Page 12 of The Highlander's Auctioned Bride
All I have to dae is answer differently from all the others. This man doesnae want a bride who is outspoken, he wants a woman who’ll dote on him. And that will never be me!
CHAPTER 5
Maisie was surprisedto find that she was nervous.
The first question came from a lanky man with thinning hair on his head and oval spectacles that did not seem to help him read his paper at all.
He looked about at the assembly, sweat adhering to his brow, the paper between his fingers shaking violently. Maisie wondered if he’d ever been asked to speak in public before; if he had, he was not naturally born to it.
“Question one… Ye are the lady of the house, and ye are holdin’ a dinner to celebrate the great houses of yer clan. Two men get into a—” he squinted at the paper, “disagreement. What would ye dae to stop them from ruinin’ the event, and sullyin’ yer name?”
Maisie almost applauded when he managed to finish...
The man folded up the paper and looked over the top of his glasses at the audience.
“Miss Guthrie, would you like to begin?”
Lillian stood up, looking even more dainty in the enormous surroundings of the hall, but she held the attention of the whole room.
“I would request that music be played, m’laird, and that more food be served to distract the men from their argument. When it was appropriate, I would ensure they were separated to prevent their disagreement from escalatin’ and then inform me husband that he might meet with them privately to resolve their differences.”
There was a smattering of applause, and Maisie’s father poured himself another glass of wine.
What nonsense is this? He believes he will find a wife from these questions, daes he? Well, more fool him.
She listened to the other girls’ answers and had the privilege of going last. Her father leaned across to her throughout, whispering in her ear, which she found most distracting.
She waved him off gently. She was determined to do things her own way. This contest was not unlike a chess game. You had to discover what your opponents’ intentions were and block theirplay. In this case, however, she aimed to let them reach the king before her.
She had come up with something unusual that she felt would certainly confuse and dismay the majority of the listeners.
When her turn came, she rose to her feet, cleared her throat, and looked MacLennan straight in the eye as she answered.
“Make them play chess.”
The speaker stared at her, his brow furrowed. “Excuse me, Miss Brown?”
“Make them play chess,” Maisie repeated. “They can sort out their squabbles on the board, and by the time either of them has won, they will have forgotten all about it.”
She moved her eyes to the speaker but was aware of MacLennan’s gaze burning through her. It branded her skin even from the other side of the room. She felt the familiar prickle up her spine as the hairs on the back of her neck stood up.
She chanced a quick look in his direction. He was contemplating her, a glass of red wine in his hand. His eyes were half-lidded, his full lips brushing the thumb that hovered at the rim of the glass.
I wonder if he kens how to play chess,she thought.He probably sees such activities as trivial. I would beat him in any case. Hisstrategy for findin’ a wife is this contest, after all. He wouldnae ken what to do on a chessboard.
The speaker glanced briefly at the laird before nodding.
“Thank ye, Miss Brown—most unusual answer.”
She sat down again, keeping her expression as neutral as possible. She turned to her father with an encouraging smile. She knew she was walking a tightrope. She wanted to answer badly enough that she had no hope of being picked, but she didn’t wish to embarrass him. It was harder than she had first thought.
The next man to step forward was in his forties, stocky and broad with a handsome, but benevolent expression.
“That is Bram Wallace,” her father whispered. “The head of the Council MacLennan. A noble man.”
“I thought Marcus Guthrie was the head of the council.”
“Nae. The Wallace house is the most important in the lands beneath the MacLennan’s. Yer answer will matter even more now, and he may question it.”
