Master of the Highlands

If she couldn’t win him over in the traditional way, she vowed to use other means. She had already made inroads with his monstrous child and had a few other designs at work. In the meantime, Rowena would fabricate as many pretenses as necessary to have private discussions with him.



She announced to Ewen that she would be able to do him the favor of offering her own governess services to his son, stating that she was, after all, at least as well-versed in the more sophisticated aspects of court culture than this woman from the French countryside. She had been surprised when the laird only glowered at her proposal, forcing Rowena to change strategy midway through the audience. No matter. Men, she found, were dumb sops manipulated easily enough with but a well-placed sigh, or “accidental” brush of the hand or knee.



She didn ’t like this newcomer Lily or what it implied for her plans that, up until this point, had been going so smoothly. John adored her. She commanded respect from the servants, and neither solicited nor required their admiration. All that was left was to secure once and for all the affections of the laird, which she supposed would be achieved easily enough. Talk about the keep was that he paid more attention to leading the clan than to dallying with women, but Rowena knew there was not a man in Scotland who wouldn ’t welcome a woman like herself to warm his bed.



And if the usual wiles did not prove sufficient, well, she could remedy that easily enough with a well-placed bit of hearsay. The impression of a dalliance would be just as acceptable to her plans as the dalliance itself, though she found she did honestly crave the latter. Ewen may have been coarser than the courtiers she was used to, but Rowena imagined that those rough, untamed ways of his would serve her purposes quite satisfactorily in the bedroom.



The lass who called herself Lily peeked through the door again, and Rowena was not about to let her meeting with the laird get cut short. She edged even closer to Ewen, trilling out a delighted laugh as she did so. The laird merely scowled in disgust, but that was no matter to Rowena. His back was to Lily; the wench couldn’t read his face and would surmise that she was interrupting an intimate rendezvous.



Ewen stood abruptly, but by that time Lily had edged back out of the room, afraid to interrupt. That lass was proving to be a meek one and would be no match for her. Rowena smiled, undeterred by Ewen ’s sudden close to their discussion.



She relished the thought of besting this Lily almost as much as she anticipated bedding and wedding the laird.



Chapter 16



“Och, lass, did you think me that much a savage?” Ewen pitched his voice for Lily’s ears alone as he topped off her glass of Bordeaux. She flushed crimson, as much from the husky intimacy of his whisper as from his words. He was right. She hadn ’t been expecting such a formal dinner and was thoroughly—and quite pleasantly—surprised. Had her skepticism been written so clearly on her face for all to see, or was he just that attuned to her? Looking at the others seated around the enormous dining table engrossed in their own conversations, she half hoped it might be the latter.



Lily had been afraid she would have to wrestle with haggis or blood pudding or some other food involving the entrails of some unlucky creature. Instead she was presented with crystal goble ts of the finest wine, roast goose with mashed potatoes and turnips, and buttered bread still hot from the oven.



Dinner had been a painless enough affair. Although Lily had at first dreaded seeing Rowena, she grew to be almost thankful for her presence. The girl’s endless prattling about this bit of gossip and that Edinburgh fashion meant that all Lily had to do was sit, nod politely, and dispatch as neatly as possible a meal that was surprisingly delicious. The dining room was a cavernous one and part of one of the original wings of Tor Castle. Although impenetrable black shadows lurked in the corners, dozens of wall sconces and candelabras made the table dance with a warm yellow light. It put Lily in mind of the thrill she would feel as a child when the power went out and everyone gathered into a single room, safe and cozy amidst the eerily cast shadows.



Lily had been troubled to discover that she would be seated at the laird’s right hand. She wasn’t sure if she felt relief or disappointment to discover that the seating arrangements didn ’t indicate any sort of preference on Ewen ’s part. Rather, they enabled him to keep control over Lily’s story and guide the conversation away from sensitive areas when necessary.



Lily did find some comfort being seated across from Robert, possibly the only person as out of place in this social situation as she was. His earnest attempts at conversation warmed her, though she did begin to tire of his endless Latin quotations. She had made the mistake of asking him about a particular declension that John was working on, and he’d been exclaiming pithy Latinate observations ever since. It took her halfway through the second course before she figured out that bonum vinum laetificat cor hominis was that good wine gladdens, not fertilizes, a person ’s heart.



She was also thankful that Rowena was seated toward the other end of the table holding court with her sister Tessa—a flighty creature with ash-brown ringlets and a brash, tittering laugh—and Tessa’s beleaguered husband Archie. Lily’s two- second appraisal of that relationship was that Tessa had been the young, comely bride to Archie ’s older and, Lily assumed, richer groom. Now the poor sop just sat there nursing his third glass of port, adjusting and readjusting a too-tight waistband, and trying his best to surreptitiously dab the sweat from his brow.



Ewen ’s Uncle Donald sat at the opposite head of the table, wearing a frank scowl on his face. Lily had to keep stifling the grin that threatened to spread across her face every time she spied the surly old warrior sitting trapped between Rowena and Tessa.



There was one young man in attendance whom Lily had never seen before, and she liked him immediately. Young



Hamish had arrived conspicuously early, and Lily still had to gnaw the inside of her cheek every time she looked at him to keep from giggling at his raggedly short -cropped brown hair. Ewen caught her eyeing the poor boy, and winking at her asked, “Hamish lad, what damage have you wrought upon your poor head?”



Hamish’s cheeks turned as crimson as the glass of wine in front of him. “You … I mean, sir, you instructed me to cut it. ”



“Och,” Donald grumbled, “was it a plough you used for the cutting?”



The table fell silent as all eyes turned to Hamish, who was blushing more furiously by the minute. Despite Ewen ’s mild aggravation with the boy, Lily got the impression that young Hamish was a grudging favorite of the laird’s. “Well, lad, so I did, so I did,” Ewen said, coming to his rescue.



“Though, next time, you’re welcome to ask our Kat to cut your hair for you. ”



Hamish exclaimed, “Thank you, sir! ” as if Ewen had just promised him a lairdship, rather than a simple haircut. Anxious to change the subject for the awkward young man, Lily asked, “ So, Hamish, do tell me about yourself. ”



“Myself? I, uh …”



Lily cursed herself. She thought she had lobbed him an easy opening, but he was clearly shy beyond measure. This time it was Donald who came to his aid. “Lad, tell them of General Middleton. ”



Hamish lit up. “Aye, I’m off to join General Middleton. He ’s our own Highland general. Lochiel says I ’m ready to join the other men. Under the general, aye? I was having to help my da with the lands, but I ’m to be married come Yule. Married to Bess, bonny Bess”—he paused, a near beatific smile spreading across his face “her father finally gave us —his blessing. And my own da says if I ’m to be a man, really be a man true, ’tis time for me to find my own way of it and I ’ve a way with the sword, so Lochiel tells me. We spar together, aye? Lochiel and me, and Lochiel says I ’ve a way with the sword. And so I’m off. To join the General Middleton.”



The news piqued Archie ’s interest. “General Middleton? Has he replaced Glencairn then as leader of our Highland armies?”



“Aye, ” Ewen said. “We ’ve been to see Gene ral Monk and the British camp. Monk is getting reinforcements from Cromwell by the score, and General Middleton has asked for able-bodied clansmen to join in the fight. ”



“There will be a fight?” Tessa nearly shrieked.



“Calm yourself, lass,” Donald snapped. “We don’t know what’s to come, but Monk tried to bribe the laird and Lochiel had none of it. Of course, this nettled the greasy Monk to no end. ”



“And now I fear he’s got Lochaber in his sights, ” Ewen added.



Archie exclaimed, “Why the blackguard is bringing his lobster-backed whoresons into the very bosom of our Highlands! I too will join the fight, yes sirrah, I will! ”



“I thank you, Archie,” Ewen hedged, “and will let you know when you’re needed. For now, though, I ’m sending just a score of eager lads like young Hamish here to help General Middleton keep an eye on Monk and his troops, until we ken what ’s what. ”



This silenced the table, and Lily looked around nervously. So far, the evening had gone off without a hitch and she didn ’t want that to change now. She mused that, at the moment, such lulls in conversation probably unnerved her as much as poor Hamish. A handful of the laird ’s tenants were also at dinner, and although they seemed friendly enough, Lily had studiously avoided conversation with them. She hated to appear rude, but not only could she barely make out their thick accents, she was terrified that she might say something to reveal she wasn ’t who she claimed to be. A visiting French relative was an exotic thing indeed and Lily wanted to avoid the questions that she would certainly be barraged with if given the chance. She had studied European history like any other high schooler, but the only knowledge of seventeenth-century France that she retained stopped at Louis XIV, Versailles, and Moliè re. And even then, she was very uncertain of exact dates. She didn ’t want to have to elaborate, especially considering the Bordeaux’s pleasant warmth that was beginning to buzz through her body. Lily silently cursed Ewen for not preparing her more thoroughly. Beautiful clothing was all well and good, but what really mattered was knowing whether or not the Louvre had been built yet.