“I am a free woman, Gregor,” said Venetia.
“Free from you, free from everything. If I think something needs to be done, I will do it.”
Thunder cracked overhead, shaking the very floor. Gregor leaned down to Venetia, his nose level with hers. “Listen, Venetia. I came a damned long way in this miserable snow just to save your precious hide. I will not let you, or anyone else, interfere with that. Do you understand me?”
Her lips quivered the faintest bit, her skin flushing a delicate pink. In the flicker of light from the fireplace, Gregor noted that her bottom lip glistened with moisture. Sudden awareness tore through him, dissipating his anger and igniting something else, something hotter, deep in his veins.
He wanted to reach out and yank her into his arms, press her full figure against his chest. Then he’d kiss her until she couldn’t breathe.
He tightened his jaw, fighting off the tantalizing image. This was Venetia, his best friend. Women like Venetia did not flirt. They fell in love, and they married. That was it. There was nothing in the middle for Venetia, nothing for a man like him.
Praise for Karen Hawkins
and How to Abduct a Highland Lord
“If this first book in a new series sets the stage for what’s to come, then readers can expect even more delightful, madcap, sensual adventures. Hawkins takes a fiery Scot lass and a wastrel lord and puts them together in a match made in, well, not heaven, but one that’s heated, exciting, and touching. Hawkins excels at taking tried-and-true plotlines and turning them into fresh, vibrant books.”
—Romantic Times
“Karen Hawkins is destined for superstardom!”
—Julia Quinn
“A delightful new talent! A sparkling debut!”
—Mary Balogh
“Karen Hawkins knows how to keep a reader entranced from first page to last.”
—Joan Johnston
“Karen Hawkins never fails to please!”
—Victoria Alexander
“Karen Hawkins writes fast, fun, and sexy stories!”
—Christina Dodd
“A lively, sexy escapade with a charming, original heroine and a cast of interesting characters that make me look forward to more books about them.”
—Linda Howard
“Saucy, witty flirtation…excitement and passion.”
—Publishers Weekly
“Luscious, romantic, witty, sexy, and emotional.”
—Romantic Times
“Fast paced, lively, sexy and laugh-out-loud funny.”
—Romance and More!
“…an enjoyable fast-paced read. The sensuality is steamy.”
—The Best Reviews
“…A fun and witty read! Ms. Hawkins did a wonderful job of turning a huge mess of a wedding into the marriage of dreams.”
—Night Owl Romance
“A fun beginning to a new series…winsome and exciting. A brilliant cast of characters adds extra dimension to the plot, with vivid descriptions of time and place…”
—A Romance Design
“Clever and engrossing…[Hawkins is] an enduring talent in historical romance.”
—The Romance Reader
“Hawkins takes on tired clichés and breathes new life into them, creating a warm, cozy read, perfect for a quiet afternoon.”
—All About Romance
Also by Karen Hawkins
How to Abduct a Highland Lord
Available from Pocket Books
Pocket Books
A Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc.
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New York, NY 10020
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2007 by Karen Hawkins
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever.
For information address Pocket Books Subsidiary Rights Department, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020
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ISBN-10: 1-4165-4516-6
ISBN-13: 978-1-4165-4516-3
Visit us on the World Wide Web:
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This book is dedicated to Nate V. N.
for introducing me to such wonderful, incredible, and life-changing wonders as the magic of sailplanes, the questionable wisdom of the BBC’s The Office, and the hilarity that is Karaoke Night at Big Daddy’s.
Chapter 1
Aye, I believe in the MacLean curse. If ye’d seen the blinding white lightning and heard the roar of thunder over MacLean Castle on a clear summer morn as I have, ye’d believe it, too.
OLD WOMAN NORA FROM LOCH LOMOND
TO HER THREE WEE GRANDDAUGHTERS ONE COLD EVENING
“A rgh! Bentley! Where are you?”
The yell echoed through the morning air, over the loud clops from the horses and carts that were just beginning to stir in Mayfair, London’s most fashionable district.
Startled, Gregor MacLean stepped back from the ornate door of Oglivie House and glanced up at the open third-story window.
It was far too early for drama. Well, it was too early at most domiciles. At Oglivie House, drama was never out of fashion.
Gregor bit back an impatient sigh and stepped forward, rapping the knocker hard. The Oglivies were silly, extremely emotional, and far too given to excitement. Nothing could have brought him to this door except their one and only daughter, Venetia. Calm, logical, and rarely indulging in unseemly displays of emotion, Venetia easily offset her parents’ sad tendencies. In fact, during his years of friendship with Venetia, Gregor had discovered only one flaw: a disturbing inclination to become overly involved in the lives of others.
“Bentley!” Mr. Oglivie’s voice rang out louder than before, a hint of a sob at the end.
Gregor rapped on the door yet again. The quicker he collected Venetia for their morning ride, the quicker he’d be away from the brewing madness.
The door flew open, the usually impassive butler gasping a relieved sigh. “My lord, I am so glad—you can have no idea—it’s been a horrible morning and—”
Gregor walked past the incoherent butler. At Oglivie House, something as small as the chef quitting or a misplaced bracelet resulted in scenes worthy of the stage, complete with ranting, raving, accusations, and weeping. He knew from long experience that the best way to deal with such distractions was to ignore them. “I’ve come to take Miss Venetia for our morning ride. I assume she’s ready?”
Overhead, a thump rattled the crystals on the chandelier.
Gregor frowned up the stairs before saying uneasily, “Is Miss Venetia awaiting me in the breakfast room? We should make haste to reach the park before the fops arise and clog the pathways.”
Bentley’s brow wrinkled. “But, my lord, Miss Oglivie isn’t—”
A loud crash sounded from upstairs, followed by an unmistakable yell: “Bentley! Order the carriage!”
Gregor cut a hard glance at Bentley. “What were you saying about Miss Oglivie?”
The butler’s eyes teared up alarmingly. “She’s missing, my lord, and we don’t know where to find her.”
“What?” The word snapped through the air.
Bentley wrung his hands. “Yes, my lord. Miss Oglivie apparently left the house quite early this morning, and no one knows where she went.” The butler glanced warily up the stairs, then leaned forward to add in an undertone, “She left a note for Lord Oglivie and he has been in a taking since he read it.”
“Do y
ou know what the note said?”
Bentley shook his head regretfully.
How odd. It was quite unlike Venetia to—
A door slammed above, then Mr. Oglivie appeared on the landing and ran down the stairs. Though usually the most elegant of men, he wore a long white night rail, his robe loose and streaming about him, his feet bare, his hair in a white, unkempt fluff around a precariously tipped nightcap.
“Bentley!” Oglivie waved a crumpled paper over his head. “Did you not hear me? We must—Venetia cannot—she might be—Oh, no!” His voice caught and he sank to the bottom step and dropped his head in his hands. “What shall I do? What shall I do?”
Gregor eyed Venetia’s father, unmoved. Oglivie had once taken to his bed for a week over the loss of his prize poodle, certain his dog had been abducted for ransom. Of course, the dog had shown up a week later, bedraggled but happy, having taken up with some amorous three-legged mutt. The resulting pups were as hideous as expected.
Venetia’s mother was cut from the same cloth, dismissing servants on a whim, declaring herself to be dying whenever she had a headache, going into a decline if an acquaintance unknowingly slighted her, and enacting Cheltenham tragedies at the drop of a hat.
Gregor couldn’t count the scenes he’d witnessed, none of which he’d allowed to affect him. Why waste one’s strength on mere emotion? Things always sorted themselves out, usually without anyone’s help.
Despite Mr. Oglivie’s piteous sobs, Gregor doubted that Venetia was in any danger. More than likely, she’d merely forgotten their promised ride and had gone for a walk. She’d send him a note when she returned, and all would be right with the world.
Whatever the truth, Gregor decided it was time for him to make his exit. “Mr. Oglivie, I bid you adieu. You obviously need privacy in your time of distress, so I will leave you n—”
“No!” Venetia’s father held out an imploring hand. “Lord MacLean! I beg of you—for Venetia’s sake, if not mine! She—” He gulped as if the words were caught in his throat, his gaze desperately seeking Gregor’s. “Please,” the older man said, his voice cracking, his eyes wet with tears, his tone strained to a mere thread. “Please help me find her.”
Something in Oglivie’s face chilled Gregor’s heart. There was genuine terror in his gaze.
Suddenly both cold and hot, Gregor snapped, “What’s happened?”
“She—She—” Oglivie dropped his head back into his hands, a sob ringing through the foyer.
Gregor’s hands fisted at his sides. Outside, thunder suddenly rumbled, the wind rattling against the windowpanes. He strode toward the stairs, his boots sounding sharply on the marble floor as he came to a halt before the older man. “Oglivie, what about Venetia?”
Mr. Oglivie lifted his head. “She’s gone, MacLean! Abducted! And all because of me!”
The sentence hung in the air, a living, breathing fear. The wind lifted again, more furious and colder than before as it whistled around the closed door and chilled their ankles, ruffling the edges of Lord Oglivie’s night rail.
“How can this be your fault?”
Oglivie’s lips quivered. “Because he—he—told me he wished to run off with Venetia and I—I—I encouraged him, thinking she might find it romantic. I never thought he’d do it without her knowledge. I thought—”
“What’s his name?” Gregor asked, his jaw so tight it ached.
“Ravenscroft.”
Gregor had an instant image of a young man with a weak chin and an overeager manner. “That whelp? You encouraged him?”
Oglivie flushed a deep red. “He seemed genuinely taken with Venetia and she was always pleasant to him—”
“She’s pleasant to everyone.” His gaze locked on the note in Oglivie’s hand. “Is that from Venetia?”
His eyes swimming with tears, Oglivie handed over the note.
Gregor scanned it.
Oglivie’s voice quavered. “You must understand, MacLean. Lord Ravenscroft wished to marry her, but she’s so shy and—”
Gregor crushed the note between his fingers. “Bloody hell!” The note was written in Venetia’s distinctively looping scribble. It said simply that she was accompanying Ravenscroft to attend her mother in Stirling ‘as requested.’ The fool must have told Venetia that her mother was ill.
Mr. Oglivie rubbed a trembling hand over his eyes. “I can’t believe he did such a thing! I thought he was a fine, outstanding—”
But Gregor had already turned on his heel and was striding toward the door.
“MacLean!” Oglivie jumped up and followed Gregor onto the doorstep, not noticing that a mere hour ago it had been clear and springlike, while now the cold wind blew with a ferocity that ripped off his nightcap and sent it tumbling down the road. Shivering, he said over the wind’s howl, “MacLean, where are you going?”
“To find your daughter.” Gregor took the reins of his horse from a waiting footman and threw himself into the saddle.
“But how? You don’t know where to begin!”
“I’ve heard that Ravenscroft lodges on St. James Street. I will start there.”
“But when you find them? What will you do then?”
“Whatever I damn well have to,” Gregor said, his face grim. “In the meantime, wait here and keep your mouth closed. No one can know she’s gone.”
“But—”
“Closed, Oglivie. That should keep you occupied until I return.” Without waiting for a reply, Gregor turned his horse and galloped away.
Oglivie crossed his arms against the frigid wind, unable to look away from MacLean’s rapidly disappearing figure. “What have I done?” he whispered, tears streaming anew. “Venetia, my darling girl, where are you?”
Miles away, in a rented carriage that raced over a deeply rutted road, young Lord Ravenscroft held his wounded hand against his chest. “You cut me! I’m bleeding like a stuck pig!”
“Do not overstate the facts, if you please.” Swaying with the wild ride of the coach, Miss Venetia Oglivie pulled her handkerchief from her reticule and wiped off the pin of her pearl and silver brooch. “I did not cut you—though had I a knife, I might have been tempted to do more than stick your hand with my brooch pin.”
Ravenscroft stuck his knuckle into his mouth. “Whatever it was, there was no call for it.”
“I warned you to cease making a cake of yourself.”
“I wasn’t making a cake of myself! I was merely saying that I love y—” Ravenscroft gasped as Venetia raised the pin once again, his eyes wide as if she held a dagger.
She lowered the pin and sighed. “Really, Ravenscroft, these missish vapors are not the least attractive.”
“Missish vapors? Venetia! How can you say—”
“That’s Miss Oglivie to you,” she said firmly.
Ravenscroft scooted down the seat, away from the glimmering pin. “Look, Vene—I mean, Miss Oglivie. I—I—I am sorry if you think I was out of line in declaring myself—”
“You were grossly out of line, especially in these sad circumstances.”
He blinked uncertainly, hanging on to the leather strap that hung overhead as the carriage bumped over a deep rut. “Sad circumstances?”
Venetia eyed her companion for a grave moment. “Have you forgotten why we are traveling over this horrid road at such a dangerous speed? My poor mother is ill.”
“Ah, yes. That.” Ravenscroft tugged at his cravat as if it had suddenly tightened about his throat. “Your mother. I suppose I was…not precisely forgetful, for that would never do, but I was, ah, overcome—Yes! I was overcome by passion and forgot your mother.” He added hastily, “But only for a moment! I quite remember now that we’re going to visit your poor mother at your grandmother’s house in Stirling.”
Venetia supposed she shouldn’t be surprised at Ravenscroft’s scattered memory; he wasn’t the sharpest quill in the pot. But something whispered that things were not right. Something she couldn’t quite put her finger on. “Perhaps we should stop at th
e next inn and see to your hand.”
Ravenscroft shook his head vehemently. “No. We can’t stop.”
She regarded him through narrowed eyes. “Why not?”
“Because…we’ll be late. And it would make more sense to wait until it’s dark.”
Venetia frowned, her suspicion rising even more. She should have asked more questions before leaving, but when Ravenscroft had burst into the breakfast room that morning, a note clutched in his hand, desperation on his young face, she hadn’t thought at all. Written in her father’s hand, the note requested that she immediately go with Ravenscroft to assist Mother.
Used to Mama’s tendency to think every twitch a death spasm and Papa’s unerring ability to avoid responsibility, Venetia had found the request inconvenient but not odd. So she’d changed out of her riding habit, hastily packed a portmanteau, and swiftly dashed off a reassuring note to Papa that she’d do as he’d bid, before climbing into Ravenscroft’s carriage.
Of course, it would not do to worry until she’d seen Mama for herself. It was a pity, though, that the burden of escorting her had been placed on Ravenscroft, Papa’s newest “project.” Papa thought of himself as a champion of the downtrodden, which meant that every once in a while, he’d attempt to help some poor lost soul navigate the tricky waters of the ton. Papa called it his great social experiment, though Venetia privately thought he simply enjoyed the extravagant compliments that Ravenscroft gratefully showered upon him.
Early this morning, as they were madly dashing from London, Venetia’d felt sorry for poor Ravenscroft for getting embroiled in her family’s mad contretemps. But after sitting in the carriage for more than two hours, she had serious doubts about him. Something—she wasn’t certain what—was not as it should be. He seemed exceedingly nervous, and kept sticking his head out the window as if expecting that someone was following them.
Venetia was many things, but stupid was not one of them. When she attempted to question Ravenscroft about the circumstances that had led Papa to request they fly off to Mama’s side, Ravenscroft stuttered and stammered a mishmash of unrelated explanations and excuses that left her with a headache.