Kieran helped himself to a scone. “You are quite as bad as Iona and Mrs. Quinn.”
She straightened against the pillows at her back. “And why not? You are nearly thirty. Surely it cannot be a lack of attraction between the two of you.”
Kieran choked on his tea. Once the pain caused by the hot liquid in his nostrils receded, he glared at his parent. “Mother! That is a highly improper speculation.”
She sniffed. “Pooh.”
He escaped shortly after that, torn between exasperation and amusement. His amusement abated as he rounded the corner to the corridor leading to the best bedchambers. A series of muffled thumps greeted him. Sprinting, he reached the room the noise came from and wrenched the door open.
And jumped aside as Thomas Quinn erupted into the hall and landed on the crimson runner carpeting the floor. Blood oozed from a split lip. Colin, the footman, stood in the doorway panting and nursing the skinned knuckles on his right hand.
Kieran peered past the servant. A maid sat crumpled on Thomas’s bed, cap askew as she wept. That and the torn dress gaping open from her neck to her waist told Kieran all he needed to know.
“I’ll have your job for that, you insolent bastard!” Thomas, having climbed to his feet, bellowed the words as he flew toward the footman, hand raised to strike.
He staggered backward as Kieran’s fist drove into his solar plexus. Thrown the width of the corridor,he slammed into an occasional table and collapsed against it, gasping for air.
The noise brought observers. Kieran found himself the cynosure of the rest of his wife’s family. Diantha hurried to his side from the opposite end of the hall, followed by Iona and Barclay.
“What is the meaning of this? Thomas, are you all right?” Mrs. Quinn pushed forward to inspect her son.
Catching his wife’s eye, Kieran jerked his head toward Thomas’s chamber. She took one look inside, shooed Colin out and entered, shutting the door behind her.
“That scum attacked me.” Thomas spat the words out as he pointed a shaking finger at the footman. “I want him dismissed. Now.”
Colin broke his silence. “I did naught but lairn the muckle feardie not tae lay hands on a poor lass.” Kieran crossed his arms and stared the younger man down. “The only thing that is going to happen now is that you are going to wait until your sister can ascertain how badly you hurt that girl.” He did not bother to hide his contempt.
Mrs. Quinn drew herself up. “Lord Rossburn, you cannot mean that you would take the gibberish of an ignorant menial over the word of a gentleman.” “On the contrary, I’m taking the word of the only gentleman involved in your son’s disagreement.” He turned to the servant and grasped his shoulder. “Brawly done, my lad.”
While the Americans stared in confusion, the footman relaxed. “Thank you, my lord. It’s Gaira Wallace, we grew up together.”
His father-in-law blustered. “This is an outrage!No doubt the girl threw herself at my boy. Pay her off and haul this miscreant to jail.”
Diantha emerged in time to hear her father. Her face paled, but she remained composed. “On the contrary, Papa. Tom tried to force himself on the poor girl and would have succeeded had Colin not intervened.”
Her mother’s narrow face contorted. “Diantha! She’s a servant, for heaven’s sake.”
“And that makes Tom’s action somehow acceptable?”
Quinn’s face took on an ugly red hue. “By God, Rossburn, we’ll see what the authorities have to say about this.”
Despite the serious situation, Diantha bit her lip to prevent a smile.
Kieran twitched his cuffs into place. “This is Scotland, Quinn. Iamthe local authority.” He nodded to the grinning footman. “I think this calls for a bonus, Colin. Now get downstairs and have someone look at those knuckles.”
With a tug of his forelock, the servant took himself away. Kieran fixed his gaze on his furious brother-in-law. “I ought to turn you over to the courts and request transportation for you.”
Mrs. Quinn turned to her daughter. “How can you permit him to speak to us so? Have you no proper feeling for your own family?”
Diantha stepped past Kieran and planted herself in front of her mother. “After you invite yourself to my home and accost my servants?” Her voice shook. “The only reason I am not ordering you to leave at once is because doing so would worsen the scandal Tom created.”
“You do not give orders to me, my girl.” Mrs. Quinn’s hand whipped out to slap her daughter, hard.
Kieran pulled Diantha back against him. Keeping one arm around his trembling wife, he gripped the older woman’s wrist until she cried out.
“I suggest you exercise some self-restraint, madam.” Or he’d kill the bitch before he let her strike Diantha again.
Like every other bully he’d come across, Mrs. Quinn backed down at the first threat of danger to her person. “No gentleman would think of harming a lady!”
