Page 4 of Ten Lords for the Holidays

He leaned to her. “Do they ever let you insert a word?” he asked quietly.

Jane tried not to shiver at his voice’s low rumble. “On occasion,” she said. “I play a fine game of cricket myself. Or used to. As John said, I am much too prim and proper now.”

“No, she ain’t,” the middle Randolph cousin, Marcus, proclaimed. “Just this summer she hiked up her petticoats and took up the bat.”

“A pity I missed it,” John said loudly. “We ought to scare up a team of ladies at camp, Ingram. Officers wives versus…”

Marcus and Thomas burst out laughing, and the oldest cousin, Digby, looked aghast. “I say, old chap. Not in front of Jane.”

“Your pardon, Jane.” John looked anything but sorry. He was unusually merry tonight. Perhaps he’d imbibed a quantity of brandy to stave off the cold of the journey.

“I am not offended,” Jane answered. “But my mother might be.”

Lady Merrickson was not at all, Jane knew, but the admonition made John flush. “Er…” he spluttered.

“Whisky!” Digby snatched up the bottle and held it high. “Thank you, John. All is forgiven. Marcus, fetch the glasses. Mr. MacDonald, the black bun is for you, I think.”

Grandfather snatched up the cake wrapped in muslin and held it to his nose. “A fine one. Like me old mum used to bake.”

Grandfather’s “old mum” had a cook to do her baking, so Jane had been told. His family had lived well in the Highlands before the ’45.

Outside, the piper Grandfather had hired began to drone, the noise of the pipes wrapping around the house.

“What the devil isthat?” John demanded.

“I believe they are bagpipes,” Captain Ingram said. His mild tone made Jane want to laugh. “You have heard them in the Highland regiments.”

“Not like that. Phew, what a racket.”

Grandfather scowled at him. “Ye wouldn’t know good piping from a frog croaking, lad. There are fiddlers and drummers waiting in the ballroom. Off we go.”

The cousins, with whisky and glasses, pounded out of the dining room and along the hall to the ballroom in the back of the house. John escorted Jane, hurrying her to the entertainment, while Captain Ingram politely walked with Grandfather. The terrace windows in the ballroom framed the bonfires burning merrily a mile or so away.

Three musicians waited, two with fiddles, one with a drum. They struck up a Scottish tune as the family entered, blending with the piper outside.

Guest who’d been staying at the house and those arriving now that the First-Footer ritual was done swarmed around them. They were neighbors and old friends of the family, and soon laughter and chatter filled the room.

Grandfather spoke a few moments with Captain Ingram, then he threw off his shawl and cane and jigged to the drums and fiddles, cheered on by Jane’s cousins and John. Ingram, politely accepting a whisky Digby had thrust at him, watched with interest.

“I am not certain this was the welcome you expected,” Jane said when she drifted near him again.

“It will do.” Ingram looked down at her, his gray eyes holding fire. “Is every New Year like this for you?”

“I am afraid so,” Jane answered. “Grandfather insists.”

“He enjoys it, I’d say.”

Grandfather kicked up his heels, a move that made him totter, but young Thomas caught him, and the two locked arms and whirled away.

“He does indeed.” Some considered Jane’s grandfather a foolish old man, but he had more life in him than many insipid young aristocrats she met during the London Season.

The music changed to that of a country dance, and couples formed into lines, ladies facing gentlemen. John immediately went to a young lady who was the daughter of Jane’s family’s oldest friends and led her out.

“Lady Jane?” Ingram offered his arm. “I am an indifferent dancer, but I will make the attempt.”

Jane did not like the way her heart fluttered at the sight of Captain Ingram’s hard arm, outlined by the tight sleeve of his coat. Jane was as good as betrothed—she should not have to worry about her heart fluttering again.

Out of nowhere, Jane felt cheated. Grandfather’s stories of his courtship with her grandmother, filled with passion and romance, flitted through her mind. The two had been very much in love, had run away together to the dismay of both families, and then defied them all and lived happily ever after. For one intense moment, Jane wanted that.

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