The Scottish Bride - Catherine Coulter [2]
Tysen looked appalled. “No, really, not at all like Sinjun, Douglas. Perhaps she looks like Sinjun, but a hoyden like Sinjun? Oh, no. I remember Sinjun could drive you to Bedlam with her antics. Oh, no, Meggie is much more restrained, much more a little lady than Sinjun ever was.”
Douglas said, “Do you remember how Father threw up his hands when Sinjun kicked Tommy Maitland in his backside and he went flying off a cliff? Thank God he didn’t break his neck.”
Tysen said, “And that time she sewed all your trouser legs together? I can still hear you yelling, Douglas. No, Meggie isn’t like Sinjun was. She’s very obedient. I’ve never had a day’s worry with her.” Suddenly a slight furrow appeared between his brows. “Well, perhaps she does have our two servants at her beck and call. Perhaps also the boys do obey her quickly, usually without fuss. Then there’s Cook, who actually bakes dishes just for Meggie. But it is her sweetness, her patience, that gains her the love and obedience of all those at the vicarage, even her brothers.”
It was difficult to restrain himself, but Douglas didn’t roll his eyes. Was his brother completely blind? Evidently so. Meggie was careful around her father, the chit was that smart. He said, “I remember I boxed Sinjun’s ears so many times I lost count.”
Tysen said, “I did that once. As I remember, I was thirteen and she was nine and she had tied the tail of my favorite kite around Corkscrew’s neck—you remember Corkscrew, don’t you, Douglas? What a dog! He was the very best. In any case, then Sinjun throws a stick and off goes Corkscrew, and believe it or not, that kite lifted off the ground, before it got tangled up in one of Mother’s rosebushes and got ruined. I smacked her before she managed to run and hide from me.” Then, very suddenly, Tysen managed a very big smile. “I hadn’t realized—I will see Sinjun and Colin. It’s been too long.” He rose and stretched. “Well, I suppose there is no time like the present. Samuel Pritchert will take good care of all our people. Thank you for taking the children, Douglas. I believe I will leave on Wednesday. I daresay I can write a good dozen sermons in my head, it will take so long to get there.”
Meggie quickly ran down the long hallway when she heard her father moving toward the door of Uncle Douglas’s estate room. She ran right into her aunt Alex. “ Goodness, Meggie, are you all right?” Alex grasped her niece’s arms and eyed her closely. “You were listening, weren’t you? Oh dear, I did too at your age. Your aunt Sinjun still does. What is going on, Meggie?”
“Father is going to Scotland on Wednesday. He’s leaving the boys here.”
Alex raised a brow. “Oh, yes, the new title. It’s right that he should go. And what about you?”
“Oh,” Meggie said, giving her aunt a very wicked smile. “I’m going with him. He needs me, you know.”
“You think he will take you?”
“Oh, yes,” Meggie said. “Is there anything I can do for you, Aunt Alex?”
Alex Sherbrooke just stared down at her niece and lightly touched her fingertips to her lovely hair. Tysen didn’t have a chance, she thought. She sent Meggie up to the schoolroom to have luncheon with her brothers and cousins. They were evidently holding special races, using the tables and desks for obstacles, their tutor, Mr. Murphy, had told her as he’d mopped the sweat off his brow. Alex knew that Meggie could bring them back to order. She was still smiling when Tysen and Douglas came out of the library.
“Hollis just told me that luncheon is served,” she said.
“Indeed, my lord,” Hollis said, giving Tysen a rare smile. “The title and dignities will suit you well.”
“Thank you, Hollis.”
Alex said, “Is the new and very worthy Baron Barthwick ready for some of Cook’s thin-sliced ham?”
“How very odd that sounds,” Tysen said thoughtfully, then he added in a very serious voice, “And be sure that I am seated above the salt cellars, Alex. I am now that important.”
She laughed, as did Douglas, but Tysen didn’t. He merely acknowledged with a slight smile that