Temptation Read online

  As she followed Alys and Grace out the door, Temperance paused for a moment to glance at herself in the mirror. Her hair was straggling about her face and there was a stain on her shirt collar. Suddenly, she remembered the charming Charmaine mentioning Temperance’s wrinkles about her eyes. Leaning forward, she looked into the mirror. No wrinkles. Happy at that thought, she smiled—and there they were!!

  “Are you coming?” Grace said from the doorway, her tone saying that she’d rather swallow the pins that were usually in her mouth than meet Kenna Lockwood.

  The lines at the corners of her eyes had put Temperance into her own bad mood. “Why are you so bad-tempered lately?” she asked, frowning.

  As they started down the stairs, Grace opened her mouth to speak, then closed it, then opened it. “I think you’re going to see,” she said after a moment. “You saw inside me, so I think you’re going to see what I know.”

  With that cryptic bit of dialogue, Grace moved on down the stairs and left Temperance alone.

  Most of the village was inside the dining room, spilling out into the big entrance hallway. For a moment Temperance stood at the bottom of the staircase and looked at all of them. In the weeks that she’d been in McCairn, she’d come to know nearly all of them. She knew their babies’ names and their grandparents’ names. She knew that if Nessie ate strawberries, she broke into hives. She knew that Mrs. Headrick secretly nipped at her husband’s whiskey. And she knew that Mrs. Means embroidered all her underwear and that she and her husband . . .

  Anyway, Temperance had come to know these people, and she had difficulty thinking of leaving the place.

  But she was going to have to, she thought, so she’d better make the best of it. Taking a deep breath, she put her shoulders back and began to make her way through the crowd. She was the housekeeper and, therefore, the unofficial hostess until James said “I do” to another woman and threw Temperance out on her—

  Again, she stopped her train of thought and pasted a smile on her face. In front of her was the back of the renowned Kenna, the woman whose name had been on the lips of every man, woman, and child of McCairn for many days now. Soon to be the wife of James McCairn.

  She was a small woman, Temperance thought, short and very slim. She was dressed in a divine little creation that Temperance was sure was by Paquin. She’s not poor, Temperance thought. She had reddish hair, perfectly arranged, and not covered by a hat.

  For a moment Temperance stood behind her and looked at the faces of the people who were seeing their beloved Kenna for the first time in years. If they had been looking into the eyes of an angel, they couldn’t have looked more adoring.

  Quietly, Temperance waited until Kenna turned around and acknowledged her, and when she did, Temperance drew in her breath quickly.

  Yes, Kenna was beautiful. She had dark green eyes and that perfect skin that comes from incessant care. Her eyebrows were plucked so that they looked natural but arched perfectly. Her lips were perfect; her nose exquisite; the shape of her face was—

  Oh, yes, Kenna Lockwood was indeed beautiful. And Temperance had seen that kind of beauty many times. And she’d seen what was deep, deep inside eyes like those many times.

  “How do you do?” Temperance said cheerfully, suddenly feeling as though an enormous weight had been lifted off her shoulders. “I’m Temperance O’Neil, the housekeeper.”

  For a moment something flickered across Kenna’s perfect green eyes, then they changed to warmth. “And I’m Kenna, here to marry the McCairn.”

  “Better you than one of us,” Temperance said loudly, then smiled when the villagers around her laughed. She had gone from feeling as though her life were ending to feeling wonderful.

  “Yes, better me,” Kenna said softly, and again that expression crossed her eyes.

  What a temper she has, Temperance thought, but kept smiling. “You must be tired. May I show you to your room? It’s the best in the house. Of course later you’ll be wanting to decorate. If you can get any money out of James, that is.”

  Again everyone laughed, and again Kenna gave Temperance a quelling look.

  “I’m sure I’ll manage,” Kenna said softly. “I’ll have my own people to help me, the people I grew up with and have always loved.” Her eyes said to Temperance, See if you can top that one.

  But Temperance didn’t take the challenge. Instead, she just smiled and motioned for Kenna to follow her up the stairs.

  Of course half the village followed the two of them, Kenna’s many trunks and boxes on their backs or under their arms. And once they reached the room that was to be Kenna’s, Temperance stepped back and quietly walked down the corridor to the back stairs, then raced down to the kitchen.

  “Where is he?” she asked, breathless. She’d run down the stairs so fast that she’d lost her breath.

  “He wasn’t with the others?” a sullen Ramsey said as he bottle-fed a lamb.

  Temperance could have kissed the boy. Only he and Grace seemed to have any regret that Temperance was leaving McCairn. Temperance shook her head no.

  “He be in with the money,” Eppie said—her way of saying that James was working on the account books in the library.

  “He’ll be in a bad mood then,” Ramsey said.

  “He’s going to be in a worse one after what I tell him,” Temperance said joyfully over her shoulder as she went running out of the room.

  She ran into the library so fast that she skidded on the stones in the entryway. Without bothering to knock, she threw open the double doors to the room, shut them behind her, then leaned against them. James looked up from a desk piled high with papers.

  “You can’t marry her,” Temperance said, still out of breath.

  “Hmph!” James grunted, then looked back at the papers. “I thought you had something new to say to me.”

  “No, I mean it: you can’t marry her.” Temperance started to walk forward, but her skirt was caught in between the two doors.

  Putting down his pen, James looked up at her. “All right, I’ll bite. What’s the problem now? Why can’t I marry Kenna?”

  “She’s—” Temperance had to stop for a moment as she got her skirt out from between the doors. “She’s . . . She’s . . .” How did she say this politely? she wondered.

  “She’s a woman who’s seen hard times?” James asked, one eyebrow raised.

  “Yes, but she’s also—”

  “Had some men other than her husband?” James asked without hesitation, then looked back down at the papers. “I thought you were going to help with the accounts. I hate paperwork.”

  Temperance walked to his desk and put her hands on it. “You know this? You’re going to marry such a woman?”

  He looked up at her in surprise. “You’d be the last one I thought was a snob,” he said in surprise. “You’re not the only one who can write letters, you know. Kenna and I have been corresponding ever since your mother and Aunt Rowena were here. I know a lot about her.”

  “You know that she . . . ?”

  “Yes, I know that she . . .” He was laughing at her. “Really, Miss O’Neil, I thought that with your background you would be more worldly-wise than this. You didn’t really believe that romantic nonsense of my aunt’s, did you? That Kenna and I were once in love?”

  “But you said you were,” Temperance said, looking at him in shock.

  “I said no such thing!” he said in a voice of injury.

  “You told me that you were in love with a village girl and that your father made you marry someone else.”

  “Oh,” James said, smiling. “That.” He picked up a couple of papers and looked at them. “I was probably trying to make you jealous, which would probably get you into bed with me. Did you give me the receipt for the sheep-dip you bought in Edinburgh? I can’t find it anywhere.”

  Angrily, Temperance bent over, rummaged through the papers and withdrew the receipt. “Is that all you were after?”

  Looking up at her, he raised one eyebrow. “Aren