Page 60 of Kilgannon #1

“Kilgannon, Lady Kilgannon, may I present Miss Buchanan?” he asked smoothly, and I breathed again. How could I have forgotten Robert’s impeccable manners? He gave his companion a quiet smile. The young woman—a girl, really—looked confused.

“Lady Kilgannon was formerly Miss Mary Lowell,” Rowena said, and I saw the recognition register in Miss Buchanan’s eyes.

Slim and dark, she was lovely and obviously very taken with Robert, for she looked to him for guidance with each remark.

She glanced at him now before making a pretty curtsy to us.

Alex bowed in return and I nodded my head.

“Miss Buchanan, it is a pleasure to meet ye,” Alex said with a smile, his voice so calm that I gave him a sharp glance, but his expression gave nothing away.

I smiled at her the best I could, but I’m sure it was only a hideous caricature of a welcome.

Next to her Robert stood immobile, watching me. I did not look at him.

“Robert,” Alex said quietly, extending his hand. “How are ye?” As Robert clasped Alex’s hand their eyes met for a long moment, then Alex laughed and released Robert’s hand. “We were rivals for my wife’s attentions, Miss Buchanan,” he said cheerfully. “It seems a long time ago.”

Edmund Bartlett snickered and Rowena watched attentively, but Robert smiled placidly and nodded. “Yes, it does,” he said, and turned to me. “Mary,” he said. “How are you?”

“I am well, thank you, Robert,” I said, my voice sounding strained. “And your mother? ”

To my surprise Robert laughed. My mother sends her best.” He looked from me to Alex. “What brings you to London?”

Alex nodded at me. “Mary wanted a visit with her aunt and uncle. Ye ken how fond she is of them and they of her. And it’s been a bit since we’ve been here.”

“It’s a different place than it was, Alex,” Robert said.

“Lord Campbell has done quite well with the new regime,” Edmund said, and smiled, looking to see both men’s reaction. Robert had the grace to look embarrassed. Alex laughed.

“Are ye hoping for a sword fight in the middle of yer parents’party, Bartlett?” Alex asked lightly. “If so, ye’ll be disappointed. I only wish Robert Campbell well, and there’s naught to report in that, is there?” Edmund tilted his head to study Alex, then chuckled and batted Alex’s shoulder.

“Kilgannon,” Edmund began, but Alex interrupted him.

“Good for ye,” he said to Robert. “I’m glad some Scots are prospering in these times. And I canna say I’m surprised.” Robert flushed but smiled.

“Doesn’t Lady Kilgannon look well?” Rowena asked Robert.

Robert met my eyes briefly. “Lady Kilgannon,” he said to Rowena, “looks beautiful. Lady Kilgannon has always looked beautiful. Some things don’t change.” He smiled at Rowena and turned to Alex. “And how are you, Alex?”

Alex pulled me to him. “Grand,” he said. “It’s been a fine year and we’re looking forward to a hundred more together.”

“Glad to hear it,” Robert said smoothly. “But, Alex, be careful while you’re here. No doubt you’ve heard of the problems down at the docks. I assume you came on one of your ships?”

Alex nodded. “Yer talking about the effigy burnings? I’ve heard some of it.” Robert nodded and Alex turned to me. “There have been burnings of figures meant to represent James Stewart, Mary,” he said, unruffled. I had heard nothing of the burnings.

Edmund Bartlett nodded. “Several,” he said.

“And some Scots have been attacked,” Robert said. “Mind your back while you’re here. Will you stay long?”

Alex’s eyes narrowed slightly. “As long as my wife wishes. I thank ye for the warning.” Robert nodded and Edmund’s mother joined us then, mercifully interrupting the conversation.

That night as we prepared for bed I asked Alex if it bothered him seeing Robert again. He shook his head. “No, lass, I thought we might see him. Ye seemed taken aback, though.”

“It was awkward. I thought he might be angry.”

“Why should he be? He had his chance, Mary Rose. It’s his own fault yer not with him now.” He climbed into bed and blew out the candle. “His Miss Buchanan looks a bit like ye.”

“Did you think so?” I asked as I joined him, feeling his naked warmth. I nestled close to him.

He put a hand on my waist and pulled me closer.

“Aye. A poor man’s Mary Lowell,” he said, and kissed my shoulder as his hands roamed over me.

I turned to meet his caresses and forgot all about Robert.

His lovemaking that night was impassioned and fierce, and I met him in kind.

Afterward, when we lay in quiet satiation, he kissed my shoulder again.

“Yer mine, Mary Rose,” he said. “Robert Campbell was a fool and he kens it. Tell me ye love me, lass.”

“I love you, Alex,” I said as he pulled me to him.

“Mine,” he said to the dark.

We had come to London for three reasons: to see my family, a doctor, and Alex’s shipping agent.

The doctor, one of Dr. Sutter’s colleagues, had examined me and pronounced me fit, saying he’d found nothing to prevent me from carrying a child.

He had tried to be very tactful, suggesting that we refrain from activity, as he expressed it, for three months.

Alex had been delighted at the lack of long-range problems but sighed over the timing.

Three months was a long time, I’d thought as I watched my husband.

I wondered if I could endure it. I would have to be inventive.

Alex’s news was not so pleasing. William Burton had confirmed what I suspected and had given Alex letters from Malcolm and the captain of the Diana that clearly showed their plot.

Alex read them over and over, as though they would say something different if he studied them often enough.

Both the captain and the Diana were in the Caribbean now but were expected to return sometime in the autumn.

Alex and Angus discussed it at length, while Matthew and I avoided the subject and talked mostly about his first term at university.

I knew Angus’s views, which mirrored mine, but Alex would not talk about it to me.

All he would say was that he was going to see Malcolm after the Games. But he brooded.

I had come to terms with what I suspected Malcolm of doing long ago, and my contempt for him could grow no larger, but I felt no satisfaction at having been right all along.

What Alex felt about having the written proof of his brother’s perfidious behavior he never said, and I did not press him, content to have the mysteries that had haunted us for two years solved.

But I was saddened, for the flashes of what Malcolm could have been haunted me.

I remembered happy evenings at Kilgannon when we were all together, and I sighed.

The night we had pored over Alex’s sketches had been one of my favorite memories, now tainted by what came after.

What must Alex be feeling, I wondered, if I, who had known Malcolm for such a short time, was saddened and bereft?

How sad to lose your brother and have him still be alive.

Queen Anne’s condition worsened and London seethed with apprehension.

When I suggested that I needed to shop for gifts for the boys and Ellen and to bring back goods for Kilgannon, I was met with cries of protest from Louisa and Randolph.

Angus agreed with them, but I was firm that I could not return home empty-handed.

I argued that they’d exaggerated the dangers, that an Englishwoman with a reasonable escort could be safe on the streets of London.

Louisa reluctantly admitted that she’d not curtailed her activities, and after much discussion, during which Alex sat quietly watching us, it was at last agreed that we would go shopping—Alex, Angus, Matthew, me, and two of Randolph’s footmen. I thought it ridiculous.

The day was bright and we did well, buying the sweets and tea and other foods that Mrs. M.

had requested from London and gifts for the boys.

I bought Ellen perfume. Pleased with my purchases, I told the five men who had trailed behind me through the shops that their ordeal was over.

Before returning to Louisa’s we stopped at the Mary Rose to drop off my bundles and to check on the ship.

All was well on board, but the men were nervous and told of remarks that been thrown at them.

The Scots were too visible, it was decided, and with the agitation in London it seemed wiser to move her across the river.

Calum, Angus, and Alex talked of where we’d find the Mary Rose berthed, then Calum, with a lighter expression, told us that a runner had come just before we did, looking for Alex.

The MacDonald, it seemed, was in London and had just discovered we were. He asked Alex to go to a nearby inn.

“The runner said Donald asks ye to come immediately when ye get the message, for he’s leaving in a few hours. Apparently they tried to find ye at Lord Randolph’s and were told ye were coming here. The inn is no’far, Alex,” Calum said. “The lad said ye could walk it. Do ye ken where it is?”

Alex nodded. “Have ye seen MacDonald’s men or his ships?

” Calum shook his head and Alex looked over the river behind us.

“Wonder what he’s doing here?” He exchanged a look with Angus, and I knew he was thinking of the rumors of an uprising.

Then he looked at me. “Mary Rose,” he began, and I laughed .

“Yes, I’ll go home, Alex,” I said, but Alex frowned.

“I’m thinking ye should come with us, lass. Calum and the men need to be off to get a berth across the river before dark, and I dinna think ye should go home with just the footmen.”

“And he kens we’d no’let him go alone,” Angus laughed.

“The inn’s no’a bad sort of place, Mary,” Alex said. “We’ll only stay long enough to ask Donald to join us elsewhere.” He frowned again and gave Angus a glance.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

Alex shrugged and frowned to himself. “I dinna ken. Just a. … it’s nothing. We’ll see ye home and then return,” he said.