Tamed by a Laird Read Online Free Page A

father’s eyes, but she looked
     more like Phaeline. Her pink gown plunged lower at the bosom than was proper for her age, and her flimsy veil failed to conceal
     the pair of thick, dark plaits looped beneath it. “You are lucky, Jenny,” she added. “I just hope I can find someone like
     him one day.”
    “You are welcome to
him
if you want him,” Jenny said.
    “Sakes, I cannot marry my own uncle,” Fiona said with a giggle. “But I do think you will come to like him in time, don’t you?”
    Mairi said, “Don’t tease her, Fee. You know how much she dislikes him.”
    “But I don’t understand
why
she does,” Fiona said.
    “We can talk about that later,” Mairi said. “For now, if you wish to stay with us, you must keep silent. Otherwise, I shall
     tell Father it is time you were in bed.”
    “You would not be so mean,” Fiona said.
    When Mairi only looked at her, she grimaced but subsided.
    Jenny had returned her attention to the players and was wondering what sort of lives they led when Mairi said, “That tall
     juggler was astonishing, was he not?”
    “Aye, he was,” Jenny agreed. “You know, my maid-servant Peg’s brother is a juggler in this company. Don’t you wonder what
     it must be like to travel about as they do and see all the fine places and important people they must see?”
    When silence greeted her question, she looked at Mairi and saw that she had cocked her head and that her gray eyes had taken
     on a vague, thoughtful look. She said at last, “In troth, Jenny, I do not know how they bear it. No bed of one’s own, only
     pallets on a stranger’s floor, and traveling, traveling, all the time.”
    “But the only traveling I have done is to move here from Easdale, whilst you have traveled with your father and Phaeline,”
     Jenny said. “You enjoyed that.”
    “Aye, sure, for we went to Glasgow and stayed with kinsmen everywhere we stopped. That was fun, because they were all eager
     to show us how well they could feed and house us, and provide entertainment for us. But minstrels must
be
the entertainment wherever they go, and if they displease the one who is to pay them, they go unpaid. They may even face
     harsh punishment if they offend a powerful lord. It cannot be a comfortable life, Jenny. I prefer my own.”
    “Aye, well,
you
don’t have to marry your odious uncle,” Jenny said.
    “I am thankful to say that Reid is
not
my uncle,” Mairi reminded her.
    “He is as much your uncle by marriage as Fiona is my cousin,” Jenny said. “Reid is gey eager to marry me and clearly expects
     to become master of Easdale. Sithee,
that
will create difficulty, because he knows naught about managing a large estate, whereas my father trained me to do so. Such
     a marriage cannot prosper.”
    Fiona said, “It is better than if they had betrothed you to Sir Hugh, Jenny, which is what everyone knows Father would have
     preferred. Think what that would be like! Hugh
is
accustomed to managing estates and would not care a whit that you can manage yours. Why, for all that Mam claims he was a
     mischievous child who liked to ape other folks’ movements and voices till he’d get himself smacked, he is so stern and proper
     now that she says one could light a fire between his toes and he would just wonder if one had built it to burn as it should.”
    Jenny laughed but took care not to look at him again. Fiona’s portrayal was apt, for Sir Hugh Douglas was unlike any man Jenny
     had met.
    He did not flirt with her or tease. Nor did he laugh or make jest with his friends. And Phaeline had said that once he made
     up his mind, he never changed it. He would fold his arms across his chest, she’d said, and pretend to listen. But one’s arguments
     would have no more effect on him than drops of water on a stone.
    “I don’t want Sir Hugh, either,” Jenny said firmly. “I should infinitely prefer to choose my own husband.”
    “But you don’t know any other eligible men,” Mairi said.