Taken: A Laird for All Time Novel by Angeline Fortin

Author:Angeline Fortin
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: My Personal Bubble LLC
Published: 2014-11-11T11:00:00+00:00

Chapter 21

“That is your king?”

Amazing.

“This is nae time to be yerself, Scarlett. Ye dinnae dare offer him insult.”

“I’m not insulting him, but I’m just saying.” To make him happy and not ruin the good mood between them, Scarlett kept her other thoughts to herself.

James Stewart was an unassuming sort of man. He might have been Laird’s blood uncle, but there was nothing about him that bespoke a genetic resemblance. No taller than she, lanky though richly dressed, the King didn’t have any of the presence she had come to associate with royalty. He had long dark hair cut straight at his shoulders and across his forehead. Scarlett had seen the hairstyle in old portraits but hadn’t really thought anyone actually wore their hair like that.

But for all that he was King of Scotland; James Stewart was an inconspicuous looking guy. He worked the room with an ease Scarlett envied.

Here was the A-List superstar of the time. King James made slow progress through the great hall, nodding here, lifting a hand there. Everyone in the crowded room pressed forward to greet him, shake his hand or merely get a glimpse of him. Everyone was looking at him. None of them were looking at her. Any curiosity the castle’s inhabitants had felt about her in the preceding days was gone and she savored the novelty of having not a single set of eyes upon her. Scarlett didn’t begrudge him the attention in the least.

Well, perhaps one but she didn’t mind that single admiring gaze today at all.

“Are we going to meet him?” she asked Laird.

“Nay, no’ today.” His eyes dimmed. “Is it something ye were hoping for?”

Scarlett shrugged. “No, not really. Just excited. There’s just something about getting all dressed up, you know? I’ve always loved that part of it.”

“It?” he asked curiously but Scarlett just shook her head.

“Who are all these people?”

“Retainers of the King, his traveling companions and counsel,” Laird told her. “My father, Sir William, is at the King’s side.”

She would have realized it the moment she had seen Sir William even if Laird hadn’t said a word. It was like a glimpse of what Laird would look like in the years to come. Unlike Lady Ishbel who was aging poorly, Sir William for all his fifty years was still a vital, striking man.

Perhaps she could see now why he managed to have so many illegitimate children. Women probably had a hard time keeping their hands off of him. Except Ishbel, who managed somehow to give the impression that she was avoiding him even as she stood right by his side. Instead, she was fawning over the King who seemed not to notice as he gave all of his attention to a gorgeous, dark-eyed woman on his other side.

“Is that the Queen?”

“The Queen remains at Linlithgow I heard,” Laird told her.

“Then who is that?”

Laird only took her arm and steered her after the throng of people who followed the King’s party into the dining hall. More tables had been

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