Page 34 of Sinful Scottish Laird
“What’s this? A garden?”
Daisy and Mr. Somerled turned at the same moment; the gate swung open with some force and through it strode Arrandale. He was dressed in buckskins and a dark coat, and his boots were muddied, as if he’d been hunting.
Arrandale glanced around the little garden, his gaze appraising. “You are clearly in need of a gardener, Lady Chatwick.”
She gaped at him. “I beg your pardon,Iam the gardener here. I would think you’d recall as such from our previous meetings.”
“Was that what you were doing, then?” he asked as he looked around again. “I imagined you engaged in something else entirely.” He gave her a pointed look.
Daisy’s cheeks began to burn as he sauntered forward and looked at the rose she’d tucked into her bodice. Her skin burned beneath that little rose. “Diah,if this is a rose you have grown, I would highly recommend you attempt other endeavors, aye? Perhaps pottery.”
“I beg your pardon, but I picked that flower for her,” Mr. Somerled said, straightening up a bit. “You insult the lady, Arrandale.”
“Youpicked it?” Arrandale said with a chuckle. “I might have left that on the vine if it were my best offering.”
Daisy bit back a laugh of shock. Mr. Somerled looked truly affronted.
“Please, pay him no mind, Mr. Somerled,” she begged.
“I pay him no mind at all, madam. He is of no consequence to me. I will leave you now so that Arrandale might impress you further with his wit, aye?” he snapped. He bowed, then stepped around Arrandale without another word and strode from the garden.
Arrandale watched him go, then looked at Daisy and smiled smugly.
“You’re a wretched, wretched man. You needn’t have teased him,” she said, taking the rose from her bodice.
“What sort of man is he that he canna bear a wee bit of teasing?” he asked jovially. “Look at you, Lady Chatwick, with a gift from your admirer. You enjoy the attention, aye?”
“I do,” she said breezily. “As I’m sureyouwould enjoy the attention if any was ever paid to you.”
“Oh ho,” he said cheerfully, “the lady doth challenge me. I’ve had a fair share of attention paid to me, I have. Quite a lot in recent days, I will boldly remind you. At least I’ve no’ presented you with spindly blooms eaten by insects.”
“You can’t fault Mr. Somerled for the selection,” she said, casting her arm around her.
“Aye, but I can fault him for being tiresome.”
Daisy tried not to smile...and bowed her head so he’d not see it.
Arrandale clasped his hands and stepped around her, venturing deeper into her little garden.
“You sound rather envious, in truth,” she said. “And yet I know that cannotpossiblybe true as you do not hold any great esteem for me.”
“Aye, you are correct—it canna possibly be true,” he said and cast a smile over his shoulder at her.
It was a pity he stood a few steps away—she couldn’t kick him as she suddenly wanted to do. “Then what is it that vexes you?” she demanded, annoyed with him now.
“Oh, I’m no’ vexed, madam. But I would no’ like to see you set your sights on him.”
“I’m not setting my sights on anyone.”
“If you say so.”
“Why should you not take me at my word?” she said, her vexation growing. He was maddening! “Have I been anything but unfailingly honest with you? You want to believe the nonsense that comes from the mouths of gossips and rogues.”
He glanced at her again, but his smile was gone. “I know the men here. I know what they want.”
Daisy bristled at the insinuation. It was one thing for her to believe it, but entirely another for him to say it aloud to her. “You can’t possibly know their intentions—”
“I know the brothers Fergus and Irving MacDonald are shipbuilders and suffered the loss of a ship in the spring,” he said, moving toward her. “I know Murray’s brother lost his cattle to bovine plague, and now he canna keep his clan fed.”
