The Wickedness of a Highlander by Braden Elisa

Author:Braden, Elisa
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Verity Jane Publishing, LLC
Published: 2024-03-12T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWELVE

“Well, ye’ve done it this time, son.” Angus MacPherson cuffed Alexander’s neck as he’d done since he and his brothers were wee lads. “Damned shame. She’d have made a bonnie bride.”

Alexander scowled at the door leading from the dining room to the kitchen. It still reverberated from her slam. “All I said was that she could leave after the bairn is born, so long as she leaves it with me.”

“Aye. Probably sounded better in yer head, eh?”

“I wasnae serious, Da.” He raked a hand through his hair and drank his tea. Sabella made the best damned tea he’d ever tasted. Her bacon was also excellent. “I need more time with her. If I can persuade her to stay for short while, I can use the momentum to carry us into a long while. Then gravity takes over.”

Angus patted his shoulder and took a bite of his eggs. “Let Nora talk to her. She’s been practicing puttin’ up with my nonsense of late. Ladies like to commiserate over how daft their men are. Gives ’em a wee sense of accomplishment to boast about how they’ve managed not to kill us.”

Nora was Eleanora Baird, a dressmaker from Inverness with whom Angus had been carrying on a torrid courtship over the past year. Angus hadn’t yet convinced Nora to marry him, which meant he had little to offer in terms of bride wooing strategies. But Alexander had hoped inviting them to breakfast might apply pressure to Sabella.

It had, but things hadn’t gone as well as he’d planned.

“Mayhap ye shouldnae have said aught about takin’ her virginity,” said Da.

“How else were ye meant to find out?”

“And mayhap ye could inform the lass that ye want to marry her whether there’s a bairn or no.”

Alexander shook his head. “Because that’s worked so well for you.”

Angus glowered and downed his tea. “Could use some whisky.”

Munching his crisp, salty bacon, Alexander brooded on what had gone wrong. He’d applied pressure in the right places, he thought. Sabella was from a genteel background. She wouldn’t want to be seen as having broken society’s rules. Therefore, he’d brought in two people whose good opinion she might value, Angus and Nora. He’d added pressure by revealing the reason Sabella must marry him. Then he’d offered a vent, as one must do in a piping system, by telling her a wee fib. There was no way in holy hell he’d let her birth their bairn then leave. But she liked having her goals defined by a schedule, and he thought it would help her justify the commitment.

It hadn’t. She’d dumped his eggs in his lap and stormed off to the kitchen.

“Look, son,” said Da as he pushed his plate away. “I ken how it pains ye not to have her.”

Alexander gritted his teeth and nodded. It did pain him. Angus knew better than anyone. Better than Campbell or Broderick, even. Alexander was the brother most like their da. A bit quieter with his bluster, perhaps, and his temper burned cold instead of hot.

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.