Page 43 of The Scottish Duke
“Is that important to you, that you’re not displeasing?”
“Not at all,” he said.
Then he did something startling. He bowed slightly before moving away.
She closed her eyes, mulling over that odd gesture.
“Would you like some tea?”
She opened her eyes to see Mrs.McDermott standing there, hands folded at her waist, the expression in her eyes carefully neutral.
When Lorna first met the housekeeper in Inverness, the woman was visiting friends. Her squarish face had been transformed by laughter and the humor in her eyes. Now, eyebrows arched like question marks over her dark blue eyes. Her mouth, often smiling, currently bore a polite and false expression.
Mrs.McDermott had always been fair to the staff and approachable. She was the first to defend anyone if she was accused of a misdeed. Although there was a majordomo on staff, most of the footmen preferred to go to the housekeeper if they had a problem or needed an issue addressed.
Mrs.McDermott didn’t look the least bit approachable at the moment. Instead, the look in the housekeeper’s eyes reminded her of Reverend McGill.
“Yes, please,” Lorna said now, attempting to rise. “I would like some tea.” It was easier to sit in the overstuffed chair than to get out of it.
“You sit there, MissGordon,” the housekeeper said, reaching out and placing her hand on Lorna’s arm. “I’ll fetch it for you.”
MissGordon? The coolness in the other woman’s eyes was a clue, then, to her reception at Blackhall.
“I didn’t want to come back, Mrs.McDermott. I didn’t have a choice.”
The housekeeper didn’t say anything, just stood in front of the chair with her hands folded at her waist. Evidently, she didn’t approve either of the living arrangements or the situation.
Lorna glanced away, the temptation to cry almost unbearable. If she did, she wasn’t altogether sure she would be able to stop for a while. Instead, she leaned her head back against the chair and closed her eyes.
“You’ll think whatever you want to think, Mrs.McDermott. I’ve changed my mind. I don’t want any tea, thank you.”
She heard the woman move away.
Finally, they were gone, all of them, even Nan, who’d excitedly announced that she was to live with her in the cottage and wasn’t that grand? Mrs.McDermott hadn’t said another word to her, but her sharp eyes seemed to be everywhere. When the duke had come to stand in front of the chair where she sat, Lorna was conscious of her glance, not to mention the interest of Hortensia and Abigail.
“There are two bedrooms,” he said. “I’ve had your trunk put in the larger one.”
“Thank you.”
“You might want to make the smaller room a nursery.”
“Yes. Thank you.”
“Can I get you anything?”
“No,” she said. “I’m fine.”
She wasn’t fine and he seemed to know it. He stood there, making no move to leave.
“You’ve been very generous. Thank you.”
“It’s hardly generosity,” he said.
She nodded, which she hoped would preclude his explanation. She didn’t want him to tell her that anyone would have done the same, or that the duchess had been the instigator, or that the situation called for gentlemanly action on his part. The fact was, silly as it seemed, she wanted him to care for her, to have done all this for her.
She wanted him toseeher.
Her son chose that moment to roll from one side to the other.
