Page 60 of Sinful Scottish Laird
Another tear slipped out, and this time Daisy not only swiped at it; she got up, determined to cease all feminine displays of disappointment. She had a son to think of, a future to get on with.
She moved to her writing desk and opened her diary. She removed Cailean’s handkerchief and touched it to her nose. It didn’t smell of Cailean; it smelled of lavender. She returned it to the book and closed it, then restlessly stood up and moved to look out the window at her garden. It was in full bloom now, brought back to life with a little care, some rotting fish and a lot of rain. She would miss it so.
With a heavy sigh, she gazed out at the lake and the heavy clouds overhead. There, in the distance, she could see a boat. The first boat she’d seen in days. She watched it glide along until it finally disappeared around the bend in the lake and she could no longer see it. That single, solitary boat reminded her of Cailean. It was like he was gliding away from her, disappearing in the distance, just...drifting away from her, carrying her heart with him.
She loved him. She knew that she did. It wasn’t the infatuation she’d felt the first time she laid eyes on him, and it was wrong, so wrong, and impossible, but she couldn’t deny that she loved him desperately. She loved the way he treated her, with respect. As an equal. She loved the way he cared for Ellis. She loved everything about him...except that he was a smuggler, and an unrepentant one at that. That, she found maddening.
* * *
DAISYATLASTcame out of her room to join the others for supper.
Robert and Uncle Alfonso were already in the great room, staring out the windows as they sipped from drams of whisky. Robert was talking about the navy, and Uncle Alfonso looked a bit glassy-eyed. The clouds overhead had turned everything quite gray. Even the light of many candles and the hearth could not chase the shadows from the room.
When Rowley announced supper was served, Robert instantly held out his arm to Daisy, as if it were his place, and not that of her uncle’s, to escort her into the dining room. Her uncle seemed not to notice, remarking on the weather to Belinda.
As Rowley served the first course, Uncle Alfonso said that Ellis had told him of the festival to be held at Balhaire. “Mr. Munro tells me it’s quite the event,” he said. “Dancing and demonstrations of strength and wares to be sold.”
“A festival held in a den of smugglers—” Robert snorted “—does not sound like an appropriateeventLord Chatwick should attend.”
Uncle Alfonso nodded thoughtfully. “There are indeed smugglers in these hills. But good people, too. I think the boy would enjoy it.”
“I would like to attend,” Belinda said uncertainly, earning a look of surprise from her cousin and her uncle.
“Youwould?” Daisy asked.
“Mr. Munro saw my painting of the Dinwiddie keep,” she said. “It’s a ruin on the hill,” she explained to Robert. “He seems to think it might fetch a good sum.”
“That settles it, then,” Uncle Alfonso said. “We will attend the festival.”
Robert looked around, clearly unhappy with the lot of them. “I will not allow Lady Chatwick and her son to go alone,” he said. “I shall attend, as well.”
It was curious that not one of them exclaimed how happy they were that he would deign to accompany them.
Uncle Alfonso changed the subject entirely as Rowley served plates of fish and potatoes. “You’ll be quite proud of this meal, I should think, darling,” he said to Daisy as Rowley spooned sauce over the fish. “Ellis caught it. It was a pollack the size of a cat.”
“Ellis caught it!” Daisy said, delighted.
“I shudder to think of Ellis on the shoreline with a large fish on the other end of his string,” Belinda said and actually shuddered. “That’s precisely how Master Cavens died, you know.”
“Oh, Belinda, please don’t mention it,” Daisy said, pressing a hand to her breast.
“He had a fish on his line that pulled him right into the Thames. They found him a full day later.”
“This is not the Thames,” Uncle Alfonso said brusquely. “The lake is calm. He would not be pulled away by the waters.”
“Well, no,” Belinda agreed. “But the danger is present all the same.”
“That is quite enough,” Robert said and laid down his fork. “Miss Hainsworth, you will kindly cease with your untoward talk at this table. You have a way of putting everyone off their otherwise exceptional meal and I, for one, will not tolerate it.”
Poor Belinda’s cheeks turned crimson.
“Rob!” Daisy said, aghast.
Tears sprang to Belinda’s eyes, and she pushed away from the table before Rowley could reach her, tipping her chair over in her haste. “I beg your pardon,” she said and fled from the room.
Robert sighed. “She certainly has a sour view of the world.” He picked up his fork to continue with his meal, seemingly unconcerned that he’d just sent Daisy’s cousin fleeing in tears. “You were saying, Mr. Kimberly?”
Daisy and her uncle exchanged a stunned look. “That’s simply the way she is,” Uncle Alfonso said darkly. “She doesn’t know better.”
