Page 23 of The Lady in Pearls
“The old baker came storming into the storeroom and saw Lachlan standing there, pockets full of tarts and me halfway out the window. He grabbed us both by our necks and gave us a good shake. Then he demanded we empty our pockets. Lachlan reaches down, pulls one out and slaps it into the man’s hand. There, covered in red cherry sauce, is that toad, bug eyes wide and its throat pulsing as it croaked. The baker yelped and tossed the toad in the air. It landed on the bakery racks by the bread. Lachlan and I dove out the window and took off running before he recovered.”
“I still hear that old man’s bellows in my nightmares,” Lachlan laughed. “If he’d ever caught us…”
“Neither of us would’ve been able to sit down for a month, that much is certain,” Cameron finished. “So, you see, my dear Miss Westfall, you are marrying a veritable outlaw. I hope you’re prepared.”
Daphne beamed at Lachlan. “Have no fear, Mr. McLeod, I shall keep the cherry tarts safely under lock and key.
“Nonsense. You need only keep plenty about for me to eat.” Lachlan’s casual tease felt so natural, so wonderfully sweet. It was the way she’d dreamed a husband would be with his wife. She longed for a man who would be sweet and amusing and intimate with her in all the aspects of his life. And right now, she felt that she and Lachlan had that chance.
Perhaps I might find a way to banish the ghosts in his heart the way Cameron does.
Lachlan grinned boyishly. “Enough about us, Cameron. I wish to hear Eliza play. It’s been some time since anyone has used the music room.”
“Eliza?” Cameron looked to his wife and she blushed and nodded.
Moira clapped her hands and stood. “Let’s be off. I, too, long for some music.” She joined Daphne and Eliza. “Do you play, Daphne?”
“Me? Oh… No, but I sing a little,” she admitted.
“That’s a good thing, for I do not,” Eliza mused.
The music room was just off the dining hall. A thick, lushly carved harp sat in one corner and a pianoforte held a prominent place with several chairs facing it. A servant had thought to light a fire in the room and the candles on the two tables by the chairs were lit. Eliza seated herself at the piano, facing the small crowd over the gleaming wood of the instrument. Daphne joined her, but remained standing. A treacherous flutter of nerves made her place a hand to her stomach. Lachlan was watching her keenly, the intensity of his focus making her inwardly flounder.
“Do you know the song,Drown it in the Bowl?”
“Why, yes I do,” Daphne said. It was a very unusual song, not one she would expect to sing in parlors, but she was happy she knew it well enough to sing while Eliza played.
“Ready?” Eliza asked.
“Yes.” Daphne’s voice wavered, but she cleared her throat as she listened to the notes of the piano, then closed her eyes and began to sing.
“The glossy sparkle on the board,
The wine is ruby bright,
The reign of pleasure is restor’d,
Of ease and fond delight.
The day is gone, the night’s our own,
Then let us feast the soul,
If any care or pain remain,
Why drown it in the bowl.”
Daphne opened her eyes and saw the open admiration of Cameron and Moira. It buoyed her spirits and she sang louder. As her gaze met Lachlan’s, a shock ran through her, sizzling along her skin as she continued,
“This world they say’s a world of woe,
That I do deny;
Can sorrow from the goblet flow?
Or pain from beauty’s eye?
The wise are fools, with all their rules,
