Page 33 of In Love With the Wrong Highland Sister
“We have all been in the same situation, Gavin,” Laird MacLean said soothingly. “I am quite sure she was more than willing. She likes you!”
“What if she laughs at me?” Gavin asked, looking around for help.
“Faint heart never won fair lady!” James reminded him, patting him on the back. “You will never know until you ask her. If I were a woman, I would have you. You are a very good catch, Gavin, but you have very little belief in yourself. Go and get her, man!”
“I will ask her, then,” Gavin declared, sounding a little more confident.
James looked at his brother and smiled fondly. “I am proud of you.” Then he turned to Laird MacLean. “Then there is the question of the lairdship. You have been beside me for years while I was being groomed for the task, and I know how capable you are. To be honest, I have never wanted to be laird here anyway, and I think your temperament would be much more suited to the position than mine. You have more patience. What do you think?”
“I can hardly believe it!” Gavin answered. “But it is a huge responsibility.”
“We have a very capable steward, and I can give you my assistance,” his father pointed out. “But I no longer want to have the burden of the estate on my shoulders alone. I want to share it with my son—or one of them, and I can see that Eloisa will be a very good Lady Elliott. She has the drive and intelligence to support you well.”
Gavin looked doubtful. “Do you really think I can do it?”
“I am certain,” Laird Elliott answered. “And the tenants already love you.”
James spoke up again. “I would like to know if you would be happy with this arrangement too, M’Laird.” He looked at Laird MacLean.
Laird Maclean smiled. “I will be happy if you both come to live with us,” he replied. “And if you make my daughter happy. I know that you will never be laird, but I too have another solution to that. However, first, we must find out Laria’s answer. If I know her, and I think I do, then she will be better able to do that in the morning. She always thinks better after a good night’s sleep.” He walked up to James, who was standing beside the table containing the drinks, then looked him up and down, inspecting him thoroughly.
For a moment, James thought of challenging him with an angry retort, but he changed his mind when the laird patted his shoulder. “From everything I have seen, you will make a fine son-in-law.”
“I am glad you think so, M’Laird,” he said, inclining his head with a smile. “Because if Laria wants me, I will be the most contented man in the world.”
17
The next morning, Gavin woke up with a throbbing headache. Not only had he had too much wine, but he had slept only fitfully throughout the night, and his head was swimming. He sat up in bed for a while, thinking about what to do next. He had to propose marriage to Eloisa, and the thought terrified him. He was only twenty-one years old, for heaven’s sake! What if he had made a mistake? What if she did not want him?
He rose from his bed, dressed in his working clothes, and went downstairs, reflecting on how much had changed since the evening before. Then he decided that it was better to do the deed at once than keep on thinking about it, so he squared his shoulders and walked into the dining room to find that he was the last one to arrive and that everyone else had started without him.
“Good evening, Brother.” James’s greeting had more than a little sarcasm in it. “We are so glad you could join us at last!”
“I am so sorry for my lateness,” Gavin apologized. “I think I had one too many glasses of wine last night.” He was happy to see that the only seat left at the table was beside Eloisa, and she smiled at him as he sat down.
“Oh, dear,” she said, frowning in concern. “You look terrible, Gavin. Are you sure you are all right?”
Gavin looked into her silver-gray eyes and smiled as well as he could without wincing in pain. “Not as much as I should be,” he replied. “But it is all self-inflicted, so no need to worry on my account, Ellie.”
She sighed dramatically. “I will try not to!” she replied, giggling.
Gavin made a monumental effort to swallow his food, even though he felt as though it would choke him, but he forced most of it down. When Eloisa stood up, he followed her outside, despite leaving half his food on his plate.
She turned to him, frowning. “Something has upset you. I can tell.” It was a statement, not a question, and it made him turn toward her to deny it, but he never said the words.
Instead, the words that came out of his mouth were: “Will you marry me, Ellie?” He swallowed nervously, unable to believe what he had just said.
Ellie stared at him, her eyes round with astonishment. When she heard the words Gavin had spoken her heart skipped a beat, and for a moment she was incapable of speaking. “What did you say?” she asked in disbelief.
Gavin looked at her face, seeing her stunned expression, and suddenly he knew what her response would be. She was going to accept. “I asked you to marry me,” he answered, smiling as he raised his eyebrows in a question. “But of course, I will understand if you don’t want me.”
“Don’t want you?” Eloisa was incredulous. “Don’t want you? OfcourseI want you! Yes, of course I will marry you. Could you not see how I have felt about you since the first minute I saw you? I love you.” She threw her arms around his neck, then he wrapped his around her waist and laughed, hardly able to believe what was happening to him.
“Really? Really, Ellie?” he laughed joyfully. “My God, I thought you might reject me. After all, I am only a second son.”
Eloisa put him away a little to look at him properly. “I would never laugh at you, my love,” she whispered. “Never, and especially not about something like this.”
Then he kissed her. It was only Eloisa’s second kiss, and although she had experienced it once before, this time was even better, if that was possible. It was heavenly as his mouth came down on hers and caressed her lips for a few blissful seconds before he swept his tongue across them, then he prised them open to enter her mouth and taste the sweetness within.
