Page 14 of In Love With the Wrong Highland Sister
The two women glared at each other for a few moments, then Margaret huffed and dropped her gaze to the floor. “Well, if that is the best you can manage, I suppose it will have to do. But at least try to put a smile on your face!”
Laria mockingly pulled up each corner of her lips with a forefinger in a gesture of defiance. She then went to stand in the darkest corner of the great hall as the table and chairs were put away so that the dancing could begin, hoping that she would remain unnoticed until she could slip away.
Unfortunately, it was not to be.
* * *
James stood up as his chair was taken away, then stood patiently beside Gavin as they were besieged by eager mothers and their daughters. Each one was telling him how handsome he was and dropping into the conversation what generous dowries they had. James was not impressed by any of them. Money had never attracted him since he had plenty of his own, and he would have married a beggar if she had been the right woman for him.
He was beginning to feel quite desperate when he felt a touch on his arm and looked down to see Eloisa, who was smiling up at him with mischief in her eyes.
“You promised me a dance, did you not, James?” she asked, raising her eyebrows in inquiry.
“I did indeed!” James had done no such thing, but he seized the opportunity to escape that Eloisa had offered with both hands. His relief must have shown plainly on his face because Eloisa giggled.
“I saw that you were suffering,” she observed as he bowed to her. They could only speak to each other every few steps, as the dance steps permitted.
“I was,” he replied. “Mothers and daughters were trying to entice me by offering dowries like flies to a trout.”
They parted and came together again.
“You are meant to be marrying me,” Eloisa said, her big gray eyes fastened on him. “It is my duty to wed you if you find me acceptable.”
James’s heart plummeted into his stomach as they changed partners. “I thought you had a choice,” he said, as they came together again. “Anyway, what about Gavin? I have seen the way you two get along so well.”
Eloisa blushed bright pink. “Gavin and I are not meant to be together,” she said, avoiding his eyes. “But what about you and Laria? You two also look as if there is something between you.”
Eloisa did not mistake the hope that flared in his eyes, and when they came together in the steps of the dance again, he could not help but ask: “Do you think she is attracted to me?”
“Attraction is one thing, but love and marriage…” She shrugged as the steps brought them into each other’s arms. “You have to want them, James. Eloisa will never marry again. Only today, I spoke to her about coming out of mourning, and she almost took my head off. She is stuck in a pit of despair, but it is of her own making, and she will never marry again as long as she does not want to climb out of it.”
They changed partners again, which gave them both a chance to think for a moment.
“Why does she not want to marry again?” he asked curiously when they had reunited. At that moment, the music ended, and they walked off the floor and sat down. “You said before that it was something very private, and she would likely not want to speak of it to anyone outside the family, but you know me better now, Ellie. Can you tell me?”
“She is afraid,” Eloisa confessed. “She loved her husband very much, Jamie, but a fever took him away. She had a dose of it too, but she did not have such a heavy dose, and she lived, but she is barren. She can never bear children. She also feels guilty that she survived and he did not.
“She tells us that she is still mourning Robbie, and that is partly true, but she is also scared of having her heart broken again, and so she keeps any potential husbands at a distance. But my father wants me to make a good marriage, and that is why he wants you and I to wed. He tells me that I can turn you away if I wish, but if I do that, my parents will be so disappointed it will break their hearts. But you are quite at liberty to say no to me if you want to.” She stopped and looked around. “Do you see Laria anywhere?”
James looked around the big room carefully, scrutinizing every corner. “No,” he replied. “Has she left?”
Eloisa looked at him as his gaze traveled all over the room, looking more and more anxious the further he went.He truly is a beautiful man,she thought, and wondered what her life would be like if she married him. She thought that she might be reasonably content, but she doubted that theirs would ever be a grand passion.
Gavin, however, was a different matter. She could love him. Indeed, she was half in love with him already. She watched him moving across the dance floor with a very pretty young woman who was gazing at him adoringly and hanging on his every word. A spike of jealousy shot through her as she saw him laughing with her before the dance separated them, but as he looked up, his gaze met hers, and once more, the crackle of something deliciously disturbing passed between them.
If only he were mine,Eloisa thought sadly as she watched Gavin passing from partner to partner smiling, laughing, and teasing them. Occasionally, their eyes would meet, and that strange current would pass between them again, but Gavin was not dancing with her, or ever would be. He would never hold her, kiss her, or make love to her. The thought of them being so intimate sent a thrill of desire straight to her core, then she crushed the thought. It would never happen.
Eloisa looked around for James only to see him disappear into the crowd of guests who were watching the dancing.
The music ended, and Gavin came over to Eloisa and smiled. “May I have the pleasure of the next dance?” he asked.
“Oh, yes,” she breathed.
* * *
She will not want to be found,James thought,so she will hide in the darkest place possible.He went up to the wall of the huge room and followed it all the way to one corner and found nothing. He tried the next. Still nothing. However, he found his quarry in the next corner.
There was an ornamental plant standing close to it, cutting off the light from the lamps above and in front of it, and as he drew the branches aside, he saw the seated figure of a quiet, tense Laria. Her eyes widened when she saw him, then her brow furrowed in annoyance.
