Katharine Ashe - How to Marry a Highlander

“Dinna become accustomed to it.”

“Why? Won’t you tease me again?”

“Aye. But ye havena asked ma terms.”

“Oh! I didn’t think. I’m not in the habit of making wagers, you see.”

“Ye dinna say?”

“What are your terms, my lord?”

“Ye’ve a month or the wager’s a forfeit.”

“A month ? But I cannot possibly—”

“Those be ma terms, lass. Accept or withdraw.”

She pulled in a breath of courage. “I accept.” She thrust out her hand.

“Shall we shake on it?”

It was perhaps a mistake to seal the agreement in this manner. His hand was large and strong and encompassed hers entirely and made her feel tiny and entirely in his power. Perhaps the gossips weren’t spreading empty rumor. Perhaps he was a dangerous man and that longing gaze they had shared at the ball had been more dream than reality. A tremor of fear slithered through her.

She forced her gaze up and glimpsed in his eyes the oddest hesitation. It looked almost like the fear she was feeling.

“My lord,” she breathed. “I think perhaps—” The door snapped open. “Duncan!”

Their hands flew apart. They both stepped back.

Effie halted, eyes wide.

Her twin skipped in behind her. “Abigail finished her book. She wants to go to the shop and trade it in for anither.”

Sorcha came through the door removing her mended gloves. She stopped and they all stared at Teresa.

“I should be going now.” She curtseyed. “My lord. My ladies.” She went past them and through the door and down the steps, heart in her throat and —for the first time since that night at the ball—an unsettling sensation of utter confusion spreading through her.

Sorcha turned to him. “What did she really want, Duncan? Money? I suppose ye put her to right aboot that.”

Duncan stared out the open door through which his sisters were entering and through which she —the woman who had inspired his flight from London eighteen months earlier—had departed.

“Tell yer sisters to pack their bags,” he heard himself say. “We’re moving.”

How on earth would she secure even one husband for seven impoverished ladies when she could not secure one for herself?

Teresa rested her chin on her palm and stared out the window onto the street before Diantha’s townhouse. According to the footman, Mr. Yale would be home shortly. Diantha would tell her nothing of Lord Eads, but Teresa understood that her husband knew the earl quite well.

As she watched carriages clatter by on the street she catalogued the sisters. One of the two whose name she did not yet know was clearly the beauty of the family, followed by the vivacious twins, Effie and the other.

Abigail was pretty too, and sensible; she’d known Teresa was not a doxy. Una had a clever eye and ready smile. Sorcha was all business. Judgmental, prim, and self-possessed, Elspeth reminded her of Mr. Waldon.

She had plenty to work with, but it was probably best to begin with the quality that men noticed immediately in a woman: beauty. It stood to reason that if she found a husband for the beautiful sister first, the rest would soon become known to his friends and acquaintances.

A horseman dismounted before the house. He wasn’t Mr. Yale, but as the only man in the world that thought highly of her, her brother Tobias was always welcome company.

She met him at the door. “Have come to see Wyn? He mentioned that you were to call on him.”

“He knows a few fellows that might help me get a leg up at the War Office.” His handsome face glowed with pleasure. “But that’s not my purpose today. I’ve come to escort you shopping.”

“Shopping?”

His brow lifted beneath hair two shades darker than hers. “Is it me or shopping that inspires this listlessness?”

“Shopping, of course. I know. Unprecedented. Toby . . . I . . .”

“What is it, T? You look pretty as a picture today, but all the same, glum.

Not like you at all.”

She had not told Diantha. She had not told Annie. The only people that knew were the earl and his sisters, and she was perfectly at sea. She was coming to see that if one wished to achieve grand dreams, one needed help from trusted friends.

“Yesterday afternoon after three days of research among the gossips of London, I discovered the address of the Earl of Eads and paid him a call. He is a penniless Scotsman with an unproductive estate and seven half sisters to wed off, and I made a wager with him that if I found them all husbands within a month he must marry me.”

Her brother stared at her quite the way the earl and his sisters had the day before.

“Are you insane?”

She slumped down in a chair. “That’s what he said.”

“Sounds like a sensible fellow.”

“I am not insane. I do not wish to marry Mr. Waldon but Papa is determined, and I—”

“You think your only option to Waldon is this ?”

“I cannot bear the idea of it, Toby! Merely sitting beside him makes me feel all prickly and ill. He’s not really that awful. It’s only that I am terrified of spending the remainder of my life as his chattel.”

“Well, I understand your hesitation there. Waldon’s a thorough prig. But you needn’t throw yourself on the mercy of an unknown Scot to find a husband. Diantha must know plenty of gentlemen who’d be glad to court you.”

“She and Wyn have taken me about town. But, you see, I made the acquaintance of Lord Eads when I was in town with Aunt Hortensia. Rather, not quite his acquaintance . . . But . . .” She folded her hands. “I want him.”

“You want him?” His eyes widened. “Oh, no, T. Don’t tell me that when you were here last year you—”

“I didn’t do anything.”

“Because I’ve heard stories from the grooms in Father’s stables. I know that maid of yours is—”

“I didn’t do anything! I only saw him and, well, something about him . . . fits. Toby, please try to understand.”

“But this is—”

“I know!” She leaped up. “It’s madness. I have no idea why I feel so strongly about a man about whom I know next to nothing. But I know scads and scads about Mr. Waldon and I simply abhor him.”

Her brother’s brow crunched. “Those don’t follow.”

“Of course not. But I’ve done it, Toby. I’ve made the wager with Lord Eads despite his considerable reluctance. He doesn’t believe I will manage it.”

“What exactly did he say when you made this offer?”

“He said he would not do it.” She suspected he had finally agreed only to make her go away. “If a lady asked you to marry her, would you?”

“If she’d called in secret at my home and wagered herself against my sister’s future? No.”

“Why not? I am not an antidote and I do have a marriage portion.”

“T, if a man’s got any honor in him he wouldn’t treat a lady in a manner he wouldn’t want his own sisters to be treated, would he?”

He had a point. And Toby didn’t know the half of it.

She didn’t care what the gossips said about the earl’s unsavory past. He was trying to protect her from herself.

“Listen here, T, I won’t let you go near him again until I’ve spoken with him and learned something of his character and his intentions toward you,” Tobias said firmly.

“He doesn’t have any intentions toward me. I think he would rather I go away.”

“Be that as it may, he’s got fodder for gossip now that could ruin your reputation.”

“Toby, Papa and Mama have determined that Mr. Waldon is my destiny. If I ruin my reputation here perhaps he will refuse to take me.”