Unfortunately, he noticed, and his eyes darkened as they caught hers from across the room while his lips turned up at the corners.
Nick must have observed the exchange, for he began to look back and forth between the two of them.
“I didn’t realize that you were… er—”
“Oh, no!” Jane exclaimed, realizing what he had assumed. “I’m not… that is, we’re not—” Duncan had crossed the room toward her and she looked at him in supplication, and he smirked for a moment before stepping in to actually help.
“I am a friend of Jane and Mary’s family,” he said smoothly, and Jane smiled in thanks, although a pang of regret struck her at the truth of his words. But it was exactly as he had said — he was a friend of the family and nothing more, here on her father’s bidding. “Duncan McDougall.”
“I see,” Nick said, raising his eyebrows as though he did not quite believe it. “Well, welcome to England, Duncan McDougall and Miss Campbell.”
“Jane is fine,” she said with a smile, hoping that whatever Nick assumed, they could be friends.
“Are we ready?” Mrs. Miller clapped her hands as her voice overcame the chatter among the remainder of the group, and they all turned to her with nods as the children burst forward from the back rooms.
Jane stepped backward away from them all, in doing so bumping into Duncan, who placed a hand on the small of her back as though protecting her from the rest of them. She took a small step forward just away from him, for his touch sent far too many unwanted tingles running through her.
“We’re ready,” Billy said, draping a cloak around Mary’s shoulders, and Jane smiled at how loving he was toward her sister. She went to collect her own cloak from her bedroom upstairs, and by the time she returned, she was the last out the door — except for one figure.
“Are you coming?” she asked Duncan, who was leaning against one wall, not seeming to have any inclination to leave. He shrugged.
“There is not much else for me to do here, now is there?”
She sighed as she stared at him in some supplication. “Must you always be like this?”
“Like what?”
“So… ornery,” she said, throwing his own word back at him. “I completely understand why you might be hesitant in joining Billy’s family, but you were the one who invited yourself to stay here with them. You must now accept the consequences that come with remaining in England.”
One corner of his lips quirked up somewhat sheepishly. “Like Christmas?”
“Exactly,” she said with a nod. “We are going to be here for the season. We might as well enjoy ourselves and see what the holiday is all about, no?”
“Very well,” Duncan mumbled. “Let’s go buy ourselves a cut tree.”
“That’s the spirit,” she said with as much gaiety as she could muster, and then she led him out the door.
Their destination was not particularly far, but it did take some time, with the lot of them trudging down the road to a small shop that had been set up for the season. It wasn’t much — fencing had been erected for this purpose, or perhaps it remained up all year, Duncan wasn’t sure. But the square was filled with trees of every shape and size, while a man stood at the front making sales.
The Miller family took up nearly the entire enclosed area, as they all called out their preferences to one another.
“Most certainly this one, Uncle Billy!” called one of the children.
“That’s far too short, Florence! How about this one?” called out another child — Owen, Duncan thought he had heard him called.
“Your eyes are too rich, lad!” Billy called back good-naturedly. “For one, my drawing room is not high enough, and secondly, my pocketbook is not full enough!”
The adults had a laugh at that, while they all continued on to look for what they called “the perfect tree.”
Duncan could only stand there and scratch his head. The evergreens were like a forest in and of themselves here in this city block, some greenery among the brown landscape of winter.
“You must admit that it is rather lovely to see some nature in the midst of London,” Jane said, looking up at him with a dreamy smile. “And that smell.” She closed her eyes and breathed in deeply. “Isn’t it heavenly, Duncan?”
She was right. The scent filling his nostrils was both fresh and freeing. And yet… it was not the scent that currently had him so captivated, but the sight in front of him. Jane’s dark brown hair was pulled back softly at the nape of her neck, her cape draped around her shoulders and her head tilted up to the sky while her entire being was backdropped by the tree shop behind her. She was, quite honestly, a vision.
She opened her eyes and looked at him expectantly, making him realize that she had asked him a question which he had completely forgotten to answer.
“I’m sorry… what was that?”
“I said, does it not smell heavenly?” she repeated, a bit self-consciously now, as though his lack of response had been a failing on her own part. “A silly question, perhaps.”
“Not at all,” he said gruffly. “You are right. I can admit that it is quite… lovely.”
She laughed lightly, her chuckle a little thrill that warmed him through. He longed to reach out and stroke her cheek, to see if her skin was as soft as it looked. Which was ridiculous. Duncan was not a man who had ever been reduced to such romantic notions. He was a Highlander — one who, despite the fact everything had changed a century ago, still maintained as many traditions of his ancestors as possible in their current reality.
“Come,” she said, tilting her head. “Let’s go look.”
He shook his head. “I’m not going in there.”
“Why ever not?”
“Because, I—”
He had no answer, really. Somehow, he had the sense that by following the Millers, he was giving in to everything they were and weakening the barrier he had placed between himself and the English.
“You have no answer to that,” she finished for him quite correctly. When she tucked her arm into the crook of his elbow and began leading him, he found that he was not physically strong enough to resist her.
He, Duncan McDougall, who had never lost a fight and intimidated everyone he met, was bested by this little slip of a woman — one whom he had not even noticed the previous times they had apparently met. What was wrong with him?
When Jane looked at him with that expectation in her eyes, it was as if there was some part of him that just couldn’t refuse her, he realized with great shock and not just a little bit of trepidation. Already he was remaining in England with her, and now he was going to follow her into a make-believe forest of trees in the middle of London when they had more in Scotland than one could ever explore in a lifetime.
“Please?” she said quietly, and he was sunk. Into the evergreens they went, first finding, of course, Mary and Billy. Mary’s cheeks were quite flushed, but Billy’s arm was around her, and it seemed she was enjoying herself.
“Isn’t this silly fun?” she asked, to which Jane nodded, although Duncan caught a look of concern on her face.
“What’s wrong?” he asked quietly, and Jane looked up at him, meeting his eye.