Temptation

  “It’s not just you involved, is it?” she said to him, angrier than she meant to be, but she didn’t want to remember that night they had spent together. “What about the other people here? Don’t you have any idea what a wonderful place this village is? It’s a perfect little jewel where people care about each other. But you want to give it away! If your wastrel of a brother gambles the place away, who takes care of the people of McCairn?”

  “And when did McCairn become any of your business?” James shot back at her. “You can’t wait to get out of here and go back to New York, to the people who really need you.” Every word was a sneer. “And what do you know of my brother to call him names? It was your father who—”

  Temperance came out of her chair. “How dare you use my father’s name? My father was a saint, an absolute saint, especially when compared to yours. My whole family is—”

  James stood, leaning toward Temperance, ready to shout her down.

  “None of us is quite ready for sainthood,” Melanie said loudly, making both of them turn toward her. Melanie looked at her daughter. “And, Temperance, perhaps before you start throwing stones, you should remember Aunt Isabella and Uncle Dugan.”

  Instantly, Temperance’s face turned red; then she sat down, as did James.

  “Hmmm,” Rowena said, looking from James to Temperance, then back again. “I was hoping that we could settle this in a civilized manner, but it looks as though you children can’t behave long enough to discuss anything. Melanie, dear, I think we should leave.”

  “Yes, of course,” Melanie said as she prepared to stand.

  “Wait!” James and Temperance said in unison, then glanced at each other, then away.

  “I . . .” Temperance began, “I think we should discuss this. The will is stupid—” She put up her hand to ward off whatever James was about to say. “It is stupid, but it does exist, and even though I have no idea why a man would write such a thing, we need to deal with it, as you said, in a civilized manner. First of all, I think it is a given that Colin cannot have the place. I haven’t met him, but I’ve certainly heard enough about him.”

  She turned to James, her face cold. “Is that agreeable to you? Or do you really want to turn all of your beloved sheep over to a gambler?”

  “Better a gambler than an American do-gooder,” James muttered.

  “What was that?” Rowena asked loudly, her hand to her ear. “Speak up, James, you know I’m a bit hard-of-hearing.”

  “I know no such thing,” James said quietly, narrowing his eyes at his old aunt. “You can hear the servants sipping your precious brandy from three floors away.”

  At that Rowena smiled and leaned back against her chair. “So what do you two want to do?”

  “Save the place,” Temperance said quickly. “A person must make sacrifices for others.” Turning to James, she looked at him with her eyebrows raised in question.

  He took a long while to look into her eyes; then after a while he gave a curt nod, and Temperance turned back to look across the table at her mother and Rowena.

  “All right,” she said softly, “we will marry. Not because we want to but to keep the village together. There are people involved who are more important than us.”

  At that Rowena and Melanie looked at the two of them with blank faces; then they turned to each other, then back to James and Temperance.

  “But, dear,” Melanie said after several moments, “we aren’t asking you and James to get married.”

  “You aren’t?” Temperance asked in surprise. “But I thought that’s what you wanted.”

  “Heavens no!” Rowena said loudly. “You two would have a worse marriage than James’s grandfather and his wife, and look what happened to them! She killed herself to get away from him.”

  “No, she didn’t.” James and Temperance again spoke in unison, then glanced at each other and away again.

  “Well, whatever. You can tell me about that later,” Rowena said. “We have more urgent business now. The key words in all this are ‘in love.’ I think, James, that you should know that I believe that that scoundrel brother of yours coerced your father into adding that—as Temperance so rightly says—stupid clause to his will. You know what Colin is like. He thought that you’d been married off to that awful girl and that when the time came, everyone would know that there was no love between the two of you. Colin just had to wait until you and he reached your thirty-fifth birthday, then all of McCairn would be his.”

  “Such as it is,” James muttered.

  “The land is worth something, I’m sure,” Rowena said.

  “All right,” James snapped, “what is it that you want of me?”

  “To marry Kenna, and for Temperance to plan the wedding,” Melanie said sweetly.

  “Who?” James asked while Temperance stared at her mother in wide-eyed silence.

  “Kenna, you dolt!” Rowena shouted at her nephew. “Kenna. The girl you loved when you were a boy, the one you wanted to marry, but your father hauled you off to London. Remember?”

  “Oh,” James said after a moment. “Kenna.” At that he smiled, then looked out of the corner of his eye at Temperance, but she jerked her head back around to stare at her mother.

  “Kenna,” Temperance said flatly.

  “Yes,” Melanie said, smiling at her daughter. “I must tell you the truth, that I had hoped that you and James would . . . Well, you can guess a mother’s hopes, but I can see now that it didn’t work out as I wanted. I never saw two people dislike each quite as much as you two do, and, Temperance, dear, your last letters have veritably reeked— begging your pardon, James—of your deep dislike of all things McCairn.”

  “You told your mother you hated McCairn?” James asked softly.

  “I did not!” Temperance said quickly. “Mother, I said no such thing. I said that McCairn needed to be pulled into the twentieth century, but, truthfully, after my last few days, I—”

  “Oh, I see,” James said, cutting her off. “It’s just me you hate.”

  “And why not?” Temperance shot at him. “After what you thought of me!!” She turned toward her mother. “He thought that I came here to marry him. When I helped the children or Grace, he thought I was doing it because I was after him, like some floozy who—”

  “We’re going to get nowhere at this rate!” Rowena shouted. “Now listen, you two, the last thing I care about at this moment is who thought what about whom. That doesn’t matter to me at all. What does matter is saving McCairn so the next generation can take care of the place.”

  Leaning across the table, she glared at Temperance and James. “For all that you two seem to hate each other, I think you agree that you don’t want the land sold and the people driven out of their homes. Am I right on this?”

  “Yes,” Temperance said softly. “To destroy this place would be a sin.”

  “Aye,” James said as he looked at Temperance in speculation, again looking at the way she was dressed.

  “James, it’s good that you can overcome that hateful pride of yours to admit that,” Rowena said. “Now the problem is that we have very little time before James’s birthday and he must be married for love by then. Since all my brother Angus’s tricks to find you a wife have failed, now the ox is in the ditch and it must be taken out.”

  She glared at James. “Do you understand me, boy? You must do something, or this precious land of yours is going to be gone. Then what will you do? Move into Edinburgh and get a job? I’m sure Angus would let you work for him. Something behind a big desk for fourteen hours a day?”

  James didn’t bother to respond to that but sat in stony silence.

  “Any other questions?” Rowena asked, looking from James to Temperance.

  When neither of them said a word, Rowena leaned back against her chair. “As Melanie said, we had hopes for the two of you, but since that is obviously an impossibility, and—” She stopped when both Temperance and James started to speak.

  “If either of you again tr
ies to make the sacrifice of marrying each other just to save this place, I shall myself testify to the king that you hate each other and therefore don’t fulfill the terms of the will. I will not have more marriages in this family based on hatred. Do I make myself clear?”

  James just sat there and looked at his old aunt, while Temperance nodded her head.

  “Does this woman Kenna want to marry him?” Temperance asked after a moment.

  “Heavens yes!” Rowena said. “She was deeply in love with him when they were children. Remember, James, how you two used to climb the cliff side of the mountain and look for birds’ nests? You two were inseparable.”

  Temperance turned to look at James, but he had his eyes on Rowena. “I remember,” he said softly.

  “The girl’s heart was broken when you left her behind to go to London. Your mother felt so sorry for her that she took on the responsibility of educating the girl in hopes that she’d make a good match.”

  “And she’s going to, isn’t she?” Temperance said. “Whatever little money the McCairn has, I’m sure it’s more than what she had if she grew up here.”

  “Maybe she was ashamed of being from McCairn,” James said, his voice low, menacing, sarcastic. “Perhaps—”

  “Oh, no,” Melanie said loudly. “That’s not the case at all. Kenna married a widower who, unfortunately, died just a few years after their marriage, but he left Kenna well provided for. She has no need to marry anyone at all, but she’s agreed to this because she says she loves James and always will.”

  “She doesn’t know him!” Temperance said. “She hasn’t seen him in what? Twenty years? She must be old by now.”

  “Not quite twenty years. She’s two years older than you are, dear,” Melanie said calmly, smiling at her daughter. “And she is quite lovely. Beautiful actually. Wouldn’t you say that she is beautiful, Rowena?”

  “Quite the most beautiful young woman I’ve ever seen. I was telling your dear mother that Kenna should have been painted. Do you think that Gainsborough could have done her beauty justice?”

  “If she’s so damned gorgeous, why does she want to marry a man she hasn’t seen in half a lifetime?” Temperance asked, her teeth clenched shut.

  “She loves me,” James said brightly. “Always has. Always will. True love never dies. Doesn’t even fade, from what I’ve heard.”

  “And what would you know of love?” Temperance snapped at him. “If it’s not furry and four-legged, you don’t even know what it is.”

  James arched one eyebrow and lowered his voice. “You seemed to think I knew something about love, didn’t you?”

  “Has something happened between you two that I should be told of?” Rowena asked loudly.

  “Temperance, dear, you do want to go back to New York, don’t you? They need you there so much,” Melanie said.

  Temperance looked away from James’s eyes and into her mother’s. “Yes,” she said, “I want to go back to New York.” Unfortunately, Temperance’s voice broke in the last half of the sentence—but she was glad to see that no one but she heard it.

  “That’s good,” Rowena said. “Everything is going to work out perfectly.” She looked at Temperance. “Your mother has told me of what you’ve done here in McCairn, and I commend you. You’ll explain everything to Kenna so she can take over. I’m sure that she’ll do a marvelous job, since she was born and raised here.”

  “And she’s had a lovely education,” Melanie added.

  “Not to mention her great beauty,” Temperance put in.

  “Oh, that’s for James alone,” Melanie said sweetly.

  Could a daughter hit her mother over the head with a cast-iron firedog and still get into heaven? Temperance wondered. But she kept the smile plastered onto her face.

  “So? Is everything settled?” Rowena asked, looking from James to Temperance, then back again.

  “I’m not sure I understand everything,” James said slowly, frowning as he looked at his aunt.

  Temperance turned on him with a face full of fury. “What’s to understand? You have to marry for love, or you lose McCairn to your gambling brother. So these women, my mother included, have dug up an ancient love for you to walk down the aisle with. This woman is educated, beautiful enough to start wars, and she will do a great deal better job at managing the businesses I started than I have. What part don’t you understand?”

  James’s eyes were glittering in anger, and the smile he gave to Temperance was cold enough to freeze fire. “I like all of it,” he said. “I like every bit of it. There isn’t one small part of it that I don’t like. I especially like that you have to make all the arrangements for the wedding. I want my . . .” He looked Temperance up and down. “I want my bride to have the best of everything. See to it, housekeeper.”

  With that he got up from the table and left the room.

  Nineteen

  Temperance shut the door behind her, put her head back, and closed her eyes for a moment. It was such a relief to have some peace at last.

  “Are they getting to you?” Grace asked softly as she looked up from the hat she was attaching flowers to. The warehouse wasn’t yet completed, so she was still working in a bedroom in the McCairn’s house. Alys had gone back to school, and Grace still blushed when she thought of what her daughter had told her, that she and Ramsey had hidden in the bushes on top of the mountain and Ramsey had called out to Temperance in an excellent imitation of James’s voice.

  Temperance sat down on a chair across from Grace and gave a sigh. “Can one’s own mother become the enemy?”

  “I think that’s a question for Alys,” Grace said, smiling, as she picked up half a dozen pins and put them in her mouth. “What has your mother done? Other than what the entire village knows about, that is?”

  Temperance grimaced. Was it just yesterday that her mother and James’s ancient aunt had come to McCairn and turned everything upside down?

  “That’s just it,” Temperance said in exasperation. “This village has taken a bit of information the size of a grain of rice and turned it into a fifty-pound book. If I hear the name ‘Kenna’ one more time, I think I’ll scream. This woman’s arrival is being heralded as the Second Coming. Actually, I think the Second Coming would be given less press.” She gave a challenging look at Grace. “And if you insinuate that I’m jealous, so help me I’ll . . . Well, I don’t know what I’ll do, but I’ll think of something.”

  “Are you jealous?” Grace asked softly.

  Temperance didn’t hesitate. “You were his lover; are you jealous?”

  Grace smiled, for Temperance hadn’t answered her question. “If you aren’t jealous, then what do you care what the villagers think of—” She broke off before she said the name. “—what they think of his future wife?”

  Temperance got up from the chair and walked to the window. There were many holes cut in the old lining of the curtain where Grace had cut out pieces in the shape of rose petals. It wasn’t going to be she who raided Angus’s warehouses full of fabric and chose new curtains for the old house. “Maybe I am jealous, but not in the way anyone thinks. I thought people here liked me. I thought I’d done some good.” Even to her own ears, her voice sounded as whiney as a child’s.

  Grace wasn’t going to give a talk about all the good Temperance had done because she had her own reasons to dread Kenna’s arrival, but she wasn’t going to tell anyone about those reasons. “What are they saying?”

  Temperance sat back down on the chair. “Nothing bad, just that they remember so much good about this woman. I think she left here when she was quite young, but she seems to have helped everyone in the village in some way. And there’s a rumor that I have reason to believe that my own mother started that James and this woman have been courting for years, and that now, at last, she’s agreed to marry him.”

  “When the contents of the will become known, that information should help,” Grace said quietly.

  “And Kenna won’t leave them! She will stay in the vi
llage forever!” Temperance said in an outburst that surprised herself. Looking at Grace, she grimaced. “I have no right to be angry or upset in any way. One of their own is coming home. Of course they should be happy and excited. And James at last gets to marry a woman he truly loves. Today I’ve heard at least eleven stories about their deep, deep love for each other. Tristan and Isolde never had such a love. Romeo and Juliet never loved so well. No one has ever—”

  Breaking off, Temperance narrowed her eyes and looked at Grace. “What’s wrong with you? Why aren’t you celebrating with the others?”

  “I, uh . . .” Grace said as she moved the pins about in her mouth and avoided Temperance’s eyes. “It’s the McCairn,” she said after a while, and seemed pleased with herself for having come up with this.

  “What about him?” Temperance asked, tight-lipped. “He’s getting the most beautiful, most saintly woman on earth for a wife. What else could he want?”

  “You know, don’t you, that he’s frightened out of his mind?”

  “McCairn? Since when is he afraid of anything? And don’t tell me he’s afraid of women. Remember that I had to keep him from throwing one of them down a mountain.”

  “And you must remember that his first wife was so unhappy that she was killed while trying to run away from him.”

  Temperance picked up a spool of silk thread and played with it. “Why do I get the feeling that you’re making this up as you go along? You’re upset about something, really upset, and I don’t think it has to do with James McCairn.”

  Grace looked up at her friend, locking eyes with her. “The villagers might be idiots, but I’m not. I don’t want you to leave. I wish you were marrying the McCairn and . . .” Feeling that she’d said enough, she looked back down at the hat she was working on.

  “No . . .” Temperance said slowly, “that’s not to be. I don’t belong here. I was beginning to think that I did. I was beginning to truly love this place, but— But these last twenty-four hours have shown me that I don’t belong here. You should see how excited the village is that one of their own is coming back.”