Temptation Read online

  Grace had no idea what Temperance was talking about. “My mother-in-law was once a lady’s maid, but now her eyes are too bad to do much. But even if she could see to sew, where would she get the threads? Do you want your clothes embroidered?”

  “No,” Temperance said, her smile growing wider with each second. “You and I are going into business!”

  “We’re what? But how—?”

  But Temperance had no time to explain anything. “What do you want most in the world?” she asked.

  “My own home,” Grace shot back instantly.

  “That’s it! We’ll call it House of Grace,” she said as she gripped the brim of the hat, then started out the bedroom door.

  “What are you talking about?”

  Temperance paused with her hand on the door. “Start cutting silks that you can use for hat trims. I’ll get feathers and the rest of what you need. Alys, go tell Ramsey to saddle his fastest horse. Tell him he’s going to be riding into Edinburgh today and he’s to stay there until he can bring back what I need.” She started out the door again but turned and paused. “Grace, you said that your husband was good with numbers. Your daughter didn’t by chance inherit that ability, did she?”

  Grace put her arm around her daughter in pride. “She’s the best in the village. The McCairn has her add his accounts for him.”

  “Does he, now? Well, dear,” she said to the girl, “you can help me later, after I finish the letter to my mother.”

  In her room, Temperance pulled out the half-finished letter to her mother and added to it.

  Mother, I don’t have time to explain now, but it looks as though I’m going to help a woman here start a business, but I can’t do it without your help. Following is a list of supplies and services that I need.

  1. Hat blanks—Saratoga, Fairfax, Portland, Dresden, Raleigh

  2. Feathers—ostrich and bird of paradise, plus some stuffed birds

  3. Aigrettes of jet; rhinestone buckles; various beads and hat-decorating supplies that aren’t made of fabric, as that I have

  4. I need a selection of reading glasses of various strengths and embroidery supplies such as hoops, colored silks, and at least four yards of a fine, stiff cotton

  5. Please send me the name of the premier hat shop in Edinburgh and where the most fashionable ladies lunch

  I need all this as soon as possible. Please send it all back with Ramsey.

  Yours in love and in need,

  Temperance

  Minutes later, young Ramsey was speeding away on one of James’s prize horses, heading toward Edinburgh, and he’d been told not to return until he came back with a wagonload of supplies.

  And Temperance forgave her mother everything when, a mere two days later, Ramsey returned with a wagonload of goods for Miss Temperance O’Neil.

  “She wouldn’t tell me anything,” an obviously tired Ramsey said, “but she asked me thousands of questions and she nearly worked me to death.”

  “Be the first time for you,” one of the stablemen said.

  Ignoring the man, Ramsey smiled at Temperance. “She’s a nice lady.”

  “She is, isn’t she?” Temperance said, as she rummaged through the boxes in the back of the wagon. There were three boxes of hat supplies, a crate labeled “Books of Good Works” that was full of roller skates, a box of embroidery supplies, a dozen pair of reading glasses, and a box of white Bibles with golden angels on the cover. Another box contained oranges and a huge box of chocolates.

  There was also a letter from her mother saying that The Golden Dove restaurant in Edinburgh had been notified that Temperance and a guest would be having lunch there in three days and the meal was to be charged to Angus’s account. Her mother also said how sorry she was that she had failed so miserably with the first two women, but it was difficult trying to find the right woman.

  Scotswomen know of McCairn, her mother wrote,

  so they want no part of it; therefore I must try to persuade foreigners, mostly Americans, and that isn’t easy. Please bear with me. However, it might help if you tell me more about James so I can match him with the perfect woman.

  I am trying to find out the truth about why Angus is so desperate for James to marry, and I agree with you that there is a secret. Leave it to me, I’ll find out what it is.

  Since I assume that the skates are for children I took the liberty of including a few other things.

  Included in the letter was a card from a hat store in Edinburgh. On the back, her mother had written, The only place where fashionable women would buy their hats.

  “Hooray!” Temperance said, holding the letter aloft; then she grabbed Ramsey’s shoulders and, much to his embarrassment, heartily kissed his cheek.

  “I’d like to help celebrate whatever’s made you so happy,” one of the watching stablemen said, eyes twinkling.

  “I’m sure you would,” Temperance said as she turned away. It was her experience that the less you told men about the possibility of a woman being able to earn money, the better. Men liked women to be dependent upon them.

  By six that evening, Alys, Grace, and Temperance were hard at work using tiny embroidery scissors to cut out patterns for flowers and leaves. Temperance was introduced to Grace’s widowed mother-in-law, Sheenagh, and, with her new glasses perched on her nose, she began to embroider four large labels that would be sewn inside the hats that Temperance planned to have ready to show Edinburgh society when she and Grace went to lunch there.

  At three A.M., Temperance leaned back on her chair, exhausted. “I am going to sleep for a week,” she said. “Don’t wake me until Tuesday.”

  “Did you forget that today is Sunday,” Grace said, yawning.

  “Great. A day of rest.”

  “Not in McCairn,” Grace said softly. Alys and her mother-in-law were asleep on the bed, while she and Temperance were sitting at the table surrounded by the accoutrements of hat making.

  “It will be a day of rest for me,” Temperance said, standing, her hand at her back. On the table were four hats, finished at last. She’d worn hats for years, but she’d never had any idea of the amount of work involved in making one of the things.

  “You’re to teach a Bible class in just a few hours,” Grace said.

  “A . . . ? Oh, that. I’ll just cancel it. I’ll do it next week,” Temperance said as she started toward the door, her mind on nothing but getting into her bed.

  “Yes, of course. I’ll tell the children,” Grace said flatly.

  At the tone, Temperance paused with her hand on the doorknob. She didn’t want to turn around because she knew that if she did she’d see a long face on Grace and she’d feel guilty. Temperance wanted to go to bed; she wanted to sleep. She did not want to do one thing more for this village than she had to. She was trying to find the laird a wife, and now she was exhausted from trying to create a business for the laird’s mistress, and that was enough!

  She opened the door and took a step into the hallway. But she could feel Grace’s eyes on her back.

  Temperance gave a sigh that had tears in it, but she didn’t turn around to see Grace’s long face. “Wake me,” she said, then closed the door behind her.

  Twelve

  “Don’t these children ever have any fun?” Temperance said as she looked about the ballroom at the children standing stiffly against the walls. In the center of the room was a pile of roller skates.

  “Yes, of course they do. But they’ve never been inside a ballroom and you’re a lady,” Grace whispered. She said the last word as though Temperance were so refined she wouldn’t drink tea out of a mug but must have only the finest china.

  Temperance gave a sigh. “Alys, you and Ramsey—” She stopped when she saw the horror on the faces of these, the two oldest children. If they could have, they would have disappeared into the wooden paneling.

  “And this is what I missed sleep for,” Temperance said as she stifled a yawn. So much for her brilliant idea of giving the children of McCairn a secret da