Page 19 of Provoked
After the second, there were two more. Chalmers poured them without asking, and David drank them while they chattered about faculty matters.
“You might be wee,” Chalmers said, after a while, “but you can certainly put the whisky away. If I’d just walked in here, I’d never guess a drop had passed your lips.”
“I’m not wee,” David said with a smile he had to force. “I’m five feet and seven inches.” It was a good height, though it was true that he was slender and often assumed to be shorter as a result.
“Are you? You look like a gust of wind could blow you over.”
David hid his irritation at that comment. “I’m stronger than I look.”
Chalmers smiled affably. “I don’t doubt it, lad. Come on, let’s go down. It’ll be dinnertime soon.”
“I really should go,” David demurred. “Mrs. Chalmers will be inconvenienced by an extra guest.”
Chalmers shook his head. “Put that thought out of your mind, lad. You’re staying.”
When they went down to the drawing room it was to find Mrs. Chalmers, Elizabeth and her sisters gathered there in apparent domestic harmony. The girls all sat with their hands folded primly in their laps, while Mrs. Chalmers embroidered. They all looked up when the two men entered the room, disappointment registering on all but one of their faces to see their father and David. Only Elizabeth smiled, her eyes wide with surprise.
“Good evening, Mr. Lauriston,” she said. “How nice to see you again.” Her mother gave her a sharp look.
“I’ve invited Mr. Lauriston to join us for dinner,” Chalmers announced to the room. Mrs. Chalmers’s jaw tightened speakingly, but she merely nodded and rose from her chair.
“Excuse me,” she said. “I must speak with Cook and the servants. The table will have to be entirely rearranged.”
“Oh, please don’t—” David began, but Chalmers cut him off.
“Thank you, my dear,” he said to his departing spouse and ushered David farther into the room. “Come and meet my girls, Lauriston.”
David bowed to the three daughters he hadn’t yet met, Maria, Catherine and Jane, before he turned to Elizabeth.
“And Miss Elizabeth,” he said. “How nice to see you again.”
“Mr. Lauriston,” she replied, smiling widely. “I hear you’re working with Father on one of his cases. I’m delighted you could join us this evening. It is a most unexpected pleasure to see you again.”
“The delight is all mine,” David said gallantly, enjoying the way her face became brighter and more attractive as they conversed. She was an unremarkable-looking girl when she was silent, but when she spoke, her face was transformed. He couldn’t remember ever seeing someone so expressive.
“Has Father told you we have another gentleman joining us this evening?” Her dark eyes twinkled with merriment. “He is the younger son of a marquess, no less! We are all terribly excited to be meeting such a grand personage.”
“So I have heard,” David said, lips twitching. Plainly, whatever her mother thought, Elizabeth was not overawed at the thought of dining with a peer of the realm.
At that moment, the man they were speaking of arrived.
The footman entered first. “Lord Murdo Balfour, sir,” he said, addressing Mr. Chalmers.
David thought stupidly,I know that name. For the briefest instant, he didn’t connect it with the man at whose feet he’d knelt.
And then he saw him.
Murdo Balfour stood behind the footman, tall, broad-shouldered and expensively dressed. Familiar, yet not.
All of David’s ease left him, leeching away as his gut began to churn and his breath constricted in his throat. As their gazes met and held.
Yes, it was him. The man from the inn at Stirling. The man who’d stroked David’s cock in a filthy alleyway; whose own cock David had got down on his knees to suck.
He gave no sign of recognising David, but somehow David was sure he did, and then his gaze was moving on, honing in on Mr. Chalmers who was moving forward to greet him.
“Lord Murdo,” Chalmers said, offering his hand. “Welcome to my home.”
“Mr. Chalmers, I presume. I’m very pleased to meet you, sir.”