Return of the Scot (Scots of Honor #1) - Eliza Knight Page 0,69
“And truth be told, lass, more often than no’ back then I thought, ‘well, Jaime’s a darling, Shanna must be, too.’ Night and day, the two of ye were.”
“I’m so sorry she disappointed ye.”
“Och, lass. Do no’ be feeling sorry for me. ’Tis I who is feeling that way for ye. Ye’ve been a victim this whole time, and I can no’ figure out why they’d abuse ye so. Me, I can understand. Gille was always jealous.” Lorne shook his head.
“I think Shanna blames me for what happened with my parents. They disowned her because they did no’ want her reputation to tarnish mine. That was a harsh punishment for a young lass who had nothing and no one. She was no more than a child. Her anger must have festered while she was away. I tried to write to her and sneak the letters out of the house, but my parents confiscated them, and I never heard from her either. It wasn’t until they had passed that I brought her back, but by then, I think she already hated me.”
“Ah, makes sense, even if it is unfair. It would seem our siblings have taken normal rivalries between relations to a whole new level.”
“Aye.”
The carriage pulled up to the docks, and Jaime scrambled off of Lorne’s lap to sit across from him, smoothing her hands over her rumpled skirt as a groom opened the door for their descent. Their luggage was carried onto the smaller frigate with a minimal crew that they’d be using. Mungo and Alison waited behind them like stalwart bodyguards. As if their presence alone could keep the two of them from acting on their impulses.
Emilia met them at the docks and wished them luck. All of it was happening so fast as the sun rose on the horizon.
“Do take care,” Jaime started. “The whisky—”
“Sails tomorrow. Do no’ worry.” Emilia smiled confidently. “I have it all under control. I will no’ let ye down.”
“Ye are a gem,” Jaime crowed. “I think ye’re due a raise.”
“I will no’ turn ye down.”
“Well, ye know where to find me should ye need anything.”
“With all due respect as my employer—go. We will be fine.”
Jaime laughed, thanked Emilia again, and then hurried up the gangway with Lorne and their faithful servants.
The sails were let out, a brisk morning wind making their departure quick. No time to turn back. She would be alone with Lorne for possibly a week before her sister arrived. An entire week to get up to mischief.
Jaime shook her head. She should not be thinking about it that way at all. In fact, she should watch the seagulls that circled overhead as the ship moved away from the quay. And this time, she wouldn’t shoo them because she needed them as a distraction from the man who stood beside her.
“Are ye tired? Would ye like to nap?”
Jaime glanced up at Lorne and gave him a derisive look, all the easier to forget she wanted to kiss him. “Do ye think because I’m a female, I’m no’ used to waking before dawn? I’ll have ye know the reason I was ready so quickly was that I’d already been up for hours and dressed. I run a shipping company, duke, no’ a salon.”
Lorne held up his hands and backed away slowly, shaking his head with a laugh. “Ye need no’ bite my head off, lass. I was no’ suggesting the like at all. Only trying to see to your comfort.”
Jaime pressed her lips together. She wasn’t used to someone seeing to her comfort besides the people she paid to do it. The experience was foreign to her but pleasant.
Jaime leaned against the rail, gazing out over the ocean as the distance between them and the shore grew. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I…I’m just used to people thinking that because I’m a woman I’m no’ capable.”
Lorne joined her at the rail, his large hands flattened on the wood, but she could feel his eyes on her rather than the diminishing wharf. “Anyone who would think that does no’ know ye verra well.”
She cocked her head at him. “And ye do?”
“I think I do, lass.”
Jaime turned to look at him, studying his strong jaw, the line of his nose with the bump on the bridge from where it had been broken. His wide, full mouth that could do all sorts of things to her body, and then finally his eyes. A steel-gray, they were fathomless. Sturdy. Dependable.