Page 83 of The Scottish Duke
The green curtains matched the outdoors, spring coming to the Highlands gradually but with triumphant bits of color on the landscape.
The two settees facing the fireplace were each upholstered in a subdued green and gold pattern. Louise had moved the table between them and now Robbie’s cradle sat there. Not that her son was anywhere but in his grandmother’s arms when Louise got the chance to hold him.
“Will he?”
She’d become fond of Louise in the last weeks, enough to hide her real thoughts. She wasn’t the least bit certain Alex was going to return to Blackhall. Oh, he might come back for holidays or to see his mother. But for her? No. Or his son?
The three interminable months had passed in a pleasant routine marked by moments of grief.
After a while it was like there never had been a Duke of Kinross with blue-green eyes at Blackhall. There was only Robbie and Nan, the duchess, and caring for her child.
“Yes, he’ll come back, and soon, I think,” Louise said, glancing down at Robbie.
He always fell asleep quickly in her mother-in-law’s arms, as if he knew that it was a place of safety.
“He’s been gone a long time, Louise.”
The other woman nodded then glanced at her.
“I know.” Louise sighed. “He did the same with Ruth after learning of her infidelity. If she was at Blackhall, he stayed in Edinburgh. When she went to Edinburgh, he returned to Blackhall. This is different, however.”
“How?”
Louise didn’t say anything for a time. Robbie lay on his tummy on her lap. His legs kicked out as he made sounds she’d come to think of as Robbie language. From time to time he would push his chest up and stare at Lorna as if checking to make sure she hadn’t gone anywhere.
He had, blessedly, started sleeping six or seven hours at night, letting her sleep as well.
When Louise wasn’t talking to her, she was engaged in conversation with Robbie. He, in turn, would answer her with oohs and aahs, grabbing for one of her necklaces or her sparkly earrings.
He was a happy baby, one who smiled often. In the last weeks he’d grown so much, changes Alex hadn’t seen.
Blackhall might be his home, but he had other properties in Inverness, Edinburgh, and London. He could live anywhere.
“Should I move to Inverness? Or Edinburgh?”
“You’re certainly welcome to live anywhere you wish, but know this. I’m following you. I am determined to be Robbie’s grandmother, and wherever you go, I go.”
“I won’t go anywhere,” Lorna said. “I consider Blackhall my home, as much home as I’ve had in the last ten years.”
The two women smiled at each other, the moment punctuated by Robbie speech.
“I do wish Mary would choose somewhere else other than Blackhall to live,” Louise said. “I’m surprised she hasn’t followed him.”
“She looks at me as if she hates me.”
“She probably does,” Louise said, surprising her. “She knows she isn’t welcome in my private apartments anymore. I haven’t left any doubt in her mind that I disapprove of her behavior.”
Lorna avoided Mary whenever possible, a technique her new mother-in-law openly facilitated.
The two of them had taken to eating dinner together in Alex’s sitting room, one of the few rooms in the castle Mary couldn’t invade. To ensure that was the case, Peter stood guard at the outside door, a position that one of the footmen always maintained at night. In fact, a great many footmen were always abroad after sunset, which she hadn’t realized until after her conversations with Mrs.McDermott.
She’d dreaded the initial meeting with the housekeeper, but she shouldn’t have. When she’d met with Mrs.McDermott a few weeks ago, the woman was as warm and personable to her as a new duchess as she had been to the scared girl applying for the position of maid years before.
Evidently, it was only when she was living at Blackhall in an unmarried, pregnant state that Mrs.McDermott disapproved of her.
“You’ll be a fine addition to the Russell family,” the housekeeper said.
Then she’d done something surprising and touching, a gesture that had brought tears to Lorna’s eyes. She’d bent forward and kissed her on the cheek.
