Page 11 of What a Highlander’s Got to Do

“Ah.” Close enough. “And what is her name?” This beautiful girl who didn’t turn up for tea? He knew he should not ask, but he had to. He had to know.

“Her name?”

Lady Swofford and her daughter stared at each other for a moment, befuddled. “Her name?”

“Other than the Lochlannach lass,” William said helpfully.

Lady Swofford shook her head. “Well, I’m sure I don’t know.”

“Didn’t Lady Willouby mention it?” Irritation prickled at Nick’s nape. He wanted to know. Needed to know what to call her in his mind between now and tomorrow, in the deep dark shadows of the night.

“I’m sure she did, but I cannot recall. It’s not as though it matters.”

Oh, it did.

Well, really. What good were any of them to him?

He stayed in the parlor as long has he had to without being rude. Then he excused himself, retired to his room, and stayed there all night.

He refused to admit he was pouting.

But he was.

Chapter Three

Isobel thought about him all night. Dreamed about him, perhaps. Her stable hand farmer’s son.

And she came to a conclusion.

She didn’t much care who he was.

Even if he had been a highwayman, she would have been enamored.

Having been raised in Scotland, she was hardly a frail English lass, the kind he was probably used to. She wasn’t an innocent, either. She’d kissed more than one boy—though to be honest, she hadn’t really liked it much.

She’d not liked it so much, she’d decided that all this folderol about love and passion was just nonsense, that she didn’t need any of it and she didn’t need a man.

But Nick . . .

Nick made her rethink everything.

Not that she was in love with him. She most certainly was not.

Not that she needed him. She did not.

But she wanted him.

She wanted him more than she’d ever wanted anything.

Anything.

And it was a different kind of wanting. One she’d never experienced before. Something deep within her, wet and bubbly and aching.

She wasn’t stupid. She knew it was lust.

She just wasn’t sure what to do about it.

More than once, she’d vowed never to get married. That was no secret among her family, though they usually just chuckled fondly at her brazen pronouncements. Even when they’d all decided to go to London for the Season, traveling all the way from Dounreay, she’d been quite clear. She was not going to England to find a husband. When she overheard her mother and her aunt conspiring to find her just such a creature, she’d had to reiterate herself.