Page 4 of Highlander’s Lust

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Paying Respect

Dear Friend,

I pray this missive finds you well and your clan prosperous. As you will have noticed, my dear Laird Macanroy, I have enclosed an invitation within my communication. But what is my news, you might very well ask?

It is news of the most amusing kind. When I heard it, I could not help myself from rushing to inform the messenger that he must not bother himself to ride forth in search of Macanroy Lodge, as your humble servant would be more than happy to send and deliver the invitation to you at my own personal expense.

Thus, you receive this summons and my news at one and the same time. Is that not the most amusing circumstance?

Let’s get to the meat of my merriment after telling you what the invitation contains: to wit, you are invited to attend the late Laird Ramsay Brisbane’s wake. You are humbly requested to bring all your family; food, drink, and bedding. In fact, hospitality of the most gracious kind is to be provided for you and all your entourage.

‘How sad’, you may be thinking. ‘Poor Laird Brisbane gone to meet his maker with the most pious intent.’

Now we reach the great joke, my old friend. Auld Ramsay departed this world in the same style as his rutting namesake foretold. Forsooth, that wanton lecher cocked up his toes while making the two-backed beast with the chambermaid, just like a horny ram amidst a field of ewes!

Rumor has it that the girl was nearly smothered ‘neath the man’s bulk; he being fond of both maids and meals alike.

Will you be riding that roan stallion of yours across to Brisbane Castle? If so, I wish to…

Laird Callum crumpled the parchment in one hand. “And Ben MacFadyen goes on to make me an offer for Bellarion, my destrier, but that’s neither here nor there. What do ye think about that auld goat, Ramsay?”

Lachlan and Lady Kirsty let out a collective roar of laughter, and they were joined by his lairdship, who slapped his thigh and wiped the corners of his eyes. The tale was so funny.

“If that’s not enough to make a man wish for the maintenance of his pride and dignity, I don’ ken what is!” Lachlan chuckled. “Faither, I commend ye for a story well told.”

Kirsty smiled. “What a ticklish situation for the chambermaid to find herself in. But may that be a lesson to her when all is said an’ done.”

Lachlan elbowed his sister. “D’ye no’ find it funny, Sis? Or are ye too high an’ mighty to laugh at such things?”

Jean blushed and lowered her head to stare at her plate of porridge. “Truth to tell, Brither, I have no very clear idea of what ye’re all talkin’ about. Whatever this two-backed beastie is, it sounds very unpleasant.”

Lachlan opened his mouth to tease his sister, but Lady Kirsty frowned him down.

“That’s enough about such an unpleasant subject at the breakfast table, men! Now, what date does Mister MacFadyen give ye for this wake? I must make sure the servants who are traveling with us have the correct mourning attire.”

Lachlan would not let the matter drop so easily. “‘Tis high time me sister stopped acting the prude, Mither! She’s ripe and ready enough to wed. Who will spare her blushes when the time comes for her weddin’ and beddin’?”

Laird Macanroy pushed his chair back from the table and cleared his throat. “I am in no hurry to lose me beloved daughter to another man yet, Lachlan. And even though I have received over twenty offers for Jean’s hand in marriage, I will not countenance any of them until Jean herself shows an interest in the man.”

Lachlan scoffed, “Och! She’ll likely never do. Miss Fussy always finds something in a man to dislike.”

Jean was goaded into a retort. “Besides the fact that I have a very strong suspicion that half the offers made for me were inspired by the Macanroy whisky fortune, I’ll have ye ken that not one of those men was under the age of thirty! When I marry, I want it to be to someone who can share my intellectual passions and pursuits, not some middle-aged gallant wearing a dusty peruque and dirty jabot.”

Callum laughed. “Wait ‘til ye are approaching thirty years of yer own, Jeannie, and then tell me it is auld. But when all is said an’ done, I want ye to be happy with the man ye wed, for I believe bairns come better and faster that way.”

Jean shuddered. “As I have a strong suspicion that two-backed beastie has something to do with the production of bairns, I’ll thank ye, Faither, to leave me in the dark about happy marriages for now!”

Later on that evening, Laird and Lady Macanroy met up to discuss the preparations for their trip to Brisbane Castle.

“This wake could not have come at a better time, Kirsty,” Callum said to his wife. “Those fine gentlemen down in Edinburgh are becoming impatient for Jean to decide which one o’ them she fancies herself wedded to. It is high time for Jean to expose herself to the companionship of men other than grooms and distillers.”

Jean was partial to accompanying her father on his inspection of the whisky stills and always had intelligent questions to ask the distillers about the intricate brewing process. And as for her fondness of horses and riding, not a day went by when the head groom was not requested to put a saddle on one of Miss Jean’s favorite mares. To any random passersby, it might have seemed as though Miss Jean Macanroy was as wild and untamed as one of the colts running in the fields.

Kirsty placed the embroidery she was doing down on her lap and looked at her husband. Even after twenty years of marriage, he still had the power to make her weak at the knees when he took her by the hand; she wanted her daughter to have that same sort of attraction to the man she ended up marrying. Lady Macanroy found it vastly appealing the way Callum deferred to her own judgment when it came to Jean’s happiness and well-being. There might be grey showing in his temples, and his figure might have lost the lithe slimness of his youth, but Callum Macanroy was still every inch a strong and virile Highland laird—the kind of man Kirsty envisioned for her daughter: a leader, a warrior, a man who commanded the respect of all those around him.

She could not help herself from catching his hand in her own and giving it a squeeze; then, she kissed the palm and held it to her cheek.