Page 25 of A Bride for the Wicked Highlander (Daring a Highland Laird #2)
Y ou can’t give in, Madeleine, she told herself sternly, forcing herself to look away from the glistening skin between the sides of his collar, forcing herself not to think of running her hands through that windswept hair or running to greet him, perhaps kissing him with all the relief of seeing him again.
He would only disappear again if she did.
“Ryder said ye were out pickin’ mushrooms by the old gatehouse,” Oscar said, grinning as if he’d done nothing wrong.
“ Counting mushrooms,” Maddie corrected. “And memorizing their appearance. I would tell you all about it, but I’m not sure if you deserve that.”
Betty-Ann chuckled. “Och, m’lady, nay one deserves that.”
“Betty-Ann, I expect ye’re needed elsewhere,” Oscar said briskly, flashing her a pointed look. “And dinnae speak of me wife’s mushrooms so derisively. I am looking forward to hearing all about them.”
He frowned, as if realizing that was possibly one of the most ridiculous things he would ever say.
But Maddie was pleased to hear it, despite the grudge she was holding.
Indeed, that was the last time she would ever read out letters to Betty-Ann, if she couldn’t be supportive of her Lady’s interests.
Not everyone sees the beauty in things like you do, she had to remind herself. After all, she had not bothered to ask Betty-Ann what her interests were. So, perhaps there was room for some grace.
“Och, ye’re a grand pair,” Betty-Ann said, wandering back toward the castle. “An odd pair, but a grand pair.”
Oscar watched her depart with a raised eyebrow. “I’ll never understand why I keep her workin’ here.”
Maddie stifled the laugh that tried to escape and held up the two letters that had been sent to him.
“You must have known to come back on an important morning,” she said, a little crisply.
“Clan MacPhee accepted the peace treaty, and the new Laird has sent an apology, along with his approval for you to have Lady Isle back. I suspect he is keen to avoid a war marking his inauguration.”
“May I see that?” he asked, wonder in his eyes.
She passed the two missives to him, reciting the description of common earthballs and fly agarics in her mind as he read.
She wouldn’t let herself show any warmth, despite the relief flooding her chest that he’d come back and, by some miracle, had sought her out immediately.
With a grin upon his face, too, to add insult to injury.
“What’s the importance of that island?” she asked, feigning indifference.
He smiled. “It’ll keep our coastal territories safe from pirates.”
“Excuse me?” she blurted out, her cool facade shattering. “Pirates? Where?”
He quirked an amused eyebrow. “In the sea, obviously.”
She had forgotten that his territories extended to the coast, her face warming with embarrassment.
“What’s in that letter?” he asked, nodding to the one in Maddie’s hand.
“It’s from the gardener at Horndean, lamenting my permanent absence from his rose bushes and flower beds,” she replied, a taunt in her voice. Anything to smother her embarrassment. “He misses me terribly.”
Something dark flashed in his gray eyes for a moment, his hand beginning to curl, crushing the edges of the peace treaty. A second later, he took a deep breath and his hand relaxed, a wry smirk lifting one corner of his oh-so annoyingly kissable lips.
“Very amusin’,” he said. “Is it from that other friend of yers? I cannae remember her name, but I do remember her turnin’ red as a raspberry when she allowed me to kiss her hand.”
Maddie blinked at him, cursing his ability to parry and riposte so well.
“My parents are returning to London,” she said drily.
“So, it has been a very successful morning for us both. Although, I doubt it will actually be the last I hear from them; they do so like to have the final word. It was a pity you weren’t here to receive the news as it arrived. ”
“Aye, well, ye’ll cease poutin’ them fine lips of yers when ye hear the other news,” he said, chuckling in the back of his throat.
She battled a smirk, choosing to fold her arms across her chest and say nothing. She couldn’t trust that he wouldn’t hear the amusement in her voice if she spoke, for she was pouting a little bit. Besides, it wasn’t as if he hadn’t told her that he was leaving yesterday; he just hadn’t elaborated.
“I have a surprise for ye,” he said, offering out his hand. “He’s waitin’ for ye in what will be yer personal study.”
She hesitated, frowning up at him. “ He ?”
“Aye, and he’s traveled through the night with me, so be gentle with him,” Oscar replied, as he reached down and grabbed her by the hand, when she wouldn’t give it willingly. “Dinnae be askin’ a thousand questions all at once. Ye can do that tomorrow.”
Bewildered, she allowed him to lead her back into the castle. There was a change in him this morning, his demeanor almost giddy. As if he was as excited about the surprise as she was supposed to be.
They walked through the labyrinth of hallways at a brisk pace, while Oscar fielded any further questions about what was waiting for her.
“You must give me some idea!” she urged. “I don’t know that I’m keen on surprises; I’ve only experienced the bad kind before.”
He shook his head. “Ye’ll like this one.”
“How can ye be certain?”
He glanced at her, his eyes a little softer. “Because I listen, lass. I ken what stirs that heart of yers.”
Her mischievous heart did stir, feeling his strong hand gripping hers, remembering what his talented fingers were capable of doing.
She thought of that chair, how she had strained to be able to touch him, overcome with pleasure.
She thought of burning kisses, and of dreams where there were no rules between them, no promises to be broken, only fulfilled.
An awful thought dawned on her. Surely, he wasn’t passing that duty to someone else?
He brought her to a halt outside a curved door, studded with black iron squares, the wood smelling faintly of fresh varnish. With that same barely restrained giddiness, he turned the handle and opened the door wide.
Inside, perched uncomfortably on a high-backed chair, bleary-eyed and so windswept that his sandy-colored hair was sticking up at every angle, was a man of forty or so. Those tired eyes peered out from behind spectacles, a thin mouth stretching into a weary smile as he raised a hand in greeting.
“Good morning, my lady,” he said, his accent soft and familiar. A lilt of Scottish rather than a full brogue.
She frowned from him to Oscar. “Who is he?”
“Yer tutor, Mr. Albert Fallow,” Oscar replied, smiling so wide that his eyes seemed alight. “I brought him here from Edinburgh University. I hear St. Andrews isnae what it once was, anyway. Mr. Fallow tells me they’re leavin’ that place in their droves now the money is goin’ elsewhere.”
Maddie stared at her husband in utter silence, forgetting her manners, forgetting how to think, forgetting everything. All she saw was his smile and that light of excitement in his eyes, eager to see how she might take her gift.
It was the most incredible thing that anyone had ever done for her, and though she would have liked to actually attend a university, to prove that she could, this didn’t feel like a consolation. It felt like what it was: the greatest gift imaginable.
“It is a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Fallow,” she croaked, remembering her manners at last. “I... look forward to learning everything you have to teach me.”
The tutor rose and bowed his head, his fair hair flecked with streaks of white. “As I look forward to teachin’ you, my lady. Your husband has told me a great deal about your interests and your sharp mind. I have nay doubt you’ll be an excellent student over the next two years.”
“Even though I’m a woman?” she said, testing him. She didn’t want a tutor who was going to look down on her for the duration of her education, so she had to be sure.
Mr. Fallow laughed, his kindly eyes twinkling behind the round spectacles.
“I have two daughters, my lady. Both are more intelligent and more capable than I have ever been. My wife, too. Indeed, it is because I have been so outspoken on the matter of women in education that I find myself able to tutor you.”
“What do you mean?” she asked.
“The institutions dinnae like it much when you suggest that ladies should be given the same education as the gentlemen,” the man replied with a shrug. “And when you’re nae too old and too withered for new ideas, they suddenly find they have nay need of you.”
“Oh...”
Evidently, they were rather alike, for it seemed that he had been kicked out of Edinburgh University too.
Oscar did this for me. That is why he left yesterday.
A prickle of guilt caught her in the ribs, thinking of how irritated she had been. She’d muttered such rude things under her breath when, all the while, he had been riding to Edinburgh to bring this remarkable gift of education back to her, to fulfil his promise.
Does that mean...?
A pleasant warmth spread across her chest, rising up her throat and into her cheeks. After all, he’d just fulfilled his side of her demand, which meant...
Oh goodness.
After this glorious gift, she knew she might be ready to beg, whether it was dangerous or not.