And the Bride Wore Plaid by Karen Hawkins

Author:Karen Hawkins
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub, azw3, pdf
Tags: Romance
ISBN: 9780739442913
Publisher: Avon Books
Published: 2004-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 10

I was lying in bed, unable to sleep, when a truth was revealed to me. Mama, men are boils on the backside of the earth. If I had my way, I’d take a knife and lance them all.

The once gentle Lady Lucinda, to her astonished mama, the Countess of Bradford, when that gracious lady came to see why her daughter did not appear at breakfast

“He is never here.”

Fiona pressed her fingers to her forehead where a raging headache threatened. “Murien, you have only been here a week or so. How can you—”

Murien whirled to face her. “Don’t be a fool, Fiona! How can I make him fall in love with me if he won’t even stay within arm’s reach? He has been riding with Malcolm’s sister three days in a row now. I never see him.”

Murien had a point and Fiona knew it. But her head ached too much for her to do anything but nod dumbly. Something was going dreadfully wrong with her plan; not only was St. John unaffected by Murien, but Malcolm, even though he was winning the wager, was becoming colder by the day.

It was as if the closer he came to winning, the angrier he became.

Her lips trembled and she hastily took a sip of tea to stave off the tears. Murien hated to see people cry.

Murien sank into the chair opposite Fiona’s in a cloud of pale blue muslin, a petulant expression on her face. “We have to think of some way to keep St. John here, at the castle. At least for an evening or two. I just know that if I could spend more time with him, he’d begin to see how well we would suit.”

Fiona sighed. “I don’t know what to say. St. John comes home every night, but goes straight to bed or closets himself with Malcolm in the billiards room. He’s only been to dinner twice in the time he has been here.”

Of course, part of that could be her fault. She had to admit that the cook was horrid—part of Fiona’s original plan to force Malcolm to remove from Kilkairn. How Malcolm managed to get such breakfasts out of the man was beyond Fiona’s ken. She imagined that the cook, like all of the other men in the household, was siding with Malcolm.

Murien’s mouth thinned. “My brother-in-law does not wish me well.”

“Nonsense. He merely enjoys St. John’s company and likes a good game of billiards.”

“Oh Fiona, stop it. Malcolm does not care for me; he never has. That’s fine with me for I don’t care for him, either. How you could marry such a—”

“Don’t.” Fiona wasn’t sure who was more surprised at the icy tone of her voice.

Murien recovered first. She leaned back in her chair, a placating smile on her lips that did not quite reach her eyes. “I was just teasing, sister. There is no need to get in an uproar.”

Fiona tilted her head in acknowledgment, mainly because she didn’t trust herself to speak again. Heavens, what had caused that reaction?

“This is all so very perplexing.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.