Beguiled by Arnette Lamb Read Free Book Online

Auntie Loo as she reached for the girl.
    A post horn hung below the inn’s symbolic sign bearing a badger and a bird. Smoke streamed from a nearby smithy, and merchants’ stalls and clerks’ benches dotted the main thoroughfare.
    Jamie opened the door, and Christopher hopped out. The earl reached in to hand Auntie Loo down. As Agnes stepped from the carriage, her left leg buckled. Edward caught her. “Have you torn those stitches?”
    â€œNay, my leg’s gone wickety from sitting for so long.”
    â€œShall I carry you?”
    â€œNo!”
    He started at her sharp denial. “No?”
    â€œI meant to say, thank you, but ’tis a minor discomfort.” She stomped her foot. “I’m getting better as we speak.”
    â€œI’ll have the innkeeper send you a hot towel. Put it directly on your shoulder and leave it there until it cools.”
    â€œI’ll be asleep by then.”
    â€œThen I’ll awaken you, for I intend to have a look at those stitches.”

3
    â€œF ATHER, DID YOU KNOW THAT Lady Agnes has a collection of knives?”
    Edward fluffed the pillow on the narrow bed his son would occupy. The only accommodations at the inn acceptable to Lady Agnes had been a spacious upstairs suite with a parlor in the center and two bedchambers on each side. He smiled at both the memory of her reasons behind choosing the accommodations and this latest bit of information about her penchant for sharp objects.
    â€œNo, I did not know, but let us hope she never gets angry with us.”
    â€œOh, Father,” the boy chided in exasperation. “ ’Tis a hobby, like collecting fast horses or country estates, but more manageable.”
    The explanation was too adult, too proudly said. “Did she tell you that?”
    â€œAye, ’tis the MacKenzie in her. She has a score ’n’ more of blades, but none of them like your palm knife.” Christopher buttoned his sleeping gown and sat on the edge of the bed. “I told her ’twas your invention and there’s none to be had but yours and mine.” He frowned, looking very much like portraits of Edward as a child. “I wish I had brought it with me.”
    â€œThere’s time enough to show her your knife when we get home.”
    â€œShe has a castle full of sisters and one brother. He’ll be a duke when he grows up.”
    â€œI hope you were polite to her today.”
    He blinked in surprised innocence. “Ever so, Father, and Hannah, too. We must be mindful of the family reputation.”
    Hearing his own words recited earnestly made Edward proud. He ruffled his son’s already mussed hair. “Good. Now say your prayers and go to sleep.”
    Christopher knelt beside the bed and steepled his hands. Edward started for the door.
    â€œFather, why is Lady Agnes coming to live with us? Will she be our nanny?”
    An answer eluded Edward. Describing Agnes MacKenzie defied conventional explanations. She had been exhausted when they arrived in Whitburn, but she had rallied long enough to interview the innkeeper and select rooms “that suited their purposes” as she phrased it. Like a general on campaign, she had taken control of the situation and seen to the needs of everyone in their traveling party.
    Added to that, Edward was intrigued on a more basic level. Agnes MacKenzie was the embodiment of every man’s dream.
    â€œWill she, Father? She’ll be the bonniest of nannies.”
    Bonny. An understatement only a child would utter, for Agnes MacKenzie could make an archbishop ponder his vows. But there was more to her than physical beauty; she possessed strength of character, and she demanded respect. The acquiescence of the mighty Lachlan MacKenzie stood as proof of that.
    â€œWhat’s wrong, Father?”
    You owe me your life.
    The truth of that declaration worried Edward more than the presence of the woman herself bedeviled his scruples.