“This was different, wasn’t it?” she asked. A wicked smile began to form on her lips. “You know, from the moment I saw you coming up the steps to Mr. Lennox’s townhouse, I knew it would come to this.”
“What?” Jackson looked at the two of them in bed. “This?” He scrunched the bedclothes up over his bare chest as though he was shocked. “Have I been taken advantage of?”
Jane laughed at that. “I believe that was a completely mutual part of the matter. No, it’s just that, after all these years, I think in order to recapture my own life, I had to run away to Scotland again.” She smiled, perhaps a little foolishly. “I make no demands on you, Jackson. Whatever you wish this to be, I will enjoy it for as long as it lasts.”
He began to stroke her hair again, a thoughtful expression stealing across his handsome features. “I am yours, Jane, for as long as you desire me.”
She slid up his body a few inches and lowered her head to kiss him. All thoughts outside of this room, this moment, were banished, if only for a little while.
18
Lydia giggled as she watched Isla stand on the small platform in the dressmaker’s shop on the Royal Mile street in Edinburgh. Isla looked like a giant doll with her hair curled in long ringlets and her new dress on.
“Hold still, darling,” Lydia said when Isla started to fidget. “Just a few more minutes, all right?”
Isla let out a long-suffering sigh, which made Brodie and Rafe laugh. The two gentlemen were somewhat uncomfortable in so feminine a shop, but they were bearing up well by letting little Isla amuse them with her antics.
The dressmaker knelt at Isla’s feet, a set of pins in her mouth as she adjusted the hem of the pretty lilac gown Isla wore.
“Mrs. Giles, will you have the gowns for my daughter and other items ready by this afternoon?” Lydia inquired. It had been a tad easier than she’d expected to claim Isla as her child in public, at least while they were purchasing items for her. Lydia was beginning to think she’d spent too much time around Rafe for lying to come so easily now.
“Certainly, ma’am. The gowns will be easy enough to modify. I have a good team of girls who can make the adjustments this afternoon.”
“Excellent. Where can we find a shop to buy her shoes?”
“At the end of the street. There’s an excellent one there with children’s slippers and boots of all colors and sizes.”
Lydia thanked the woman and helped Isla go behind the changing screen to put on the pale-blue ready-made gown that she could wear out today.
“Brodie, could you carry her again? I don’t want her walking in those worn-out boots.” Lydia knew that the girl had been well cared for by her mother, but it was clear from the state of the child’s clothing that the last year hadn’t been easy for the young mother and her child.
Rafe mumbled something under his breath about Brodie and Lydia acting like an old married couple, but Brodie cuffed him on the shoulder to quiet him. He lifted the child up and carried her out of the dressmaker’s shop. Isla giggled, her arms curled around Brodie’s neck as Rafe stuck his tongue out at Brodie’s back the way a little boy would. Lydia’s heart twisted with bittersweet pleasure. She was glad they were making the child happy, but she couldn’t forget that the child’s mother and father had both died, leaving her all alone. And this distraction for Isla was just that, a distraction. It would take more than new clothes and smiling faces to mend the wounds she no doubt kept hidden.
After acquiring appropriate boots and slippers in various colors, the group passed by a toy shop on the street.
“Do you mind if I take the little kitten in here?” Rafe asked.
“Not at all,” Lydia said. “Perhaps Isla will find a toy in there as well.”
Rafe smirked at her teasing and took Isla inside. Lydia watched them through the shop window.
“Brodie, do you think she will be all right? She’s so shy and quiet.”
Brodie took one of her hands and brought it to his lips, kissing the tops of her fingers.
“Can you blame her? We are strangers, and she’s lost all of her family and doesna even have the comfort of her normal surroundings. It’s a lot for a child to take in. But she is engaging with us, and that means she hasna given up. She’s a strong child.”
“We should return to that inn where her mother died. I want to ask the innkeeper some questions about her mother and collect any belongings, if they haven’t gotten rid of them yet.”
“We can, but you and the bairn will stay in the coach where ’tis safe.”
Lydia decided it was not worth arguing the point with him, so she returned her focus to the child and Rafe. Isla was looking at two dolls, both lovely and wearing exquisite clothes. She slowly pointed to a flaxen-haired doll with a rose-colored dress like the one Lydia was currently wearing. Rafe seemed to be offering to buy both, but Isla shook her head and put the other doll back on the shelf. Rafe rolled his eyes and scooped up Isla and her new doll and paid for the toy before carrying her and the toy out of the shop.
“She’s bloody hard to spoil,” Rafe grumbled. “Who’d have thought mistresses were easier to please?”
Isla lifted up her new doll and made it kiss Rafe’s cheek. The rakehell blushed and quickly handed her over to Brodie. Lydia couldn’t help but tease him.
“What’s the matter, Rafe? Afraid you’ll want a child of your own if you hold her too long?”
“Perhaps,” he admitted, his expression honest for a moment before he returned to his guarded look of amusement. “Where are we off to now?”
“The inn where we found her,” Brodie said as they got into Rafe’s coach.
Isla played silently with her doll, but when they stopped at the inn, her eyes grew wide with fear.
“Am I going back? I knew I couldna stay with you.” She spoke in a very small voice filled with terror. She clutched the doll tightly to her chest, her tiny hands white-knuckled with her fierce little grip.
“No, my sweet one. You must stay here with Lydia. Rafe and I wish to ask some questions and retrieve your mother’s belongings if they are still there.”
Lydia pulled Isla close and kissed her forehead. “We’ll stay here—don’t worry.” She nodded to Brodie that he and Rafe could leave.
Brodie stepped out of the coach, and Rafe joined him. The inn, while not one of the nicer places to stay, was on a well-to-do street with decent shops and residences nearby.
“I wonder how the woman and her child ended up here?” Rafe wondered as his gaze ran over the edifice of the building.
“I don’t know,” said Brodie. They entered and found the innkeeper helping a maid clean up a table of dirty dishes. The innkeeper was a thin-faced woman who looked quite unpleasant. When she caught sight of Brodie and Rafe, her sour expression softened, likely because she recognized money when she saw it.
“What can I do for you fine gents?” She smoothed a few stray wisps of her hair back from her face and patted the tightly knotted bun at the back of her head to make sure her hair was in place.
“You had a woman staying here,” Brodie said. “A Mrs. Mackenzie?”