Alec Mackenzie's Art of Seduction (Mackenzies & McBrides #9)(65)

Alec took the seat next to her, his warmth and strength bolstering. Celia flushed, remembering the cries she hadn’t been able to suppress when he’d loved her, but she leaned against him, liking that she could.

Alec threaded his fingers through hers and held her hand on his lap, an intimate gesture of a lover. Fire spread through her.

“I know why Josette is anxious for you to find your brother,” Celia said to keep from making a fool of herself and reaching for him. “She seems quite fond of Will. More puzzling is why Lady Flora decided to help you. It is a most curious thing for her to do.”

Alec shook his head even as he stroked the backs of her gloved fingers. “I don’t know, love. Lady Flora was one of Will’s contacts in London. I’d say she was his lover, except …”

“Except that she and Mrs. Reynolds are lovers.” Celia stated this in a matter-of-fact tone, then laughed when Alec stared at her. “Oh dear, I do believe I’ve shocked you again, Mr. Finn.”





Chapter 21





Alec continued to stare as Celia collapsed into laughter. “You must be very prim and proper in Scotland,” she said, wiping her eyes. “Everyone knows about Lady Flora. We say nothing, of course, but everyone knows.”

Something sparked in his eyes. “Lass, if ye think Highlanders are prim and proper, prepare yourself for a shock. Even the most Calvinist of them set aside their prudery when there’s bairns to be made. But I thought you Englishwomen had cold blood and no notion of what went on outside a drawing room.”

“Then you have not been to the same drawing rooms I have.” Celia tilted her head back to study him from under her hat. “I wasn’t meant to see, but even my mother’s salons have turned bawdy when ladies and gentlemen sneak away to play. Unbeknownst to my mother, of course. She’d have exposed them and thrown them out.”

“I’m sorry your mum wasn’t warmer to ye,” Alec said in a soft voice. “She has such a fine daughter—I don’t know how she could treat you so.”

“I wish I could say I was well rid of her.” Celia twined her gloved fingers more tightly through his. “And I know, with my head, that I am. But she’s my mother. I only ever wanted to please her.”

“As is natural. But she abused that trust. You might forgive her, but I won’t.”

Celia made a faint shrug. “I am a duke’s daughter. I was to marry not for my own happiness but to strengthen the family, and the dynasty. My aunt—my father’s sister—understood this, because of course she was a duke’s daughter as well. That’s why she left me the legacy.”

“Which I won’t touch,” Alec said, the words firm. “It’s yours, and I’ll have my man of business make sure it remains yours. Then you’ll have something if I’m arrested and dragged away.”

Celia shivered, clasping his hand as though she’d be strong enough to prevent a soldier taking him. “Please don’t talk like that.”

“’Tis only practical. I promised to endow you with all my worldly goods, remember? And I have plenty of them, so you keep your legacy and do with it what you please.”

Celia snuggled into his side. “Well, if Scotsmen don’t have prudery, I know one thing you do have.”

“What’s that?” Alec asked in sudden suspicion.

“Pride.”

Alec huffed a laugh. “You’re right about that, lass. And I’m the least proud of the family. No one can match me da’, unless it’s Malcolm—the Runt is full of himself. Or Will …” He trailed off.

“We’ll find him,” Celia said.

She wished she could promise that. But life was never certain, war was savage, and the aftermath could be worse.

“You ought to have told me about him right away,” she continued in a gentler tone. “I could have made discreet inquiries from the first day.”

Alec’s growl returned. “And I know I’ll be arguing about this with ye the rest of my days. I didn’t know if I could trust ye, it’s dangerous, and even now, I don’t want you in it.”

“You’ve made that very clear.” Celia rubbed his shoulder then rested her cheek on it. “But I believe that whatever you are in from now on, Alec, I’ll be there too.”

“Even in shite?” Alec asked, his voice vibrating her.

“I’ll wear stout boots.”

His laugh sounded through the carriage. Alec turned her face up to him and pushed away the distancing hat. “I am right that you’ve stolen my heart.”

He kissed her, thumbs at the corners of her mouth opening her to him. Celia tasted his desire, thought of the dark passion of that morning, and her body dissolved into heat.

Alec continued the kissing, with hands skimming her bodice, unpinning her fichu to nip his way across her breasts, as the carriage moved east through the Temple Bar to Fleet Street and then up around the glory of St. Paul’s to Cheapside, and an inn there where Mrs. Reynolds was to meet them.

Alec helped Celia re-pin her fichu and restore her hat over her now-mussed hair by the time they stopped, and Alec stepped down to find Mrs. Reynolds. He’d proved that gloved hands on her skin could be a powerful sensation.

Celia knew she was still flushed and unkempt when Mrs. Reynolds ascended and sat next to her on the forward facing seat—where ladies sat—because Mrs. Reynolds assumed a slightly disapproving expression as she looked Celia over. She said nothing, however, only waited for Alec to climb in and take the rear-facing seat.