A Duke By Any Other Name

Chapter Three

O ver the following days, those moments at dinner played upon Luna’s mind. Although MacKenzie had told her he understood a marriage between them was never going to happen, she still felt uneasy. Her father had been constantly singing the man’s praises and with every word he spoke, Luna’s anxiety increased. What would happen if she found herself married to MacKenzie?

Jennie’s smirks didn’t help, nor did her random comments about weddings and what was in fashion. “You should wear a circlet of red roses in lieu of a coronet,” she said thoughtfully. “Something natural, to compliment your husband and his natural world.”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Luna retorted. “With my hair? White roses, not red.”

Jennie spluttered a laugh. “Do you know he told me that he planned to walk to your wedding barefoot?”

“Why on earth would he say that?”

“Because he is a commoner and proud of it.”

“He is joking,” Luna said wearily. “He doesn’t believe a word of it.”

Jennie eyed her curiously. “Are you sure? He was very convincing.”

Luna had said she was sure, but the doubts she had thought put to rest were raising their heads again. She thought it best to have another talk to him, just to be certain they had the same understanding in the matter of their pretend wedding. And then she seemed to hear her sister’s voice teasing her, asking if she was making excuses to visit the braw gamekeeper.

Well, that was just ridiculous and utterly untrue.

Yes, she may have been dreaming about him last night, and her dream had been rather warm—he wasn’t only bare foot in it—but what did that prove? Just because a man was handsome and interesting, that did not mean he was in any way marriageable material for a duke’s daughter who wished to live her life as unhindered as possible.

And yet the very next evening, she found herself setting out into the woods to find MacKenzie.

This time of year, the days stretched long, and the air was warm and still. She wasn’t surprised to find MacKenzie outside, too, seated on a stump while he tended to something in a small wooden cage. Whatever was in that cage, he seemed very focused on it, placing tiny pieces of food through the bars and smiling in a pleased way when the food was taken, before offering more.

For a long time she stood unseen and silent, watching him.

The gloaming painted him with gold around the edges and his dark hair fell into his eyes, so that he was constantly pushing it back. Why on earth didn’t he cut it? He wore his kilt, and his shirt was loose with the sleeves rolled up. He looked completely at home in the woods, with his small cottage behind him, the smoke drifting from its chimney. It was as if he belonged here and had no ambition to be anywhere else. It was as if he were content.

Oddly, that made her feel jealous, because she never felt comfortable or content in her father’s castle. She was always out of sorts with her surroundings and her family, as if she had been born into the wrong place. Sometimes she wondered if she was a changeling.

She had been so deep in her gloomy thoughts that she had no time to prepare when he looked up and saw her. His surprise quickly turned to pleasure, and with a smile he rose to his feet to greet her. He was so much taller and bigger than Luna, but she did not find him intimidating in any way. In fact, there was something trustworthy about him, something reliable, and she could not remember ever feeling any of those things about a man.

It suddenly made Luna almost shy.

She searched desperately for something to distract him from what must be showing on her face. “Is this where you live?” she asked, although she knew that of course he lived here. “I have never visited the gamekeeper’s cottage before,” she finished awkwardly.

“Why should you take an interest in my wee home?” he asked with a grin. “You have a castle.” He did not sound the slightest bit envious.

“Wouldn’t you like a castle? If your family were once as lofty as you say? Sir Frederick said it was his dream to own one.”

MacKenzie shook his head. “I prefer to know I can up and go whenever I want. Set off for somewhere or anywhere on the spur of the moment. A castle brings with it rules and obligations, and they would weigh me down. Soon I would stop feeling I could go anywhere, and I would not be happy.”

“Oh.” Did Luna feel weighed down? She did. Her mother’s marriage promise had weighed her down all of her adult life. How wonderful it would feel not to have that heaviness upon her shoulders. To wake up in the morning to the sound of birdsong and an open road and wonder to herself: Where shall I go to today?

“But you must have your own rules and obligations,” she said crossly, because why should he be happier than she, with her fine clothes and her castle and her dowry?

“I do, but I do not have dozens of tenants and servants reliant upon me. I know that if I change my mind about those obligations, then I have only myself to worry about. Mabbe that will not always be so, but for now I could walk away tomorrow and find work somewhere else, and no one would miss me.”

Would they not miss him? Disconcerted, Luna found that she would miss him.

She spoke quickly, and her words sounded accusing. “What about if you married and had children? You would have to worry about them, wouldn’t you? Or would you just walk away and leave them behind to starve?”

His brown eyes were very serious as they gazed into hers. “No, I wouldnae do that. I would do what was best for them, but I think if they were mine then they would follow me because of the life I offered them. Because they had the same free spirit as I do.”

She tilted her head and sighed. “You are awfully arrogant.”

He laughed softly. “Am I? Why? Because I speak the truth as I see it? I have very little to my name, Luna, and that makes my life itself richer.”

Something warm blossomed inside her chest as she looked up into his eyes. It was like that other time, when the world had seemed to stand still, but now she almost felt as if she was inside his head. And what she saw there was a wonderful sense of euphoria. Pleasure and joy washed through her, and she felt as if she was lying in soft grass gazing up at the patterns the leaves made against the sun. Against the moon. And his arms were warm around her.

Had he cast a spell upon her?

Not good, not good at all.

A skittering sound came from the cage. “I found an injured squirrel,” he said, seeing her curious look. “I think it will survive. Once it is strong enough I will release it. Wild things should not be kept prisoner.”

“Oh.” A man who saved injured creatures and lived in the woods, who was free to go wherever and do whatever he wished. Luna swallowed and forced herself to focus on the reason she had come here tonight. If only she could remember...

“I wanted to be sure you knew we are not marrying,” she rushed out. “I know you said you knew, but I wanted to be absolutely certain.”

His lips twitched. “I am no fool. I know it is all make believe on your part so that you can escape the Sir Fredericks of this world. Dinna fash yersel’ Luna.”

He said her name as if he had the right, and although she thought she should reprimand him, she did not want to. She liked the way he said it. “Good then,” she said awkwardly at last.

She should go now and leave him to his work, and yet she lingered.

“Besides,” he said, with a sly little glance at her, “I’m not suffering. I have had offers aplenty in the past weeks.”

“Offers? What sort of offers?”

He shrugged, “All sorts, from marriage to a roll in the hay.”

Luna stood stiff, staring at him. Words poured into her head, but none of them could be spoken aloud or even seemed to make sense. At last, her voice sounding ridiculously prim and proper, she said, “My father doesn’t like his servants copulating. He is very particular about such things.”

He wasn’t, but MacKenzie didn’t know that, and the idea of him dallying with other women was like a pain between her ribs. She remembered the maids gossiping and calling him a “braw laddie” and wished she had spoken to them then and insisted that...

Luna stopped the voice in her head. She looked up at him, realizing he had been silent for some time, and he was watching her. He raised his eyebrows in mockery and said, “Never fear, mistress, I know my place.” But there was something in his voice, as if she had injured him, and it threw her off balance yet again.

“Good,” she said gruffly, and when he said nothing more, she turned and left him to whatever he was doing.

Her steps took her back through the woods toward the castle, and she found she was stamping along as if she was angry or upset. That couldn’t be right. She was neither. She was the happiest she had been in ages, now there was no Sir Frederick or his ilk to vex her. She was free.

But was she really? What she had was only an illusion of freedom. A pale shadow in comparison to the life MacKenzie had shown her.