Page 5 of Taming the Heiress
"Good morning, Lady Strathlin."
"Guy! Do sit." He did, taking a leather chair opposite her desk. His long body was relaxed and agile, and his natural verve made her feel more energetic.
"I apologize for being late."
"No matter. Sir John was here, all in knots over my proposed home for young ladies."
"He can be a sour old screw, but he has your best interests at heart. I stopped by Uncle Edward's law office before coming here, or would have helped you fend off Sir John. Hello, Mrs. Berry. On loyal duty, I see," he called pleasantly. Mrs. Berry smiled and waved, then went back to her reading.
"Please look through these." Meg pushed several letters toward him. "I've added a list of the replies I think necessary."
"Very good. Where is Mrs. Shaw this morning?" He glanced around the library, and Meg thought she saw a slight flush spill through his cheeks.
"Downstairs making up menus with Mrs. Louden. They are all in a kerfuffle over the soiree, though it's two months away."
"It is certain to be an extravaganza." He smiled as he flipped through the letters.
Watching him, Meg saw an etching of sadness in his fine brown eyes. Widowed a few years earlier, Hamilton kept his grief private and his mood calm and uplifting. He efficiently saw to his duties as Meg's secretary and oversaw her correspondence as well as her travel and social schedule. A new lawyer and new widower when Meg first employed him as her secretary, his humor and graciousness had made him a true friend.
"Sir John said that Frederick also disapproves of Matheson House for Young Ladies. Apparently Frederick told him that he and I are engaged to be married."
"How odd. I suppose Sir Frederick has wrongly interpreted your kindness toward him."
She tipped her head, considering. In the first years of her inheritance, she had relied on her cousin's counsel as a banker, and later, when he was in mourning for his wife and his bills were mounting, she had given him some respite from a financial deal that had gone poorly. "I thought it important to show loyalty to a friend. I meant nothing else by it."
"My dear, you are a generous friend, as I can attest myself. Not only are you lovely and good-hearted, but you are the richest woman in Scotland. As a man, may I say that it is a perfectly lethal combination."
"Oh!" Meg felt her cheeks heat.
"Any man could fall in love with you, and some might scheme to marry you due to your fortune." He smiled. "Not me, my dear. I do adore you, but I keep you firmly on a pedestal, where you belong."
"I shall only topple." Meg laughed a little. "But you're wrong. No one else has asked for my hand but Sir Frederick."
"If any fellow makes an unwanted advance toward you, I want to hear about it." Guy frowned. "I shall speak to Matheson."
"Thank you, but I will do that, after I return from the Isles."
He nodded, and gestured toward the silver tray. "Quite a few letters this morning, I see."
"A good number of these are acceptances for the soiree for Miss Jenny Lind in early September."
"I expect everyone will want to attend."
"I hope so. There is so much to do to be ready." She felt a moment of doubt, wondering how Angela Shaw had convinced her to host an event for the celebrated Swedish Nightingale. "Did you send an invitation to Mr. Dougal Robertson Stewart?"
"The engineer? Yes, a servant delivered it to his rooms last week. The man was difficult to find, and the invitation could not be sent by daily post. He's often out in some remote place putting up lighthouses, and his family seat is out in Strathclyde. Fortunately, he keeps rooms in town on Calton Hill. I think you do well to invite Mr. Stewart. A gesture of truce, as it were."
"No doubt he sees it as a gesture of surrender."
"Arrogant. When you finally meet him, I hope it will not come to blows," Guy said in a droll tone.
"His letters over the past several months have been insistent to the point of rudeness. His latest action is a little declaration of war, in my opinion. Obtaining parliamentary permission to construct barracks on my island, when we denied him the right, was—odious!"
"Mr. Stewart does what he wants, it seems."
"He is impatient and demanding." She sighed. "I admit that in his letters he shows concern for the welfare of his men. But he is otherwise obstinate in his dealings with my soliciting firm."
"In person, I hear, he is the very devil for charm."
