Page 54 of The Scottish Duke
“What’s your objection to her being here?” he asked.
At least his sister-in-law was capable of embarrassment, if her pink cheeks were any indication.
“She’s going to take advantage of your generosity, Alex.”
“I’ve seen no example of that.”
In fact, Lorna hadn’t wanted anything from him, a comment he didn’t make to Mary. He disliked her questions and her interference. He didn’t need a second mother.
“She’s my guest, Mary.”
“She’s more than that and we both know it.”
“Do we?” he said, returning to his desk.
Jason had finished transcribing the last revision of his treatise, and he was going to deliver it to the Scottish Society in Inverness next week. He couldn’t review it for errors, though, as long as Mary was determined to harangue him.
“She’s all sweetness and sugar, Alex, but the woman has designs on you, I can tell.”
“What are you talking about?”
“She as much as insulted me,” Mary said. “She asked me to leave the cottage.”
“You visited her?”
“I felt it was my place as a member of the family,” she said. “She’s so pregnant it’s embarrassing. It’s worse than embarrassing. It’s coarse.”
How did she think babies came into the world? Had she said the same thing about Ruth?
“She’s my guest, Mary,” he repeated. “That means anything she wants, she gets, including her privacy.”
He watched as her eyes narrowed, her thin nose flared, and her flush grew a deeper red.
“Leave her alone,” he said. “She doesn’t deserve your antipathy.”
“She’s used the situation to better herself,” she said. “She’s a maid, Alex, yet you’re treating her like an equal.”
Mary had been living in what was little more than a ruin when she came to Blackhall. She and Ruth were daughters of an impecunious earl. What would have happened to her if he’d hadn’t offered her a home? A thought that evidently had never occurred to her.
“The child will be an embarrassment, Alex. A shameful reminder. A bastard.”
“You need to leave,” he said, annoyance seeping into his words. “I have work to do.”
“Of course,” she said, moving to the door. Once there, she turned and studied him. “You will take my words to heart, though, won’t you?”
He nodded, intent on getting her out of his office.
When she was gone, he sat once more, staring at the title of the treatise but not seeing Jason’s careful penmanship. Instead, he saw Lorna’s face, carefully expressionless as Reverend McGill called her a whore.
Evidently, there was more than one narrow-minded bigot in the vicinity.
Chapter 15
Every morning, Nan trotted off to Blackhall, enjoying her new popularity. People were curious about Lorna, and since Nan was also living in the gamekeeper’s cottage, they went to her for information. Her friend was an expert at saying nothing while seeming to say something.
“They want to know if the duke has visited,” Nan said this morning.
“What did you tell them?”
