Chapter Two
L una couldn’t believe how simple it had been to scatter her father’s marriage plans to the four winds. All she’d had to do was choose a future husband that he disapproved of, and in the next breath he was declaring he would not allow her to marry at all. She smiled a little smile as she made her way up the stairs, past the portraits of her ancestors. Some of them she recognized, as well as the stories attached to them she had been told from childhood. The Dukes of Bonnyrigg were a proud family, and her father could not stomach his daughter marrying MacKenzie the gamekeeper. Even if it brought his troubles to an end.
Not that she intended to marry MacKenzie. That wasn’t going to happen. She wanted her freedom, and ordinary marriage and a life in any polite society would chain her in a way that made her feel quite ill. If only her mother had not tried to help and her father had not made that promise he now seemed determined to keep.
She had reached top of the stairs and the portrait of the first duke. He stood proud in his tartan, a falcon upon his wrist and a large dog at his feet. She had seen him thousands of times, and yet today he looked... different. She frowned at the painting, trying to understand why, when an image of MacKenzie flashed into her head, tall and broad shouldered in that archaic kilt. She remembered the way he had looked up at her as she clung to that stupid rope, his dark eyes considering and a little worried, his dark hair a disorderly mess that she’d had the inexplicable urge to neaten with her fingers.
Yes, he was attractive, and that was what made it the perfect ruse. Her father could not accuse her of choosing MacKenzie just to spite him, not when he looked like that. Her father, who understood so little about his eldest daughter, would have no difficulty accepting she was shallow enough to be infatuated with a man she barely knew.
She peered more closely at the portrait. She wasn’t imagining it—there was a strong resemblance to MacKenzie. Even the falcon and the dog seemed in keeping with his gamekeeper status. What had he said, an enemy pretending to be a friend had robbed his family? She gave a little shiver and wondered if the past was reaching out to her. A warning perhaps? Was the first duke not happy with her?
Too bad. She would use whatever trick she could to save herself from men like Sir Frederick. He could be consigned to history along with all the other suitors her father had pushed in front of her in the hope that she would finally capitulate.
For the first time in a long time she felt as if she might win this battle.
Luna reached her bedchamber and closed the door with a relieved laugh. She dropped her bindle and was about to throw herself onto her bed when she noticed the rope tied about one of the posts. How could she have so miscalculated the distance from her window to the ground? Well, it was done now, and she was glad she had dangled there for MacKenzie to find. She began to pull it back into her room, hoping she would never need it again, but just in case she tucked it away in a trunk.
She lay upon her bed and stared up at the canopy. How long could she continue her deception? Long enough, she hoped, to win the battle, and mayhap the war. She could only hope that her father would believe her heart was set on the unsuitable MacKenzie and give up. Then Jennie would prevail upon him to allow her marriage to go ahead, and everyone would be happy.
What could possibly go wrong?
Suddenly the door opened and Jennie stood there, a determined expression on her appealing face. “ There you are,” she said.
Lately Luna had been avoiding her sister. It was easier than seeing Jennie’s disappointment every time her father produced a possible suitor and Luna rejected him. The two of them were trapped in this ridiculous situation and she felt sorry for it, truly she did, but she could not shackle herself to a man who would make her miserable just to please Jennie. And deep down she suspected that Jennie knew that, too.
Though she did not look particularly sympathetic today. “I hope you’re happy with yourself,” she said quietly, her blue eyes—a paler blue than Luna and her father—fixed on her. “Everyone in the castle heard you arguing with Father.”
Jennie spoke quietly, but that was the thing about her sister—she didn’t rant and rave and call Luna names as Luna might have done if their positions had been reversed. She did, however, have a wicked sense of humor.
“Father and I are always arguing,” Luna said dismissively. “I think he enjoys it.”
“He hates it. It is you who enjoys it.”
Luna sat up as Jennie approached her. “Never mind that. I think I’ve discovered a way out of our mess—”
Jennie didn’t let her finish. “I heard that you told Father you wanted to marry the new gamekeeper. Of course father refused to consider it. Very clever, Luna.”
Luna watched her warily. “I should have thought of it earlier,” she said. “I don’t know why I didn’t.”
Jennie smiled a knowing smile. “Probably because you hadn’t seen MacKenzie until this morning. He is eye-catching, isn’t he?”
“Is he? I didn’t notice,” Luna said cautiously, refusing to be drawn.
Jennie gave a snort of disbelief. “Your plan has the potential to backfire. What if Father decides MacKenzie would make you a good match after all? What then? Will you marry him, or will you find a reason to refuse him?”
It was Luna’s turn to scoff. “ That is hardly going to happen. Even though he does resemble the first...” She stopped herself, but Jennie narrowed her eyes.
“The first what?” Then, her face clearing, “The first duke! I wondered why he seemed familiar. Oh my. Did you know that Father deeply regrets that dark chapter of our history?”
“I don’t think MacKenzie wants to dispossess us because of an old story, not over a slight resemblance to a man long dead.”
“More than a slight resemblance. I wonder what James will think?” James was the Earl of Strathmore, and Jennie’s intended. “I am twenty in a week,” Jennie added woefully. “Soon I’ll be too old to marry anyone but the most desperate. And you are two years older than me! Aren’t you worried you will be passed over and forgotten?”
Luna ignored that. “As I was about to say when you interrupted, this could be the way to escape the mess our mother created for us. Father will never agree to me marrying a commoner like MacKenzie, and I will refuse to consider anyone else. It will be a stalemate, and eventually even he will give up. Then I will be left alone to live my life, and you can marry the love of your life.”
Jennie flushed with happiness at the very thought of her husband to be, but then her expression turned serious. “As much as I wish for that to be true, I think you have miscalculated, Luna. Father introduced me to MacKenzie just now. They were having a good old chat. I thought it was about the shooting party Father is planning, but then I heard MacKenzie talking about his last position and how they did things there. They were comparing notes on the management of the estate, and I could see Father was impressed. You know how he never listens to anyone else’s opinions? Well, he was listening to MacKenzie.”
Luna felt herself tense. “Father was just being polite.”
“He’s never polite, especially when he is forced to do something he doesn’t want to do. No, he was enjoying his conversation with the gamekeeper.” Jennie sounded elated. “You can pretend all you like, but I heard and saw them, and I am telling you Father will come around to you marrying him.” She laughed softly. “You’ve been too clever for your own good this time, sister. I’m off to write to James and set a date!”
And with a little wriggle of her fingers, she walked out and closed the door, leaving Luna to stare after her.
Her feelings were no longer buoyant. In fact, she was sinking into a morass of doubt and uncertainty. This wasn’t supposed to happen. Her father was meant to find the idea of a match between his daughter and MacKenzie repellent. She reminded herself that there was no need to panic. The duke may well be enjoying the company of his gamekeeper and listening to his experience on other estates, but that did not mean he would ever want to marry his daughter to such a man.
A commoner.
Her plan was still sound. Jennie was just being mischievous.
*
But over the next few days Luna saw with her own eyes a growing friendship between the two men which surprised and concerned her. She had been sure her father would continue to rail at her about her decision to marry MacKenzie, but he said nothing. And whenever she crossed paths with Jennie, her sister raised her eyebrows and gave her a satisfied smile. Sir Frederick sent a self-pitying letter about his heart being broken and asked how she could stoop to a union with a commoner. By now the gossip of the duke’s daughter and the gamekeeper had spread far and wide, and although it was a relief that Sir Frederick had lost hope of marrying her, because he was truly a horrid man, it did cause Luna to have some doubts.
Several times, she had found her father standing before the portrait of the first duke, staring at it with a worried frown. Was Jennie right? Did he feel that episode from the past deeply? While that seemed a little odd, she thought it best not to comment. No one else seemed to have noticed, and the maids at the castle were all aflutter about the new gamekeeper. Luna scowled when she came upon a gaggle of them whispering and giggling about the “braw laddie.” They scattered as she approached, and she told herself it was just as well. She was glad she was not such a simpleton as to lose her wits over a handsome face. But she did wonder if MacKenzie would take advantage of such foolishness. Was he that sort of man? She admitted she did not know, and yet she had the strong sense that he would not play upon the silly girls’ affections.
A week later, when she came down to dinner, she sailed into the dining room and almost bumped into the very man who had been monopolizing her thoughts.
MacKenzie gave her his deep, courtly bow, and she saw to her consternation that he was dressed in breeches and a dark blue jacket and almost looked like a gentleman. When he straightened, his brown eyes met hers with a knowing warmth she found extremely disconcerting.
“What are you doing here?” she demanded rudely.
He smiled as if her ill manners amused him. “I was invited,” he said. “His Grace asked me to join the family.”
“But you are—are the gamekeeper,” she stuttered. “Father would never ask you to eat with us.”
“No?” He leaned in closer, and Luna realized they were alone apart from the servants, who didn’t count. “I am your affianced husband. Surely my place is at your side.”
Oh no, no, no. This was not happening. “You’re joking,” she forced the words out through a throat that suddenly seemed to have narrowed.
He looked down at her with a smile. His teeth were white and not a one missing, and for a moment she was surprised and bedazzled by this healthy male animal before her. It was as if she had been striding along, sure of her steps, and suddenly she had tripped over an unseen obstacle and now she was floundering all over the place.
“Of course I’m joking,” he told her, a slight frown replacing his smile. “Do ye think I would really set my sights on a duke’s daughter?”
Relieved, Luna slumped down into her chair, and he sat down beside her. She didn’t even notice how close he was, she was so relieved.
“No, of course not,” she agreed, and then gave a shaky laugh. “I just... for a moment I...”
He carefully unfolded his napkin. “Should I tell your father the wedding is off?”
“No, you should not!” She dropped her voice to a furious whisper. “If you do that then I will have to marry Sir Frederick or—or someone worse, although how there could be anyone worse I do not know.”
He gave her a long look, and once again she could read the understanding in his eyes. That he knew how she felt was confusing when her own father was not aware of it. “I will be guided by you,” he said gently. “When you are ready to put an end to it, then so we shall.”
“Thank you,” she said, grateful he was being so equable about it.
“I’ll need a little time to compose myself afterwards,” he went on in a thoughtful tone. “A few tears, a sob or two when the news is out. I will have to practice being pale and heartbroken.”
It was only when he smiled that she realized he was joking again. She was so relieved that she forgot to be cross with him. “Stop it,” she said. “It isn’t as if we are in love, MacKenzie. We hardly know each other.”
Then for some reason she remembered the way they had stared into each other’s eyes after she let go of the rope and he caught her. That sensation of knowing someone who was in fact a stranger. She wondered if he was thinking of that moment too, but she could hardly ask him, and then the others joined them.
During the meal she was able to listen to her father chat with MacKenzie without concerning herself too much. The discussion moved from subject to subject, and MacKenzie spoke at length about the importance of aligning oneself with the natural world. “Aristotle had something to say about that,” he added, helping himself to some more tatties and neeps.
“You have had an admirable education.” The duke smiled. “It is rare to hear a gamekeeper speak of the Greek philosophers.”
“My uncle was a teacher,” MacKenzie replied. “It was he who told me our family had once been great. He believed a man should be well rounded.”
“Very true,” the duke said. “So many of our leading men can barely sign their own names, let alone hold a decent conversation. I was lucky enough to be sent to a school that also believed men should be well rounded.”
“What about women?” Luna looked up from her own meal, no longer able to remain silent. “Is education not for them, too? Shouldn’t they be well rounded, too?”
“Only when they are with child,” the duke answered, dabbing his lips with his napkin.
It did not surprise Luna that he would say something like that. He had made his thoughts known before about a woman’s place in the world. What was surprising was when MacKenzie spoke up in argument.
“A woman is more than just a vessel for childbearing,” he said. “I believe the woman keeps the family together. ’Tis all very well for men to think they hold the reins as they go off to work, whether it is running the country or tilling the fields, but ’tis the woman who ensures all runs smoothly at home. And it is a foolish man indeed who makes his woman unhappy and resentful by refusing her a proper place in his heart and at his hearth.”
There was silence. Luna and Jennie watched their father with their mouths open. One did not contradict the Duke of Bonnyrigg in such a manner, and if one did then there would be consequences.
Luna was sure the duke would send MacKenzie from the room, and perhaps from Bonnyrigg, too. Her father’s face was flushed and his eyes angry, and his hand was clenched upon the table. “And you think yourself an expert in the matter?” he said through clenched teeth.
MacKenzie gave a shrug, seemingly unaware of the danger. “Och, not an expert, but my mother was one of those women who was the backbone of our household. When she died nothing was ever the same again, and my father, who was the strongest man I ever knew, fell apart. All the years he had declared himself beholden to no one, able to do whatever he pleased without her permission, and there he was, in pieces.”
MacKenzie’s voice held a sadness, a grief for the beloved mother he had lost. Luna wanted to reach out and take his hand in hers and comfort him, but of course she did not.
A glance at her father showed that the anger had leached out of him. He cleared his throat. “By God, I think you might be right,” he said reluctantly. “Now I ponder on it, my mother always had the last word when I was a boy. My father believed himself master of Bonnyrigg, but she stood at his side, and there were many times when she was the first one he turned to for advice. Strange... I had never thought of it before now.”
Luna took a relieved breath. A moment later the conversation resumed on less tricky lines. Jennie leaned toward her and whispered, “Handsome and clever. Your husband grows more acceptable by the day.”
Luna gave her a hunted look before she remembered to glare.
“You are mistaken,” she whispered back. “I am not marrying him.”
“Oh?” Jennie pretended to be confused. “And yet you chose him.”
Just then the duke and MacKenzie burst into laughter together, once again in total accord, though on what subject she could not have said, and Luna stared at them, her dismay growing by the minute.