As the first notes of the bagpipes chimed through the early evening air, Jeanne, Hope, and her sisters fell back to form a line behind Rose, who bent forward at the waist, and bounced on the tips of her toes. With her legs fully extended, she kicked straight out, her skirts tied high to avoid getting in the way. Turning to her right, she repeated the bouncing and kicking, now raising her hands as she did so.
Hope and her sisters watched with glee as Jeanne cheered Rose on. It really was a beautiful dance, and Hope wondered if she might truly learn it one day.
Gazing around Rose’s dancing body, she spotted Jared in the center of the crowd, observing Rose with the strangest expression on his face. He had been smiling like the rest of the group before the dance began, but it seemed something had come over him, and his gaze was now locked on Rose’s face.
Hope tried to get around her sisters to see if Rose was watching Jared when a strange shiver went through her. Glancing around the bonfire, she caught sight of Graham, arms folded, watching her. He had a calculating expression on his face as he stood by the side of a food cart, a towering figure next to the small crowd that surrounded him.
Why should he look so serious, she wondered. Turning back to the others and finding that everyone was preoccupied with watch Rose, Hope decided to sneak away.
Slipping away, she placed her hands on several shoulders to excuse herself as she squeezed through the crowd. By the time she reached Graham, he was practically glaring at her.
“What’s the matter?” she asked when she finally reached him. “You’re scowling.”
“I am not.”
“You are,” she said, folding her own arms across her chest to mimic him. She furred her brow. “See? You look like this.”
Though Graham’s face didn’t change, a hint of amusement shone in his eyes. He turned his head, surveying the crowd around them before nodding his head backwards, silently asking her to follow him. She did. Past the tents, and people, towards the other side of a line of carriages that had been parked around the camp.
Once they were alone, he turned to face her, visible through slashes of firelight that danced between the shadows.Though they had been seen by several people, Hope wasn’t overly worried about being caught in any sort of situation like they nearly had at Elk Manor. The feeling of these games were decidedly more relaxed than the atmosphere of a proper ballroom.
“You’ve played a nasty trick on Rose, not dancing with her,” he accused quietly, much to Hope’s surprise.
Did he really think she would do something that would purposely harm Rose? Annoyed, she folded her arms across her chest.
“You know nothing about it,” she countered. “We have a plan, you see. Jeanne and my sisters.”
“To make a fool out of her?”
“No, of course not. It’s to make your cousin take notice of her. She’s rather shy when it comes to him, as I’m sure you know, and we wanted to give him a bit of a push to make him notice her. We thought this was a clever idea,” Hope said, tilting her chin up. “Besides, I would never harm Rose.”
Graham’s stare was scrutinizing but Hope remained unmoved. Then, after a moment he sighed.
“No. I suppose you wouldn’t. Jeanne certainly wouldn’t either.” Hope smiled. “But it still isn’t any of your concern whether or not Jared notices her. You should have left them to find their own way.”
Her smile faltered.
“I’m surprise you’re even talking to me.”
He bent his head.
“Why is that?”
“Aren’t you ignoring me?”
“Ignoring you?”
“Yes. You’ve barely spoken to me since the ball at Elk Manor.”
He frowned.
“I had business in Glasgow, but I was at Lismore the day before last.”
“Yes, I saw you in the garden. But when I went to join you, you took off.”
“I had work to do,” he said, peering over her shoulder back to the fire. Hope turned as well. At that moment, the music ended and a great cheer broke out over the crowd. Facing Graham again, she saw his suspicious gaze once more. “Rather like your aunt, after all, aren’t you? Meddling in people’s lives.”
“What does my aunt have anything to do with this? And I hardly think getting your cousin to notice a woman is meddling.”
