Page 7 of Reclaimed By Her Scottish Duke

CHAPTER 3

ONE YEAR LATER

“Tell me, Your Grace, is it true that you keep the cattle indoors through your winters? For warmth?”

The circle of lords laughed on cue, glasses catching the chandelier light.

Magnus turned his own glass by the stem and let them have their moment.

“We do,” he said. “Though I’ve found that a well-bred beast improves any room it’s put in, present company being the exception.”

His friend Leo, who stood at his shoulder, made a sound into his champagne that he quickly muffled with a cough.

Lord Crenshaw did not laugh with the others. He was a narrow man with a soft chin and a way of looking down a nose that had never been broken. He waited for the laughter to fade before he spoke again. “One does wonder, though. All these Scots come south of late, hats in hand, seeking English wives and English money. A man never quite knows where a Scot’s loyalties lie, history being what it is.”

The word settled on Magnus the way cold water settled—all at once and everywhere.

Loyalties. History.

He held very still and let the old thing pass through him and out again, and when he answered, his voice did not waver.

“Aye, history’s a cruel keeper of accounts.” He looked at Crenshaw over the rim of his glass. “Speaking of which, how does yer faither find the air in Calais these days? I’m told the creditors rarely follow a man across the Channel, so long as he doesnae mind never comin’ home.”

The silence that dropped over the circle was worth the whole miserable evening.

Crenshaw’s soft chin turned the color of tallow. Someone coughed. Someone else discovered a pressing need to watch the dancing.

“Well.” Leo’s hand closed around Magnus’s arm. “On that triumphant note. Gentlemen, always a pleasure.” He steered him away, through the crush and toward the wall. “You cannot simply say things like that.”

“He started the reckoning. I only balanced it.”

“You buried the man in front of six witnesses, and half of them are in his mother’s debt.” Leo exhaled. “God, but that was satisfying to watch.”

They did not reach the wall. A knot of debutantes had already caught their scent, mothers steering daughters into their path with the precision of cavalry. Within moments, Magnus found himself ringed by fans, feathers, and curious eyes.

Leo bloomed at once. He bowed, he flattered, and he had two of the girls laughing before he had finished his second sentence. Magnus stood among them as one stood among a pen of clever dogs, waiting.

“Your Grace, is it true,” ventured a girl in yellow, “that Scotsmen wear nothing at all beneath the—oh, I cannot even say it.” She dissolved into giggles behind her fan.

“Do you truly speak Gaelic?” asked another. “Say something savage. Go on.”

“I heard your castles have no roofs,” said a third, delighted. “However do you keep the rain off, Your Grace?”

“We stand under the nearest Englishman,” Magnus replied. “They’re forever rainin’ opinions.”

The girl in yellow blinked, uncertain whether she had been complimented.

Magnus set his untouched glass on a passing tray, inclined his head the precise degree that courtesy demanded and no further, and walked out of the circle before any of them could form another question.

Leo caught up to him near the card room.

“You know,” he said, matching his stride, “there is a theory, popular among people who wish to be received in society, that one should not insult the lords and the ladies in the same quarter of an hour. Reputation is a garden, Magnus. You are salting yours.”

“It’s a garden of hothouse flowers grown to be looked at and nothing else. Every word in that room is a lie wearin’ a better word’s coat.” Magnus dragged a hand down his face. “I hate this city. I hate the smell of it, the sound of it, every powdered soul crammed into it.”

“That’s odd.” Leo plucked two fresh glasses from a tray and pressed one into Magnus’s hand. “Because you did not hate it last year. Not the night of that masked business at the maze. You came back to our lodgings that night lit up like a struck match and pleased about it.”

Magnus said nothing.