Page 53 of The Last Debutante
Jamie could feel himself bristle. “He did, did he? No, madam, no’ all my people have flocked,” he said tightly. “Most wish to remain here, where their ancestors lived, and their ancestors before them. If we can manage to keep our grazing lands and no’ allow them to be overrun by sheep, that is.” He looked pointedly at Murchison.
A tense silence followed. Young John poured a cup of tea and offered it to Daria, who shook her head. Her hands were on her lap, curled into small fists.
The taller of the two women sat next to her and waited for Young John to serve her. “Miss Babcock, youmusttell us what you are doing up here in this musty old castle so far from home!”
Musty? They would call one of the finest examples of a fortress castle in all of Scotlandmusty?
“Ah...” The color rose in Daria’s cheeks again. Perhaps she was embarrassed to be held in a musty old castle. The lass should consider it a privilege to be held here with her head still attached to her shoulders. Most English who had landed here in centuries past had not been so fortunate.
“You came all the way from Sussex to see after your grandmother. She must be close by.”
“No, she... Ididcome to see her,” Daria said. “I was with her, but then...” She glanced up at Jamie, and he could see the determination in her eye. He suppressed a groan of exasperation—he knew what she was about to do. Frankly, he had expected it, but he didn’t relish the thought of explaining to another Sassenach how things were done in the Highlands.
Daria suddenly twisted about on the settee and looked at the woman. “The truth, Mrs. Gant, is that I was brought against my will to Dundavie to be held for ransom.”
If Daria had thought there would be a hue and cry, she was surely disappointed, for no one spoke. In fact, they all looked at her as if she were mad—save Young John, who continued pouring tea.
“Ransom!” Lady Ann said with a snort.“You?”
“Yes, me!” Daria exclaimed, clearly offended.
Mrs. Gant laughed gleefully. “Oh dear, I almost believed you.Ransom!” She laughed again, giving her sister, who seemed confused, a nudge with her elbow.
“I am speaking the truth.” Daria looked at Jamie. “He took me from my grandmother’s home against my will!”
“Miss Babcock,” Jamie said, “you have a delightful sense of humor, I canna deny it. But after last evening’s performance on the pianoforte, I say that you are far better with music than with jesting.”
“That... that was simply a diversion and you know it, sir.”
He laughed as if she were teasing him. “A very pleasant one, to be sure. By the bye,” he said, turning around to his butler, “Miss Babcock picked some flowers from the garden this morning. I promised her I would have them put in her room. Please see that they are delivered straightaway and replace those from yesterday.”
“Aye,” Young John said. If he thought his laird had lost his mind of a sudden, he didn’t show it.
Daria, on the other hand, gaped at Jamie. He could see the realization dawning in her expression—who could believe that she was being held against her will if she were picking flowers and playing the pianoforte? Her brows dipped into a stormy little frown and her eyes glistened in a way that might have felled a lesser man.
“You’ve had your fun with us, Miss Babcock, so now you must tell us how you are acquainted with the legendary Laird Campbell,” one woman said.
“Legendary,”Daria repeated, a little too skeptically to suit him.
“Oh, yes. I am quite certain Lord Murchison will not mind in the least if I am to repeat what he has said of Laird Campbell—that he, more than any Scottish laird, has refused to give over to the new ways of land management and has kept his clansmen very close. You are to be applauded, sir.”
“That is true indeed, Mrs. Gant. No one has worked harder for his people,” Lord Murchison chimed in, and inclined his head toward Jamie as if he expected to be thanked for his comment.
“You mean that I’ve worked harder than any other to keep your bloody sheep from overtaking the country.”
Daria looked from one of them to the next. “What have sheep to do with it?”
“It’s quite complicated,” Lady Ann said, and sipped the cup of tea Young John offered her. “I rather doubt you’d understand.”
“What I don’t understand,” Daria said, slowly coming to her feet and fixing her gaze on Lady Ann, “is how a woman—a fellow countryman—tells you all she’s being held against her will and no one seems to have a care.”
“Goodness, but you’re a feisty one, aren’t you?” Lord Murchison said, his smile gone. “You needn’t say more, my dear, for I suspect we’ve all guessed the truth. And I rather thinkransomwas not anyone’s guess.”
The color drained from Daria’s face, and Jamie felt something twist inside of him. Murchison was a master at manipulating words, but that remark was a plain insult.
“Have a care, Murchison,” Jamie said, moving in front of the smaller man. “Miss Babcock is my guest. Unfortunately, her grandmother was no’ able to make the journey over the hills to join her.”
“Yes,” Daria said quickly. “And we are to return to her on the morrow. That is what you said, is it not, Laird?”
