Page 88 of In Search of a Husband
With no time to spare, he raced forward and popped the caber up into the air by throwing his arms into the air. He stood there, panting, his hands burning and his heart drumming in his ear as the caber landed end over end, nearly striking twelve.
Nearly.
Almost perfect.
He heard the girls cheer, then looked to Kate, who stood frozen, her eyes wide and her cheeks flushed.
The crowd parted. “I’m here to toss the caber,” McQuarrie loudly announced.
“Go on,” Fergus announced. “Good toss, MacInnes. McQuarrie, ye’ve won for the past three years at the Games but that toss?—”
“I’m no’ losing to MacInnes.”
CHAPTER 23
Kilts in factwere not skirts.
Kilts were a thing frustrating, beastly men wore to distract from their terrible marriage proposals. If what Gabriel said earlier that morning could be considered a proposal.
Given that it involved no questions, she would argue it had not been.
He was flirting with her. Teasing her. She knew he liked the edge of her temper, and how it flared and burned her lips, which he was becoming excellent at cooling off with slow, dizzying kisses.
The world could turn upside down, and she wouldn’t know with his lips on hers.
She smiled to herself. He had fine, strong calves. He strutted around the festival today, holding himself proud and tall. As if he had never left Scotland.
Kate was introduced to cousins and friends not as the girls’ governess, but as the proprietress of the Thistle and Glen Inn. Gabriel complimented her on her business prowess, and she politely nodded and smiled along, not sure if she wished to hide or accept the praise.
It felt wrong somehow to be good at something she hadn’tprepared for. Kate had spent her entire life learning how to become the perfect society wife.
And one governess post in Scotland had changed all that.
The girls were not her pupils. Elsie had taken over their tutoring, and though Kate had expected the girls to rejoice, she found Lorna crying in bed because she had missed Kate.
Or how she carried Maisie off to bed the night before after she fell asleep on the sitting room’s sofa, and she nuzzled against her neck, afraid to let go while half asleep.
She didn’t wish to leave them.
Life was full of unexpected twists, and this was something she hadn’t counted on. But she wished, more than anything, to see Charlotte.
She would know what was best.
Elsie bickered with Finn as the group burst through the inn’s front door. The inn was packed, beer and whisky was flowing, and fiddle music filled the air as well as laughs.
It was a merry night after a day of music and games.
Gabriel leaned in as she assessed the crowd.
“You have Archie working behind the bar?”
“Thought he deserved a chance.”
It’s not that she didn’t agree, she just thought…
“I should go back and see what the kitchen is like. This is far better than any turnout I expected.”
He nodded, suddenly going still.
