Page 119 of The Texan Duke
“Why would you want to buy a house? We both know you’re leaving Scotland. You and your saddle.”
She certainly had a bee in her bonnet about his saddle.
“For Lara and Felix. I don’t trust my cousin’s acquisitive nature. I think it would be better for everyone if she and Felix lived somewhere other than Bealadair.”
“Oh.” She adjusted her scarf and wiggled her fingers in her gloves before focusing her attention on him again. “You should have told me,” she said.
She was right; he should have told her. He should have done this whole thing differently. He was angry about his own ineptness, but more than a little annoyed at her.
“Why were you all set on buying a house in the first place? Why did you leave Bealadair? Why did you leave without telling me?”
He was getting angry, and that was evidently not a sight the inhabitants of Inverness saw often. More than one person stopped to watch them. He wanted to wave them away, but another thing he knew about the Scots: they were stubborn. If they wanted to remain where they were, nothing would budge them.
“Does it matter who leaves first? You’ll not be staying in Scotland. You’ve made that point abundantly clear.”
He’d spent the past week telling her about Texas, gradually getting her used to the idea. Evidently, he’d been too damn subtle. He should have just come out and asked her to marry him days ago.
He’d fought in a war and faced the daunting daily task of managing a two million acre ranch, but he’d never felt as lacking as he did right now, facing Elsbeth.
He took off his hat, stood there with it in his hands, and said, “You won’t be needing a house in Scotland, Elsbeth.”
“I have no desire to live at Bealadair any longer.”
He didn’t want her to live at Bealadair, either, but she seemed so determined on the point that he had to ask. “Has the fur been flying between you and the duchess again?”
She shook her head. “I’m not sure I even recognize Rhona anymore. She isn’t herself. Or maybe I’ve always misjudged her.” She looked at him with her beautiful gray eyes, almost making him lose track of what she was saying. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen her as happy as she is now. She goes around smiling at everyone. I caught her complimenting Addy this morning. I don’t think I’ve ever seen her in the kitchen before.”
He had more important topics to discuss than Rhona and Sam’s romance.
“You’re right—I’m leaving, but I have a problem, Elsbeth. I don’t want to leave Scotland without you.”
She didn’t say anything. Instead, she just looked at him with no expression at all. Her eyes seemed deeper, somehow. Almost as if tears pooled in them.
“I decided, then, that I’ll just have to take you back with me,” he said. “That way I get the best of both worlds. I get you and I get Texas.”
She still didn’t say anything.
“Besides,” he said, “I’ve begun to think of you as a Texan.”
She remained silent, her expression one he couldn’t read. Didn’t she realize what a great compliment he’d just given her?
“I’m not a Texan,” she finally said. “I’m a Scot.”
She was his Scot.
“Will you come? Back to Texas with me?”
“Do you need a housekeeper?” she asked.
“What?”
He stared up at her, wishing that his proposal wasn’t being done on the steps of the solicitor’s office.
“Or do you want someone to inspect your cattle?” she asked.
“I beg your pardon?”
“Why would you ask me to come back to Texas with you?”
