The House of the Laird Read Online Free PDF Page B

repeat performance of what happened to you at Inverlochie is almost certain to follow—according to old Moffat! ”
    The blush burned like fire in her cheeks.
    “ You mean, I — I’ll make myself a nuisance to other people? ”
    “ Well, ” with an odd smile, “ you can ’ t very well make a practice of fainting in the arms of unknown males, can you? For one thing, they may not always be provided with a car, or a convenient house to which they can take you, and the consequences could be disastrous for you. I think if it ’ s humanly possible we must avoid any possibility of the Inverlochie incident repeating itself in your case. ”
    “ But I—I have to earn my own living. ” Her voice was wavering now, and the distress in her eyes was unmistakable. “ When Nannie comes back, I know she ’ ll have me for a week or two , and then I can go back to London and get another job, if my old firm won ’ t have me back. But I have got to work to keep myself! ”
    Iain Mackenzie stared at her in a hard and embarrassing fashion for what seemed to her a painfully long period of time.
    “ Have you? ” he said slowly, at last. “ Well, we ’ll see! ” He got up and started to pace about the room, and then came back to her. “ I ’ ve been in touch with your Nannie McBain, and I might as well tell you now that there isn ’ t the remotest hope that she ’ ll be back at her cottage under a month, at least. She ’ s nursing a relative whom she apparently can ’ t leave, and although she ’ s distressed about you there ’ s nothing very much she can do to help. ”
    “ Oh! ” Karen exclaimed faintly.
    “ So I ’ m afraid you ’ ll have to make up your mind to stay here. It ’ s the only thing you can do.
    “ But that ’ s impossible! ” She sat up very straight in her chair, and once again she gripped the arms of it. “ Oh, don ’ t you see, ” she appealed to him, “ I can ’ t possibly go on forcing myself on you like this? For one thing it isn’t very fair and—”
    “You don’t find it very comfortable?”
    “Of course it’s comfortable—it’s wonderfully comfortable! But it isn’t even as it—as if you were—I mean, you’re not even—not even—”
    “Married?”
    The confusion in her face answered him.
    “ That ’ s quite true, ” he agreed, starting his leisurely pacing up and down again, “ and this is a strictly bachelor household. But I got over that difficulty at the beginning by telling Mrs. Burns—who no doubt passed it on to all her underlings!—that you and I were thinking about marrying o ne another, and that ’ s why I brought you north! I didn ’ t even let her know that we met for the first time in the process of catching a north-bound train, and if you ’ ve unwisely informed her otherwise then it can ’ t be helped, but there ’ s all the more reason why we should stick to my early tale and pretend, for the time being, at least, that we ’ re engaged. It won ’ t do you any harm to put up a little pretence, and if you don ’ t I shall have to think up some excuse for leaving home again fairly soon, and that won ’ t benefit you at all because you ’ ll probably think up some plan for running away also, and back you ’ ll be in further trouble. So what do you say? ”
    Karen was unable to say anything for a few moments, and she was not quite certain whether a return of light-headedness was causing her to imagine things, or whether he was indeed in earnest. In the end the absolute coolness of his look as it bored into her convinced her that that was just what he was—coolly and calmly in earnest!
    “ But—but —”
    “ Do you realize that I ’ ve been away from home for over a year, wandering, as my old aunt puts it , ‘ about the globe ’ and it ’ s a little upsetting to my plans to have to think about finding other accommodation just now? So what do you say? ”
    “ I don ’ t know what to say, ” she confessed w eakly. “ I ’ ve never