Alex unclenched his fists and clasped his hands behind his back, refusing to allow his eyes to drift back to the living Lady Charlotte beside him.
Despite her porcelain beauty, she did not strike him as spoiled and vain. Instead, a painful sort of earnestness laced her words. Which when combined with her ethereal loveliness, simply made the entire situation all the worse.
He did not wish to like her. Not in any whit.
Admire from a distance. That wasallhe intended to do.
She turned from the painting, as if willing it away. “I trust your journey was not too arduous?”
“It was as passable as a journey from Edinburgh can be.”
“Ah,” she said. “I would imagine that translates astediousandlong.”
Her words surprised a smile out of him. “Ye are not wrong, my lady.”
She smiled in return, soft and wan, her crystalline beauty all the more striking against the backdrop of her care.
His heart made a tumbling sort of lurch in his chest.
No.
This would not do.
Like everything else in this aristocratic world, Lady Charlotte was far too compelling for his peace of mind.
Glittering Diamonds of the First Water were not for the likes of him. The very thought of Lady Charlotte with her fine manners and porcelain beauty traipsing through his medical practice in Edinburgh was ludicrous.
More to the point, such a highborn lady would never stoop so low as to become the wife of a Scottish physician.
The very thought was absurd.
And he, himself, was too sensible to become infatuated with a beautiful woman who would turn the head of any man.
Yes, that was how he must think of it.
Lady Charlotte was akin to one of his late-father’s prized mares. A unique horse that was the product of impeccable bloodlines, years of care, and extensive training. One would never hitch a horse like that to a farmer’s wagon.
No. Such a filly was far too scarce a resource to be wasted on menial labor. She was meant as a show horse, a symbol of status.
Lady Charlotte was of the same vein.
That wasn’t to say that he did not take a moment to admire such beauty in either form—horse or woman.
Granted, he was quite sure Catriona would box his ears to hear him compare a woman to a horse.
Everything about this venture was primed to addle his wits.
The sooner he fulfilled the requirements of the Committee on Privilege, the better.
4
Pardon?” The venerable Duke of Ferndown lifted his eyebrows and scrutinized Alex sitting partway down the dinner table. “Did you truly just say you do not drink wine?”
“Aye,” Alex replied, barely maintaining a stiff smile on his face. “I dinnae drink alcohol of any sort.”
Silence hung in the room, as if Alex’s assertion were so traumatic, it required a moment of deathly quiet in order to properly mourn it.
“And yet, you consider yourself a gentleman?” His Grace peered down his aristocratic nose at Alex, tone utterly baffled.
