A Laird for All Time by Angeline Fortin Read Free Book Online Page B

hadn’t realized before but her room was actually a suite; a bedroom and sitting room with the large dressing room and bathroom attached.  The door to the sitting room had been closed the previous evening but had been opened when the maids had straightened up this morning.  Where the bedroom was light and feminine with its light grays and lilac, the sitting room was more gender neutral, to use the modern phraseology.  The antiques were, of course, not actually antiques in this time but new.  Classically Victorian in styling but comfortable and upholstered in neutral grays, blues and whites that went well with the scrolled and flocked wallpaper that was typical of the era.  Several landscapes and portraits added interest to the walls.
    Two striped wingbacks faced a settee adjacent to a large fireplace with a mantel that was a work of art in its own right.  The intricate scrolling woodwork facing that swept all the way to the ceiling. A large carpet kept the wooden floors from chilling the rooms, which were heated by radiators that Emmy assumed led to a boiler somewhere.  The radiators heated the areas nearby nicely, but overall, did little more than cut the worst of the chill.  Thankfully, fires burned brightly both in this room and her bedroom. She ate her breakfast holding the plate in front of her while pacing in front of the fire. When she had finished she chose a chaise near one of the few windows in the room..  The castle had been built for defense, she recalled.  The windows to the outside were few and very small.  These in her sitting room faced the side of the keep she had visited this morning while her bedroom cornered the building to the same side and back of the castle overlooking the sound and its spectacular views
    Emmy tried to read one of the books she had picked up at the airport, but her mind kept wandering helplessly back to Connor again and again.  Should she apologize for deliberately goading him?  Should she just let it go?  Where was he?  What did he do to keep busy all day?  Emmy spent most of her morning in her room with her book, but could not refrain from venturing out from time to time to inquire about the laird’s whereabouts.  When asked, the butler, Chilton, told her the laird gone riding, gone into Craignure or anywhere elsewhere.  Rather than stay here and face his issues, Emmy thought. 
    Morning turned to afternoon .  Margo, the maid Dory had assigned to her, offered to bring her a tray to her room for luncheon.  Accepting, Emmy felt as she, too, were hiding out rather than facing the mysterious nineteenth century outside the doors.  Gathering her courage, she finally asked Margo to give her a tour of the castle. 
    Bedroom suites occupied half of the second floor with more on the third floor and servants quarters and nurseries on the fourth. There was a small family parlor as well on each of these floors. The second floor also housed a large library. In all the rooms the outer windows were small, but in those rooms that faced the inner courtyard, they were larger, allowing more light into some of the main rooms. 
    On the main floor , Margo took her through the drawing rooms – large and small – the parlor, a stunningly restored chapel, billiards room, dining room, morning room and kitchens.  They passed a dark oak door Margo told her was the laird’s office, but Margo’s face expressed such shock when Emmy asked to see it, that she dropped the subject. The kitchens, Margo told her, had once been housed in a separate building but the restoration of the castle had seen them moved inside to the first floor.
    Like the main hall, all the rooms were large and luxurious, almost too formal in comparison to the medieval skin of the castle.  Rich carpets covered the tile and wood floors.  Inlaid patterns bordered the rooms.  The furnishings were all beautifully carved or gilded and upholstered in lush velvets.  The draperies were velvet as well, with ornate fringes