To Kiss a Highland Rose (Kiss the Wallflower #6) - Tamara Gill Page 0,16

with Lady Elizabeth."

Rawden sighed. "If we must. Lead on."

Chapter 7

It took Sebastian several minutes to find Lady Elizabeth and Lady Julia, but eventually he spotted them out on the manicured lawn. Lit lanterns hung from tree to tree, lighting the space. She was talking to a tall Scotsman, and when she reached up, kissing the man's cheeks, a spike of jealous rage tore through him.

Who was this bastard who dared touch her? The man hugged her back, smiling broadly.

Shit, she has a beau?

She turned and spotted him, and her smile widened. "Lord Hastings. Lord Bridgman." She gestured for them to join them. He did so, ignoring the fact his face would not mold into a smile. It seemed stuck at a glower.

"This is an old family friend, Angus, Laird Campbell. He is my brother's best friend since childhood." The fellow clasped Elizabeth's hand, placing it on his arm. He nodded to Sebastian.

"’Tis a pleasure to meet ye, Lord Hastings. I hope ye have been having a lovely time in Scotland."

Sebastian studied them both, wondering if there was something between them that he was not aware of. Had the man traveled here to be near Elizabeth? To spend time with her away from the madness that was Edinburgh's Season? Did their friendship go beyond platonic?

"We are, thank you. It has been most enjoyable."

The man smiled between them, and for an awkward moment, Sebastian wasn't sure what to say. How to bridge the silence.

Elizabeth gestured to him. "Lord Hastings is going to be my neighbor, Angus. Since meeting his lordship, I have found out that he owns Bragdon Manor beside Halligale. We shall see him often, I think."

"Oh, ’tis a fine estate that one," Laird Campbell said. "When Elizabeth's brother, Laird Mackintosh, came into the estate next to the one ye own, we viewed the property from the boundary. But I imagine ye have others in England?"

"I do, yes, two in fact. Wellsworth Abbey near Netherfield, Nottinghamshire, and a townhouse in London on Grosvenor Square." Not that he would see either of those estates for several months, not if he wished to win the woman currently holding and smiling up at Laird Campbell with something akin to adoration.

Sebastian disliked seeing her so attached to another, and he couldn't fully explain as to why. He knew he wanted her to be his wife. He had to gain back his childhood home, the house where his mother had been born and raised, where he had spent so much time as a boy with his brother before life, and vice, changed him forever. And not for the better.

But why was he feeling so uncomfortable, so annoyed at her holding the laird’s arm? He wasn't the jealous type. Seeing a woman he thought to court, or one he may have been seeking out had never before raised such ire, such annoyance in him.

Sebastian swallowed, running a hand through his hair. He looked back to her and found her watching him, a curious light in her eyes.

"Lady Julia, will you dance with me?" he absently heard Rawden ask, having forgotten his friend altogether. She agreed and left the three of them alone.

Just as he was about to leave, Laird Campbell waved and hollered to a gentleman behind Sebastian. "I do apologize, but I will leave ye now. I will meet you indoors, Elizabeth, and we shall have our dance."

Sebastian nodded his farewell as the man brushed past him, leaving them alone. At last, he had Elizabeth to himself.

"You are fond of the Laird Campbell. I hope I am not keeping you from him."

She raised her chin. The action accentuated her lush lips, still glistening with rouge. "Not at all, my lord. I have known Angus since I was a child. He's more like a brother to me than anything else."

Relief poured through him. She was not lost to him, not yet at least. Not unless she refused his suit and his offer of marriage that he would bestow on her when the time was right. "The gardens are most beautiful this evening. Would you care to stroll about them?"

"If you like," she said, moving off.

Sebastian followed, quickly coming up to amble beside her. "What a shame we're for home tomorrow. I would have liked to have seen more of this grand estate. I do not think I've seen anything more beautiful in all my travels to Scotland."

Lady Elizabeth glanced at the home, towering behind them. "It is picturesque and distinctive. Georgina, Lady Dalton, inherited it after the