’s afraid of me.” He confessed his fear in a soft voice.

  “She barely knows you.”

  He shook his head in denial. Somehow, he felt like they knew each other very well. Woman were, in his experience, grasping and manipulative. Never were they forthright and as blatantly honest as Katherine Hayes. Mayhap he didn’t know her well, yet, but he knew well enough that she was worthy of trust and friendship – things that he did not offer freely or without examination.

  Damn, but he liked the lass. It wasn’t often he truly liked anyone, man or woman, but it was much more rare in his world to like a woman. Imagining the hurt she suffered had kept him tossing and turning the night through. If even a portion of what he’d envisioned were true, he’d be hard pressed not to swim the Atlantic himself just to kill the man who had hurt her, maybe ruined her. What kind of life would she have if she shied away from every man who tried to reach out to her? What kind of man would find pleasure in bringing such a spritely lass to her knees?

  It ate at him.

  “Is she at home?”

  Eve just tilted her head and considered him so thoroughly he felt like an insect under the microscope. God help him, he was just starting to fidget when she finally spoke.