A Gentle Feuding (25 page)

T
hey sat at the laird’s table in the great hall at Tower Esk. The meal was nearly over. It had been a pleasant time—and a great relief to see Jamie and her father getting along so well. Still, Sheena was anxious to retire to the guest chamber she and Jamie had been given.

They would be leaving Tower Esk in the morning. Sheena had seen so little of Jamie during their visit, and she was feeling a bit jealous. It was not the same as when they were at Castle Kinnion, where he felt more at ease. After wanting for so long to get back to her home, now she wanted only to return to her
new
home.

Would it lessen in time, she wondered, this wanting to be with him every moment? Well, the desire didn’t worry her. Wanting to be with him was not a bad feeling at all!

Sheena touched his bare knee below his plaid. Jamie grinned, his eyes twinkling.

“Do you know what you’re about, lass?” He leaned over to whisper in her ear.

“Aye, I think I do.” She grinned as she moved her hand upward along his leg.

Jamie caught her hand, then stood up abruptly. He made the appropriate excuses before escorting Sheena out of the hall.

Once out of sight of the others, they ran like children, laughing all the way to their room. Inside, behind the closed door, Jamie tumbled Sheena to the bed. Their passion was wild and tender and, as always, wonderful.

“If it wasna so cold, I’d take you to your little pool in the morning,” he told her between kisses. “For memory’s sake.”

Sheena sat up abruptly and demanded, “Who told you about that? Niall?”

“Nay, lass. Your brother’s told me many things, but he didna have to tell me about the pool in the glen. I saw you there myself, in the spring.”

“You
saw
me?” she gasped, blushing. “Jamie, you didna!”

“I did.” He teased her without mercy. “And may I say, sweetheart, there was never a more bonny kelpie than you were that day. Truly, I didna think you were real.”

“But…you saw me!”

Her indignation only spurred him on. “Just like this,” he said, kissing her bare breasts. “The image of you in that pool never left me. Now do you see why I was so surprised the day I found you in Colen’s room? I’d had no luck finding you, and suddenly there you were—with my brother.”

“Finding me?”

“Aye, lass. You never left my mind. I came back many times, hoping to see you again. Did you never wonder why I was alone when your father’s men found me?”

Her eyes widened. “Then you were captured because you came looking for me?”

“Aye.”

She considered that for a while, then said. “Serves you right! You came to spy on me!”

“If I had found you, I assure you I wouldna have settled for just spying,” he told her.

She giggled. She just couldn’t stay angry very long anymore. Especially when he was kissing her all over, as he was doing just then.

“You’re a devil, Jamie, but then, I always knew that.”

“Did you now?” he murmured, glancing up.

“Aye. And I wish you had found me again at the pool,” she added impulsively. “I wouldna have known who you were, and you wouldna have known who I was, and we might have been making love that much sooner.”

Jamie chuckled, delighted. “Och, sweetheart, but I do love you.”

“And I thought you wouldna say that again.” She grinned.

“Well, I
like
saying it. But no’ as much as I like showing you. Can I show you again?”

Sheena sighed happily and wrapped her arms around him. “If you dinna, Jamie MacKinnion, I’ll be greatly disappointed, and no mistake.”

THE PURSUIT

Kimberly MacGregor waved the letter in her hand to gain her husband’s attention as he entered her sitting room. “Megan has written again,” she told him. “She has invitations piling up, too many as usual, but in this case that’s ideal. Let her pick and choose the best ones. She’s sounding really excited about this. Want to read the letter?”

“Nay.”

That answer was too abrupt and a bit disgruntled-sounding for a man of Lachlan MacGregor’s easy temperament.

“You aren’t having second thoughts about letting Melissa go to London, are you?”

“Aye.”

“Lachlan!”

His disgruntled tone was now accompanied by a matching look. “I dinna like asking the Duke and Duchess o’ Wrothston for favors.”

Kimberly relaxed. She should have known. Lachlan might get along famously with Devlin St. James when he and his wife Megan came to visit them at Kregora Castle, or vice versa, but it wasn’t always that way. They had in fact met under bizarre circumstances which didn’t account for Lachlan’s remark about favors.

“This was Megan’s idea, so there’s no favor involved,” she reminded him. “As soon as she heard that all of Melissa’s beaux were being frightened off by my over-protective brothers, she suggested Meli come to England where the MacFearsons are unknown. You agreed it was a good idea. I agreed it was an excellent idea. And Meli is looking forward to it. So don’t be having second thoughts now.”

“I assumed she’d be staying at Wrothston, as we do when we visit them in England, no’ in London town,” he grumbled. “The lass has been tae Wrothston enough tae be comfortable and feel right at home. London’s no’ the same, and she’ll be nervous enough—”

“Nervous?” Kimberly interrupted. “Our daughter is excited about this trip, she’s not the least bit nervous. If anyone’s nervous it’s you, and you and I aren’t even going until later in the summer. Is that it, then? You’re letting your worry for her override your better judgment?”

“Nay, I just dinna want her feeling she has tae find a husband afore she comes home. That’s tae
much pressure tae be putting on her at her young age. You have assured her—?”

“Yes, yes, I’ve assured her she can be an old maid if she’d like.”

“Och, this isna funny, Kimber.”

She tsked at him. “You’re the one making too much out of it. Most young girls her age go through this; I did myself. Now I might have been nervous about it, but Meli really isn’t. She plans to have fun, to make some new friends, to be awed by such a big town as London is, and she even figures she’ll probably find a husband while she’s at it. But that’s not at the top of her to-do list by any means. She thought we wanted her to make a concerted effort to get affianced, but I’ve assured her if she does, that’s fine, and if she doesn’t, that’s fine, too. Maybe you should tell her the same before she leaves, so she can just relax and let what happens happen. Now have we covered all your last minute doubts?”

“Nay, ’tis still a huge undertaking tae be putting on the duchess on our behalf.”

“Would you like us to go as well for the whole summer instead of just a few weeks as we planned?”

He looked appalled. Just as she expected. “You said that wouldna be necessary.”

“Nor is it. We covered Megan’s willingness already. And furthermore, she isn’t planning any events herself; she merely has invitations lined up
that she was no doubt going to accept anyway. Besides, she adores Meli and is an old hand at this sort of thing. She sponsored me, didn’t she? And had a hand in matching you and I to wedded bliss.”

That made him grin. “Is that what we’ve been having, darlin’? Wedded bliss?”

She quirked a golden brow at him and asked, “You don’t think so?”

He pulled her to her feet, then meshed her hips to his. “I’d be calling it heaven m’self.”

“Would you now?” She grinned back at him, then made a face. “Bah, you’re not going to get out of this subject that easily. Why are you really having doubts? And no more of these lame reasons that don’t wash.”

He sighed. “I had the hope remaining that our lass would end up wi’ a fine Scot brave enough tae ignore the legend and trounce any o’ your sixteen brothers that think tae bully him.”

“What an unkind thought,” she said, and smacked his shoulder before she moved away from him. “I love my brothers—”

“I know you do, Kimber, and I even tolerate them m’self, but you canna deny they deserve a trouncing or two for scaring off all o’ Meli’s suitors. If we didna have friends in England willing tae sponser her for a season there, the poor lass could end up permanently unwed, and I want m’ daughter tae be as happy in wedlock as I’ve made you.”

She chuckled. “Listen to that bragging.”

“True nonetheless,” he said with complete confidence.

“Perhaps,” she allowed with a teasing grin, but then grew serious again. “As for Meli and her future happiness, is the nationality of the man she loses her heart to really of importance to you? And before you answer, keep in mind that if you say yes, your English wife will be insulted.”

He laughed. “Half English wife, though one could wish yer Scottish half didna come from the MacFearson himself.”

She ignored the reference to her father this time. “Answer me.”

“Nay, darlin’, the hope was no’ that her husband be Scottish exactly, was more that he just hail from closer tae home than England is. I’m no’ looking forward tae our lass moving far away is all,” he ended with another sigh.

She moved closer again to cup his cheeks in her hands. “You knew that would be possible.”

“Aye.”

“You also knew that her prospects in our neighborhood were very slim. We don’t exactly live close to any towns up here, and the other clans nearby don’t have any sons of an age appropriate for our lass. And being the MacGregor’s daughter limits her choices even further.”

“Aye, I ken that as well.”

“So this is all just a father bemoaning the loss of his only daughter in marriage, even before she’s married?” she asked in exasperation.

He nodded with a sheepish look. She decided not to scold him for such silliness but said instead, “Lach, I’ll be just as unhappy to see her go, but we knew from the day she was born that she would be leaving us one day to start her own family, and even then we didn’t expect her to start that family near Kregora Castle. Granted, we weren’t thinking as far as England, but still—”

Kimberly amazed even herself when she suddenly burst into tears. Lachlan gathered her close and made all the soothing sounds appropriate to providing comfort. She finally pushed away from him, annoyed with herself.

“Don’t ask why that happened,” she mumbled.

He grinned at her. “I’m sorry, Kimber. I didna mean tae refresh all your own misgivings.”

“You didn’t. Unlike you, I’m delighted Meli has this opportunity for a season in London. I just”—she paused for a sigh of her own—“just had the same hope as you still lurking, though I thought I had given up on that long ago. And it is pointless. Even those few young lads who did come to call on her live miles away, which is probably why you weren’t all that displeased when my brothers ran them off.”

“Miles away is no distance a’ tall up here; they just didna impress me too much is all, and rightly so
as it turned out. Look how quickly they turned tail when your brothers started in on them. That last one made his excuses after one wee warning from Ian Two that he’d be displeased if his niece was e’er made unhappy.”

“I think it was because he had a fistful of the poor boy’s shirt when he said it.”

They both laughed for a moment, remembering how quickly the suitor had fled. He’d practically run for the door the moment after he’d made his excuses. The laughter eased their misgivings.

“Och, well, this trip canna be avoided I suppose,” Lachlan conceded.

“No, it can’t.”

“Speaking o’ which, is Meli done wi’ her packing?”

“She’s not leaving for three more days, plenty of time to finish that up. She’s gone to see my father and probably will be spending the night. Actually, I think her intent was to assure my brothers that she forgave them for ruining her prospects here at home—a few of them have been quite gloomy over that if you didn’t know. She was also going to assure them that when the right man for her comes along, she’ll know it herself, so they needn’t worry on that account.”

“She actually thinks saying so will assure them of anything?”

“Well, she’s hoping,” Kimberly grinned. “My brothers can be reasoned with—some of the time.”

Read the further adventures of a woman
brave enough to stand up to
her sixteen protective uncles in

THE PURSUIT