Page 95 of Wicked Highland Heroes

Chapter Fifteen

Erroll found his mother in her chambers, fifteen minutes later. She looked up from the secretary where she was writing. Her face lit with a smile. She laid down her pen and extended her hands as he neared. He grasped her fingers and pulled her up and into a hug. Erroll’s gaze caught on the sheet of paper she’d been writing on and the list of names enumerated there. She stepped back, then drew him to the couch near the warmth of the hearth.

She sat down. “To what do I the honor of this visit?”

He sat beside her and draped an arm over the top of the couch. “We have had no chance to speak since I arrived. It is a son’s duty to pay his mother a proper visit when he hasn’t seen her in two months.”

She snorted. “This is about the sisters.”

“I do wish to discuss them,” Erroll admitted. “But first, my guests are settled, I presume?”

“They are. I arranged for the ladies to have a bite to eat in their rooms, and baths. They did look a bit bedraggled.”

“It was a long trip. Thank you for seeing to them. Now, tell me how you are.”

“You can see I am well. There is nothing new to report since I last saw you, so let us dispense with the small talk. I understand I am to prepare for a wedding.”

“So I am told,” he said. “We only arrived a few hours ago, but you seem to have made good progress on the guest list.” Erroll nodded toward the secretary. “One would think you already had a list in hand.”

His mother laughed. “The marquess informed me days ago there would be a wedding. Since the wedding will be held here on Mull, I am shortening the list. That isn’t a bad thing, I think. Do you have any guests you wish to include?”

Erroll shook his head. “I imagine Ash and Olivia are on the list?”

A shadow flitted through her eyes. “Of course.”

Erroll cursed his stupidity. Of course Olivia and Ash were invited. His mother knew how important it was to have his sister and brother there…just as much as it would have been important to have Val attend.

Erroll smiled. “Invite whomever you like. All of Mull, if it pleases you.”

Her eyes twinkled. “That would cost the marquess a pretty penny.”

“He is insisting I marry, after all.”

“Therefore he should pay?” she asked.

“Your words, madam, not mine. Now, as to the bride, I do have a preference.”

Her brows arched. “You should have thought of that before you ended up in Gretna with two prospective brides.”

“I see you are up to date on all the latest on-dit,” he said.

“When the gossip concerns my son, I am.” Her expression sobered. “Erroll, I like the ladies, but I admit to some concern that one of them shot you.”

“A mere flesh wound,” he said.

“That does not change the fact she shot you.”

“To be fair, I was a stranger who broke into her room at night and, well…woke her.” His mother’s mouth twitched in either satisfaction or amusement, he couldn’t be sure, for nothing ensured a son must marry like getting caught in an unmarried woman’s bedchamber. “To make matters worse,” Erroll went on, “her father caught us in a rather compromising position.” Literally.

“More compromising then when you woke her?” his mother asked.

“To my discredit, yes. Like any good father, Tolland was enraged and, in self-defense, I began to beat him half to death. He is quite fit, for a man of his age.” Erroll recalled the baron’s fist in his stomach. “She didn’t intend to kill me. In fact, I suspect she intended to fire in the air.”

“What makes you think that?”

“It was close range.”

“And you are a large target.”