Chapter 10 #2
Things went downhill from there. Oliver valiantly continued on as if the giant spectre of Quinn didn’t hover menacingly near, but Edwin was badly thrown, much to his mother’s and Lizzie’s disgust. Really, if he was going to marry the girl, Quinn was going to be a regular visitor to his home.
“So these are suitors for my sister’s hand,” Quinn said quietly, sitting down shockingly near to her. “How’s your head?”
She turned to him with an arrogant look. “My head is quite well, thank you for the unnecessary concern. And yes, it looks as if Catie is already quite popular.”
“She seems to like that one. We’ll have to keep an eye on him.” He turned to her and let his gaze roam over her face.
She felt warm that he’d included her as a partner in keeping an eye on his sister, then felt ridiculous.
It was precisely what she was getting paid to do, not any special bond she’d forged with him.
She’d never gone so brain dead around any man before and needed to stop doing it now.
She forced herself to make eye contact, thinking if she could acclimate herself to his extreme good looks she might not get so flustered around him.
It would also help if he stopped being likeable.
God, he was so unreasonable. Where was the brutish mountain man who could barely string two intelligible words together?
How had he turned out to be a charming man who loved to read and dance, saved her life from a mad hooligan and carried her drunken ass up three flights of stairs, then kindly enquired after her health the next day.
Well, that hadn’t been all that kind. He was clearly teasing her a bit with that.
Oh crap. Did she like Quinn Ferguson? It was one thing to be wildly attracted to him, any woman with a pulse would at least be a little attracted to such a man. But did she just now start to like him as a person? If so, she needed to knock it the hell off. And quickly.
“Mr. Cliffstone comes from a nice family and is closer to Catie’s age,” she said.
Why was she defending Oliver? She needed to be leading them in Edwin’s direction.
“That’s probably why she seems more comfortable around him,” she continued, trying to salvage her mistake.
“Lord Hollingsborn is better suited, I think, in that he’s more settled. Serious about finding a wife.”
Quinn grimaced as if the whole notion turned his stomach and she felt a pang of longing.
She missed being part of a family. When she’d met Trent, she’d thrown herself into that relationship, certain that being with a stable man was what she needed after her grandma died.
He’d been even busier than her, giving her time to work on her career, but very little of anything that might have resembled a family.
“She’s taken to it all like a fish to water,” Quinn said wistfully. “She looks so like her ma did, but I always thought of her as one of us.”
“Don’t be daft,” Lizzie said, putting her hand on his again.
Her heart hurt for him and for her own situation.
And she was hungover and hungry and lacking sleep.
She reminded herself to be careful, but didn’t take her hand away.
Poor man had recently lost his brother, and now faced losing his sister, too.
He could use a little comfort. “She’s as Scottish as she is English, and anyone she chooses will be wrapped around her finger.
Perhaps she’ll persuade them to move up there. ”
Quinn furrowed his brow in disbelief, then glanced at her hand, which she guiltily slid back onto her lap. “I suppose I shall have to be nice to them,” he said, looking even queasier at that concept.
“No,” she assured him. “Keep giving them dirty looks and looming over them. It’s fun to watch them squirm.”
“Ah well, for ye then, I’ll be extra fierce.” He leaned closer and smiled. “I could probably make one of them cry if that’ll amuse ye.”
“Perhaps another day. Catie seems a bit tired today. Better not make it worse.” Lizzie had been trying to catch Catie’s eye for the past several minutes, but after the initial greeting, she’d not looked her way once.
She seemed frazzled, her attention bouncing back and forth between the two warring suitors.
It was probably all she could do to keep up.
“Aye, she’s angry with me again, and I dinna know why. During breakfast she barely spoke a word to me.”
“It’s hard work to be charming and lovely all the time. She’s most likely not wanting to waste any of it on you,” Lizzie said, trying to keep a straight face.
She didn’t know why she should like teasing him so much.
Even still feeling like crap and through her worry about Catie’s mood and prospects, even being driven almost mad with fear that Lord Ashford wouldn’t be able to get her home, she still wanted to make Quinn smile. Or scowl, which is what he did.
“She must have a verra small reserve then, for I got nothing. How long until one of them proposes and we can be done with all this?”
Lizzie clapped her hand over her mouth at his audacity. Not two minutes earlier he’d been bemoaning losing her to an Englishman and now he couldn’t wait to be rid of her.