Page 12 of A Torn Allegiance
“I am pleased to be included and to have secured such an honorific viewing.”
“Oh, it is nothing. I’m certain they would have given you the same privilege were you to ask. Prince George as well.” She frowned. “When you leave us to go to St. James’s, will you be swallowed up in his endless parties and be lost to any diversions with us?”
“I don’t imagine so. Are you not invited to St. James’s?”
“Invited, certainly. Well, perhaps not anymore, but it is more a question of would I prefer the company of the royal court... and that is something you will have to divine for yourself.”
“I find him harmless in small doses, and not at his hosted parties. He is much better behaved at St. James’s than at Carlton House.”
“I would imagine so.” She laughed. “He did not appreciate my opinions on the great waste of his money on frivolous expenses.”
“You were so bold as to tell him?”
“Certainly, as he continues to petition my father and others for more money. Parliament has great need of its own funds. We are at war, if you recall.”
“I recall very clearly.” He found her conversation clipped and lively and moving at an energetic pace. He’d experienced nothing like it from any other woman and determined he’d never tire of her or the lovely lilt to her voice. Her tone rose and lowered as though bouncing on the measures of music for the piano. He imagined even if he didn’t understand a word, he’d enjoy listening to the notes.
They meandered toward a fountain in the square. Benches lined the walk, but he wished to be active, and he couldn’t imagine Lady Elsie sitting right now, not with her free hand moving through the air emphatically as she expressed her thoughts on the true ownership of the Elgin marbles.
When she quieted for a moment, he patted his pocket. “I will have but one disappointment when I leave your marvelous isle.”
“And what is that?”
“That I shan’t have a chance to meet Sir Walter Scott.”
She stopped them in their walk. “And why shan’t you?”
“He resides in Scotland, does he not? I don’t think my travels will take me so far north.”
Just as he’d hoped, her face lit as she spoke. “That is certainly true, though Scotland would be well worth the visit. I’ve never seen land so lovely or a people so dear as in the Scottish lands.”
“Have you been often?”
“Not nearly as often as I would like. We are Scots, partly. And our original bit of land is located more in the Lowlands, on the border of Scotland and England.”
“Do you still claim the estate?”
“Yes, my brother, Duncan, resides in Argyll as a baron, though he is heir to my father’s dukedom and should spend more of his time here, I should think.”
“Something about his choice does not sit well with you?”
“Certainly not. Not when I could live there and do the same things he does. Must he have all the titles?”
He studied her, more pleased than before at the caliber of woman who stood at his front. “You hunger for the land, the people, a position to help them. They are a part of who you are.”
Her whole body went still, and she nodded. “Aye.” She openly studied his face. “Do you feel the same? How could you express so closely my own desires just now unless you do?”
“I will be king. The love of the land runs through me as if the very soil were my lifeblood. The people are my own.” He placed a hand over hers on his arm. “I cannot imagine the grief I would feel being prevented from doing the very things I was born to.”
She swallowed once. And again. He couldn’t tell if her feelings were of the happy kind or the disturbed, but she was clearly having a time of it, finding her speech.
He pressed her hand. He’d meant to be comforting. “Tell me of the people in Scotland.”
And then she found her voice. The tumbling flow of words that poured out around them gave evidence to a great and abiding passion for a land she rarely saw.
“I told Duncan he couldn’t participate in the Highland Clearance, that our tenants deserve to stay. They hold ancient claim through their clans. If he goes against clan customs, he might as well welcome a curse upon his head.”
“What is this Clearance?” He led her along another path, bordering a copse of trees.
