"She is exhausted," Jessie guessed. She went to the kitchen, reached for a tray and began to make the tea Olivia always demanded before bed.

McKenna frowned. "Keith, bring up a bottle from the wine cellar, make it two. If she thinks he will go home with her, she might deny him and perhaps he will drink enough to sleep through this night."

"He'll not want to bed her if he suspects she has taken a lover," said Blanka. "Does he suspect it, Keith?"

"I would, but I cannot say for certain." Keith lowered his voice. "At first, she said they should visit each other once a year. If they have children, she would keep them in Scotland."

"He'll not put up with that," said McKenna.

Advertisement..

"He cannot make her stay," Prescot said.

McKenna stood up and put her hands on her hips. "And she cannae make him go. If I know my brother, she will regret the day she demanded such a thing."

"I hope so," Charlotte muttered. Everyone was looking at her, but she didn't care.

Sassy listened, but she still kept quiet. Her heart was breaking for the man she admired most in the world, and a thousand ways to get even with Olivia were running through her mind. Yet, she could not think of a one that Mr. Hannish would approve of.

When the telephone rang, everyone jumped. "Have mercy," Halen gasped, "I will never get used to that."

Alistair went to the phone, picked up the receiver and put his mouth close to the transmitter. "Marblestone Mansion, Alistair here…Aye, one moment please." He laid the earpiece on top of the box. "'Tis for Mr. Hannish," he muttered, rushing out of the kitchen.

Sassy sat staring at the telephone and McKenna noticed. "Tempted, are you?"

Sassy smiled. "Indeed I am. I can resist anything but temptation."

A few minutes later, Alistair came back and put the earpiece in its cradle. "Mr. Hannish is in the study."

"How does he look?" McKenna asked.

Alistair sorrowfully shook his head. "Like the troubled lad he is." He glanced at all their distraught faces. "We best get back to work. 'Twill do no good if we look as miserable as he feels."

*

Sassy didn't think she was afraid of much, even Olivia MacGreagor. She managed to avoid the woman on a ship that seemed only half the size of the mansion, and she could do it here too. Nevertheless, when Sarah sent her up to put clean towels in the second-floor water closets, Sassy walked around the corner and came face to face with Olivia MacGreagor.

Olivia's eyes were the same kind of hateful, spiteful eyes Sassy had seen far too often before, and it took a moment to remember she was not in the orphanage. "Are you lost?"




Most Popular