Page 74 of Seduced By the Reckless Highlanders
Bernard chuckled. “No one at all except myself,” he answered. “It has been a week since I bathed properly, and I did not like the way I was beginning to smell. I could have had a swim in the loch but it is too cold even for me!”
William shrugged. “I don’t believe you.” His tone was mischievous. “You can charm your way up a woman’s skirts in less time than it takes me to shave in the morning, washed ornot. I know you—you don’t even have to try. This is someone special.”
“Iam special!” Bernard protested, thumbing his chest. “But I have no desire to woo any woman here, William. This place is too far away from home, anyway. When we get back to Benlieth I might begin to think about courting someone there.” He went back to scrubbing his already-clean feet.
William grinned at him. “I am going to breakfast. Make sure your kilt is clean. You never know when you will strike it lucky!”
Bernard gave a mock snarl and threw his pumice stone at Bernard, who dodged it. “Kilt” was a very old private joke between the two of them, a word which referred to their private parts and therefore to sex.
“I am going for breakfast,” William told him. “The voting starts after that.”
“Who are you going to vote for?” Bernard asked curiously.
William sighed, then shook his head in despair. “You know, Bernard, they are both eejits, but of the two I am inclined to vote for Alasdair because he is a wee bit worse than his brother, an’ that is because he does not know when to stop drinking. Once he is in his cups you can do anything you like with him. Believe it or not, you can still occasionally get the odd word of sense out of Andrew, although I know it is hard to believe.”
Bernard rose to his feet to dry himself, and William left to go to dine with his father and the rest of the lairds and ladies. In his younger days, he had often envied William his place among the “high heid yins” as his mother called the upper class, but not anymore. He was going to eat with the guards and the servants, and that was the way he liked it.
William was sitting next to his father in the great hall, wondering how his wife was faring without him. So far she was healthy, and the midwife had no concerns about her or the baby, but his mother had died in childbirth, along with many other women, rich and poor, and he was terrified. He had left word with the midwife that he was to be sent for at once should anything happen to her and to hell with his father.
“Are we in agreement about the votes?” his father asked him, shoving more porridge with honey into his mouth.
His father loved his breakfast porridge this way, eschewing the traditional salt, which he said rendered it inedible. His eccentricity had been put down to a lack of patriotism. He was obviously not a true Scotsman.
“Aye.”
William’s mind jerked back to the present as he thought about Alasdair’s performance in the foot race, which had taken place on a makeshift running track where the guards practiced. Neither of the men had ever played any sport or done anything athletic in their lives, and the race got off to a bad start when Andrew tripped and fell a few yards after the starting line.
Much to everyone’s surprise, he sprang to his feet and overtook Alasdair. His brother was not to be beaten, however, and as Andrew sprinted past him, Alasdair grabbed him by the back of his shirt, throwing him off balance. He fell and took Alastair with him, and the brothers landed on the ground in a tangle of limbs and obscenities.
William nodded. “Definitely Alasdair. And he is a bad sport and quite ruthless, both of which suit us.”
He thought a little about Bernard. One of the guards had told him a titbit of information about his friend and Janice that had intrigued him, and the more he thought about it, the more his thoughts became a certainty. There was something going on between them.
Suddenly he felt his father’s elbow in his ribs and realized he had been daydreaming.
“Sorry, Father,” he said, grinning.
“I know what you were thinking,” Laird Ballantine said, watching Janice as she threaded her way through her guests. “Have you changed your mind about her yet? She is a beautiful woman, and if you could get her away from here, our problems will be over.”
“She is lovely, Father, but I told you before. I would not take her as a gift. She is far too dominating,” William said firmly. He drained his cup of ale and stood up. “Now let us go and watch the clowns. It should be extremely entertaining!”
Janice was doing her best to completely avoid Bernard and William. She was walking around the circle of guests with a large bowl into which the men and women were dropping slips of paper with the name of one of her brothers on them. She felt extremely foolish as she held it out. She had hoped that her father would send someone else to collect the votes, but he had said she was the only one he trusted to collect the votes and count them properly, so she had reluctantly obeyed him.
Some of the men patted her on the backside as she went past them, or gave her unwanted hugs. In any other circumstances she would have screamed at them and pushed them away or even kicked them, but she did not wish to embarrass her father,so she endured it. However, by the time she had taken the last ballot from William, she was in no mood to hang around and make idle conversation with anyone. Consequently, she took his vote, then, with a quick surreptitious glance at Bernard, she rushed away.
Janice went back to her father’s office and counted the votes as fast as she could, then went out to Laird Stewart, who was seated on a chair by his fellow lairds, talking, laughing, and drinking wine.
“Da, I must speak with you,” she said urgently.
They went inside to his office, and he looked at the two neat piles of votes. They were exactly the same height.
“A tie?” he asked, frowning.
“No. Alasdair won by one vote,” she replied.
The laird frowned and sat down. “I will have to think about this,” he said slowly. “It really makes no difference who I name since you will be in charge anyway, my dear.”
“What shall I tell them?” Janice asked. “They will be expecting something. It is what they all came here for, after all.”
