Page 90 of The Texan Duke
Rhona, now, was a different story.
He smiled at her and wondered when he could get her alone.
Elsbeth made her way to the kitchen, hoping to get an early dinner and retire to her sitting room. She knew she was running out of time. She couldn’t avoid the family any longer. She had to talk to Rhona. Hopefully, however, not until after her trip to Inverness tomorrow.
The weather was holding. The days were so cold that the air felt like you could snap it in two, but wrapped up in her cloak with an added scarf and her leather gloves, she was very comfortable on her rounds.
The cattle were doing well. So were the crofters she visited.
The McCraights were very proud. They didn’t ask for handouts or help, normally. You had to be very cagey in how you asked if they needed assistance. She had always found that if she spoke about the children, the parents allowed as how maybe they could use a bit more flour or some help with cutting wood.
There was one family, so far away that she could only visit them every few weeks, where the husband had finally succumbed to a large growth on his throat. Patty was alone with their three children, and she worried about the woman enough to offer her a position at the house. Unlike other great houses, the children lived with their parents in small cottages on the edge of the estate. The children could go to the school they devised, half day while their mother was working. In such a way, Gavin had planned to educate all of Bealadair’s staff, making it possible for them to go on to other positions if they wished. Some of the children were slated to go on to higher education, one of his longtime goals.
How much of that would remain once the house was sold?
If she genuinely believed that seduction would have any kind of impact on Connor’s decision, she might’ve given it some thought and consideration.
Or perhaps she could hold herself out as a trade, of sorts. The good of the people of Bealadair for her virginity. She doubted she would marry. What good would a maidenhead do her when she could trade it for the benefit of so many other people?
She was not given to lying to herself. The sacrifice wouldn’t be all that unpleasant. She wanted to kiss Connor again. Without thought of anyone’s survival, but for her own sake.
Earlier, she’d patted his coat and she wanted to do more. She wanted to wrap her arms around his neck and pull his head down for a kiss and be lost in it for moments and moments.
What had the duchess said? Something about seduction being instinctive. Was she right? Was that true? Did you simply get within touching range of a male who attracted you and something took over? You knew how to act and what went where and how?
She couldn’t imagine something like that happening, especially around Connor. She would be inept and silly. He was so overpoweringly male. More of a man than anyone she’d ever met.
She’d never considered men in degrees of their maleness before, but she found herself ranking them as she made her way to the kitchen. She would definitely place Connor at the very top slot, and then, perhaps in third or fourth position his friend, Mr. Kirby. One or two of the crofters might be in the top ten. Gavin, bless him, was a very studious man and an enormously kind one, but she couldn’t say that he was exceptionally male. Had his brother been different?
Gavin had evidently felt his brother’s absence keenly, enough to remark on it more than once as he grew more and more ill.
“You will like Graham,” he said once. “He’s always had a better sense of humor than I. He’s got this roaring laugh that used to embarrass Mother. She said that he called attention to himself, and I suppose he did, in a way.”
She was curious about Graham. Had he been as studious as Gavin? Or had he developed his own character once away from Scotland? Perhaps she could ask Connor.
No, it wouldn’t be a good idea to be around him any more than she absolutely had to. Although she had to see the family eventually, she was going to take precautions not to be alone with Connor.
She really did want to kiss the man again. Or even worse, test whether she was capable of seduction after all.
Chapter 28
For some reason, Connor thought Elsbeth would be at dinner. Especially since she’d come up to him at the shooting contest. Had she just felt sorry for him? Is that why she’d helped him on with his coat and been so sweet?
That thought was annoying, almost as irritating as her absence.
He was about to do something incredibly foolish. If pressed, he’d admit that he knew that his actions were also improper, but he needed to solve a mystery.
Exactly why was Elsbeth avoiding him?
Dinner had been the same as it had been for the past week, with the added fillip of Felix receiving kudos from the rest of the family while graciously admitting that Connor’s injury might have had something to do with his loss.
He hadn’t lied to Elsbeth; he didn’t care about the contest. Nor had he told Felix a falsehood. When it had counted, when he’d needed to survive, he had shot well enough. He hadn’t practiced on a bunch of glass balls.
But people like Felix—and unfortunately, Texas had a share of them, too—were all bluster and pomposity.
He and Sam exchanged a look across the table, one that was intercepted by the duchess. She only smiled, which made him wonder how well Sam’s roping and culling was going.
After dinner he excused himself, heading for where he thought Elsbeth’s suite was located, not with the rest of the family rooms, but in one of the older sections of the house.
