Sweet Temptation (22 page)

“Why is that?” asked the Prince, displaying the first interest in a female that Sara had noticed.

“Everyone knows that men are terribly rough creatures. If a lady were to stay in your company for too long, she might begin to imitate your ways.”

“Lady Carlisle already behaves quite differently from when she was in London,” Gavin observed.

“Then I must take her away at once,” laughed Clementina, and led Sara over to a group of young women, surrounded by a larger group of young men.

“I trust you had time to try and persuade your wife to your point of view.”

“You interrupted before I had barely begun.”

“I do apologize, but Lady Carlisle is much in demand. Now if you will excuse me, I must attend to my other guests.”

The Prince left Gavin fuming.

Gavin spent the remainder of the evening trying to separate Sara from the press of people who wanted to dance with her, or meet the intrepid lady who had the courage to travel with the Prince and his army and win his unqualified approval. So great was her popularity that he was unable to speak to Sara alone, until the ball was almost over.

“If I ever get you back to London, I vow I’ll not have to wait the entire evening just to be able to conduct an uninterrupted conversation with my own wife.”

“Everyone is going home now. We can be free of interference.”

“Hell and damnation,” exploded Gavin. “Here comes your guardian angel. I will not be interrupted by him again, or be subjected to his sly insults. Good night, my wife, and maybe some day we will meet without every man in Scotland feeling he has more right to your attention than I do.” He executed a quick, angry bow, and stalked off just as the Prince was coming up.

“Does he wish to go to bed so early?” inquired the Prince.

“He was upset at being interrupted again,” Sara told him, trying to hide her own vexation at the Prince’s constant attention, just when she would have liked to be forgotten for a few hours.

“But I was just coming to offer you both the use of the library. A pity, but there will be another day. Are you tired?”

“Yes. Are you pleased with the bail?”

“I’m afraid the evening has not been entirely successful. The ladies have unbent toward me, but their husbands are as adamant as before about adhering to their allegiance to the German.”

“Maybe they fear Cumberland’s vengeance.”

“They don’t care who sits on the throne as long as their ships continue to sail and their profits continue to grow.” He breathed a sigh. “So different from their highland cousins.” Sara could think of nothing to answer this, and they talked of other things until they parted for the night.

The cold, blustery wind whipped across the green with telling force, but the soldiers gathered in the open seemed oblivious to its icy coldness. The bright sun added to the festivity of the occasion, and the men milled about, too cold to stand still, too active to want to. Charles Stuart was reviewing his troops, and it seemed that all of Glasgow had come out to watch. The Highlanders were determined to make a good impression on the Glaswegian merchant princes, who had so little in common with their blood brothers from the hills.

At some distance away, Gavin sat astride his horse, impatiently awaiting Sara’s arrival. He had not seen her since the night of the Prince’s ball. Again she had refused to grant him any interview, and he had been reduced to the galling position of having to send polite notes through Ian, requesting that she take time from her growing friendship with Clementina Walkinshaw to see him. It was a new and unpleasant experience to have to repeatedly ask for a woman’s time. It was an almost intolerable one when she continued to refuse him.

“Tis good for ye tae be ignored,” Ian had told him. “Yer women should have done it years ago. And they would have, too, if ye weren’t always taking up with females so far below yer station they were overcome tae have an Earl’s son showing them attention. But then, I hear that decent girls’ parents lock them up when they see ye lurking about.”

That was only one of several times that Gavin was sorely tempted to knock his old friend to the ground.

“She’s agreed tae see ye, but only at the review.”

“That’s in the open. I can hardly discuss anything of a personal nature there.”

“She suggested a private interview, but I vetoed it,” Ian said coolly. For a moment, Ian thought Gavin
was
going to knock him down, but he contented himself with grabbing Ian by the throat and almost choking the life out of him.

“You Judas, you sneaking traitor,” Gavin snarled when he decided to allow Ian to breath again. “I thought you were my friend.”

“I am yer friend, at least I used to be,” Ian said loosening his collar, “but I like yer wife better.”

“You’re not supposed to like my wife,” growled Gavin.

“Why not? Ye don’t, and the poor lassie needs some friends in this world.”

“I
do
like her,” Gavin protested, startled at the vehemence in his voice. “After all, I married her,” he said sounding rather shaken.

“Ye will never get anybody to believe it from the way ye act tae her. ‘Tis the reason I insisted she meet ye in public. At least if ye start tae shout, we can have ye back in jail before ye strike her.”

“I’d never hit her!”

“Ye wouldn’t live if ye tried.” The two men’s eyes locked. “Half the army would be ready tae cut ye tae pieces.” Gavin entertained no doubts as to his old friend’s feelings either.

“My wife seems to have acquired quite a new personality since I married her. I suppose I shall have to get to know her again.”

“I doubt ye ever did know her,” said Ian, but his eyes softened. “For years ye have been too angry tae pay attention tae anyone but yourself.”

“I had reason.”

“I suppose you did, but it shouldna be allowed tae destroy the rest o’ yer life.”

Gavin paused. “You wouldn’t understand,” he said, turning away.

“Maybe not, but then I could never understand anyone who would give up.” Gavin’s eyes blazed dangerously, but before he could assault Ian again, Sara came up accompanied by the Prince.

“Lady Carlisle tells me she is unable to review the troops with me, because she has to meet her husband. I suppose you do have a superior claim to her time, but it’s rather hard on the rest of us.” He turned to Ian. “If they fall into their usual imbroglio, bring her to me immediately. They can argue at any time.” Sara looked embarrassed; Gavin held his tongue.

“Why wouldn’t you see me?” he asked, when Ian and the Prince had gone.

“There didn’t seem to be any point.”

“Wasn’t the fact that I’m your husband enough reason?”

“No.”

“You didn’t think that when we were married.”

“That’s true, but I was under several other misapprehensions then. Besides, both you and your father were too busy issuing ultimatums to listen to anything I might have said.”

“Why did you marry me?”

“I wanted to.”

“And now?”

“I don’t know.” Sara wanted to shout that he was a fool if he couldn’t see the truth in her eyes, but she stilled her tongue.

“You’ll have to make up your mind soon. The
citizens’
army can’t last forever.”

“I only agreed to travel with the Prince, because our money was stolen. I couldn’t have had a more perfect escort.”

“Then you will go to Estameer with me tomorrow?”

“You’re still a prisoner. How can you leave?”

“The Prince will let me go, if you ask him.”

Sara was in a panic. She didn’t want to go to Estameer just yet. Here, she was in control of herself and of him. Once she reached Estameer, the reins of power would slip irretrievably into his hands.

She looked at him standing before her, his handsome face troubled, his powerful physical presence enough to tempt any girl to cast all her misgiving to the wind; she knew an overwhelming desire to end this whole charade and go off with him anywhere he wanted. She was tired of traveling like a gypsy, and being regarded by the people in whose homes she was billeted as a scourge upon the land. The warm regard of the prince and his staff was wonderful, but she knew it had to end. Why not end it now?

But would Gavin treat her any differently when they reached Estameer? He was
asking
her now to accompany him, but as recently as the ball, he was giving her orders. She doubted he would be any different at Estameer.

“Why don’t you answer?” Gavin asked, his temper not quite under control.

“There are so many things to consider.”

“There is only one.”

“And what is that?” asked Sara, her own temper rising.

“A wife’s place is at her husband’s side.”

“What should a man offer a woman for her to forsake all to be with him?”

“He offers his name and his protection. Isn’t that enough?”

Sara tried again. “What should a woman ask herself before she agrees to follow a man?”

“I don’t know,” Gavin answered impatiently. “What?”

“She should ask herself if she would be happier with him than someplace else.”

Gavin almost sputtered. He had never thought of that question, much less supplied an answer. “She should go with him because it’s her
duty!”

Sara’s hopes plummeted. He clearly hadn’t learned anything at all. She would be treated exactly as she had been treated before, and she couldn’t go back to that. But if she refused, what would he
do?
What would
she
do if he never came back? She had already made up her mind to ask the Prince to release him. She wanted him with her, but not if he had to be imprisoned to keep him within reach.

“I don’t think I should leave just yet.”

“Why?” he demanded, his jaw hardening alarmingly.

Sara decided to be absolutely frank. “Because you still regard me as a piece of property, and not very valuable property at that. You don’t love me—I don’t hold that against you—but I don’t think you even like me.”

“You won’t go with me because you’re not sure I
like
you, but you’d stay with Ian, poor lovesick puppy, and your blasted interfering Prince.”

“At least they don’t shout at me every time I disagree with them.”

“I’m the only one you disagree with,” Gavin shot back. “You can’t wait to do anything they ask of you!”

Sara decided to change tack again. “Do you realize I have no money, no control over my property, and no right to decide what happens in my own life?”

“None of this has any bearing on whether you go or stay,” said Gavin impatiently. “It’s a wife’s duty to give her life and her property into her husband’s hands, and trust him to know what’s best for her.”

“Without any input from me?”

“My mother never wanted any.”

“Your father left me with servants. You’re trying to turn me into one,” she almost shouted, but she realized he truly didn’t understand.

“But I can’t have my wife wandering all over the country like a gypsy.”

“I thought you didn’t care anything about your family name?”

“Maybe not, but I don’t want to be made a fool of either.”

“Well, you won’t have to worry about that,” stormed Sara. “I’m not going with you.”

“You’ve got to go back with me sometime.”

“The Prince may not want me to.”

“You would stay because of him?”

“No,” Sara answered firmly, looking him squarely in the eyes. “Because of you.”

“Doesn’t what I want matter to you?”

“Of course it does, but what
I
want doesn’t make any difference to you. That’s why I
can’t,
not
won’t,
go with you.

“Please?”

Gavin was even more shocked than Sara when the word came out of his mouth, but he let it stand. It had finally gotten through to him that the marital arrangement he saw as normal was not at all what Sara was willing to accept, and if he was going to have any success in dealing with her, he was going to have to start thinking of things in a whole new way. Frankly, he didn’t know where to begin, but that one word had miraculously transformed Sara’s whole appearance. Obviously, it was a good place to start.

“Do you
really
want me to go with you? I’m not talking about your wife, Lady Carlisle. I mean me, Sara Raymond.”

Gavin knew exactly what she meant. He couldn’t honestly say how he felt, but he answered, “Yes.”

Sara didn’t dare pause to think. She knew Gavin only dimly perceived what she was talking about, and that it might be years before they achieved a true understanding of each other, but she had to start sometime, and she couldn’t remain in Glasgow depending on the Prince forever. “I’ll go.”

The exchange had been so simple, but they both knew these words were more important than the vows they had exchanged before the priest. Their marriage was only just beginning.

“Are you sure?” Ian asked, when Sara told him she was leaving with Gavin. “The Prince warned me no’ tae allow him tae force ye to going with him.”