Free Lucy and Her Scottish Laird by Margo Maguire

with obvious sarcasm that he’d mentioned her
falling in love
. As though he could not possibly believe in the notion of it
    – even when his own ancestress had died for it.
    Lucy decided to be generous and forgive him for being contrary. With a drunken father like the Duke of Craigmuir, anyone would be sorely tested. She
    wondered if the older man had always been that way. She remembered Arden mentioning she did not like the duchess, but Lucy did not know why. And with
    Arden, it could be for any reason at all, though if the woman was anything like her husband…
    Lucy walked on, determined not to think about Broxburn or his family any more. Banishing him from her thoughts would surely dispel the unsettling feelings
    he provoked whenever he was near.
    She noticed a dirt path off the main road and headed that way. Before long, she came upon a stone cottage whose sides were overgrown with vines and weeds.
    It looked to be nearly as old as the castle, with narrow windows and panes of filmy glass in their frames. Judging by the overgrowth, no one lived there.
    She walked on, listening to the creaking of the impossibly tall trees that lined the path, and the buzzing of insects as they lit upon the wildflowers in
    the grasses all around her. The sun was shining, and Lucy found herself forgetting she was far from Berkshire. This bit of Scotland was not so very
    different from her home.
    She heard water running in the distance, and saw a lightly trodden path in the grass. She followed it, eventually arriving at a narrow river. Trees grew
    close to its rocky bank, with a few dead trunks tipped horizontally across the water.
    It reminded her of the pond where she and her siblings had learned to swim. There were willows all around it, and some had fallen in. She and her sisters
    used to walk out on one of the trees whose broad trunk hovered above the water. They would remove their shoes and stockings, sit down and dip their feet in
    the pond. Or even stand and jump in.
    Lucy looked around. The place was deserted and certainly out-of-the-way. No one was likely to come here. She could soak her feet in the stream and no one
    would ever know. She took off her gloves, removed her hat and hung it on a short branch, then sat down on the fallen tree trunk and removed her shoes and
    stockings, stowing them neatly beside a rounded boulder on the river bank. The tree trunk was broad and easy to walk on, so she went far enough along to
    sit down and put her feet in the water.
    She pulled her skirts up around her knees and sat, letting her feet dangle in the cool water below.
    It was heaven.
    She saw a few fat brown trout swimming in the stream and knew her father would have loved this spot. He was an avid fisherman, frequently reminding his
    wife and children that his catch was not merely an exercise in providing food for their table. Baron Stillwater enjoyed it, and said it relaxed him.
    Lucy had always understood that. She experienced peace in the setting, too, and wished her sisters could be there to enjoy it with her.
    All at once, a wave of homesickness overtook her. She worried about Meg, her eldest sister, who’d been staying in the Lake District with a dear
    family friend, the elderly Lady Wakefield. But Meg had come home suddenly, without explanation a few months ago. She denied that anything untoward had
    happened, but Lucy could see that something important troubled her sister. She might have been able to find out what it was if she’d been allowed to
    stay at home.
    Her brothers, Samuel and Calvin, had been abroad for several years, but each had begun his journey home upon news of their mother’s illness. Lucy
    sighed when she realized Calvin was probably home from America by now, and Samuel would arrive from India soon. She felt more than a twinge of
    disappointment, realizing how likely it was that she would miss their visit.
    And Caroline would have her baby without Lucy being present to help. Lucy hoped Meg would go to Richmond