Page 40 of The Scot is Hers
“I’m glad ye enjoyed it, lass,” he said softly.
“Ye’re more romantic than ye wish others to know,” she said quietly, startling him as she looked up at him in a way that made him want to pull her into his arms and kiss her. Alas, they did have a small audience—including his dear mother, who’d just arrived.
“Is that no’ the way of it when two people are to wed?” he asked.
Giselle opened her mouth to answer, but his mother intervened—as usual.
“To wed?” The countess did not hide the shock in her piercing tone nor the stunned expression on her face.
Alec turned slowly toward his mother, trying to calm the irritation he felt at her constant censure. Especially the way she was looking at Lady Giselle now as if she’d brought a plague into the house. “Aye, my lady mother. Lady Giselle and I are to wed.”
The countess’s hand fluttered to her chest, and her mouth popped open and closed as if a fish out of water. For the first time in his life, his mother was speechless. Alec might have found it humorous if he was not offended.
“Congratulations,” Jaime rushed to say, with Lorne pounding him on the back and proclaiming the same.
“Thought the day would never come,” his friend teased.
Jaime embraced Giselle, careful not to knock her off her feet.
“Well,” Alec’s mother said, finally finding her voice and still sputtering more than she should. “I suppose we should make the announcement to the rest of the party before rumors begin swirling. The ladies will be so disappointed.”
Alec highly doubted that. They might be able to enjoy themselves now or use the news as an excuse to leave finally. “Aye. The party may continue as an engagement celebration rather than a wife hunt,” he drawled.
“Aye, that is a good idea.” Though her words sounded positive, how she conveyed them was anything but.
They entered the parlor where the guests had assembled with glasses of punch, waiting for their guest of honor to take their seats for the card game to begin.
Alec’s mother swept past him, clapping her hands, a wide smile on her face that he knew to be false. While she might be pleased that he was marrying, she was not at all happy that Giselle was the woman to which he’d attached himself. He didn’t know if that was because she hadn’t picked out his bride herself or because she was worried about the fact that Giselle had been betrothed to Sir Joshua Keith. He supposed a match between them would have been announced in the papers, which he never read, and his mother was worried about the fallout of the dissolution of such a match.
There would be a scandal, which his mother detested, but up here in the Highlands and away from society, Alec didn’t give a damn about what the gossips said. He also didn’t have to deal with it. There was a little tug in his chest at that, remembering how his mother had accused him of being selfish and leaving all of that to her. Perhaps he should suggest a sojourn for her aboard, so she wouldn’t have to face those in society and could instead enjoy a gondola ride in Venice.
“I have a special announcement to make,” the countess said.
Alec reached for Giselle’s hand, giving her a gentle squeeze.
“My son, Lord Errol, and Lady Giselle are to be married.”
There was a gasp within the room, and he watched most noticeably as Lady Mary’s dark gaze bore into Giselle with a hatred that he found nauseating. There had been no commitment between them, not even a hint of one, which made her animosity unsound.
“We shall celebrate their engagement the rest of the week. Champagne,” his mother directed the footmen.
Congratulations came from the guests, and for the first time, Alec didn’t feel like running away, not with Giselle by his side.
They took their places at the tables for the card games, playing and laughing for several hours before dinner was announced. Despite having said she would not be any good at the game, Giselle won most of the rounds at their table.
Alec had eyes for no one but his betrothed, seated beside him at the table after his mother shifted around the place cards.
Lady Mary was settled across from them, much to his dismay, and did not curb her attitude toward Giselle at all. Alec was ready to have her tossed out, willing to risk the anger from her parents for doing so.
“Lady Giselle,” Lady Mary said crisply. “Do tell what happened with your first betrothed? Sir Joshua Keith, I believe?”
Alec bristled, and Lady Mary’s own mother gasped and hissed a warning to her daughter at her inappropriate question. Finally, they were attempting at least to rein her in.
“Ye’ve been misinformed, Lady Mary,” Giselle said coolly, the smile never leaving her lips. “That was no’ something I ever agreed to.”
God, but he admired how she so calmly delivered the answer as if Lady Mary were asking how Giselle had enjoyed the soup course.
“But it was in the papers,” Lady Mary sputtered, ignoring the “Shhh” from her mother.
