Elise by Jackie Ivie Read Free Book Online Page A

back to her entwined fingers.
    Roald answered, “You’re in luck, Your Grace. I understand there’s to be a foxhunt on the morrow. First light. There will be plenty of time to show off your prowess at riding ... a horse, that is. As an Englishman, I look forward to seeing it.”
    Elise went white and then dark pink with her blushes. She knew it, too, because her skin was cold, and then flushed with heat. She hadn’t been slighting Roald earlier to Daisy. He had a wicked sense of humor and a rapier-sharp tongue. She just hadn’t had it turned on her before.
    Elise heard the gasps and then the twitters of amusement about them. She took a deep breath.
    She had to do something. “You say nothing of your home, Your Grace. Do you miss it as well?”
    She batted her eyelashes up at him, pleading silently for him to ignore Roald’s taunt. Elise’s eyes widened as he winked again; then he smiled, and those green flecks sparkled at her. Elise had to force herself to continue looking at him without showing that it was affecting her, and very much so.
    “My home? Why, I miss Castle Gowan the most, of course.”
    “Why is that, pray tell?” Elise hoped the light-hearted note was in her voice as she placed a hand on Colin’s sleeve. She didn’t have to look to know how Roald was reacting. The entire grouping of diners across from them told her. She was more afraid of the way her fingers curved ever so slightly about the duke’s forearm, molding to and learning the muscled curvature it felt like he had, even there.
    “Castle Gowan, situated as it is on the shore of Loch Elnore, was originally built to protect against Norse raids. Only one tower and the old gatehouse still survive from that time, although outer walls still encircle the grounds. The keep itself was rebuilt after Culloden. The duke at the time had wed with a Douglas heiress. She brought a dowry that paid for most of the upkeep and repairs. Prince Charlie’s war nearly bankrupted the MacGowans, as it did most the lairds. Her dowry was their salvation, I’m sure.”
    Elise nodded as if she knew what he was talking about. He rolled his hand into a fist, cupped by the other hand, and the motion made the arm beneath her fingers move and tense. She felt each ridge of muscle in his forearm as he did so.
    “Oh, do tell me more,” she said, with a breathlessness she wasn’t far from feeling.
    Colin leaned toward her, nearly touching his head to hers as he bent down to whisper. “I can talk of Castle Gowan all eve, but it will na’ prevent your paramour from glaring at me.”
    He didn’t give her time to respond to his latest insult. Besides a deep intake of breath and gripping his arm, she didn’t know how to react to it, anyway. Colin lifted his head away.
    “My grandfather also wed well. My grandmother’s dowry refurbished most of the rooms. Why, Castle Gowan rivals anything you’ll find here. Easily.”
    “I find that difficult to believe. Surely you exaggerate, and I must dispute the point. Any Englishman worthy of the name would do the same,” Roald said from the other side of her.
    “Perhaps I’ll proffer you an invite, Sir Easton, once I’m settled, and then I’ll have nae further reason to argue it with you, will 1?”
    “Here now. How’s that? Did I hear you extending an invitation to Sir Roald, Colin? What’s the bugger done to deserve that, I wonder?”
    Barrigan’s booming voice toward the end of the table inserted itself. Elise closed her eyes tightly as it felt like everything and everyone paused in order to watch and listen. She’d known they’d be the entertainment for the evening. She’d as much as set it up that way.
    “Why, I extend Castle Gowan’s hospitality to you also, Lord Barrigan,” Colin replied. “Of course, it’s a hellish journey to reach it, and one that takes nigh on a week if the weather holds.”
    “A full week?”
    Someone asked it, and Elise removed her fingers from his arm as delicately as she could while