“I’m sorry aboot your parents.”
“So am I. I regret mostly not even knowing them, since I was too young at the time to remember them. But they didn’t kill themselves. It was tainted food. Even the doctor who arrived too late to help them said so. Of course, it makes for a much better story, that they took poison together. And now, even though my aunts, from the same tree, are quite hale and hardy, with no inclination to go walking off any cliffs, I’m next in line to take the tragic plunge.”
“I canna think o’ anyone less likely tae take anything so seriously that they’d come e’en close tae contemplating ending it all.”
“Goodness, I believe you’ve just called me a carefree scatterbrain.”
“I did nae such thing,” he snorted.
“I’m gravely insulted.”
“The devil y’are.”
She humphed. “Well, it was certainly a golden opportunity to say so.”
He burst out laughing, loud enough that a few heads turned their way. One fellow who’d been walking around with plate in hand—Neville didn’t possess two hundred chairs either, so not everyone could sit down to eat—sauntered over to them. Sabrina could almost feel Duncan stiffening and was quite annoyed that her effort to amuse him had just gone to waste.
“So here you are, and who is this?” the fellow asked. “Don’t believe we’ve met.”
He was looking to Duncan to make the introduction, but the Highlander was suddenly blushing, and Sabrina realized, belatedly, that she’d never given him her full name. Before Duncan had to admit that and be even more embarrassed, she supplied, “Sabrina Lambert.”
The fellow was surprised at first, but then seemed quite delighted. “The walking ghost? Thisisa pleasure. I was quite disappointed to have missed you in London recently. Truly wanted to meet the young lady who had everyone showing what bloody fools they are.”
She smiled, realizing that she was actually meeting someone who didn’t believe the rumors about her. “And you would be?”
“Raphael Locke, most definitely at your service.”
“And most definitely intruding,’ Duncan added.
Raphael wasn’t insulted, seemed instead to have expected just such a remark. “Oh, come now, old chap, you don’t think you can monopolize the most interesting lady here, do you?”
“Should you no’ be chaperoning your sister?’ Duncan reminded him pointedly.
Raphael looked appalled. “The dear chit is surrounded by a gaggle of giggling friends. God forbid I get anywherenearthem. Do have a heart. Besides, you should brave that bunch. You’re the one shopping for a bride, after all, not I. How can you make a proper decision if you don’t mingle?”
“Perhaps I’ve already made a decision.”
“Never say so! My sister will be sooo disappointed.”
“Your sister will be relieved.”
“You’re going to ask for her then?”
“Bedamned, goaway,mon.”
Raphael chuckled, apparently satisfied that he’d annoyed Duncan enough—for now—but he did part with, “Very well, I shall go in search of that old Scotsman who claims to be another grandfather of yours. Very amusing, what he has to say about you, and I justlovegood ammunition, don’t you know.”
It took quite a while for the color to leave Duncan’s cheeks after Raphael Locke left them. Sabrina might have been able to put him at ease sooner, but then again, she might have made his annoyance worse, the roots being in male rivalry, which was beyond her comprehension. Besides, she was having a real hard time with the realization that she just might have been the bone of contention they’d just fought over.
In the end she decided she’d imagined it, and by then Duncan had calmed down enough to ask her, “Have you heard o’ him prior tae just meeting him?”
“No, should I have?”
He shrugged, saying, ‘Auld Neville is delighted he’s here. A duke’s son, he is, apparently.”
She smiled. “That would make his sister a fine catch for you then.”
“D’you think so? She seems a bit scatterbrained tae me, and aye,thistime I said it. E’en her brother agrees, but I just might marry her tae spite him.”
