Page 58 of Seduced By the Reckless Highlanders
Then he cursed himself.Bernard Taggart!he thought viciously.You have been led astray by a pretty face and a shapely body, and you know that is not part of our plan.
He sighed and urged his horse into a trot. When he reached the stables, he kept a look out for the little girls, Flora and Ailsa, but rather, to his disappointment, he could not find them. Damn. What was happening to him? He was going soft in his old age. He had never seen himself as a father, but when he observed Janice having so much fun with the little ones, he felt asting of jealousy. Then he realized he was thinking of Janice and children at the same time again.
He decided to go to bed and hoped that he woke up in the morning feeling more like his usual rational self. It must be all the ale he had drunk that was making him fantasize like this. Yes, that was it.
He climbed the stairs, intending to pass the great hall on the way to his bedroom, when he saw Janice again, and this time she was doing something else that was utterly astonishing. It was completely out of character with his notion of an upper-class and wealthy young woman. Janice had her arms around one of the maidservants and was whispering to her softly, seemingly comforting her while the young woman wept on her shoulder.
A pitcher of ale lay smashed at her feet, and her hand was bleeding where she had cut in on the broken glass. Janice was holding her lace-edged handkerchief against the wound, uncaring of the damage the blood was causing to the fine material.
“Be at ease, Josie,” she murmured. “I am here, and I will look after you. Go to Aggie and get her to tend to this, then rest for a few moments. You have had a shock. I will have someone else deliver the ale.”
The girl looked at her gratefully. “Thank ye, mistress,” she murmured. “Ye are sae kind. What about this mess?” She looked at the pool of ale and shards of glass on the floor.
“You cannot clean that with a cut hand,” Janice said firmly. “I will have one of the kitchen maids come to take care of it. Go now.”
The girl smiled at Janice but said nothing. Her expression, a mixture of gratitude and fondness, said it all for her before she turned and made her way back to the kitchen.
Bernard was shocked. He had never seen anything like the sight of the mistress of a castle comforting a maid before, andhe was lost in admiration for Janice Stewart. She was unlike any other woman of her class he had ever met.
Presently, she looked around to see Bernard staring at her, and she lifted her chin to stare defiantly back at him, her grey eyes resembling storm clouds.
He moved toward her, their gazes still locked, until he was standing just outside the puddle of ale and glass on the floor.
“What happened?” he asked, pointing to the mess.
Janice sighed angrily. “My brother Alasdair,” she replied tersely. “He was stumbling back into the hall after going to relieve himself when he bumped into poor Josie. He is thoroughly inebriated, and he bumped into her. It was not her fault, and all might have been well if he had just left her alone, but he struck her on the back of her head—deliberately, I might add, then told her it was all her fault, and she stumbled. This was the result.” She indicated the shambles at her feet, shaking her head. “And if I could have him flogged, I would.”
Bernard watched the anger suffusing her beautiful face, flushing her cheeks and making a deep frown gather on her brow.
“Why did you do that?” he asked, puzzled. “She is a servant, not someone of your own station.”
Janice’s eyes blazed as she walked forward and stuck her forefinger into his chest so forcefully that he took a step backward.
“She is aperson!” she growled. “And she deserves to be treated with the same dignity as you and I do. If I do not treat her that way, I will receive contempt and disloyalty, and I would deserve it.”
“What about your brothers?” he asked. “Do they also deserve contempt and disloyalty?”
She huffed. “No doubt they do,” she replied. “But they are grown men, although sometimes I suspect that they areovergrown little boys. And although I try to keep an eye on them, they are of age, and there is little I can do about their behavior.” She grunted in frustration.
At that moment, a plump, middle-aged woman came to clean up the glass and ale on the floor. She gave a quick nod to Janice, then knelt down to her labors.
“Thank you, Bettie,” Janice said as she and Bernard moved away. “I had better take my place inside.” Her voice was reluctant as she sighed and squared her shoulders as though she was going into battle.
At that moment, Janice would have given anything to be in the strong, capable arms of the man standing before her. He was one of the most beautiful men she had ever seen, with the afternoon sun streaming through the windows picking out golden highlights in his light brown hair. In this light, there was more gold than green in his hazel eyes, whose gaze was now fixed on her. Like most women, she admired the height and strength of big men, both of which gave them a feeling of safety and security. It would take a very brave man to fight his way past Bernard Taggart!
Bernard watched her as she went in through the big oak doors to the great hall, then he turned away, thinking about what a remarkable woman Janice was. He had never before seen such compassion from a member of the upper classes to one of the lower. It was extraordinary.
She is a person!
The words Janice had said rang in his ears as he moved out to stand in the courtyard and look over the surrounding countryside. He was so hungry that his stomach was beginning to rumble, but he needed a few more moments to think before he went down to the kitchen to eat.
He sympathized with William, who hated formal gatherings and always made his excuses to be away as soon as he couldso that he could go to play cards with the guards or chess with Bernard. Carousing with maidservants was not one of his favorite pastimes, although he did like their company.
However, the growling in Bernard’s stomach had become too loud to ignore, so he turned to go down to the kitchen, where he knew something hot, tasty, and filling awaited him.
That was the moment that Janice chose to run full tilt back toward him and collided with him with such force that he stumbled backward and almost fell down.
CHAPTER 6
