Page 10 of A Virgin for the Icy Highlander
Grace snorted. “I think she will regret the dare she gave me, for it has evidently gone awry.”
“I think she will see it as one less girl to worry about, if thisdoesbecome a marriage,” Maddie answered quietly, almost sadly. “One less fate for her to fret over.”
For as much as Miss Sutton wanted all the girls in her care to have the world at their feet and every opportunity to do whatever they pleased, with no limitations or boundaries or constraints because of their sex, the world those girls came from would never truly align with her wishes.
The best the headmistress could hope for was that her girls would make good matches with men who supported and admired their intellect and passions, allowing them the freedoms that she had enjoyed.
Is Hunter a man like that?
Maybe he wouldn’t come for Grace, after all. Maybe he would take her departure as a rejection of his proposal. Maybe she would never find out what sort of man he was, and this night would be forgotten, becoming a distant, hazy dream ofcèilidhs, dancing, and a laird so handsome he couldn’t possibly be real.
“Grace?” Maddie said, pulling her out of her reverie.
“Hmm?”
“If you ask this laird no other question, please promise me you will ask this…” Maddie trailed off, holding onto Grace a little tighter.
“What?”
Maddie took a deep breath. “Ask him what happened to his previous wife—the mother of that little girl.” She offered an anxious smile. “Just as a precaution.”
“What are you suggesting?” Grace asked, uncertain of whether to laugh or worry.
Maddie shook her head. “Nothing at all; I just want you to be careful. Remember, he has killed a lot of people, certainly more than he told us tonight if he has been at war.” She paused, her voice thick as she added, “So, as your friend, I want you to be absolutely certain that she wasn’t one of them.”
5
Grace hadn’t slept a wink in the tower room she shared with Maddie and Lilian, and, judging by their ceaseless tossing and turning all night, they hadn’t slept much either.
For Grace, excitement and unease had battled for precedence. Maddie’s gentle warning attacked the relief of not having to return to London, ambushing the thrill of potentially marrying a handsome man who just wanted her to take care of his daughter.
Common sense had fought back a little, encouraging her to dwell on the most reasonable explanation for the absence of the girl’s mother. Childbirth was a dangerous undertaking that didn’t discriminate, taking the lives of fishwives, chambermaids, and duchesses alike.
“Are you awake?” Lilian whispered from beneath a pile of coverlets.
Grace stifled a chuckle. “Of course, I am.”
“Didanyonesleep?” Maddie chimed in, mirth in her voice.
“I suspect not,” a different voice interjected.
All three women sat bolt upright in their beds, turning toward the chamber door. Miss Sutton stood there, her hand raised in greeting, and a baffled expression on her face.
“And I should say that you have some explaining to do, for there is a carriage waiting outside, and, apparently, it is for you.”
“It’s nae like ye to pick at yer food,” Thomas Barr remarked with a smirk, nodding toward Hunter’s barely touched breakfast.
As Hunter’s man-at-arms, Thomas should’ve known better than to make such comments about his Laird, but, as his brother, there was no way of stopping him. Hunter had tried.
“I dinnae eat unless I’m hungry,” Hunter replied flatly, waving a hand over the abundant feast that had been prepared for breakfast. “This is wasteful. I’ll speak to the cook.”
Four years of war had tamed his tastes, and though he was back behind the walls of his castle, it felt more like a domain that he’d conquered. The rooms felt strange and unfamiliar, the staff werestill getting accustomed to having him back, and his daughter had refused to leave the chamber he’d assigned to her.
Only Thomas seemed comfortable, which was no surprise, considering he’d split his time between the watch house at Lockton and Castle MacLogan while Hunter and his men were fighting battles.
“Ye’ll offend her,” Thomas protested.
Hunter was about to say that he didn’t care who he offended, when there were villages on the outskirts of his territory—and many more in the MacRannock lands—that were starving after the war, but the sound of giddy laughter and animated chatter halted his thoughts.
