Page 54 of The Last Debutante
Touché.“Aye,” Jamie drawled.
“But I thought the ladies said the coach let her off on the Brodie lands,” Lady Ann said. “Is it not dangerous for you to be on Brodie lands, Laird?”
Jamie was on the verge of taking the brash young woman to task, but Daria said, “I think there’s not an inch of Scotland that is dangerous to the laird. As your father said, he is legendary. But how kind of you to be concerned.”
“You have a good friend indeed in Miss Babcock, sir,” the taller of the old women said. “Are we to have the tour? I should very much like to see the castle.”
“We really have taken too much of the laird’s time,” Murchison said.
“Nonsense. You’ve come all this way, aye? My brother, Geordie, will be delighted to show your guests about, my lord.” He looked at Young John and said to him in Gaelic, “Geordie has my leave to make the tour as difficult as he’d like.”
With a hint of a smile, Young John went out to fetch Geordie.
“If you will excuse me, then.” Jamie looked at Daria and took pity on her. She’d be picked apart by the Murchison vultures. And frankly, it would behoove him to keep her close, lest she manage to convince them that she’d been kidnapped. “Miss Babcock?” He held out his hand to her, wondering if she would take it.
He needn’t have wondered—Daria moved so quickly that she accidentally bumped into the tea cart. He smiled and led her out the door.
“You’ll think on what I’ve said, Laird, won’t you?” Murchison called after him.
“No’ even for a moment,” Jamie said congenially, and smiled at the ladies. “Good day.”
Once outside, Jamie put his hand on Daria’s elbow and steered her out of hearing distance. “That went well, aye?”
Her eyes narrowed. “You think yourself so very clever!”
He laughed softly. “The English lack imagination,leannan. They would never believe you are here against your will.”
“Well, yes, I realize that now,” she said impatiently. “At leastthatgroup of English lacks imagination. But I will think of something, Jamie Campbell. You can’t hold me forever.”
“Donna fret. I should like this over more than you.” For reasons that were now becoming cloudy.
“In the meantime, I look forward to seeing Mamie,” she said pertly. “Don’t think you will worm your way out of that promise.” She flounced away in high dudgeon.
Jamie had to admit, she was really quite lovely when her dudgeon was high.
Seventeen
DARIA FUMED FORthe rest of the afternoon, despising Lord Murchison and his daughter for their inexcusable indifference to her plight, and despising Lady Ann for her inexcusably imperious manner.
She realized that Jamie would likely marry someone just like that wretched woman, and the thought gave her a nauseating little twist. Maybe that was whom he had meant when he said his marriage was all but arranged. Daria shuddered for him.
Her humor wasn’t improved when she came down for supper and found only Duff within. He saw her hesitation and gestured for her to enter the room. “I’ll no’ bite you, lass.”
“Where is everyone?” she asked.
“Out here and there.”
While she was forced to dine with the tersest man of Dundavie. That, she thought wryly, was quite a challenge.
He glanced up at her as if he knew what she was thinking. “Sit.”
Daria sat.
Nothing was said through the first course, which Daria found excruciating. When the main course was served and Duff remained focused on his plate, she said, “I suppose the laird and his family are dining with the Murchisons?”
Duff said nothing.
“Perhaps the Murchisons are frequent visitors to Dundavie, hmm? After all, what other society is available to them?”
