Hit Me With Your Best Scot (Wild Wicked Highlanders #3) - Suzanne Enoch Page 0,67
ye, Amelia-Rose?”
She didn’t look happy. In fact, as she turned to look at him, he was fairly certain she’d been crying. His right fist closed.
“We are here to see Lady Aldriss,” Mrs. Baxter stated. “Not you.”
Niall waved the fingers of his left hand toward the stairs. With a loud bellow of escaping air the pair of pipes on the landing beside Rory the deer began a tune. It sounded like a Jacobite marching song, but these Sassenach likely didn’t know they were being treated to a rebellion. “Say that again?” he said aloud, putting a hand to his ear. “I couldnae hear ye.”
“I said we’re not here to see you!” Mrs. Baxter repeated, stone-faced as a gargoyle.
Shaking his head, Niall reached out and took Amelia-Rose’s hand in his. “Still cannae hear ye. We’ll be in the garden.”
Her fingers were cold, but he set that aside as he swiftly led the way through the back of the house and out to the garden. He would have preferred somewhere more private, but she was a lass who could recite all the rules of propriety—and he was fairly certain the two of them alone in a room wouldn’t be in her rule book.
Once they reached the small, brick-walled garden Amelia-Rose pulled free of his grip and stepped up into the wooden gazebo, seating herself on one of the benches in front of the low railing. “You’ve been fighting,” she stated as he followed her.
“And how do ye reckon that?”
“Your knuckles are bruised.”
He flexed his right hand, looking down at it. “I met a man who deserved a walloping. I obliged him.”
“Which man?”
“Ex-beau of yers. He treated ye ill.”
She reached out to take his hand, then released it again. “Niall, I’m confused.”
He lifted an eyebrow. “What are ye confused about? I kissed ye, and I want ye.”
She folded her hands in her lap, only the tightness in her fingers giving away that she wasn’t entirely calm. “I do recall the kiss. It was very nice.”
“That’s nae a compliment.” It was nearer an insult, in fact. Nice. Ha.
“The first night we met, at the theater, you were being pleasant to me so as not to ruin your brother’s chances at winning my hand. Is that correct?”
“Aye.”
“And coffee the next morning. And the picnic. And going riding. And the recital. You were there on your brother’s behalf, whether he knew about it or not.”
By now he’d figured out where her questions were leading. While he didn’t particularly want to visit, mainly because he hadn’t sorted it all out himself, he did understand why she’d sent their conversation careening in that direction. “Aye,” he answered again. “And nae. But I reckon ye knew that already.”
“Last night at the Spenfield ball. You didn’t request a single dance from me.”
“I wanted to. The idea that I could hold ye in my arms and then have to let ye go again … It didnae seem a wise thing to do.”
Her gaze touched his, and then she looked away. “I would imagine, knowing what I do now, that you forced your brother to escort my parents and me to the ball.”
That made him shake his head. “There’s nae a man can force Coll to do someaught against his will. He did have a thing or two other than what I expected on his mind, though.”
“I can accept that. But you did convince him to escort me.”
“Ye play well with words, lass. Get to yer point, then.”
She took a visible breath, her shoulders rising and falling. “My point is that I can’t decide whether you were lying at the beginning and using your brother as an excuse to spend time with me, or if you’re lying now that you must have me for yourself when you’re really just trying to save Aldriss Park.”
“Neither of those is a lie, Amelia-Rose,” he said, beginning to wish he’d opted for somewhere more private after all. Shouting seemed to be in the offing. “I stepped in on Coll’s behalf. After our very first conversation I knew ye … I liked ye. I liked chatting with ye. Coll being stubborn gave me an excuse to spend time with ye.”
“And if your brother had been nicer last night? If he’d offered to spend part of the year in London with me and not steal our hypothetical children away? My mother had planned to send an announcement of our engagement to the newspaper this morning.”
“I’m nae certain what I would have done,” Niall answered, fixing his gaze on the