Page 40 of The Devil of Clan Sinclair
He smiled. “It’s an effect of the stone,” he said.
He dropped her hand as she turned in a circle to see everything. The room was almost perfectly round. Besides the window and the chimney hole, there was another opening in the other curved wall.
“Where does that lead?” she asked.
“The beach.”
“I can imagine why it’s your favorite place at Drumvagen. Did you come here as a boy?” she asked.
“The only place I knew as a boy was Edinburgh,” he said. “I purchased Drumvagen five years ago.”
Surprised, she glanced at him.
“I wasn’t always wealthy,” he said. “It’s a recent event for me.”
Wealth was not a subject of polite conversation. Either you had it and everyone knew it, or you pretended you had it, and everyone allowed you the pretense. But it was never openly discussed.
When had they ever ascribed to societal rules when it came to what they talked about? No topic was considered off limits between them.
“My father was like you,” she said. “I don’t think he had much respect for people who inherited their money.”
He smiled slightly. “I don’t think your father had much respect for anyone except himself.”
His comment startled a laugh from her.
“Why did he settle on Lawrence?”
“I think he was impressed by my mother-in-law. She can be very persuasive.”
“At least your father got the title he wanted,” he said.
“He didn’t have long to enjoy it.” She glanced at him. “But you don’t know. He died two months after my marriage.” Poor Mrs. Haverstock had never had a chance to charm him, since she’d been dismissed just before Virginia’s wedding, along with her American maid.
“My own parents have been gone many years,” he said. “But my sisters and cousin have tried to make up for the lack.”
“Have they succeeded?”
“As far as they’re concerned,” he said. “If your father had approved my suit, they would have swooped down to London to look you over before our wedding.”
“And if they hadn’t approved of me?”
He smiled. “I would have sent them back to Edinburgh,” he said. “They would’ve remained silent, only because I contribute to their household in a significant fashion.”
“In other words, you would have bribed them.”
“Which is what your father did,” he reminded her.
“It was easier being Virginia Anderson from America. As an American, I was expected to be a little odd. ‘Those Americans, what can you expect from them? They come from the colonies, after all.’ ”
He laughed at her perfect British accent.
“As a countess, I have a whole other set of rules to follow.”
“You would like my sister, Mairi,” he said. “She cherishes being a little odd.”
She turned to him. She only knew Ceana, who always seemed a conformable type of person.
“Mairi’s determined to run the printing company. So far, she’s making a success of it.”
