The Bodyguard (18 page)

“I am willing to be courted,” she said at last.

“Wonderful!” the earl replied with a boyish smile that made him look even younger than his two and twenty years.

Kitt shot a quick, silencing look over her shoulder at Alex, who had shifted behind her. It allowed her to see how little he thought of the earl and his suit.

“Would you like to take a walk with me?” the earl said.

“That would be lovely,” Kitt replied.

The earl reached for her gloved hand to help her to her feet, then slipped her arm through his. “We can go out through the French doors onto the balcony and then walk down into the garden.”

She glanced over her shoulder and mouthed the words, “Behave yourself!” to Alex as the earl led her outside into the sunshine.

He glowered back.

“The sky is beautiful today,” the earl said, as they walked down the steps into the garden. “So blue. Not a cloud in sight.”

It quickly became apparent that the sky was the only beautiful thing they would see. The rose garden was choked with weeds.

“I have plans to return all of this to its former glory,” the earl explained. “But I will need a wife to help me renovate the house,” he added with a twinkle in his eye.

Kitt flushed at the blatant insinuation that she might, if she wished, become that wife. “Castle Carlisle possessed great majesty once upon a time, my lord. I’m sure it will again.”

She saw pain flicker briefly in his eyes before he said, “Thank you, Lady Katherine. I try to believe that. I have to believe that, or I think I would go mad.”

She was surprised to feel sympathy for him, for what he had lost when his elder brother had sold everything to pay his gambling IOUs. She looked into Carlisle’s dark brown eyes and said, “I think Castle Carlisle will become whatever you make of it, my lord.”

They had reached the steps that led over the rock wall that surrounded the garden to the pasture beyond.
He eyed the crumbling steps and said, “Shall we walk farther? I could lift you over the top.”

“Why not?” Kitt said.

She was anticipating the earl’s hands on her waist when she felt two strong hands grasp her waist from behind. From over her shoulder she heard Alex tell the earl, “ ’Tis my responsibility to ensure my lady’s safety.”

“Are you suggesting I would drop her?” the earl said, incensed.

Alex lifted her up and over the stone wall, then vaulted it himself, leaving the earl on the other side. “Why take the risk?”

Kitt saw the earl was furious at being outmaneuvered by Alex, but what could he do? She was already over the fence. The damage was done.

Carlisle vaulted the stone fence—she noticed he accomplished the feat as easily as Alex had—and, staring Alex in the eye, took her gloved hand and once more laid it on his arm. “Shall we walk some more, Lady Katherine?”

Kitt felt immensely encouraged by the earl’s clear-headed behavior. Not many men—especially young men—would have acted so rationally in the face of such provocation. She smiled at him and was rewarded with a smile in return. She shrugged Alex’s warning hand off her shoulder and said, “I would love to see more, my lord. What is over that hill?”

Carlisle grinned at her. “Honestly? A bit of heather and a great deal more thistle.”

She laughed. “I love them both.” Because they both were Scotland—its beauty and its pain. “Let’s go look.”

“My lady—” Alex said.

“You needn’t come with us, Alex,” Kitt interrupted. “We willna be going far.”

“ ’Tis my job to guard your back, my lady. ’Tis necessary I stay close enough to do so.”

Carlisle made a sound of disgust. “I’m hardly going to harm the lady. I plan to make her my wife.”

“She’s not your wife yet,” Alex said in a formidable voice. “Until she is, ’tis my duty to be sure she remains safe in your company.”

Carlisle bristled, but once again forbore to make a scene. “Very well. If you must play watchdog, come along.” He turned to Kitt and said, “It must be bothersome having such an annoying puppy on your heels all the time.”

Kitt laughed and glanced over her shoulder at Alex. “Sometimes he’s fun to play with. And he’s very good at fetching.”

Alex growled, and she felt the earl’s arm tense under her hand.

“Just so long as you can keep him from biting, I’ll be happy,” Carlisle said. He stopped abruptly and reached down to pick a delicate pink primrose. He held it out to her and said, “For you, my lady.”

No man had ever offered her flowers, not even Leith, because she would not have taken them. Flowers were for females. It seemed she had more than a little to learn about the unfamiliar role. “Thank you, my lord.”
She brought the blossom to her nose and detected a soft fragrant scent. An instant later she sneezed.

Alex plucked the flower from her hand.

“Alex! What are you doing?”

“That flower clearly did not agree with you.” He handed her another flower, a fragile white blossom. “Try this one, instead.”

Kitt stared at Alex. Why offer her another flower? If one blossom made her sneeze, chances were the second would do the same. She took it anyway and carefully raised it to her nose. It had a different, lighter scent. She laid the soft petals against her flesh. But she did not sneeze.

She glanced at the earl and saw why Alex had given her the flower. The young man was obviously vexed.

Kitt made a point of twirling the flower Alex had given her, then threw it over her shoulder and put her hand back on the earl’s arm. “A nice specimen, to be sure. What I would really love is a bouquet of heather. Shall we continue our walk, my lord?” she said, smiling up at the earl.

Carlisle looked mollified and led her away.

Kitt wished she could have kept the flower Alex had given her, but she had to remember her purpose in coming here was to bring the earl up to scratch. Once she got Alex away from here, she was going to remind him firmly of that fact.

Kitt suspected the rest of the earl’s conversation during their walk around the estate was limited by the man shadowing their every step, but she was perfectly
willing to talk with Carlisle about farming. The subject was important under the circumstances. To her surprise, Carlisle was not only knowledgeable, he had a great many new ideas he had learned from books.

“If I had enough land, I would put into practice some of the things I have read,” he said. “I’ve been negotiating to buy back all the Carlisle land my brother gave away to Blackthorne, but—”

“Gave away?” Alex interjected.

Kitt had almost forgotten Alex was there, and his interruption struck a nerve with her, as it obviously did with the earl. She shot him a reproving look, but she doubted he saw it because his gaze was focused on the earl, who was glaring back at him.

“Blackthorne as good as stole the land from my brother,” the earl said. “He paid so little for it.”

“Are you saying the duke acted unscrupulously?” she asked Carlisle.

“I am. Which is why I have—” Carlisle cut himself off. “I did not realize so much time had passed,” he said, eyeing the lowering sun over the green hills. “We should turn back to the house.”

His touch was warm and firm, but there were no calluses on his hands. He had done a great deal of studying about farming, it seemed, without ever doing much actual work. She wondered if any of the ideas he had discussed with her would actually increase the production of crops.

“Would you care to go riding with me on Thursday
afternoon?” Carlisle asked. “We can take a picnic with us.”

Her clansmen were meeting at her home on Thursday morning to plan Patrick Simpson’s rescue and might not be gone before the earl arrived. “I canna go Thursday.”

“The day after, then,” he suggested.

“I had to sell my horse,” she admitted.

“I have a mount you might like.”

“And one for me, I trust,” Alex said.

Kitt could feel the tension radiating between the two men and realized suddenly that the earl had hoped to get her alone by taking her riding. It was equally clear Alex was having no part of that. “Do you ride, Alex?” she asked.

“I’m sure I can manage,” he replied, pinning the earl with a baleful stare.

“Very well,” Carlisle said, his mouth tight with displeasure. “I will bring two mounts. Shall we walk back to the house?”

Kitt looked around and realized it would be a shorter walk home if they cut across the field, rather than returning to the house. And she didn’t relish another confrontation at the stone wall. “Alex and I can go on from here,” she said.

“Very well, my lady.” In open defiance of her bodyguard, the earl raised her gloved hand to his lips. At the last instant, he turned her hand over and touched his lips—and Lord have mercy, his tongue—to her wrist
above her glove in a way that caused her insides to clench.

“
Au revoir
, Lady Katherine.”

Kitt was rattled. She had not realized that, on top of his good looks and his charm, the earl could be such a persuasive lover. She had been willing to marry him for the sake of her clan, an arranged marriage to benefit both parties and to fulfill her promise to her father to win back the land. But she had not expected to feel anything, not for one of the enemy.

“Good day, my lord,” she said. “I will look forward to our ride.”

She was aware of Alex at her side as they began the walk home. He didn’t remain silent for long.

“Did you ever stop to wonder why an impoverished earl would wish to marry an impoverished Scotswoman?”

“What?”

“I want to know if you have considered what motive the earl might have for marriage to you,” Alex said, taking such large, angry strides that she had to hop-skip to keep up with him.

“His motive can be no worse than mine,” she said.

“The man is obviously no farmer.”

“He can learn. Or be taught.”

“If he doesna gamble away the land first.”

She was frightened by the fury in his voice. This was no lapdog, growling at a stranger. This was a feral wolf. Yet she refused to be cowed. “What does it matter
to you, Alex? This is my problem, and I will solve it my way.”

He put his face so close she could feel his hot breath on her cheek and said, “By seducing the boy? He’s barely old enough to be out of leading strings!”

“He wants to court me. You heard him say so.”

He grabbed her arms and gave her a shake. “But why, Kitt? Why? It makes no sense!”

“Perhaps he admires me.”

“He doesna know you. How can he admire you?”

“You dinna know me, either,” she said. “Yet I have seen you look at me as though you would eat me alive. What are your motives, Alex? Why do you want me?”

“ ’Tis lust, plain and simple,” he snarled at her.

She had not expected him to say he loved her, but his response was a slap in the face. The blood flowed hotly to her cheeks as though he had actually struck her. She looked at him from eyes she hoped did not reveal the extent of the wound he had dealt her.

“I will marry whomever I must to get back the lands and the castle for my people—the Earl of Carlisle or the devil himself. I swore to my father I would do it. And I will!”

He let her go suddenly, as though he had been having some sort of fit and had come to his senses.

She rubbed her arms where he had been holding her, wondering why she did not send him away right now. “I dinna think this will work, Alex. I dinna think I can keep you as my
gille-coise
.”

“You need me now more than ever,” he replied.

“I plan to let the earl court me, Alex. I plan to marry him, if he will have me.”

“ ’Tis a dangerous game you’re playing.”

“ ’Tis no game, Alex,” she said. “I only want back what belongs to my family—Castle MacKinnon and the land that surrounds it.”

“At any price?”

“At whatever price I must pay!”

“I dinna trust Carlisle.”

“What makes you think the earl wants anything more from me than a wife to manage his home and provide him an heir?”

“You want something more from him than a husband,” Alex pointed out.

“What is it you think he expects to get from me?” she demanded.

“The land.”

“Blackthorne’s land? ’Tisna mine to give him. I’ve only made claim to it in the courts.”

“A claim that, with his help, might very well succeed. If you were married, he would own the land free and clear without having to buy it on credit—and could sell it for profit.”

Kitt stared at Alex, suddenly seeing the truth in his suggestion, suddenly seeing the hidden danger of marrying the earl, thereby confirming his claim on the land, and perhaps putting it entirely in his control without any debt that might require him to keep it.

“I think if you do win the land, Carlisle will take it from you and lose it gambling or mismanage it so
badly that things will become even worse for your clansmen than they are now.”

Kitt’s stomach knotted. “Surely not!”

“His brother had a history of gambling.”

“But Carlisle has never gambled more than he had.”

“Just everything he had,” Alex retorted.

“Perhaps,” Kitt conceded. “But he seemed to know a great deal about farming.”

“Ideas from books. I doubt Carlisle has worked a day in his life. What makes you think he will turn over a new leaf?”

“I can manage him,” Kitt said.

“How?”

“There are ways a woman can control a man,” she said, meeting his gaze suggestively.

“A man has the same weapons,” he replied, slipping his hand around her nape.

Her heart thumped an extra beat when his thumb brushed the skin beneath her ear. “What is your point, Alex?” she said breathlessly.

“I suspect the earl knows more about such arts than you do, my lady. He will likely have the advantage in any such encounter.”

“Perhaps,” she said, reaching out to splay her hand across Alex’s chest, her forefinger catching in the hollow of his throat. She felt his heart begin to pound beneath her hand. “And perhaps not.”

His eyes focused on hers, his lids half-lowered, his gaze filled with wanting.

“Don’t worry,” she said, releasing him before he managed to seduce her entirely. “I’ll be safe from the earl’s entreaties.”