Temptation Read online

  At that Temperance got to her feet. Would he toss the woman down the side of the mountain? It was one thing to throw someone out the window into the rain, but it was another to throw a person down a mountain.

  “Mr. McCairn wants children,” Temperance said loudly as she physically put herself between James and the woman. “I think that perhaps you’re a little old to—”

  “I’m twenty-seven,” the woman snapped, looking hard at Temperance. “It is you who are too old to bear children.”

  “Twenty-seven?” Temperance whispered, then gave a little prayer of thanks that she’d never climbed mountains or did whatever this woman had done to so age her. But, then again, maybe she was lying about her age.

  “Would you like to see the size of my arm?” the woman said to James.

  “I don’t want to see anything you have,” he said through clenched teeth. “I want you off McCairn land this moment.”

  “But I was told that you wanted a wife,” she said. “A strong wife who could lift sheep and work beside you all day. I thought I had found a man, a true man, but here I see you sitting with this . . . this . . .” She looked Temperance up and down. “She doesn’t have a muscle on her body. I can tell that she’s soft.”

  When James took a step toward the woman, Temperance grabbed her upper arm. Maybe it was fear that gave Temperance extra strength, but, whatever it was, the woman gave a yelp of pain when Temperance clamped down on her. “I think you’d better leave now.”

  “I’ve dealt with women like you,” Penelope said. “You’re jealous of— Ow! You pinched me. I don’t think that’s fair. You—”

  “If you don’t leave now, he’s going to pick you up and throw you down that mountain,” Temperance hissed into her ear.

  But the woman didn’t seem to take this as a warning. “Oh?” she said, and there was interest in her voice as she tried to pull away from Temperance and return to James.

  But Temperance squeezed the woman’s arm again, then shoved her toward the path by the tree. “Go up there, take a right, and get out of here,” she whispered to the woman. “Didn’t they tell you that he’s insane? I’m his nurse. I have to keep him sedated. If I didn’t, he’d . . . Well, I can’t tell you what he’s done to women in the past. If you married him, you’d be his eighth wife.”

  “Really?” the woman said, her face full of interest as she looked over Temperance’s shoulder at James, who was still standing by the entrance to the cave. “But I was told—”

  “Let me guess. You met a woman, a nice, plump little woman, and she told you of this man’s need for a wife. Did she have reddish gold hair and a little mole to the left of her right eye?”

  “Yes! Have you met her?”

  “Oh, yes,” Temperance said as she visualized her mother for a moment before returning to her elaborate lie. “She recruits women for him. He . . .” Temperance couldn’t think of another lie quick enough because her head was full of thinking of ways to murder her mother. What in the world had Melanie O’Neil been thinking when she chose this dreadful woman? Temperance had seen specimens in bottles that were better preserved than this creature.

  “What does he do to them? To all those wives, I mean?” Penelope asked, eyes wide, obviously still interested.

  “You don’t want to know, but it’s horrible. Now go. I’ll try to hold him off as long as possible.”

  But the woman was not frightened and she hesitated.

  Temperance gave a sigh of disgust. “He’s broke,” she said flatly. “Not a penny to his name. He won’t be able to fund any of your expeditions to any mountains anywhere.”

  At that the woman scurried up the side of the cliff. “I’ll tell that woman, Mrs. McCairn,” she said over her shoulder as she began to run down the path. “I won’t let her send any more unsuspecting girls up here.”

  Temperance looked at her long enough to snort, “Girls!” Then she went back toward the cave and James. “There,” she said, “that’s done.”

  Turning away, James looked out over the village; his fists were clenched at his side. “I’m going to kill my uncle,” he said softly. “What would make him think to send me a . . . a . . . something like that?”

  “Maybe someone told him you wanted help with the sheep and he just assumed . . .”

  “That I wanted a bull?” He turned back to her. “What has happened that he’s sent these last two? First there was the narcissist girl, then this Amazon. What has put these ideas into his head?”

  Temperance looked down at her nails. They really did need a trim. “I can’t imagine,” she said, but knew she couldn’t look at him, for she had been the one to tell her mother to send her someone brainless. Then she’d told her mother to send her an “athletic” sort. On the other hand, did her mother have to take her so very literally?

  When Temperance looked back up at him, he seemed to be expecting an answer from her, but she didn’t dare open her mouth to try to explain for fear that she’d reveal her part in all this.

  “I’ll, uh . . . Maybe I’ll write your uncle a letter and try to explain,” she said at last.

  “And what do you plan to explain?” he asked, looking at her with one eyebrow lifted.

  “That you don’t want him to send you any more idiots?” she asked, smiling.

  He didn’t smile back. Instead, he stepped closer to her and reached out a big hand to touch her hair. “He did well in choosing a housekeeper for me,” James said softly.

  For all of Temperance’s thoughts of maybe giving in to the man, now, when he touched her, she drew back. The truth was she was beginning to like James McCairn. And since she was only here temporarily, maybe it would be better if she didn’t get too involved with him.

  Stepping back, she gave him a devil-may-care grin. “Shall I tell your uncle that you’ve fallen in love with the housekeeper he sent? Maybe he’ll shorten my sentence and I can go back to civilization, where people don’t live in grass-roofed huts.”

  She’d meant to make him smile, but instead, he stepped back abruptly and his face lost all expression.

  “I forgot how horrible we are to outsiders,” he said coldly, “so go now and count your days until you can get away from us.”

  “I didn’t mean—” she began, but stopped. “You’re right. I can’t wait until I get out of here. So I’ll be going now,” she said, then turned toward the path that led up. But when he said nothing, she stopped walking, looked back, and said louder, “I have things to do at the house, so I must get back there.” He still didn’t say anything, so she turned back around and again started walking. But it was as though weights were strapped to her feet. All that awaited her at the house was cleaning. And helping with the cooking and—

  “Do you think you can count?” he said from behind her.

  She turned around quickly. “What?” He was still scowling, but now she saw a twinkle in his eye.

  “Do you think you can count sheep? Old Fergus falls asleep and—”

  “Yes!” she said with too much enthusiasm.

  His expression didn’t change. “But maybe you should go down. I talked to Hamish about you, and he was thinking of asking you to teach a Bible class on Sundays, so he said he was going to call on you this afternoon to discuss the matter.”

  Temperance cast a fearful glance toward the village below them. “Why does he think I can teach a Bible class?”

  “You rescue doomed maidens, don’t you? At least that’s what I told him. And isn’t it true? I needed to tell him a great deal about your good works to make him overlook your more obvious sinful ways.” He glanced down at her skirt that exposed her ankles. “I was telling the truth, wasn’t I?”

  “Well . . .” Temperance said, smiling at him. He was teasing her and she found that she liked it. In her life men had told her she was “formidable.”

  “Beautiful but formidable,” is what they’d said. So being teased was not something that had happened to Temperance very often.

  Suddenly, she looked up