Page 9 of Grace in Glasgow (Seduced in Scotland #3)

“Well, of course. Who doesn’t? It’s well-spoken of in Glencoe, that he’s the most handsome man in the Highlands, although I’m not a fan of beards.”

“Yes, the beard does hide a bit of his face,” Aunt Belle said. “But we cannot fault him for it.”

Grace wholeheartedly disagreed. Dr. Hall’s neatly trimmed beard was rather distinguished. The sharp angle of it, especially beneath his chin seemed to accentuate a jawline that anyone might find attractive.

If they thought of the doctor in such a way, which thankfully, Grace did not. But it was surprising to hear that he had been engaged.

“Dr. Hall’s aunt, Mrs. Fletcher, once told me that her nephew was incapable of being in a relationship,” Grace said.

It was a fact that Grace had believed wholeheartedly.

Heck, it was the entire reason why she had sought him out as a replacement to her tenure with Dr. Barkley, because he viewed the entire idea of romantic coupling as a symptom of society, a manifestation of pack living.

Or at least, he was supposed to. He was supposed to be incapable of romantic relationships, like she was.

It’s what had solidified her decision to study beneath him.

This, however, changed everything.

“Well, now, why would Mrs. Fletcher say that?” Arabella asked.

Aunt Belle shrugged.

“I do not know. Perhaps she believed that being thrown over broke her nephew’s heart.”

Grace’s brow creased. Dr. Hall had never once acted like a man with a broken heart, but that didn’t matter. She wanted to know about this being thrown over business.

“Well?” she asked. “What happened?”

Aunt Belle, who always enjoyed a little flair, peeked to her left and then her right, as if a dozen or so gossip columnists were standing just behind her. Grace managed not to roll her eyes, and instead inched closer, interested to hear what she had to say.

“It was well known that Dr. Hall was engaged this time last year, to one Miss Catriona Ward, daughter of Douglas Ward. All of Glasgow had been invited to the wedding.”

“Wait, Sir Douglas Ward?” Grace blurted out. “The surgeon?”

“Who is he?” Arabella piped up. “I’ve never heard of him.”

“He’s a brilliant man. Absolutely brilliant. You know, it was he who discovered the difference between sensory nerves and motor nerves in the spinal cord. There’s even a condition named after him, when there’s a unilateral idiopathic paralysis of facial muscles due to a lesion of the facial nerve.”

Arabella blinked, then faced Belle.

“Who is he?” she asked again.

“A very well to do member of Glasgow society.” Arabella bobbed her head up and down.

“He was knighted for his advances in medicine and as he only had one child, a daughter, he made sure to have her educated far beyond your average subjects. To be sure, she was just as brilliant as her father. There was talk of sending her to Andersen’s University because she supposedly possessed the same mind as her father and with his backing, it would have happened. ”

Grace frowned, unsure she wished to hear the rest of the story all of a sudden.

“What happened?”

“Well, she and Dr. Hall had been acquainted for several years, as Dr. Hall was once a student of Dr. Ward. They were engaged after a lengthy courtship and all seemed well and good, until…”

Arabella leaned forward.

“Until what?”

Aunt Belle’s face scrunched to the side as she shook her head.

“It really is a bitter thing, but on the morning of the wedding, while everyone was waiting inside the church, including Dr. Hall, it was discovered that Miss Ward had disappeared.”

“Disappeared?”

“Was she kidnapped?”

“Or run away?”

“The latter, I’m afraid. It turns out that she had been carrying on with an Englishman, a peer she had met while on holiday in Cornwall the year before. Supposedly he had shown up the night before the wedding and they ran away, never to be seen or heard from again.”

“Oh, my, that’s awful,” Arabella said. “What a vicious thing to do.”

But Grace could not think of anything to say. It truly was a vile thing to happen to someone, but then she remembered her own dalliance, two years prior, that had ruined a near marriage.

It wasn’t as if she had ever intended to do what she did.

Grace loathed Lord Bartley and had been quite vocal about her dislike after he had ridiculed her once for reading about sciences when the female brain was too delicate an organ for such a task.

He had called her efforts to study Sisyphean, and what’s worse, he had proposed to Grace’s dearest friend, Lady Natalie Hawkins, who had been less than enthusiastic about the match, but had accepted due to pressures from her grandparents, the Duke and Duchess of Spotsmore.

“You cannot marry him. He is a toad,” Grace recalled saying to Natalie only a week before that fateful night that had changed the course of her and her sisters’ lives forever. “He’s awful.”

“I don’t have much of a choice, Grace. Grandpapa has already decided it and my grandmama is picking out veils.

” Natalie had dabbed a kerchief to her eye.

“Perhaps it will not be so terrible. He does prefer the country and we’ve discussed at length my love for the city.

Perhaps we will simply live separately.”

“There must be something that can be done.”

“Short of publicly disparaging me, I don’t see any way around it.”

Grace shook her head, trying to dispel the memory from her mind. Yes. She knew the wreckage of a marriage undone and while she was sympathetic to Dr. Hall, a small part of her wondered if perhaps it had been for the best. If the lady didn’t want to marry him, surely he was better off without her.

Wasn’t he?

“Are you all right, my dear?” Aunt Belle asked, causing Grace to look up. Her aunt was watching her with a thoughtful expression.

“Yes, of course. I just… That’s a very unfortunate thing to have happened to Dr. Hall.”

“Isn’t it?”

“Yes, but then there is the philosophy that everything happens for a reason,” Belle continued. “Some things are better left unsaid and some things are better left undone. Isn’t that right, my dear?”

Grace nodded, though she had the strangest feeling that Aunt Belle was trying to tell her something specific.

“Well, come, let’s not discuss the misfortunes of a good man,” Arabella said, changing the subject. “Let’s instead talk about the ball being held by the Viscount of Collimore. I’ve heard they throw the most lavish of parties.”

“That is true, although the viscountess can be rather dated in her dresses. I believe she found a particular style that complemented her form and has refused to change it for some thirty years,” Belle said.

“Now, I prefer these new styles. Wider skirts lend to the appearance of a smaller waist.” She winked. “Even when that’s not the case.”

Grace smiled, allowing her spirits to lift as the topic changed from Dr. Hall to the opera that would be in town the following month.

Musicals were one of Grace’s most pleasing pleasures and while she wasn’t at all talented at any instrument, she did enjoy listening to them.

Thus, she was quite excited to learn that she would be attending the opera.

“In the meantime, Grace will start her formal training at the start of next week,” Belle said, once more dictating the conversation. “And while I know it will take several months, I wanted to present you with something.”

Belle raised one of her bejeweled wrists to signal for Andrews to come forward. Removing a small cream-colored velvet pouch from his pocket, he presented it to Belle.

“My lady.”

“Thank you, Andrews,” she said, picking it up.

“Now my parents weren’t very good at giving presents and so your grandmother and I were raised outside the idea.

However, as I grew older, I’ve come to realize that giving gifts is one of my favorite activities.

So, know that this is just as much a pleasure for me as it is for you. ”

Aunt Belle handed Grace the small bag. For a moment, she worried that it might be some sort of jewelry as Belle was known to have an extensive collection and Grace wouldn’t be able to enjoy it as she had been told by Dr. Hall that she wasn’t to wear any adornments.

Turning the bag upside down, a small, golden tube fell into her hand.

It was a pendant of sorts, though of what, Grace couldn’t decipher.

Thin, shallow marks had been carved into the sides, creating a delicate, cross stitch sort of pattern.

“It’s lovely,” she said, unsure.

“My dear, open it.”

Grace glanced up, confused, before bringing her other hand toward it. Twisting and pulling, she was met with little resistance as the top popped off to reveal a pen.

“It’s a propeller pencil. One I’m sure you’ll need for your notes.”

Grace’s mouth fell open at the thoughtful gift. It was exactly what she needed and it would keep her from losing her pencils. Glancing up, she had to blink back the tears, as she was touched. Aunt Belle was truly supportive of her choice.

Standing, she moved around the corner of the table and bent down to hug her aunt.

“Thank you, so very much.”

“Oh, well then.” Belle patted her uncomfortably on the shoulder. “Come now, there’s no need for that.”

“There is though,” Grace said, pulling back. “I’m so very grateful for you, Aunt Belle. I think I don’t deserve you, but I’m so happy I have you.”

The hint of a sparkle shone in the elderly woman’s eyes as she blinked several times.

“Stop that, my dear. There’s no need for such a display of emotion. You may keep it on that pretty chain Miss Fletcher gifted to you before you left Glencoe.”

Grace blinked as her hand rose to her clavicle. The elegant, silver chain that Mrs. Fletcher had given her was not visible, for she wore it beneath the shirt of her dress, but she had not taken it off since she received it.

“You know about that?”

“My dear, I know everything. Now. When shall we go to the modiste?”

Grace let out a watery laugh and sat back down, happy to discuss whatever trivial topics Belle had to speak of and she only let her mind wander back to Dr. Hall after a full ten minutes of discussing fabric.

Surely she would not ask him about his previous relationship, but a part of her was suddenly very interested in his past.

Very interested indeed.