The Heiress Bride - Catherine Coulter [61]
“You don’t have your father’s nose. Yours is turned up on the end. Is that like your mother’s?”
“I don’t know. I’ll ask Aunt Serena. She’s Mama’s younger sister. She takes care of me when the governesses all leave, but she doesn’t like to. She’d rather be out picking flowers and wearing flowing gowns like a girl waiting for a prince to come.”
• Sinjun felt a sinking at that artless news. “Governesses? You and Philip have had more than one?”
“Oh yes, we never like them, you see. They’re all English—like you—and ugly, and we make them leave. That, or they didn’t like Mama, and she’d make them leave. Mama didn’t like other ladies around.”
“I see,” Sinjun said, but didn’t. “How many governesses have you had since your mama went to heaven?”
The little girl said very proudly, “Two. But mind you, it’s only been seven months. We can make you leave, too, if we want.”
“You think so, do you? No, don’t answer that. Now, my dear, I must attire myself for dinner. Should you like to help me, or would you like me to help you?”
Dahling frowned. “What’s wrong with me?”
“Do you dine in the nursery or with the family?”
“Papa decides. He decides everything now that he’s laird. Aunt Arleth doesn’t like it. I’ve seen her eyes turn red sometimes she’s so angry at him. Papa says that sometimes we’re the very devil and he doesn’t want us around when he’s eating his soup.”
“Well, why don’t you dine with us this evening, to celebrate my being here. Do you have another gown?”
“I don’t like you and I don’t want to celebrate. You’re not my mama. I’ll tell Philip that we’ll make you leave.”
“Do you have another gown?”
“Aye, but not new. It’s short, just like this one. Papa says we don’t have any groats for fripteries—”
“Fripperies.”
“Yes, that’s it. Aunt Arleth says I grow too fast and Papa mustn’t waste his groats on me. She says she’s not surprised that we’re poor, since he should never have been the laird in the first place.”
“Hmmm. Your papa now has sufficient groats for new dresses. We’ll ask him.”
“They’re your groats. I heard Cousin MacDuff talking to Aunt Arleth about how you were a great heiress and that’s why Papa married you. She sniffed and said it was proper that he had sacrificed himself. She said it was the first decent thing he’d done in his life.”
Good grief, Sinjun thought, momentarily stunned. Aunt Arleth sounded like a thoroughly nasty old bird. She said, calmly enough, even with a smile hovering, “That’s right. The poor boy is very noble and pragmatic. So you shouldn’t want to send me away, because I’m here for a higher purpose than your governesses.”
“Aunt Serena said that Papa had your money now and that maybe you’d go to heaven, like my mama.”
“Dahling! Shut your mouth!”
Colin strode into the bedchamber, his eyes on the little girl, who was gazing at him with adoration and now some perturbation, because he hadn’t sounded pleased with her. Sinjun stared at him. He looked stern and forbidding, striding into the room, the laird, the master, the earl, and he looked harassed.
“She was just giving me the family news, Colin,” Sinjun said mildly. “Surely you want me to know what Aunt Arleth and Aunt Serena think of me. I have also decided that you’re right and Dahling just might be a Great Beauty. Lord knows she’s precocious. But she does need some new gowns. More than enough reason, don’t you think, that I accompany you back to Edinburgh?”
“No. Dahling, go to your aunt Serena. You’ll be dining with us at the big table tonight. Go now.”
Dahling scooted off the bed, looked back at Sinjun, shook her head, and skipped from the room.
“What was she telling you?”
“Just children talk, Colin, about everything and about nothing. As I told you, I quite like children and I’m with them a lot, what with my three nephews and all of Ryder’s Beloved Ones. Why the devil didn’t you tell me about them?”
She saw then that Colin could be just like Douglas and Ryder and Tysen. She supposed that it was a trait all men shared. When they were clearly in the wrong, or when a topic wasn