Unlaced By The Highland Duke. Lara Temple
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Hotel itself was as fine as any London house she had ever visited, with lush carpets and furniture, and her bed, in one of the four rooms leading off the palatial private parlour they dined in, was enormous and as soft as a cloud. She would happily spend a week here, exploring. She remembered reading that there were lovely gardens and theatres in Glasgow. What would it be like to explore—not in London where everything was overlaid with memories of that agonising Season and her life with the Uxmores—but in a whole new city, where she could invent herself anew...?
Joane Langdale, independent widow...
‘I don’t know, Jamie,’ the Duke answered absently, turning the pages of a newspaper. ‘Angus made the arrangements. We will ask him when we depart for the port.’
‘For the port?’ Jo asked, finally registering the import of their discussion.
‘Did I not tell you? We will proceed by water from here. It is faster than going overland and Jamie enjoys it. The carriage will join us a day or so later at Lochmore. Next time we travel to London I think we will sail the whole way, what do you say, Jamie?’
‘Oh, yes, please, sir! Do you like ships, Jo?’ Jamie asked, his whole body quivering with excitement.
‘I don’t know, Jamie. I have never been on one.’
Jamie stared at her, aghast.
‘Never? Not ever?’
‘It is a dreadful fault in me, I know. I have been on a rowboat once, if that helps.’
Jamie looked disgusted.
‘Everyone has been on a rowboat. This is a ship! A real ship with sails and rigging and funny smells and funny people who speak funny and gulls and waves and...things.’
‘Well, there is a first time for everything.’
‘I was on a ship before I was even me,’ Jamie insisted. ‘Papa told me I tried to crawl to the crow’s nest when I was not even a year old.’
‘That is impressive. Why are there crows on a ship?’
Jamie rolled his eyes.
‘There aren’t crows. It is where you climb so you can see far, far away before anyone else on board and then you yell “land ho” so everyone knows you are close just like in the stories.’
‘Then why are they called crow’s nests?’
Jamie frowned and turned to his father.
‘I don’t know. Why are they called that, Papa?’
‘I’m afraid I don’t know either, Jamie.’
Jamie’s face fell and Jo watched with a little amusement the shift of expressions on the Duke’s face. It was touchingly obvious he did not like disappointing Jamie. Before he could concoct some answer merely to counter his son’s disappointment at his ignorance she folded her napkin and spoke.
‘I shall add that to the Great Big List, Jamie.’
‘The what?’
‘The Great Big List of Things I Did Not Know I Did Not Know, But Now I Know I Don’t. I think everyone has such a list, don’t they?’
Jamie’s frown deepened as he followed her nonsense, making him look even more like the Duke.
‘What else don’t you know?’
‘A great many things. One of them is where you ride on a camel. From the illustrations of camels I have seen, I can’t imagine riding on the hump is very comfortable, but there does not seem to be much room elsewhere, unless you are left clinging to his neck which strikes me as rather awkward.’
‘In the Desert Boy book Papa bought he rides on a saddle on the hump,’ Jamie announced categorically.
‘On it. Well, now I know. That is one less item on my list. Thank you, Lord Glenarris.’
Jamie’s eyes widened at her use of his title and then crinkled in laughter and he gave a little bow, glancing at his father.
‘I like this game. Tell me something on your list, Papa.’
‘I do not know what it will take for you to make a pair of shoes survive longer than a fortnight, Lord Glenarris.’
Jamie laughed.
‘That’s not a real thing you don’t know.’
‘It feels real enough in the morning when we are late to get underway.’
Jamie raised his feet.
‘I found them, didn’t I, sir?
‘Mrs Langdale found them, despite your best efforts, boy.’
Jamie turned his grin on her.
‘You’re like the mole girl, Jo.’
‘Mrs Langdale, Jamie,’ the Duke corrected.
‘I gave him leave to call me Jo, Your Grace.’
He finally looked at her, his grey-green eyes reflecting a mixture of annoyance and resignation. Despite the significantly more comfortable accommodations of the past night, he still looked tired and she realised it was not merely the long trip that was taking its toll on him. The closer they came to their destination, the stonier he became, as if gathering himself against an incoming blow. She waited for him to insist on formality, but he merely shrugged and stood.
‘I must speak to Angus. I will send him to find you when we are ready to depart.’
The silence that followed his departure was disturbed only by the thud-thud of Jamie’s foot kicking the table leg. She breathed in to calm herself.
‘Why doesn’t Papa like you?’
Jo straightened, surprise and hurt pinching at her insides. It was one thing to know it; it was quite another to hear the truth from the mouth of babes.
‘I think perhaps he likes having you to himself, Jamie.’
Jamie’s kicking stopped.
‘Will he like you better if I call you Mrs Langdale?’
‘I don’t know, Jamie. I do not think that is the problem. Come, we should find your coat if we are to be ready to leave. Will you show me the crow’s nest when we arrive at the boat?’
Jamie nodded, but half-heartedly, and jumped off his chair.
* * *
It was not quite the great ship she had been imagining. It had only two sails and, according to Jamie, no crow’s nest.
‘Why can’t we sail on that ship, Papa?’ Jamie pointed to a much larger three-masted ship anchored further out on the swelling waves.
‘Because that ship is not sailing close to our home, Jamie.’
Jamie’s eyes lit.
‘Where is it going, Papa?’
The Duke looked down at his son and the stern look gentled a little.
‘I’m afraid that is on my Great Big List of Things I Don’t Know. Where would you like it to sail?’
‘Zanzibar!’
‘Why Zanzibar?’
‘It has a pretty name. There are dragons there, too.’
‘Dragons?’
‘Yes, remember? You showed me Zanzibar in the Map Room and there was a green and yellow dragon sitting on the waves, poking it with its tail.’
Whatever answer the Duke was contemplating was interrupted as Angus beckoned them towards the ship. Jo approached the vessel with a little trepidation. The wind had picked up and the clouds were moving along the horizon, shifting as they went like rising smoke. The ship itself was rocking and she wished she could cling to something or someone