Page 74 of The Duke's Wicked Widow
Ellie was about to caution the girl about shoving that all in her mouth, but she’d just taken a bite so instead hummed in pleasure. “This—Oh my, this isdelicious.” She looked up to meet Fawkes’s gaze. “These really are delightful.”
When he grinned, the dimple returned, and she was pleased she’d already swallowed because suddenly she couldn’t seem to make her throat work.
In the times she’d been with Fawkes MacMillan prior to yesterday, when they’d unceremoniously arrived on his doorstep, she’d never seen him smile likethat. The right-cheek-only dimple-worthy smile.
“Faaaawkes,” Merida nagged, and the dimple disappeared as he turned to the girl.
It is still there. You just cannot see it.
The reminder was helpful.
“Whaaaat,” he whined right back.
Merida used her fork to stab in his direction. “You were supposed to tell me about your mother!”
He shrugged. “No’ much to tell. She’s actually yer grandfather—the Earl’s—aulder sister, did ye ken that?” At the girl’s wide-eyed head-shake, he nodded. “Half-sister, really. She had a different father, so she’sno’an earl’s daughter. That’s why my name’s MacMillan, no’ Aycock.”
“That’smyname!” Merida blurted, gesturing at Ellie. “Me and Ellie’s name! That means you’re our family? It’sourname!”
“Aye, yer father’s name,” he agreed, bending back over his food. The dimple was gone. “And I suppose, in some way, I’mpartof yer family.”
“It’s not a very big family,” Merida managed around a bite of apple pancake. “But you can join it. Tell me about your mother. I don’t remember my mother, but Ellie’s kinda like my mother, right?”
Fawkes smiled. “My mother’s health has always been delicate—she’s a firm believer that nature provides remedies, and she’s the reason I’ve always wanted to be a chemist. Mother lives in Scotland, where her father lived. That’s where I grew up.”
The pair continued to chatter, with Merida asking a hundred questions about Scotland. Ellie had questions too—how far was Fawkes’s home from her sister’s home? Demon’s estate was called Endymion, and it was in Aberdeenshire; that’s all she knew of it. But she didn’t want to draw that dark-green gaze back to her, to remind him of the interloper in his home.
So she kept silent, watching, softly smiling occasionally when Merida became particularly excited about one of the stories. He’d gone to university, which is how he’d met the Duke of Effinghell. Olivia had mentioned that once in passing, when she’d explained how few true friends her husband actually had.
Ellie noticed, despite his claims of beingsimple, that Fawkes’s manners were impeccable; he even corrected Merida a time or two, with gentle reminders which washed over the little girl as knowledge, not rebukes.
Merida’s energy was inexhaustible, as always, but Fawkes answered her questions with quiet patience and even teased her in return. The camaraderie these two had built in such a short time made Ellie’s chest ache, made her want to cry.
Or perhaps she was feeling this way because of her flux.
She popped up to help clean the table—although truthfully, as a woman likely described by Fawkes as “spoiled” she had no idea what she was doing—but Fawkes’s hand on her shoulder pushed her right back down again. It was a gentle touch, warm and soft, and made her throat tighten up again.
“Sit, Ellie,” he commanded. “I’m teaching Merida how to survive on her own.This, young lady, is awash basin. We’re going to do dishes. Can ye saydishes?”
Merida threw a spoon at him, but he caught it, chuckling patronizingly.
“I don’t want to learn to bepoor, Fawkes,” she complained, even as she began rolling up her sleeves—sleeves on the same dress she’d been wearing yesterday, because Ellie only had the small valise for their things.
Perhaps she should get used to being poor.
“I’m no’ puir,” the tall man said with a snort, showing her how to wash a plate. “I just dinnae have space in my life for a bevy of servants like ye had. My mother has a few, aye, to help around the estate. I wouldnae askherto do dishes—well, actually, when I’m back home at Hangcok Hill, Mrs. Clutterbuck, the housekeeper, gets angry if I lift a finger for myself.”
Merida nodded solemnly and affected a posh tone when she drawled, “It is ever so useful to have people about who can lift one’s finger for one, wouldn’t you agree?”
With another snort, Fawkes tossed the drying towel at the girl’s head.
“Look, Ellie!” Merida called, “I’m learning to do dishes! Now we don’t have to go live with your nasty uncle, like you said in the carriage! We can get jobs right here in London! Maybe Fawkes will let us stay with him forever.”
Ellie had planted her palms and pushed herself to her feet as soon as the girl mentioned Uncle William, and now Fawkes shot her a frown. She wasn’t certain why, until he shook his head.
Too nonchalantly, he asked, “So that’s yer plan, eh? Going to Bl—to Bonkinbone?”
Ellie glanced at Merida, uncertain how much the girl knew of her history. “I…It is not my preference. I do not care for my uncle.” It was all she could say to someone who didn’t know the history of Blackrose’s betrayal.
