The Heiress Bride - Catherine Coulter [29]
“That is correct. She has never bothered even to hide her books beneath her chair when a gentleman visits. It is provoking and I try to scold her, but she only laughs. What could I do? There, I have told you the truth. Joan may suffer for it if you decide her character is too malformed for you to wed her.”
“It will be my problem, my lady, as you said. I will ensure that she reads only those things I deem appropriate for a young wife.”
The dowager countess beamed at him. “This is excellent. I am further pleased that you don’t speak like a Scottish heathen.”
“No, ma’am. I was educated in England. My father believed that all Scottish nobility should speak the King’s English.”
“Ah, your father was a wise man. You’re an earl, I understand. A seventh earl, which means that your title goes back a goodly way. I don’t approve of newcomers to the peerage. They’re upstarts and believe themselves to be equal to the rest of us, which, of course, they’re not.”
He nodded, his serious expression never faltering. The interrogation had continued until Sinjun had flown into the room, gasped, then said firmly, “Is he not handsome and terribly clever, Mother?”
“I suspect he’ll do, Joan,” the dowager countess said as she turned to face her daughter. “He has come to rescue you from a spinster’s fate, thank the good Lord. Were he ugly or deformed or obnoxious of character, I should have to refuse him—though it would be a close thing, since you grow older by the day, and thus fewer gentlemen want you for their wife—but our consequence would demand it. Yes, this is a good thing. He is handsome, although too dark. He resembles Douglas. Odd that neither you nor Alexandra seems to mind. Now, Joan, you will not allow him or yourself to fall into slovenly Scottish ways once you return to that place. I am glad you brought him here to the house. I shall visit him every day and teach him about the Sherbrookes and his duty to you and to our family.”
“I should be charmed, ma’am,” Colin said.
That had gone off splendidly, Sinjun thought, calming her breath. She’d been scared to death when Finkle had told her that her mother had descended upon Colin. She saw that Colin was grinning at his own cleverness, and she leaned down and kissed him. “You did well with her. Thank you.”
“I outlasted her, that’s all. And I heaped her coffers with Spanish coin. She likes Spanish coin.”
“It’s true. Neither Douglas nor Ryder is much in the habit of flattering her. She misses it. You did well, Colin.”
She wanted to kiss him now, but she feared to awaken him. There would be time, all the time in the world. By the time they reached Scotland, by way of the Lake District, she would not be a virgin any longer, she was planning on that. A girl couldn’t elope with a gentleman and emerge unscathed. She would ensure that she was very well scathed indeed. Their marriage, once in Scotland, would be a mere formality.
Sinjun slipped her hand beneath the blanket and closed her fingers around his hand, a strong hand, lean and powerful. She thought of his wife, a woman now dead. She’d asked him nothing more about it, and she wouldn’t. If he wished to tell her more about his first wife and how she had died, he would. Sinjun wondered what her name was.
She also wondered if she would ever tell him that her brother had spoken to her of the letter long before she’d gone to his room. She’d even read it, twice. She’d argued only briefly with Douglas, knowing well he was worried about her, and knowing as well that she must argue with him, else he would be suspicious. Oh yes, she’d agreed with him, yielding to his demand that the marriage be postponed until the charge of murder could be resolved. All the while she was determined to elope with Colin that very night. Perhaps Colin would find out that it had been she who had maneuvered him into making his elopement suggestion, perhaps sometime in the misty future.
It was a pity that she must hold her tongue when it itched to be nothing more than truthful, but she knew men abhorred the notion that they could be manipulated.