How to Train Your Highlander by Christy English

Author:Christy English
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Sourcebooks
Published: 2016-10-13T04:00:00+00:00

Twenty

Harry had not kissed her once on their journey back to his house, not even when she had leaned close to him on the skiff. He had pressed his lips to her temple when she had asked him how long he thought it would take for her mother to reach them from Edinburgh, but after that, he had not touched her but to hold her hand. She wished he had, for his mouth was the most beautiful piece of distraction she had ever beheld, and she might have used a bit of distracting.

She had no idea how much distraction she needed until she returned to the duchess’s house in time for tea and found her mother waiting for her.

Mary Elizabeth stood, with her braid bound to the nape of her neck like a farrier’s daughter, her pink gown wrinkled and smelling of salt from her afternoon at sea. She wondered to herself idly why she had never acquired the sense to change her clothes when coming in from outdoors. Her mother had tried to make her learn that small lesson for years, since she was a child. The lesson had not taken, not even among the fancy Lowlanders in Edinburgh. It did not take now, among the English elite in the duchess’s parlor.

There was one bit of blessing, however. The Englishwomen who had come hunting Harry were not in evidence as Mary Elizabeth faced her mother down. They were off on the terrace, being entertained by some young cousin of Harry’s, a bright, young girl who seemed at ease among them. Mary Elizabeth supposed that was as it should be, since the girl was among her own people. She remembered what that ease was like, when she had been home among her own in Glenderrin.

She wished herself there now, as her mother took in her dishabille, from the top of her braid with its escaping curls, to the toes of her muddy boots. Mary Elizabeth felt Harry shift at her back, before he stepped forward and sketched a decent ducal bow.

“My lady of Glenderrin, welcome to Claremont.”

Mary Elizabeth watched as her mother smiled at Harry, the warmth of her eyes betraying little of the simmering anger that waited just beneath that smile’s surface. Harry was a smart man, though, for he was not taken in by it. After he kissed her mother’s hand, he returned to Mary Elizabeth’s side, as if to stand between her and whatever storm her mother’s anger might unleash upon her.

Mary Elizabeth loved him well, and never so well as in that moment. But this confrontation had been a long time in coming, and he could not shield her from it, nor from its aftermath, no matter how many coronets he offered her.

It was his mother who spoke. “Harry, be a dear and leave us alone for a bit. The ladies have a bit of catching up to do. They have not seen each other since March.”

Harry touched Mary’s hand once, low down and close to her side.

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