Temptation Read online

  Charmaine opened her mouth to speak.

  “She loves the history of the clans,” Temperance said loudly. “But then, so do I. Maybe tomorrow the three of us can go walking, and you can show us where the battles took place.”

  James turned to look at Temperance as though she were crazy. “What battles are you talking about?”

  “I thought there were battles all over Scotland. Clan against clan, that sort of thing. Didn’t Bonnie Prince Charlie do something here? Wasn’t the Norman Conquest near here?”

  “No,” James said quietly, “Bonnie Prince Charlie didn’t do anything here.” His voice was rising. “Nor were the Normans conquered here. In fact, Miss O’Neil”—he was nearly shouting now—“the Norman Conquest was in England!”

  “Oh,” Temperance said, but when she saw that Charmaine was about to speak, she said quickly, “I bet Miss Edelsten knew that. She’s really a great history person, aren’t you, Miss Edelsten?” But she didn’t give Charmaine time to answer. “I think that tomorrow you, as the laird, should teach us all about whatever did happen in this part of Scotland, and—”

  “Miss O’Neil,” James said quietly, “if you don’t let this young lady talk, I will put you on a horse and send you back to my uncle. Tonight. Do I make myself clear?”

  At that Temperance took a deep breath and sat down at the table, then gave James a weak smile.

  He turned back to Charmaine. “Now, Miss Edelsten, tell me about yourself.”

  “Oh no one calls me Miss anything because I’m Charmaine to everyone and my mother says that I’m well named because I could charm the birds out of the trees if I wanted to but I don’t know if I’d want to do that because birds can be really frightening things can’t they and I don’t know anything about history so I don’t know why Temperance made that up because I want to represent myself to you as I am because what with you being a lord and all I know you’ll see right through me and I mean see through my mind that is and not my clothes and oh I made a joke but I can’t laugh or I’ll get lines like Temperance has and I can’t do that because—”

  James turned to look at Temperance for a moment, but she couldn’t meet his eyes. Of course he didn’t know that it was Temperance who’d asked for this young lady and that it was Temperance’s mother who had sent her, but his lack of knowledge didn’t clear Temperance’s conscience. I’d never make a good cardplayer, she thought while looking straight ahead at the darkened windows and not looking at either person at the table.

  “—and I really would like to see all of this place and especially meet this prince because I wonder what it means when you call him bonny because does he wear a bonnet but oh my I made another joke so you can see that it’s sometimes difficult for me not to laugh when I have such a sense of humor and my mother says that I should write what I say down because I make so many jokes but—”

  Temperance turned when James got up from the table. He’s going to leave the room; she thought, but instead, he went to the window and opened it wide. It was a bit stuffy in the room, but maybe that was because she was having difficulty breathing.

  “—do your servants call you lord and I was wondering that because I wondered what your wife would be called by the servants who work in the castle but then this isn’t a castle is it but then I’ve never been in a castle that anyone lived in before but do you think they would call your wife Mrs. Lord or do you think she’d be called oh my goodness you are in love with me aren’t you your highness but then lots of men react to me like this and—”

  In openmouthed astonishment, Temperance saw James McCairn bend over and swoop Miss Charmaine Edelsten into his arms, then carry her toward the open window. To give her her due, Charmaine didn’t so much as pause for breath. Maybe men picked her up every day and it was a common occurrence to her, Temperance thought.

  “—but my mother says that a man can’t help falling in love with me because I’m so charming that all I have to do is open my mouth and men will love me so much so she said that I might as well become a Mrs. Lord or a Lady Lord or whatever your wife would be called because—”

  James tossed Charmaine out the window with exactly the same heed that he would have given to a sack of potatoes. She landed with a surprisingly heavy thud for so small a person.

  James then shut the window and pulled the heavy red damask curtains closed, making dust fly up into the room.

  As though nothing had happened, he sat back down at the table and looked at Temperance, his dark eyes daring her to say anything.

  “I think those curtains need to be washed, don’t you?”

  For a moment he turned away, and Temperance saw a tiny smile play at his lips. When he looked back at her, she said, “Do you want your pie warm or cold?”

  “I want it quiet,” he said, and they both burst into laughter.

  Dear Mother,

  The charming Charmaine didn’t work out. Perhaps you could send someone just as pretty but not quite so unintelligent, and maybe she should have a little education. And it might be better if she were a bit older.

  Yours in love,

  Temperance

  Eight

  It must have been at six the next morning that Temperance awoke with a start and thought, I should ask him what he wants in a wife.

  It didn’t seem like a thought that was going to set the world on fire, but in its small way, it was revolutionary. Her experience had been in trying to get men away from women. She dealt with men who drank away their meager earnings, leaving a wife and children destitute. She tried to find work for women who had been beaten and abused, then abandoned by the man in their life.

  It had never crossed Temperance’s mind to try to get a man and woman together.

  As she dressed, she kept her eyes focused on the clothes in her trunks, refusing to look at the room. Last night she’d heard noises that sounded suspiciously like mice gnawing. She was not going to think of the word “rats.”

  At least now I can face the women in the tenements, she thought, because what was this place but a huge tenement?

  She put on a wool skirt that reached only to her ankles (“Scandalous!” her mother had declared it), a long-sleeved cotton blouse, a wide leather belt, and sturdy ankle boots, then went downstairs.

  “So where does he spend his days?” Temperance asked as soon as she entered the kitchen. Now that she, Temperance, had cleaned the room, it was amazing how it had become a center of activity. She couldn’t walk into the kitchen without finding one or both of the old women in it and, usually, at least one of the men. Ramsey had started feeding the lamb with a huge baby bottle; he’d even named it, calling it Isaac after the story in the Bible of the child who wasn’t slaughtered.

  Today, two women, two men, and one boy opened their mouths to answer Temperance’s question.

  “If one of you says the word ‘Grace,’ there’ll be no dinner tonight.”

  All five of them put their heads down and closed their mouths.

  Temperance silently counted to ten, then said slowly. “He said that he herds sheep and fishes. Where does he do those things?”

  Five faces full of relief turned back toward her. Ramsey, sitting at the kitchen table, holding the wriggling lamb while it ate, said, “Top of the mountain. He’ll be up there all day. But you can’t go up there, if that’s what you mean to do.”

  “Why not?” she asked, and dreaded hearing the answer. Since “the” McCairn, as they called him, seemed to have absolute rights in this place, did he hold orgies up there? He and Grace?

  “Walkin’s too tough for a city lady,” Aleck said.

  At that, Temperance threw up her hands in disbelief. She had never in her life met such snobs as these people. They believed that if a woman had grown up in a city, she was utterly useless.

  She smiled at the lot of them. “I’m sure you’re right, but if you’ll point me in the right direction, I think I’ll take a leisurely, citylike stroll that way. After I make something for lunch,” she said.