A Scot to the Heart (Desperately Seeking Duke #2) - Caroline Linden Page 0,54

wall that edged the terrace. She turned her hat upside down, dropping in a handful of twisted slips of paper. “Each gentleman will draw a lady’s name.”

“Unfair,” cried Winnie. “I won’t be handicapped by one of them! I want to win!”

Monteith staggered backward, clapping a hand to his chest. “God above, now I’m frightened to be left alone with one of your sisters, St. James.”

Bella chastised him loudly and shook her hat. “The prize is a bottle of aged whisky from this very estate, and a new hat from that charming little shop we saw in Perth.”

Monteith nudged Kincaid. “Swords at dawn for the hat.”

“And I’ll take the whisky, thank you kindly,” put in Agnes, making them both shout with laughter while her mother threw up her hands in dismay.

“What if I don’t fancy sharing the prize?” drawled Duncan. “I like a good whisky, and I’ve not had a new hat in an age . . .”

“Be sure to order one that conceals your entire head, for our sakes!”

Bella flapped her hand at them. “Enough, enough. I thought pairing a gentleman with a lady would make it fair. Two ladies together, of course, would triumph before any gentleman made the first turn. Mama agrees with me, no one will argue his way out of it. So draw a name, Mr. Monteith, and if it’s mine, not only had we best win, I shall indeed meet you at dawn with a sword to claim that bonnet.”

With more laughing and teasing, the four men each drew a slip of paper from the upturned hat.

Drew stole a peek at Duncan’s paper. The man wasn’t holding it very closely. He nudged his friend’s shoulder. “Trade with me,” he whispered.

Duncan whipped around, closing his hand around the slip. “Why?”

“I don’t like my draw.”

Duncan wasn’t fooled. The scoundrel smirked and folded his arms. “You saw who I have.”

“No,” said Drew, but Duncan scoffed.

“You’re that desperate to explore with Miss Isabella?”

“Anyone other than who I drew,” he retorted with a shrug, refusing to admit that he had seen and that he did only want to trade because of whom Duncan had drawn—who was not Bella. Casually he opened his hand, letting Duncan catch a glimpse of the name on his slip. “But if you won’t trade, perhaps Kincaid will.”

His friend’s eyes narrowed. Drew turned to walk away. With a muttered oath, Duncan swiped the slip from his hand and replaced it with his own. “You owe me,” he said with a stern look. “And don’t be forgetting it, St. James.” He strolled off to where Bella had climbed down from the wall and was handing out her pages of instructions.

Drew read the name on his new slip with pleasure and went to stand beside Ilsa. At her raised brow, he showed her the paper that bore her name.

“What a coincidence,” she whispered.

“Luck of the draw,” he murmured happily.

Bella finished reading her rules and beamed at them all. “Has anyone got a question?”

“Aye,” called Monteith. “Is wagering permitted?”

“Yes,” said Bella at the same moment her mother cried, “Certainly not, Adam Monteith!”

Everyone laughed, and Agnes said, very primly, “Not within my mother’s hearing, Mr. Monteith.”

“And we shall have a large, fine tea here on the terrace after our exertions,” Bella added as the gentlemen began whispering among themselves and Louisa St. James threw up her hands again.

“What are we to do?” Drew watched Ilsa skim over the rules Bella had written out.

“Were you not attending? We’re to find our way to the center of the maze, where Mr. Watkins—who is, I believe, the only person who knows the way through—has deposited a blue ribbon, on Bella’s instructions. Then we must find our way out and absolutely lord it over everyone that we’ve beaten them.”

Drew laughed. “And what are these rules we must obey?”

She gave him an amused glance. “Are you and your friends known cheats? The rules are primarily things we may not do. May not climb the hedges. May not crash through a hedge. May not lift one’s partner onto one’s shoulders to get a view of the maze from above. May not speak to anyone other than your own partner. May not lie to anyone.”

“That’s redundant. If I can’t speak to anyone, I can’t lie to them, either.”

“You could point.”

He scoffed. “As if I’d trust any one of them, or they me!” He shook his head. “I know for whom those rules are meant, and it’s not my friends. My sisters are fiendishly competitive. If we meet