Page 49 of Some Like It Scot
But the price Lennox offered was impossible to ignore. It promised quicker improvements and a faster opportunity to turn this house into a MacKerrow venue, not an Edwardian Experience.
I released a sigh to the ceiling and wished for pockets in this monkey suit.
Keep the future of Craighill in mind, mate. That’s what must be done.
Right. Craighill.
My ancestral home was worth every inch of me looking like a puffin.
At least the view encouraged my mindset too.
The large drawing room featured oversize dentil crown molding with similarly framed windows and entryways. Fresh white paint for the trim and a deep blue for the walls brought out the oak grains of the wood floor and mantelpiece. Thankfully, one of the rooms was fit to showcase.
Large windows allowed light and views from two walls, and with all the furniture removed, the space offered plenty of space for Lennox’s next assignment.
Dance lessons.
I heaved a sigh and slipped a finger beneath the starched collar of the button-down. At least I wouldn’t have to dance. I’d only been brought on to play the part of butler and ensure the footmen did their work. Two things, despite my dislike of the scheme, I could do.
Voices neared from the hallway, so I straightened my spine, braced my emotions, and calmed my expression to neutral. Somewhat. Though my lips kept tugging downward into a frown. Because this was the most dunderheaded thing I’d ever done in all my life.
Lennox entered on the arm of her husband first. I didn’t have anything against her husband, except the fact he gave in to all of Lennox’s wishes, and now I was standing in a uniform pretending to be a hundred-year-old butler. A man I’d not seen before walked in behind the couple, alone. Their daughter, Ana, entered on the arm of the mustached gentleman from earlier. The one who’d offered to help. What had Lennox called him? Wake?
A younger man, not the eejit, followed along with a petite, brown haired woman with glasses. I tried to press myself as far back into the wall as possible. Most of the people in the room had no idea who I was. I’d remained invisible to them as the best “Edwardian” servant, moving around the house making repairs without notice.
Besides the Lennoxes, oneotherperson saw me a little too well for my liking.
And she had the deluded idea I was some sort of hero.
The odd thing was, maybe I didn’t mind her thinking so about me.
Katie appeared in the entryway of the room, camera against her face, but her clothes looked very different from what she’d worn earlier in the day. Gone was the ill-fitting frock with its high neck and short sleeves. Now she stood in a gown of pale blue, cinched tight at the waist with a ribbon and so open at the neckline, it gave a keek of her shoulders. The skirt fell loose and full to the ground. The fit highlighted the hourglass curves of her body.
Bonnie.
Hadn’t Lennox mentioned the packages I’d delivered from the door belonged to Katie? Could they have been dresses?
I’dbeen the one to help her look like that? Lord, help me!
I gave another tug to my collar. I’d had a hard enough time trying to get the vision of her after the loch out of my mind, and here she came like some sort of faerie from the glen with all her hair twisted up and showing off the slender line of her neck. A dainty silver band, like a crown, decorated her hair and gave her an even more fae-like appearance.
I looked away and slid to the left, somewhat behind a rather impressive plant Mrs. Lennox brought for the charade. It was ridiculous to imagine I’d actually be able to hide in the middle of this roomful of people since I was the tallest person in the place. Hiding never worked out for me.
Katie lowered the camera and scanned the room, my somewhat hidden spot offering me a view of her face before she crossed the threshold. She pressed a palm to her stomach, smile absent, and expression... lost.
I shouldn’t want to know what was happening behind those eyes.
I shook my head at my idiocy. I was a right muckle gowk, I was.
And then, as soon as someone called her name, her face shifted into a smile that didn’t reach those eyes of hers. I’d seen the authenticone on the walk to Craighill from Glenkirk—watched it bloom all across her face like the wild orchids of summer.
I pinched my eyes closed.Dinnae be so glaikit, Graeme. Keep yourself to yourself. ’Tis the safer place to be.
“I’m glad everyone is here,” Lennox announced as the group gathered around her. “This afternoon we will enjoy our first Edwardian dancing lesson. I thought we could work up an appetite before dinner.” The woman gave a muffled chuckle and preened like a peregrine falcon, her gray gown suiting the analogy.
Well, at least all I’d have to do is stand like a block of wood against the wall while everyone made a spectacle out of themselves on the floor in front of me. Except Katie. And watching her dance in that dress might not be so bad.
But I didnae have to admit it aloud.
