The Laird Who Loved Me by Karen Hawkins Read Free Book Online Page A

delightful dinner. The food—ah!” There weren’t adequate words for the roasted salmon, delicate poached fish, stuffed quail breast, or the other amazing treasures that had arrived on the dinner table.
    Miss Ogilvie grinned, her lovely pale skin just touched with a scattering of freckles. “The lobster was divine. It is my favorite dish.”
    “I wished for more, but it was gone.”
    Miss Ogilvie sent Caitlyn a sly smile. “Lord MacLean noticed when you took a second helping.”
    “Yes, he did, didn’t he?”
The arse.
He’d mocked how full her plate was, then remarked again when it was empty. To the rest of the company, his words had seemed like gentle teasing, but Caitlyn had felt the sting behind the words, had seen the dark, humorless look that had accompanied them.
    She sniffed. She wouldn’t allow MacLean to ruin her evening. “However I might have felt about the lobster, Lady Elizabeth was quite enamored of the crème cakes.”
    “She must have eaten five! She’s quite a hearty specimen, isn’t she?”
    “They say Lord Dalfour would have married her but that her father disapproved, so she refuses to have anything to do with another man.”
    Miss Ogilvie sighed. “It’s so sad. They have stayed together despite her father’s feelings by attending house parties like this. It’s very romantic, but for me, the true romance at the table tonight belonged to the Treymonts.”
    “The marquis and his marchioness certainly seemed absorbed in one another. They reminded me of my own parents.” One day Caitlyn would have a relationship just like that, too.
    Miss Ogilvie glanced at the footman who walked several paces before them and leaned over and whispered, “Miss Hurst … don’t you think the duke is a bit odd?”
    Caitlyn nodded and whispered back, “He hardly spoke a word throughout dinner. And what was that object he kept fiddling with?”
    “His snuffbox. He loves that thing more than life, I think.”
    “I suppose if I had a wife who flirted the way his does, I’d feel the same.”
    “She was
horrid
during dinner, was she not?”
    “I couldn’t tell which she preferred more—Lord MacLean, Lord Dervishton, or the footman serving the soup!”
    Miss Ogilvie grinned, but it faded quickly. “And the things she said about your hair, saying it couldn’t be a true shade and suggesting you had— Why, I was never so angry in all of my life!”
    “Me, neither. Fortunately I had my revenge.” Caitlyn smiled. “I ate
two
pieces of the fondant and there was none left for her.”
    Miss Ogilvie giggled. “I’m glad you’re not angry with me!”
    The footman stopped at Caitlyn’s door and Miss Ogilvie waved him on. “Thank you very much but we can find our way from here.”
    He bowed and left. Miss Ogilvie waited until he’d disappeared down the stairs before she said, “Miss Hurst, I hope you don’t find me forward, since I just met you today, but I do feel as if I’ve known you for much longer and—”
    “Call me Caitlyn, please.”
    Miss Ogilvie beamed. “And you shall call me Sally.”
    “I’d be delighted.”
    “Excellent! I have to say that at dinner tonight, I couldn’t help but wonder if Lord MacLean might have a bit of a tendre for you!”
    Caitlyn could only stare. “Why on earth would you think
that
?”
    “He couldn’t keep his eyes off you all evening.”
    “Only because he was trying to find ways to make me angry.”
    Sally blinked. “And did he?”
    “Yes. Several times, in fact. Some of the things he says seem innocuous, but—” Caitlyn folded her lips in a straight line.
    “Why would he wish to do such a thing?” Sally shook her head. “Men are so perplexing.”
    “Not all of them.”
Some
of them were clear in what they were trying to accomplish. Alexander was obviously trying to goad her into some sort of impropriety. But why? What did he hope to accomplish? Tomorrow she’d find out. If there was one thing she knew, it was that Alexander MacLean was