Page 9 of Kilgannon #1

I resisted the angry defense of Alex that sprang to mind as I realized with a sudden insight what this first strong emotion I’d ever seen from Robert meant.

He ’ s jealous, I thought. Of Alex. Well.

So he does have feelings for me he hasn ’ t admitted.

“Robert,” I said mildly, “you are Scottish. And a Highlander.”

“I am,” he said, raising his chin. “But I am a Campbell.”

“Which makes you superior.”

To his credit he laughed. “Of course.” I laughed with him.

“Enough, Robert. Tell me about your trip.” I tried to listen to Robert tell me of French fashions as we walked, but I couldn’t help but think of Alex.

I must ask him about his home, I thought.

It was impossible to believe that Alex MacGannon allowed his people to live in ignorance and poverty.

Or was it? I had seen the man only twice. Perhaps Louisa was correct after all.

Robert stayed for two hours and might have stayed even longer if Louisa had not found us and reminded me that we were dining at the Duchess’s.

She extended her hand as she ended his visit and I bid Robert farewell, my thoughts in a muddle.

After his one outburst Robert had retreated into the pleasant behavior I’d come to expect and we’d not discussed Alex again, nor Robert’s activities.

Nor anything of any substance. As usual.

I trailed behind Louisa as she climbed the stairs to prepare for the evening.

“It is lovely to have Robert home,” she said, with a sharp glance at me.

“And I’m pleased that he’ll be joining us for dinner with the MacGannons.

” I agreed and she sighed. “Despite my best judgment, I like the MacGannons. God only knows what will come of this, but it’s impossible not to like them. ”

“Louisa,” I said, as though it had just occurred to me, “what did you and Alex talk about when you walked in the garden?”

Louisa laughed, not fooled for a moment.

“You. He apologized again, and I chastised him for telling me he was not seeking a wife and then pursuing you for all London to chatter about. He quite disarmed me. Either he’s an honest man or he’s the most convincing liar I’ve ever seen.

Time will tell.” She waved my protest aside as we approached my room.

“Wear the lavender tonight, dear,” she said, and disappeared around the corner.

The talk that night was politics and gossip.

The Duchess drew me aside, however, after the meal and told me how delighted she was that I’d met Alex.

“He was here this afternoon, my dear,” she beamed at me, “and with a little prodding admitted he’d seen you this morning.

He’s a special man and I am very fond of him.

And indebted. If not for the Earl, my dear Duke would be dead.

Lord Kilgannon saved his life, and I will be eternally grateful. ”

I blinked at her stupidly. “What do you mean, Your Grace?”

“You don’t know this story?” The Duchess settled in to tell the tale.

“Well. The Duke was in Paris and one day, after negotiations with the French, on his way back to his lodgings, three men attacked him. His footmen immediately disappeared and my dear Duke thought he was lost. But from nowhere, Kilgannon arrived and fought the men off with him. The Earl saved the Duke’s life, my dear.

The Duke will always be in the Earl’s debt, and I as well, which is why I am so fond of him.

I cannot imagine life without my Duke.” She smiled at her husband as he approached us, and I considered.

I had heard the story many times but had never marked the rescuer’s name.

Alex, I thought now with a private smile. Alex .

“What’s this, my dear?” asked Duke John. She extended her cheek for his kiss and he obliged her.

“I am telling Mary about Kilgannon rescuing you in Paris and how grateful we are to him,” the Duchess said to her husband.

“We are indeed, Mary,” Duke John said. “But don’t play matchmaker, Eloise. You know how that always ends up.” He turned his merry eyes to me. “Edmund Bartlett will not speak to us just now because of my wife’s attempts to marry him to Lady Wilmington.”

“She would have been perfect for him,” said the Duchess. “All that land. …” She sighed. “It would have been ideal. They could discuss everyone! Who else would marry him?” I laughed with her.

The next day was quiet, spent at home with Will and Betty, all of us watching Louisa plan her dinner.

I thought we would be a small group but now learned there would be eighteen in all.

Louisa had invited the Duke and Duchess, of course, and Alex, Angus, and Robert, two of our Fairhaven cousins, and Becca’s parents, just returned to London.

Three other friends and, of all people, the Marquess and Rowena would also be included.

If only Becca and Lawrence had not stayed in Bath with his parents, I thought.

I needed her here with me now. I suspected Louisa was inviting Rowena just to make it interesting and told her as much. She laughed.

“Mary, if Alex’s head is so easily turned you need to know that at once. And Robert will be there to keep you company.”

Betty fluffed her hair and frowned. “I think it’s foolish to have Lord Campbell and Lord Kilgannon here together.”

“If they cannot behave like gentlemen in my home, they will be asked to leave,” said Louisa crisply.

“My dinners have never been anything but a success, and this one will be no different. Robert is always well behaved, and I cannot imagine Alex being anything less. Remember that he is my cousin, by marriage, at least.”

I swallowed a smile, thinking that Alex had bewitched Louisa as well.

But I agreed with Betty. I had no doubt that Robert would behave properly and I assumed that Alex would do the same, but I would rather not have them at the same table and rather not have Rowena in the same country.

I hoped Alex’s remark that he did not pay attention to other men’s wives was accurate and wondered if I could be well behaved if Rowena flirted with him as she had done last time.

And then I caught myself. His. Him. As if there were no other man on earth.

I was farther down this road than I’d thought.

The day dragged by with no word from Alex.

That evening I could not sleep and sat alone in the library after everyone else had retired, searching for every bit of information on Scotland that I could find.

I found several treatises that claimed dismay over the barbarity of the Scots and their horrific land.

I had almost given up hope when I found an atlas and pored over the maps, finding Lothian, where I had visited Duncan and Louisa.

The general outline of Scotland I knew, of course, and that there were highlands and lowlands, borderlands and the north, the many lochs and Glen Mohr.

I found Robert’s Argyllshire and Alex’s western Highlands.

They were not as far apart as I had remembered, at least on the map.

How very far apart were they in reality?

I stared at the page. How could such a small country be so difficult to manage?

For centuries now, one group or another had been trying to dominate this bit of earth and its people.

I found Skye and the Hebrides off the shore of the western Highlands, but Kilgannon was not marked.

Almost nothing was noted in that region, and I wondered where in that remote, rugged terrain lay Alex’s home.

The following evening I found myself dressed in blue silk, pacing in the dining room, more anxious than I’d been in months.

I’d tried to pretend to myself that it would simply be another of Louisa’s elegant dinners, but I knew it would not be.

What if Robert and Alex were rude to each other?

In Scotland we are enemies rang in my mind.

And Rowena. Next to her I felt much too tall, ugly, and clumsy, the country cousin who never quite measured up.

It was in this state that Louisa found me and laughed kindly.

“You’re beautiful, Mary,” she said, embracing me.

“Just be yourself. If either Robert or Alex is disconcerted by the other, then so be it. Robert should have asked you to marry him months ago. Perhaps Alex being here tonight will spur him on. As for Alex, I suspect that a man who looks like that is used to easy conquests. Let him see he is not without a rival.” She smiled.

“Mary, one of these men might be your husband one day. Watch them closely. How a man behaves in polite society under duress gives you a glimpse into his soul. If either misbehaves you’ll see it and you’ll be armed with that knowledge.

Picking a husband is a complicated undertaking, my dear, but you must live with the consequences.

Get the most for what you’re bargaining. ”

Ellen ran in to announce that the first guests were here. Alex, Angus, and Robert had arrived together.