Page 52 of A Hellion for the Highland Hawk
It would mean cutting out the middleman and also the lengthy wait until Adeline returned. After all, no sister would miss her niece’s birthday party, would she? Adeline would undoubtedly be there. They wouldbothbe there. And if that wasn’t an opportunity to kill two birds with one stone—getting the last bits of information for the article she’d probably never writeanddiscovering the mysteries of traveling forward in time—she didn’t know what was.
“But who’ll watch the baby if I’m not here?” she asked, not wanting to sound too eager.
Isla chuckled. “There are plenty of maids who can take care of her for such a short while. The same maids who took care of her before ye arrived, lassie.”
“And me. Jack, too,” Elsie chimed in. “We need the practice. Honestly, I would loveto attend the gathering, but I dare nae travel when I’m so close to givin’ birth. Jack wouldnae be able to bear the worry.”
Nancy had already agreed in her mind and her heart, but there was one not-so-insignificant hurdle to overcome first.
“I wouldn’t mind a bit,” she said, grimacing, “but convincing Hunter is going to be another matter entirely.”
CHAPTER 21
“Fine,”Hunter said, barely looking up from his plate of roasted venison in a blackberry sauce, crispy golden potatoes, and some kind of delicious cabbage dish that Nancy didn’t know the name of.
She stared at him across the long wooden dinner table, floundering for a response.
All day, in preparation for dinner, where she’d known she would see him again, she’d been rehearsing what she might say to persuade him to attend this birthday party. She’d braced herself for pushback and protests. Not once had she considered that he might just… say yes.
She glanced down the table at Elsie, who seemed equally dumbfounded, while Isla hid a chuckle behind her napkin.
“It’ll only be for a week, when ye consider the journey, and of course, ye’ll be wantin’ to rest a day either side of the gatheringitself,” Elsie chimed in, explaining as if her cousin didn’t actually understand what was being asked of him.
Nancy nodded, following her lead. “It’ll be nice to meet new people, and to see Lady Gibson again. I just thought it would be useful for us both to be seen together at a big event. You know, a united front.”
With a frown, Hunter finally looked up from his dinner and caught Jack’s eye. “Did I imagine I said ‘aye’ or did I actually say it?”
“Ye said it,” Jack replied, grinning.
“That’s what I thought.” Hunter returned to his dinner, tearing into a piece of bread with a ravenous hunger that stirred up all sorts of sensations in Nancy’s belly that were less than appropriate at the dinner table.
“You’re really okay with this?” she asked.
He paused again, his eyebrow raised. “I daenae ken what ‘okay’ means, but if it means do I agree that we should attend, then aye, I do.”
He grabbed his goblet of wine, and as he sipped, a small trickle of dark red escaped the corner of his mouth, running down to his stubbled chin.
Nancy swallowed thickly, biting her lip as her tongue itched to taste that spiced wine. She had some in her own goblet, but it wasn’t the same. She wanted to lick it straight off his skin, to see if the salt and smoke of him accentuated the flavor.
Get a grip!
She shook her head and fumbled for her own wine, needing to wet her dry throat.
“Ye’re serious?” Elsie took over, frowning as if she didn’t trust the ease of his decision.
Hunter brushed the stray wine droplet away with his thumb while Nancy watched, mesmerized. Imagining that thumb caressing herlip before he kissed her.
“I’m nae just a warrior now,” he said, sitting back in his chair. “I might nae like the tedious part of bein’ a laird—placatin’ and appeasin’ and entertainin’ and listenin’ to petty complaints—but I ought to get used to these diplomatic… things. It’s me duty. So, aye, ye willnae hear a protest from me. I might be cursin’ inside, but it willnae escape me lips.”
Nancy thought of herself last night, swearing loudly at the magic of his touch, and blushed fiercely, as if she were right back there on the edge of the pool with his head between her thighs.
As if sensing what she was thinking, Hunter’s gaze met hers, his green eyes glinting with mischief. Her throat bobbed as helightly ran his tongue over the rim of his goblet, catching a stray drop of wine.
In twenty-seven years of being on this earth, she’d never wished to be an inanimate object more.
“If you’ll excuse me,” she rasped, her heart racing, her face so hot she could probably roast that venison on it. “I think I hear the baby crying.”
Impossible, of course, considering Freya was several floors up and in the very capable care of the night nursemaid, but if Nancy didn’t get out of that dining room at once, there was a very real possibility that she would sweep away the entire feast and clamber right over the table into Hunter’s lap.
