Page 25 of Sweet Home Highlander
“Uncivilized?”
“I was going to say idiotic.” She met her friend’s perceptive gaze. Telling Julien the truth about her past had been difficult, and while he’d proven understanding, she wasn’t certain he’d approve of this wager she’d made with Niall. So far as Julien knew, they were being held in place at Maclaren and Tarbendale upon orders from the family solicitor. Aisla saw no reason to alter that. “I certainly hope Mr. Stevenson comes through with the marriage record sooner rather than later.”
He met her gaze and sharpened his own. “Before there is any danger of dredging up old feelings?”
Aisla gaped at him. “Hardly. It’s over between us.”
“Hedoesn’t seem to think so.”
She sat forward. “What do you mean?”
“I took a great personal risk in coming here, you know,” Julien told her, lowering his voice in a conspiratorial fashion. “I just saw your very ominous, scowling husband at the tavern. I gather he was not pleased about your new living arrangements. And honestly, Aisla, you could have warned me he has an ego to match his size.”
“I didn’t know,” she said indignantly. “I haven’t seen him in six years! Of course he wasn’t pleased. And he’s always been arrogant.” She vaulted an eyebrow, staring at him pointedly. “Which man isn’t?”
He gave her an affronted, over-the-top Julien look that normally made her laugh, but this time only made her want to hit him. She shook her head and groaned. Scotland brought out her Highlander blood in full force. “What did he say to you?”
“Since we don’t have the opera or the theater, you must indulge my need for drama,chérie, particularly when my life is at stake every second that passes,” he went on. “As I was saying, I was sitting there in the tavern, minding my own business, when your husband sat down for a chat. Sadly, he did not like what I had to say. Most of the men there were well into their cups, and I barely escaped unscathed.”
Aisla fought an eye-roll. She knew exactly the kind of provoking things Julien liked to say. “Then what happened?”
“Nothing happened,” he said, with an infuriatingly blasé laugh. “There was a bit of cock-strutting and posturing, but beyond an empty threat to shoot me should I set foot on Tarbendale lands, it wasn’t anything I couldn’t handle.”
She gasped. “He threatened to shoot you?”
“If I set foot here,” he said solemnly and patted his heart. “Oui.”
This time she did roll her eyes and laugh. “You’re safe. If they’re at the tavern, it will be all night before anyone returns.” Aisla signaled to a maid hurrying past. “Please ask Fenella to send in some refreshment for his lordship. Wine, ale, whisky, or whatever is available.”
Julien smiled brightly, nearly knocking the poor girl off her feet. “Whisky, if you have it. Thank you,mignon.”
“You’re incorrigible,” she said, feeling light for the first time in hours. “Flirting in front of your future wife.”
He smirked. “While sitting in the heap of stones belonging to the man my future wife is currently married to.”
“You’re the one who wanted to wed.”
“The prize isn’t worth anything if it’s not worth fighting for.”
They shared a grin of commiseration just as Fenella appeared with a tray. With one glass of whisky. Aisla would have sighed if it wasn’t so predictable. She nodded for Julien to take the drink. After Fenella left with a scowl, he lifted the glass high in toast. “To getting what we both want.”
Aisla frowned thoughtfully at him, sitting there so out of place in his fashionable clothes. “Why would you want to stay when you could go back to Paris? You don’t have to be here.”
“And miss all the fun?” He grinned and drained the whisky. “I wouldn’t leave for all the gold in Scotland. It’s like being in the middle of my own personal bawdy-house theater production. The laird seduces the maiden. The wife seduces the master. Who will win? I’m on tenterhooks.”
“Do be serious.”
He pressed a palm to his chest in mock horror. “I am always serious.”
“Why stay? The truth.”
“If you must know,Mamanis on the warpath about my future bride, and I’d rather not drown in swooning virgins being tossed on the sacrificial altar à la Julien.”
“You haven’t told her about us?”
He shot her a look. “After you announced you were already married? No, of course not. It would break her heart, if for some reason you chose to stay married and remain in this barren wasteland.”
“That will never happen.”
