Alasdair was tempted to look heavenward for help, but then his sister had always been stubborn. “Ian expects me to take care of ye.”
She snorted. “Ian meddles too much. All of ye do.”
“Ye are our only blood-sister,” he replied, “and now Lorelei is our sister-by-marriage, so ’tis my responsibility to look after her as well.”
Fiona gave him a skeptical, sideways glance. “Ye expect me to believe ye are concerned about Lorelei because she is now kin?”
“Aye.” He studied some figurines on the mantel, not wanting to meet his sister’s sardonic gaze. His thoughts about Lorelei were anything but brotherly. Having her sit to his left at the card game, he’d had a near irresistible urge to lean over and kiss her lush lips as she’d chatted and laughed. At every dance, he wanted to hold her in his arms and press her body close to his. And, most of all, he wanted to steal away with her to the darker recesses of a terrace or garden, where he could do all sorts of things to pleasure her. He’d even woken hard after fantasy dreams had invaded his slumber. Even now, his cock began to stir at the thought. He frowned and looked around.
“Where is Lorelei, anyhow?”
“She went with Louisa to pay a call on someone she used to know in London.”
“Who?” he nearly growled.
Fiona grinned. “Ye doona need to sound so fierce. It was a girlfriend.”
Alasdair bit back a retort. His sister read him too easily. At least Lorelei wasn’t with Westwood. “I am nae being fierce. Ye ladies shouldna be wandering about by yourselves.”
“Garth went with them. Ye doona need to fash.”
That was good, then. But it didn’t solve the problem of his wayward sister and Lorelei courting danger. “He is Louisa’s footman, nae yours.”
She tapped her leg. “I can take care of myself.”
He shook his head. “Even if ye are good with your knife, ye canna depend on brandishing it to frighten a man.”
“Nae? It worked…” She paused and smoothed her skirt. “Ye ken I will use it if I have to.”
Alasdair narrowed his eyes suspiciously. That was not what she had started to say. What did she meanIt worked…Had she already had cause to draw it? He thought back to the day she and Lorelei had ridden off in the carriage. Had they needed to defend themselves? Where had they gone?
He gave an inward sigh. He wanted to trust his sister and Lorelei and had even felt a little guilty about tailing them that day, but now he suspected he should follow his instincts at all times.
He was going to have to come up with a reason to be away from the office on Monday afternoons when they did their “shopping” so he could find out where they went.
…
“I still canna believe my brother thinks he can run my life,” Fiona told Lorelei and Louisa after they returned home late that afternoon.
Lorelei didn’t think it would be polite to remind Fiona she had repeated herself at least a half dozen times since they’d come home. Evidently, they had just missed Alasdair, which was why Fiona was still fuming.
“My sisters are almost as bad,” she replied, “especially Emily.”
“I havefourbrothers andfivesisters trying to tell me what to do,” Louisa said, “although I suppose I should not count Caroline, since she’s only twelve.”
“You seem to get along well with the ones I have met.”
“That is because they are either married or have careers to take care of.”
“Hmmm. I had not thought of it that way, but you are right,” Lorelei answered. “Once Emily and Ian decided to marry, she stopped hovering over me. Even Juliana got less bossy once she and Rory got handfasted.”
“Handfasted?” Louisa asked.
“Aye. ’Tis a custom that allows a man and woman to live together like husband and wife for a year,” Fiona said. “At the end of that time, they can decide if they want to be married.”
Louisa’s eyebrows shot up. “What if there is a child in that time?”
“It didna used to matter. Clan was clan and the bairn would be looked after, although now ’tis considered a man’s duty to marry the lass, just like it is here. We really are nae barbarians, after all.”
