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Not only must she take care, Kit would have to be put on his guard as well. Perhaps she should just agree to marry him. It would keep both of them safe from fortune hunters, but would it provide the life she needed?

Kit glanced at his pocket watch for the tenth time in as many minutes.

The hands still hadn’t moved much. It was almost four o’clock.

He glanced out at the hall of Lord Titus and Lady Theo’s house.

A half hour ago, Kit had to send the carriage back to the stable.

There would be no excursion to-day. Where the deuce had the ladies gone? They should have been back hours ago.

“Featherton, will you stop pacing?”

Rather than leave the men to their own devices, Lord Titus had remained with them even as he worked on a paper he was preparing .

“I had an outing planned. The ladies should have been back before now. You don’t think anything has happened, do you?”

“We don’t have a fashionable hour to promenade. Morning visits make up for it.”

Kit wished he’d known that before. They’d have to prepare for the evening’s entertainment soon. A carriage came to a stop in front of the house. Thank God, they were back.

He strode to the front door intending to escort Mary up the stairs, when she dashed past him without saying a word. Was she avoiding him?

“I love you, Gervais, but not now,” Caro said as Huntley reached out to kiss her. Anna and Phoebe rushed past as well.

Kit stared after them. “What is going on?”

“I wish I knew,” Huntley responded, gazing up the staircase.

Lady Theo paused, her hand on the newel post as she mounted the curtail step. “Their first morning visits.”

“As long as I’m not at fault, I don’t care what it is.” Rutherford joined Kit and the others. “We’ll find out soon.”

“Be sure to tell me when you do. I have the distinct feeling Mary will not wish to speak of it.” Only because they were neither married nor betrothed. Even more reason to forge ahead.

“Mama, I don’t want to be here.” Finella fiddled with the fringe on her shawl. “I want to come out with Cait, in two years.”

“If you don’t stop, you’ll ruin that shawl.

” Morna lightly slapped her daughter’s hand away from the fringe.

She hated having to pretend she wanted her daughter to marry so young rather than waiting to come out with her closest friend.

Yet if Fee was to have a better life than Morna’s had been, it meant getting her daughter married to a gentleman who could protect her.

The only good thing old MacDiarmid—Morna had never thought of her late husband by any other name—had done was die before he could arrange a match with one of his friends.

Unfortunately, her own father had been talking about husbands for his granddaughter, and, until her son Cormac was of age, Father was Fee’s guardian.

Regrettably, her son had another year before he attained one and twenty.

Even then, Morna’s father could cause trouble and probably would.

“You know Cormac has said he’ll choose a bride as soon as he attains his majority.

You’ll be much happier living in your own home after that. ”

“I suppose so.” Fee’s words did not match her woebegone face.

“Fee, my heart. I want you to be able to fall in love. Yet, if we wait much longer, that choice could be taken from you.” Morna’s throat closed and she turned away, not wanting her daughter to see her tears.

If only she’d been allowed to wed the man she loved.

How different her life would have been. She fought back her anguish.

The most important thing now was to take care of Fee. Thank God Father wasn’t in Edinburgh.

The outer door to the town house they had leased for the Season opened and closed. Booted feet pounded on the stairs, then her parlor door burst open. “Mother”—Cormac strode into the room with all the vigor of his youth—“did ye go on yer morning visits to-day?”

“Aye, we did.” He smiled, and for a moment she thought she was looking at Simon. “Don’t stand there grinning like a loon. Why do you ask?”

“There is a Sassenach lady staying with Lady Theo. Have ye met her?”

“Aye,” Morna said slowly.

“Is she as pretty as they’re all saying she is?”

“I don’t know as I’d—”

“Oh aye, Cormac,” Fee interrupted, “she is. All the London ladies are beautiful, and dressed so fine.”

“Well then”—he tapped the end of his sister’s nose as he had since she was a babe—“I’ll give you the pleasure of introducing me.” He glanced around as if he would share a great secret, then said, “And I’ll introduce you to a fine London gentleman looking for a wife.”

Fee’s eyes grew round. At least the girl wasn’t immune to men. “Is he handsome?”

“Better looking than my horse, and you know how beautiful Ivarr is.”

She punched her brother’s arm. “And does he have a long blond tail?”

Cormac coughed. “No, lass, ye’d be nay wanting a devil.”

“That’s enough foolishness from both of you. Cormac, you know better than to speak in such a brogue here.”

He gave Morna a wicked smirk, so like his father’s used to be. “Perhaps the English lady will like it.”

The devil. She cast her eyes at the ceiling. “It’s past time to eat our dinner and dress for the ball. I understand both the lady and gentleman will be there.”

Glasgow, Scotland

Lord Simon Cavendish stepped gingerly down the gangway onto the dock. His body swayed as if it were still out at sea. It would most likely take a few days for the feeling to go away. It was the same each time he spent more than a week onboard. “Where are we spending the night?”

“The Tontine Hotel, my lord,” his valet, Hailing, answered. “Mr. Oxley’s gone to get a hackney, and I’ve arranged a cart for the trunks.”

Simon nodded. His groom would also arrange for a strong pair of horses.

It had been over sixteen years since Simon had set foot in this country.

Sixteen years since he vowed never to return.

Yet the fact that he had two children—if the second lived—and knew them not, had eaten at him every day of each month, of each year.

And Morna. Holy God, he’d tried to stay away from her, but after the last time, when she’d caught with child again, he knew he couldn’t continue to give her children to be raised by that bastard MacDiarmid.

Despite her protestations of loving only him, she had not met him the night he sailed.

How young and stupid they’d been to think they could trick her father and old MacDiarmid.

If only they’d run away, or said their vows in a church instead of an inn.

Simon gave a harsh laugh. If only he’d not been too noble to hold her to hastily made promises, or so na?ve he didn’t know a lie when he heard one.

It wasn’t until long after he’d left that he discovered that under Scottish law they’d been legally married. The question now was, had she known?

It mattered not. She’d rejected him and could go to hell. He was here to claim his children, and no one would stand in his way.

“Did you say something, my lord?”

“No, Hailing. I was just thinking how odd it was for a man who hates sailing to own a shipping line.”

“You’ve made a good job of it though, my lord.”

“That I have.” Simon wondered if his son would like to take over the business in a few years.

He was relaxing with a glass of smooth Scotch whisky in his hotel room, when Oxley knocked on the door and entered.

“My lord, I’ve hired a yellow bounder for the journey to Edinburgh.

It won’t be comfortable, but it will get us there almost as fast as the mail.

The company sent word to have horses ready for the changes. We’ll be but one night on the road.”

“Does that include our little detour?”

“Yes, my lord.”

“Well done, Oxley.”

“I’m right glad to be home. Almost there, in any event.”

Simon fought the urge to run a hand over his face. “As am I. I’d forgotten how much I missed it.”

“When do we leave for England, my lord?”

“As soon as I finish my business. I’ll not stay a moment longer. The ship should be waiting in the Edinburgh harbor to take us to Hull when we arrive.”

True to the coaching company’s promise, two days later, as dusk was beginning to fall, they arrived on the outskirts of Edinburgh. He took out the most recent letter he’d received from his sister before his departure. “Tell the driver we’re going to Charlotte Square. Wherever the hell that is.”

He hoped Theo was home, and trusted that she’d be so happy to see her youngest brother she’d forgive him for failing to tell her he was arriving. Nevertheless, she’d know what was going on and where he could find Morna and their children. And this time, he’d take what was his.