Page 31 of The Scot is Hers
Lady Errol sniffed. “Well, perhaps ye ought to retire soon so that ye may rest. I’ll have a plate sent up with your dinner.”
Alec opened his mouth to respond, but Giselle felt rather tired anyway and did not want to give the countess any cause to contact her parents, so she nodded.
“Ye are quite right, my lady. I do find myself rather exhausted. Might a footman help me to my room so I may retire? I’m afraid I still can no’ stand on my own.”
The countess grumbled something under her breath that sounded an awful lot like “ye should not have come to the fete at all,” but before Giselle could think more on it, Alec said, “Nonsense. I’ll take ye myself.”
“My lord,” his mother said, with a laugh that suggested anything but humor. “That would be highly inappropriate.”
“’Tis my house, and I say what is appropriate and what is no’.” Alec’s tone was calm, not loud, but its command brooked no argument. “I’ll take the lady to her room and return with haste. Never mind about that.”
Alec scooped Giselle into his arms as easily as he’d done the whole of the day, not tired in the least from carrying her around, and departed the drawing room.
“I see ye held onto your sandwiches,” he remarked.
“They are delicious. One should no’ waste a good sandwich.”
He chuckled. “I agree.”
Murmurs rose from the crowd gathered in the large parlor, but Giselle ignored them, her attention fully on the man who held her. Up the stairs they went, and down the hall toward the room she’d been assigned. With every step he took, the harder her heart pounded.
Once inside her chamber, he closed the door. And unlike when she’d been terrified with Sir Joshua, she felt safe and calm. Alec placed her on a chair and then went to the hearth, stoking the fire until it blazed.
“Will ye be warm enough?” he asked.
She was already very warm. Hot, even. “Aye. Thank ye.”
“Should I put ye in bed?”
Giselle’s mouth fell open, but she somehow managed to get control of herself. She smiled and shook her head. “If your mother saw that, I’m quite certain she’d have an attack of the heart.”
“True. So, shall I?” A mischievous smile crossed his face.
“I think a maid will suffice.”
“I’ll have one sent in.”
“Thank ye.”
Alec stood there, somewhat awkwardly, as if he wasn’t quite certain how to leave. And she didn’t want him to. But really, they needed to put some distance between them.
“Do ye need me to call someone?” she asked sweetly.
“What?”
“Ye seem stuck.”
“Och,” he grimaced, stepping toward the door with a scowl on his face.
“That’s more like it. The beast has returned,” she teased. “I feared for a moment a changeling had replaced ye.”
“I should be insulted,” he said, but a smile played on his lips.
“Then why are ye no’?”
“I have no idea.” He reached for the handle of her door, faltering once more.
She wanted him to stay. Wanted to tell him those people downstairs wouldn’t miss him, but she knew they would. All those lasses brought up from Edinburgh to woo him to the altar—
