Mine Is the Night_ A Novel - Liz Curtis Higgs [79]
When he turned to speak with Elisabeth, Marjory gave them a moment’s privacy by blocking the Kerr aisle so no one else could interfere. She’d already learned two important bits of information about Lord Buchanan and found them both heartening. He was willing to sit among commoners. And his ancestors hailed from Selkirkshire. However, he still answered to King George, a vital fact not to be forgotten.
“Leddy Kerr?”
She turned round to find Gibson moving in her direction even as the reverend’s stern words rose up to scold her. Be cautious in your dealings with Gibson. She would do nothing of the sort. Neil Gibson was her oldest friend in Selkirk. Nae, in all the world. Since she could not write letters to a man who could not read, Marjory made the most of their encounters.
“Good day to you, sir,” she said, offering her gloved hand.
She meant for him to clasp it briefly in greeting. Instead, Gibson enveloped her hand in his, the centers of his blue gray eyes darkening. “Guid day to ye, milady.”
Marjory glanced over her shoulder, hoping Reverend Brown had already moved to the door. “Have a care,” she whispered.
Gibson tugged her closer. “I care mair than ye ken.”
Flustered, Marjory withdrew her hand. “My, but we’re being rather serious this morn.”
He stepped back, his expression cooling. “The reverend is bidding me come.”
“You must do so,” she urged him, not wishing to anger the man on whom Gibson depended for his living. So many masters to be served! Reverend Brown and now Lord Buchanan. Marjory had grown accustomed to owning few possessions and to living under someone else’s roof, but she still missed being in charge of her own household. Best not to dwell on a life she would never see again, she reminded herself, then turned to see how Elisabeth was faring with his lordship.
“So the creature jumped onto my bed without warning,” the admiral was saying, “and licked my face. A rude awakening, to say the least.”
Marjory thought she might faint.
Elisabeth calmly replied, “Then you must lock your door at night.”
“Or send my cat home with you,” he grumbled.
A cat. Marjory felt her rapid heartbeat easing.
“I’m afraid Cousin Anne would not be keen on that idea,” Elisabeth told him. “My mother-in-law and I are imposition enough without adding a guest with fur.”
Anne joined their conversation, having been properly introduced before the admiral was seated. “Lord Buchanan, I would gladly accept anything you wish to send to Halliwell’s Close, provided it has no claws.”
“Then I cannot send Dickson either,” he said, eying his younger valet. “For he has been known to scratch at my door at all hours.”
“Only when bidden,” Dickson replied dryly, clearly accustomed to such remarks.
Out of the corner of her eye, Marjory noticed Michael Dalgliesh and his lad approaching the Kerr aisle with lowered chins and furtive glances. She motioned the tailor forward. “Lord Buchanan, if I may be so presumptuous as to introduce a friend and neighbor of our family, Mr. Michael Dalgliesh, a tailor, and his son, Peter.”
Michael bowed, a rather clumsy effort, but Peter made a fine show of it, bending straight from his waist, one foot to the front.
“What fine manners you have, lad,” Lord Buchanan told him.
Marjory saw the softening of his lordship’s expression and heard the tenderness in his voice. How odd the man had not married by now and had children of his own. Too many years at sea, she imagined, and no home for a bride. He’d solved both those problems with his move to Selkirkshire. Was a wife next on his list?
“Lord Buchanan, I thank ye for yer custom,” Michael Dalgliesh was saying.
The admiral cocked one brow. “My custom?”
“Mr. Hyslop, sir,” the tailor explained, his ruddy skin growing more so. “He came by the shop last eve, leuking to buy fabric with yer silver.”
“Ah.” The admiral leaned forward and said in a stage whisper, “Suppose we keep that purchase just between us, aye?”
Michael ducked his head. “Whatsomever ye say, milord.”
Marjory found their little exchange most interesting. Elisabeth seemed intrigued