One Little Sin by Liz Carlyle Read Free Book Online Page A

please?”
    Miss Hamilton looked both discomfited and confused, but obediently, she led the child round the table to Merrick. Merrick shocked them all by kneeling down to study her. “What is her age, please?” he demanded.
    “She’s to be two in October,” said Miss Hamilton, who had begun to nervously toy with the strand of pearls about her neck. It was a habit he’d noticed, but not registered, amidst all of last night’s uproar.
    Merrick was still studying the child’s face. In response, the child blinked and put a hand on his knee as if she meant to crawl into his lap. “Gee ’atch,” she said, her plump fingers reaching for Merrick’s watch chain. “Pretty ’atch. Pretty.”
    Coloring faintly, Miss Hamilton forgot her pearls and hastened to lift the child away. “No, no!” squalled Sorcha, thrashing against her sister’s arms. “Gee ’atch, Mae! Gee ’atch!”
    “Whisht, now,” cooed Miss Hamilton, bouncing the child on her hip. “Be a good girl.”
    Merrick stood, his gaze snapping to his brother’s. “I take it you wished me to see the bairn’s eyes,” he said coolly.
    “Aye, I did,” admitted Alasdair.
    “It proves nothing,” said Merrick.
    “Does it not?” asked Alasdair. “Where were you, dear brother, on Hogmany two years past?”
    “Alasdair, don’t be a fool,” said his brother dismissively. “It certainly isn’t mine.”
    “Well, those eyes are a dashed odd color,” remarked Quin. “All a bit unsettling when one considers what happened with that Gypsy yesterday.”
    “We shall discuss this another time,” said Merrick, still looking at Alasdair.
    “I think we’ll discuss it now,” said Alasdair. “They are MacGregor eyes, are they not? As cold and ice-blue as any I’ve ever seen.”
    “Pale blue eyes are not unheard of,” said Merrick. “It could be anyone’s babe.”
    “I wish,” snapped Alasdair. “But that particular shade is extremely rare.”
    “Perhaps discretion is in order, old chap,” said Quin, flicking a concerned glance at Miss Hamilton.
    But Alasdair was intent on his brother. “Merrick, don’t be an ass,” he insisted. “I’ve no interest in taking responsibility for the child of some woman whom I can barely remember bedding, but—”
    “Och, a bed, was it now?” snapped Miss Hamilton, cutting him off dead. “As I heard it, sir, there was no bed involved in doing the deed! ’Twas just a quick pump-’n’-tickle behind the draperies at some drunken New Year’s celebration!’ ”
    Merrick and Quin turned to gape.
    “Miss Hamilton!” Alasdair began, as she clutched the child tighter. “I say!”
    “No, I’ve heard quite enough blather out of you three!” Miss Hamilton’s creamy complexion had turned fiery pink, and she was quivering with indignation. “You people have the manners of swine. And Sorcha is not an it, if you please! She is your daughter, and she has a name. And I’ll thank you to use it—all of you.” Suddenly, she turned on Merrick. “And you, Mr. MacLachlan! I do not care for your manner one whit! Rest assured Sorcha could not possibly be yours. Even my mother, starry-eyed fool that she was, couldn’t have been seduced by a midge-brained maundrel with nothing which might remotely pass for charm.”
    On that note, Miss Hamilton whirled about and strode from the room with as much grace as she could muster given the toddler balanced on her hip. Lady Sorcha, however, was reluctant to go. She strained to lean out of her sister’s embrace, opening and closing her little fist in Merrick’s direction. “No, Mae, nooo!” she shrieked, flailing wildly. “Gee me ’atch! Gee ’atch!”
    As soon as they had disappeared from view, Quin collapsed into his chair with a paroxysm of laugher. Alasdair turned to look at him. “I am so glad you enjoyed that.”
    “Oh, she’s so callow!” Quin could barely stop laughing. “So innocent! Just a little wren of a girl! Oh, Alasdair, you are in for it now.”
    “What