Macbeth's Niece Read Online Free PDF Page A

insufferable, as if he were offering pearls before
swine. He assumed no one there knew the latest English dances and
also assumed they wanted to learn them. How like an Englishman to
think himself above those who’d fed him!
    “I’ll need a partner.” He paced the room
dramatically for a few seconds. “You’ll do.” Coming out of her
thoughts, Tessa found Brixton standing before her, indicating with
open arms she should dance with him.
    The girl felt pulled in two directions. Her
mother’s voice commanded her to be ladylike and submissive, but her
own inner voice rose up for the first time in months. She could not
pretend this man was as charming as he obviously found himself.
Scottish men had been rejected for taking Tessa’s assent for
granted. Why should an English fop fare better? She raised her eyes
to Brixton’s, her chin high and mouth a thin line. “I do not
dance,” was out of her mouth before she could stop it.
    Immediately, Tessa sensed a chill like an
actual draft from the general direction of her aunt. Girls did as
they were told, even when they didn’t want to, and a good hostess
saw to it the wishes of her guests were indulged. Something in
Tessa rebelled still further as weeks of watching every word and
facial expression caused a sudden break in her self-control. In
Jeffrey Brixton’s blue eyes glinted something that might have been
a challenge, and heedlessly, she finished the thought. “And if I
did, it would never be with an Englishman!”
    “Tessa!” escaped from Gruoch at the same
moment that a growl escaped the Thane of Glames.
    “Apologize to our guest, child, and leave
us. If you cannot be civil, you’ll bide by yourself.”
    Her uncle’s face was stern. Thoughts of
complying with the command formed, but Brixton’s expression stopped
her. He faced her, away from Macbeth and his lady, and the look in
his eyes was not at all that of the character he had displayed thus
far. There was danger, turbulence, and passion in it, and she felt
something in herself responding to this man. Her response
frightened her, angered her, and decided her. She would never
apologize to this man, even if they beat her!
    With head held high, Tessa stepped around
Jeffrey Brixton as if touching him would be odious, which it would.
Fleeing the room, she heard her aunt making apologies, heard the
words “young and untaught.” She felt the heat of Brixton’s eyes
burning into her back and could picture the expression on his face,
though she’d known him for only an hour. There would be that line
of amusement beside his mouth, and the blue eyes would spark
dangerously. There, Mother, the girl thought bitterly. All your
predictions for me have come true! My traitorous tongue has ruined
two months of careful behavior!

Chapter Four
    The next morning
Tessa slipped out of the castle early, unwilling to hear what
Gruoch would have to say about her awful behavior the night before
or to spend another day inside stitching harts and hinds onto
cloth. There had been no response yet. That, she was sure, would be
left for when the guests had gone. While she was still free to move
about, Tessa looked upward, toward home.
    In the mountains, she had learned to love
the outdoors. With the lads who were her playmates, Tessa had
learned to ride the shaggy Highland ponies, swim in the icy tarns
and burns, and climb into the thick, prickly hawthorn trees to
hide, escaping Kenna’s wrath for a while. Now as dawn brought the
first gray light, she found it calming to be outside, away from
things that recalled her failings.
    On this late April morning, fog hung thick
overhead and wisped along the River Ness, making an odd, patchy
landscape of brightly visible green spots and dimly perceived gray
hills. Tessa walked down to the riverbank and stood looking across
at her mountains as they peeped through the fog, remembering
happier days from her childhood, now gone forever, among those
peaks. She seated herself under a tree that