The Heiress Bride (Sherbrooke Brides 3)

“Oh yes,” Sophie said serenely. “She is indeed. Grayson would kill any number of dragons for Jane. As for Alex’s twins, Melissande will doubtless visit them nearly every day, since they look like her. She calls them her little mirrors. It very nearly renders Douglas incoherent with nausea. He will look at the boys, shake his head, gaze heavenward, and wonder aloud what he did to deserve the two most handsome male children in the world, which will undoubtedly ruin their characters and make them insufferable.”

“Sit down, both of you. Now, my head is awhirl. The Virgin Bride came to you, Alex? She told you I was ill?”

Before she could answer, the door opened and Mrs. Seton, bearing a large silver tray, her dark eyes nearly crossed in her excitement, came into the drawing room. To a stranger she would have looked stiff and proper as a duchess, only Sinjun wasn’t fooled for a minute.

“Thank you, Mrs. Seton,” she said formally, maintaining Mrs. Seton’s pose. “These two ladies are here to visit us awhile. They are my sisters-in-law, the countess of Northcliffe and Mrs. Ryder Sherbrooke.”

“Charmed, my ladies,” Mrs. Seton said, and gave them a curtsy that would have done justice to the Queen’s drawing room. She lacked but a feather in her hair.

“I shall prepare Queen Mary’s room and the Autumn Room,” she added with more ceremony than Sinjun’s mother would have deemed appropriate, and proffered another quite impressive curtsy. “The footmen are seeing to your valises. Emma will unpack for you.”

“You are very kind, Mrs. Seton. Thank you.”

“This is the laird’s castle, my lady. Everything is done properly here.”

“Yes, certainly,” Sinjun said, and watched Mrs. Seton take herself out of the room. “Phew! I never knew Mrs. Seton had quite so much . . .”

“I don’t know the word, either, but it was impressive,” Alex said.

“Also we only have one footman, Rory, and he does everything in addition to any footing. However, Emma is an excellent girl and it is she who will take care of you. Now, back to the Virgin Bride.”

Before Alex could say anything, the drawing room door opened again and Colin strode into the room like the master of his castle, looking at once belligerent and wary. He saw only two young ladies seated beside his wife, cups of tea in their elegant, albeit somewhat wrinkled, gloved hands. The one he recognized as Douglas’s wife. Oh Lord, the bounder had to be here somewhere. He craned to see the rest of the room.

“Where are they? Are they armed this time? Pistols or foils? Are they hiding behind the sofa, Joan?”

Sinjun laughed, a weak laugh, but it made him smile.

“Good lord,” Sophie said, and stared at her sister-in-law’s husband. “You look like a bandit!”

Indeed, if a bandit were wearing naught but a white flowing shirt, unlaced at the top to show some of his hairy chest, and tight black knit breeches and black boots, his black hair windblown, his face tanned from the summer sun, then Colin was a bandit. Sophie happened to look at Sinjun. Her sister-in-law was staring at her husband with such wistful besottedness that it made Sophie lower her gaze.

Colin looked at his wife then, saw her pallor, and frowned. He strode to her, leaned down, and lightly pressed his palm to her forehead. “No fever, thank God. How are you? Why are you downstairs? Philpot was more concerned about telling me that you’d been tottering about than he was about our visitors. Welcome, ladies. Now, Joan, what the devil are you doing downstairs?”

“I was growing mold in bed,” she said, and raised her hand to touch his jaw, the cleft in his chin. “I couldn’t bear it any longer. Please, I’m fine, Colin. These are my sisters-in-law. You know Alex already. This is Sophie, Ryder’s wife.”

Colin was charming but cautious. “Ladies, a pleasure. Where are your husbands?” he asked as soon as could be, still standing, still wary.

“They’ll be coming,” Sinjun said. “But it will take a while, I hope, because Alex and Sophie are smart.”

“Smarter than you were, I trust,” he said. He turned to the ladies. “We arrived in my house in Edinburgh to find Douglas and Ryder already in residence, waiting to kill me. It was my manservant’s blunderbuss that saved us.”

“And put a big black hole in the drawing room ceiling.”

“That was a sight,” Colin said. “Actually, it still is. I haven’t yet had it repaired.”

Alex looked very interested. “Odd that Douglas didn’t mention that. He did mention your house in Edinburgh, Colin, but no talk of violence. What was the other time they attacked you? He said nothing about another time, either.”

Colin flushed, Alex was sure of it. Her curiosity rose to unprecedented heights. She happened to look at Sinjun and saw that she was utterly crimson, all the way to her hairline.

Sinjun said quickly, “Colin, they got together and came to me because of the Virgin Bride.”

“Isn’t that the ghost at Northcliffe Hall you were telling the children about?”

“Children?” Alex said blankly.

Colin flushed again as he was lifting a cup of tea. He moved about in his seat. “Yes,” he said, “children.”

“I have two wonderful children,” Sinjun said smoothly. “Philip and Dahling. They are six and four, and delightful little heathens, just like all our others. I told Colin all about Ryder’s Beloved Ones.”