He didn’t look anyhappier than Fiona felt by the time she reached him.Without even bothering with a polite greeting, Ramsay said irritably, “It’s about time you came over.Who is that?”
She looked back.Iona’s eyes were still closed, and she seemed utterly content with where she was.Fiona couldn’t help but wish she was there as well.“My sister-in-law.She saw that I was going out and asked to come along.It would have been rude to put her off.”
“But I wanted to see you alone.”
A vaguely plaintive note in his voice rubbed Fiona wrong, and she couldn’t help but snap, “I am the lone unmarried female living in a house with six married couples and four more brothers to boot.I haven’t hardly a chance of even breathing by myself.”Taking a deep breath, she forced herself to relax.She reminded herself of what she really wanted.“If you would simply call at the house, we wouldn’t have to resort to such subterfuge.If you won’t, you’ll have to settle for the little time I can carve out alone.”
“Call at the house?”he asked.“And be turned off like a beggar?”
“I have spoken to Hobbes.It won’t happen again,” Fiona assured him, hoping she was right.“Come spend time with my family.”
Ramsay only laughed.“How awkward for us all.Run away with me,” he urged.“Come with me and be my wife.Let us get away from all this, from your family and start a life for ourselves.”
With little to consider, she shook her head automatically.“I love my family.I want their approval.”
“Ah, darling,” he sighed, taking her hands.“I want it too.I’m sorry for my impatience.It’s just that I love you so.I adore you and want to spend my days making you happy, not watching from the outskirts of your life.If it weren’t for all of this, we could be honeymooning abroad already and discovering all the best courses for you to play on.Doesn’t that sound lovely?”
It did.Ramsay often said the most delightful things in his efforts to please her.And there was absolutely nothing about him that resembled Aylesbury.Nothing at all!“Just a few more months, my lord.While I am not any more pleased with the situation than you are, I know my brothers.In the end, it will all go our way.”
“I hope so,” he grumbled.“The sooner the better.”
Fiona only nodded.He would get no argument from her there.
Chapter 6
Abby tells me that Harry has not come to Edinburgh on business at all this time but specifically to court Moira instead!
How can it be that I am to lose the only gentleman I have ever taken a care for to a woman who is like a sister to me?And I know I shall lose him, for how can I—just a schoolgirl really—compete with someone like Moira?
I cannot provide a viable challenge against her experience or her panache...nor can I offer a satisfactory comparison to her hourglass figure and truly enviable décolletage...
~From the diary of Lady Fiona MacKintosh—Jan 1893
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The Glenrothes Townhouse
