Amanda Scott (45 page)

Surprised that he seemed willing to accept her judgment, she nearly reminded him tartly that she had just said it was, but something in his expression stopped the words on her tongue, and she took a moment to consider before she spoke. Then, realizing that her annoyance with Maria might have made her speak hastily, she said, “I have no doubt that a confident rider would be safe enough. However, if Maria is frightened and communicates her fear to her horse, she may encounter difficulty. It would be safer, perhaps, if we all dismount and walk down.”

He nodded as if her response accorded with his own judgment of the situation, and she read warm approval in his eyes.

Chelton said, “No reason to coddle Maria, my lord.”

“Ned, if we put her between us, she will be safe enough,” James said. “We won’t always be able to ride three abreast, but I don’t recall anywhere the road won’t take at least two horses. It was constructed for the military, after all.”

Maria said tensely, “I am sorry to be difficult, sir, but I shake just looking down from here. I cannot think how I would manage to ride down.”

“Maggie is right,” Rothwell said calmly. “It will be far safer for us all to walk down, and it will not take much longer. How long till we reach Laggan, sweetheart?”

“From here, several hours,” she said, frowning at the sky. “We shall all be very wet by then.”

“The sky is going to clear,” he said, smiling at her.

She did not believe him, but he was soon proved right, for the clouds parted before they reached the foot of the pass.

Maria expressed her gratitude for their forbearance frequently and at length until her husband said curtly, “Have done, Maria. They’ll think you’re daft.”

She was silent after that, mounting her horse without objection or complaint when the road leveled, and they reached Laggan shortly after noon, where Rothwell decided to push on to Blair Atholl. Maggie knew he was in a hurry to reach London, but to attempt nearly thirty-five Highland miles in a single day she thought utter lunacy. For a wonder, however, Maria said nothing, and although Chelton sighed audibly before he climbed into the coach with her, he too held his peace.

Rothwell and James, at Maggie’s insistence, sat in the coach with her, and when they were settled and the coachmen had found a pace that pleased them and did not jostle their passengers beyond bearing, James chuckled and said, “Kate wanted to bet against our spending a night at Laggan. I’m glad I didn’t take the wager.”

“I half expected you to bring the pretty vixen along with us to London,” Rothwell said.

“I’d have liked nothing better,” James replied frankly, “but she would not like the city, and I thought it would be better to go home with you and make all tidy with Mama before presenting Kate to her.”

Rothwell’s brows rose slightly. “Do you intend to present her then? I should think it would be most unwise.”

Frowning, James said, “Would it not be more unwise
not
to present my intended bride to my mother, Ned?”

Maggie gasped, but to her surprise Rothwell said only, “So the wind sits in that direction, does it?”

“It does. Have you any objection?”

“None that will deter you. I own that she is not the bride I would have chosen for you, but then nothing I have suggested in the past has ever met with your approval, so I daresay that one small point is of no consequence to you at all.”

“None,” James agreed, grinning at him and visibly relaxing.

Maggie said, “Does Kate know you wish to marry her, sir?”

“I have told her so. She does not believe me, however. It seems,” he added, giving her a speaking look, “that certain well-meaning persons have taken it upon themselves to warn her against harboring thoughts of marriage. They have not said, mind you, that the word of an English gentleman ought not to be trusted, which one might expect, given the enmity they feel. They say instead that no English gentleman would consider marrying so far beneath his station.”

“I see that you know I was one who warned her,” Maggie said, “but, for all her willingness to flout rules and conventions, Kate does have a standard of conduct to which she holds true, and I did doubt that you would consider marriage. I doubted, too—for all that she says she will—that she would agree to live with you without benefit of wedlock.”

James grinned again, apparently entirely at his ease now with the conversation. “So she told you she would take me any way I wanted her, did she?”

“Aye, sir, to her shame, she did.”

“Well, when I told her I’d not want a jade who would agree to sleep with a man who was not her proper husband, she boxed my ears quite soundly.”

“She did?” Involuntarily, Maggie glanced at Rothwell, recalling how he reacted to a threat of having his ears boxed.

He smiled lazily back at her. “I’d still not advise you to take up the practice, sweetheart.”

“Faith, sir, do you pretend to read my mind?”

“It is not so difficult, you know. Every thought transfers itself instantly to your bonny eyes.”

Resolutely, she turned back to James. “What did you do then, sir? I hope you did not put her across your knee again.”

He chuckled. “No, I’ve learned my lesson about that sort of thing. I pointed out to her that she is now fully avenged for that earlier encounter and promised to return to her just as soon as I’ve smoothed things over with Mama.”

Rothwell said wryly, “Do you really think you can do that?”

“I mean to try. I’ll even stay at the house if you’ll let me. That’s how determined I am, though I confess I packed seven bottles of MacDrumin’s best whisky to help me recuperate from the diatribes I expect to endure.” He was silent for a moment before he added in the same relaxed tone, “We would like to live at Glen Drumin House, Ned, if you can stomach the notion and MacDrumin’s agreeable. Kate really wouldn’t like London, you see.”

“But won’t you miss the city, James?” Maggie asked, surprised that he could so casually speak of uprooting himself.

“I’m an adaptable fellow,” he said. “Ned calls it being marked by erratic inconstancy, but the fact is, I’m fond of the Highlands, and no one in the glen will give a thought to whether Kate is a suitable wife for me or not. They think I’m some sort of magician just for having tamed her. More to the point is that I feel at home there, and needed, too. I mean to spend a good deal of my time at home with Brockelby, learning as much as I can from him before I return.”

“You are entirely welcome to live at Glen Drumin House,” Rothwell said. “I’ll be glad to have you there in fact, for I think you may be more receptive to some of my ideas for improving things there than MacDrumin is, unless you fancy setting yourself up as a doctor of some sort instead.”

“I don’t, but one never knows when knowledge will be useful, and it seems foolish not to advance my skills when I have the opportunity.” He was silent for a moment, then added, “You know, Ned, I have been so taken up with my own problem with Mama that it occurs to me only now that yours is far more imminent.”

When Rothwell did not reply at once, Maggie glanced at him and then back at James before saying, “Do you mean me, sir? I own, I have been listening to the pair of you talk about London with increasing dread, but I thought it was only that I have no more fondness for the city than Kate does and shall have so much less freedom there. I didn’t think of Lady Rothwell.” She looked at her husband. “She will not be at all pleased by our marriage, will she?”

James choked back a laugh, but Rothwell gave him a quelling look and took Maggie’s hand in his much larger one. He gave it a reassuring squeeze and said quietly, “She will become accustomed to the notion soon enough. She is not a stupid woman.”

“I hope so, sir,” she said, but her thoughts continued to dwell on Lady Rothwell’s likely reaction until she could not think of anything else, and by the time they reached the inn at Blair Atholl, all she could think about was how quickly she could manage to get back to Glen Drumin.

Hoping Rothwell was too concerned about Lydia’s being loose in London to take time to pursue her, Maggie decided to make her escape before they had gone any further and to enlist the aid of the innkeeper, whom, despite his present obsequiousness and earnest assurance that his establishment was wholly at their disposal, she believed to harbor a typical Highland distrust of Englishmen. The notion of returning to Glen Drumin having thus taken hold of her mind, she gave small thought to anything else, taking little part in conversation during the excellent meal that was served to them before they all went up to bed.

Chelton served them, as he had on their previous journey, and Maggie saw that Maria was also in attendance, for once when Chelton entered, he looked annoyed and she heard Maria’s sharp voice from the corridor, evidently taking someone there to task.

Rothwell, looking at Chelton, raised his eyebrows just a little, and the manservant said hastily, “She’s getting above herself again, my lord. Says she don’t like this and don’t like that, but I’ll soon straighten her out.”

Rothwell said gently, “I want to see no more bruises, if you please. Do you take my meaning, Chelton?”

Chelton flushed, nodded, and said, “Yes, your lordship.”

Maggie wanted to cheer. When Chelton had gone away again, she said, “I did not think you had noticed, Edward.”

“I notice many things,” he said. “You look tired, sweetheart. Shall I tell Maria you are ready to go upstairs?”

“Aye, sir,” she said, trying to think how she would manage to slip out of the bedchamber she shared with him to make her appeal to the innkeeper. The feat proved even more difficult than she had imagined. She could not avoid Maria, for if she refused her assistance, the woman would stay in the kitchen, and she could not do a thing while Maria was with her. Nor, she discovered, could she leave the room after Maria was dismissed for fear of encountering Rothwell on his way up to bed. She would have to wait until he slept. She only hoped she would be able to stay awake until then.

When the earl came into the room a short while later, he seemed tired, too, and even in the dim light cast by the fire and a few candles, he looked pale and lacked his usual energy.

She watched from the bed while Chelton helped him undress, and when the man had taken his departure and Rothwell moved slowly to snuff the candles, she said, “You look tired, sir.”

“It has been a long day, has it not?” he said, moving toward the bed with the firelight behind him. His voice sounded strained, and she wished she could read his expression.

She wondered if he had sensed her feelings, if perhaps he had somehow guessed she meant to leave him. But when he lay back against his pillow without so much as kissing her good-night, she remembered his odd illnesses during their previous journey. Her compassion was stirred. “Are you feeling sick again, Edward?”

He sighed. “I own, sweetheart, the food at your Scottish inns does not seem to sit well with me, but my stepmother would no doubt say I was just feeling bilious and recommend a dose of salts or something equally unpleasant.”

“It does seem odd that only you should be affected,” she said. “We have all eaten much the same things, after all.”

“One frequently finds bad food while traveling, however. No doubt I have simply been more unlucky than the rest of you.”

“Shall I call for someone to fetch James?”

“No, no,” he said. “There is no cause to disturb him. A little sleep and I will recover.”

The answer was reassuring, particularly since she did not think she could leave him if he were ill. She realized that she did not really want to leave him at all, that she would much rather he return to Glen Drumin with her and leave James to look after Lydia in London. Sighing at the thought, she snuggled against him, listening for the even breathing that would tell her he had fallen asleep. Perhaps, she thought, if she were to leave him a careful explanation of her reluctance to face not only the dowager but the host of others in London who would despise her merely for being Scottish, he would understand at least why she had turned back, and would not be too angry with her.

Thoughts chased each other through her mind while she tried to decide what was best to do, until she suddenly realized that although his breathing was a bit more ragged than was normal, it had altered to the steady rhythm of a sleeping man. Slowly she inched her way to the edge of the bed and sat up, sliding till her toes touched the cold floor. Then, moving as silently as she could, she found clothing and dressed herself by what remained of the firelight and, carrying her shoes, tiptoed toward the door.

“Maggie, don’t go.”

His voice was low, but it stopped her in her tracks. She turned. “I must, Edward. London is no place for me.”

“Your place is with me, little wife.”

“Your stepmother will say that you were trapped into an unsuitable marriage, and she will be right.”

He murmured, “I did not know you were a coward, sweetheart.”

She stiffened, but honesty compelled her to admit that he was right to name her so. Relaxing, she said, “Very well then, I will go with you, but I fear we will both be sorry.”

He sat upright in the bed, holding out his arms. “Come here, sweetheart, and I will show you—” Breaking off with a sharp cry, he doubled over and gasped, “Get James. Hurry!”

T
ERRIFIED, MAGGIE FLEW TO
the next room, shrieking James’s name as she flung open his door. He wakened at once and quickly followed her back to Rothwell with his satchel in hand. When he saw what condition the earl was in, he ordered Maggie sharply to send for Chelton and to rouse someone to produce chamomile tea.

“Then take yourself off,” he added before she was out the door again. “You cannot help here.”

Her terror nearly closed her throat, but she forced herself to speak. “I’m staying, James.”

“No, you are not,” he said, glancing at her impatiently. His expression changed then, and he said more gently, “He is not going to die, Maggie. I won’t let him. Now go. Ned won’t want you here, for I’m going to dose him with ipecac as before, and if that don’t answer the purpose straightaway, I mean to give him a good dose of rhubarb. I promise you, when their power takes hold of him, he won’t want you around. Tell Chelton to bring a basin, several in fact, for I hope the one that is here now will need to be emptied by the time he gets here.”