Page 21 of A Highland Lass for the English Duke

She had seen this man before.

Screwing up her eyes, Lissie looked again.

It was him. The man from the bridge.

1 Rural, uncouth

CHAPTER 5

"Brother, I am quite bored," Trenton murmured languidly from above the noise in the room. Straining to hear, Will turned around irritably. It was hot, it was crowded, and he was thirsty.

"Bored?" he asked, in annoyance. "How can you be bored, pray tell?"

But even as he uttered the words, Will knew. Casting his eyes around, he wished bitterly not to be there.

For Trenton, though, the ennui was different. For him, it wasn't enough. He needed to be at the heart of it. Whatever in the damned hell "it" was. Gazing at the society ladies carousing, Will shuddered.

This place was hell. Meat market did not even cover it.

"Bored, bored, bored," continued Trenton, his green eyes expanding languidly. He was exceptionally foppish this evening, bedecked in dark green hose and a doublet, with a large feather protruding from his low-brimmed hat.

Will thought he looked like someone who paid women for their attentions.

Trenton flicked his pale eyes toward Will. "Bored-er than a eunuch in a bathhouse whore."

"Trenton!" barked Will. Quickly, he glanced about. Everyone around was feasting and dancing. Hopefully, no one had heard his brother's outrageous remark.

"Come hither, Brother, and join me in the dance. It is most tiresome to be seated after so long," Trenton complained.

Sighing, Will shook his head. Dancing? Not on his life.

By now, he was the last one seated at the table, the rest of them having erupted in colorful dancing some time ago. Will gazed balefully at the assorted fun.

He hated feasting. What a way to find a life companion.

"Come on, do cheer up, Brother!" announced Trenton cheerily.

Will was about to remark that he had changed his tune when he looked up. His brother's eye had been taken by something across the hall. Will could not yet see, but it was either a woman, wine, or a game. Or perhaps all three.

Gloomily, Will looked up. "What is there to cheer about?" he said. Rubbing his eyes, Will cast his head about. For a moment, he felt as if he had woken up in a nightmare.

Will yawned and longed to be back at his estate. There he could hunt and ride and quietly manage the land without any interference from his mother—or Trenton, or, in short, anyone.

But Trenton looked at him in genuine surprise. "The night is young! And the room is filled with beauteous maids. What is there not to like?"

Will looked up. He was about to mutter something about cattle at the market when, through the dim crowd, he saw a face.

The snapshot of her profile shook him out of his daze. Now, he had to look closer. Scrutinizing through the lowly lit room, he stared over.

There she was. In the middle of the room, thick dark hair pinned back to her veil, or headdress, or whatever it was. Will did not bother himself too much with the peripheries.

The first thing he noticed was her eyes, blue and burning like sapphires through the haze.

"Brother?"

Trenton's voice brought him back to reality. Instead, he saw crowds encircling, ladies dressed to the nines watching him and giggling. It was all Will could do to hold a sigh.

A haughty blonde lady with a long nose peered curiously over.