“I’ve let everyone know where we’ll be tonight,” the countess said as she shooed them out the door for the carriage. “We’ll get you engaged tonight, I’m sure of it!”
Mairi could only smile and nod. No part of her had room to think of Mr. Whomever it was. All her thoughts were on Connall who sat across from her and watched her with steady, dark eyes.
“Perhaps we should take a walk,” he finally said, “between the second and third sets. I heard the news of your father, by the way. I am very pleased for him.”
Mairi jolted. If Mr. Weissman couldn’t pull her attention off Connall, news from home certainly could. “News? What news? Is my father all right?”
Connall frowned. “He’s very well, Mairi. I thought you knew. He has found a new wife. I am sure he has written to you.”
“I haven’t received anything.” And why would Connall think that she could get such news andnottell him? Good lord, the man was as oblivious as a dolt!
“Finn must have arrived ahead of your father’s letter.”
“My father hates writing.” She frowned, her mind spinning. “Finn’s here?”
“He arrived this afternoon.”
Oh yes. She’d thought she’d heard Finn’s voice this afternoon but hadn’t wanted to pry. The man was an Aberbeag. An important member of the clan, she believed, but she wasn’t exactly sure of his duties. He had a distinctive roughness to his voice from an injury in a fight when he was a boy.
And none of that was important right now!
“What do you know of this woman?”
Connall made a futile gesture. “Nothing but her name. I thought to ask you about her!”
She glared at the man. “Andwhat is her name?”
“Miss Juliet Adams. She’s the teacher Liam and Clara brought in. It seems they have come to an understanding.”
Apparently so, if they were about to marry. Or had married.
Good lord, such feelings were roaring through her, none of them making sense. It had been a foundational part of her life that her father grieved the great love he had for her mother. That he cried over her loss every year on her birthday. That he touched Mairi’s face with reverence and said how much she looked like her mother. And now he was replacing her with an English school teacher?
“Why didn’t you tell me?” she whispered.
Connall huffed out a breath. “I thought you knew. And I meant to talk to you about this later tonight.”
She shook her head, still trying to sort through her thoughts. “Why would he do this without talking to me?” It was a stupid question. She knew it the moment she voiced it, and so Connall made haste to point out.
“And why would he speak to you, Mairi? Especially when you left in the middle of the night to find a husband in London without a word to him?”
Truth spoken baldly. Mairi winced because he had a fair point.
“I was so angry,” she whispered. “I didn’t think.”
Connall abruptly leaned forward. There were five of them in the narrow confines of the carriage, but the others were staying scrupulously quiet. It was Connall who reached forward and gripped her hands.
“He is not unhappy with you. Indeed, none of us were surprised by your temper. But if you are free to find your own future, then you must leave him to do the same.”
She knew it was true, and yet the suddenness of the news left her feeling bereft. “Aye,” she finally said. “You have the right of it.” It was time to step into the next part of her life. Her father had found someone new, and so should she. “Countess,” she abruptly said. “I believe I will accept Mr. Weissman’s proposal tonight.”