When she sipped the brandy, she did so without artifice or hesitation. It was a very good one, one he would like in his own collection, and he would ask Puggles to contact the manager in charge of their cellar for the details later.
The waiter returned and, with her permission, he ordered their meal—servings of roasted quail, beef, and ham, along with several accompaniments. The mention of several special sweets made her eyes sparkle and Iain knew he’d discovered a weakness of hers. Not exactly valuable in his quest, but he never knew when information would prove helpful or not. If nothing else, it was a personal detail he now knew and could use when he needed it.
“Can we dispense with the false frivolity, Sir Iain? I would rather just enjoy a very good supper in these beautiful surroundings than try to prepare for your attempts to negotiate my property away from me.”
“Aye, let’s,” he said. It would be a change, for him, for them. “I should apologize in advance, since I confess I am not certain I can leave business out this evening.” A lovely lilting laugh escaped her, and Iain knew he would play the fool just to hear her laugh. She nodded and then smiled—a genuine, friendly one that made him do the same thing. The things he was tempted to do to her mouth as he gazed on it made it a dangerous smile as well.
“We can start by speaking about the weather, if you’d like? That should make it easier to stay on task.”
“Lovely weather indeed.”
He lifted his glass to his mouth and tipped it back, swallowing the last bit before nodding. As if the fates had been listening, flashes of lightning lit up the sky outside the hotel followed by a growing then waning thunder. Storms had been brewing the whole day and they broke now only to mock him. With the topic of the weather exhausted, Iain came up with another topic though he doubted it was an innocuous one.
“I have heard bits about how the marquess and Lady Nairn married, but I would like to know the whole of it.” The couple were relentlessly in love and there had been talk about how it had come to pass. And they allowed their love to govern their lives instead of controlling them. “If it is a safe topic of polite conversation?”
“’Tis hardly a secret considering that their courtship and proposal was all done right in front of society,” she said. “And I have no doubt that you have received a full report on the matter if you are already in business with the marquess.”
Lady Clare was correct—he would never have offered Nairn any deal without a thorough investigation of his background. He knew most of the details—including the name and present location of the marquess’s former mistress who’d caused many of the problems for him, and yet he wanted to hear it from the lady. To see which details she would trust with him. Or if she would.
“Humor me, Lady Clare, if you would?”
“Very well.” She paused and took a sip of the brandy. “This is very good.”
“I plan on finding out more about it and obtaining some,” he said. Lifting the glass just placed before him by the efficient staff, Iain swallowed a mouthful and waited.
“They were madly in love,” she said. “Anyone with eyes could see it. But pride and anger and a woman who thought she’d been wronged got in the way of the usual courtship of an heir to a marquessate and the daughter of an earl.” Lady Clare stared off for a few moments and then smiled. “Father was horrified. Mother as well. Especially when it seemed as though things were broken beyond repair.”
“The earl and countess were opposed?”
“They were over the moon to get a marquess by marriage after I....”
“Ah. After your marriage and defection from the ranks of society.” He said it that way to provoke an answer. But then most people he dealt with saw only the benefits in a society marriage and life while he saw it as the tangle of deceit and requirements and pretense it was. So, walking away as she had seemed more a liberation, especially with everything she’d been able to accomplish since she turned her back.
“My defection?”
“You chose to marry Logan even while knowing the consequences. That sounds like you made the choice to leave them behind.”
Her gaze narrowed and he glanced away. A miscalculation on his part. He admired her decision though he did not discount the cost of it to her. The pain in her eyes when the earl arrived at Nairn’s dinner demonstrated that.
“I have steered into an impolite topic now and expressed an unwanted opinion. Your pardon, my lady.”
Two waiters brought their first course, and it stopped all conversation. A large tureen of soup was presented and a cloud of steam escaped when the lid was lifted, allowing the delicious aroma to spread over the table. With great show, they ladled it into a bowl for the lady and then for him. The head waiter announced the name of the soup, but as always, the French language confused him. Considering he was known here and the number of meals he’d bought, the head waiter realized the situation and discreetly repeated the name in English as he turned away.
The some-kind-of-beef soup was plain on first look, but the flavors—beef and spices—were surprisingly complex and delicious. Halfway through his, the lady spoke.
“Some of James and Caro’s antics made my parents shudder in spite of his expected title and wealth.” She lifted the large spoon to her lips and tilted the soup into her mouth. After another mouthful, she continued her explanation. “Then Caro fell ill, nigh to dying, or so it seemed to everyone.”
“Pardon me? Are you intimating that it was not true? She was not in danger of dying?” He sat up straighter now for this bit he’d not known.
“My sister could take the stage at any moment, Sir Iain. Her penchant for drama would put the most popular actors to shame. Nay, not intimating. She was not sick.”
His spoon clattered to the table, just missing the edge of the fine porcelain bowl. How had his men missed such a critical detail?
“Does Nairn know? How could a man marry a woman who had purposely embarrassed him like that?” Word was that he made a huge gesture in front of most of society at the biggest event of the Edinburgh season. And, if for naught but a foolish young woman’s pride, how could he have forgiven her such a thing?
Clare placed herspoon next to her now-empty bowl and nodded. For a cynical man who had no time for anything but acquiring more, his disbelief and lack of understanding in the possibility that men, and women, made decisions based on love should not have surprised her. How sad.
“He does. In spite of the theatrics of her actions, my sister has a core of honesty within her. Before she accepted his offer, and in the privacy of my father’s drawing room, she revealed what she’d done and why.” She was not going to do this half-measure. Lowering her voice, she leaned closer and was pleased when he did the same. “They married within days of leaving that drawing room and many counted on their fingers and waited to see the results.”
