“Best not to,” she answered Andrew distractedly and then leaned forward to tell Malcolm she needed to walk around for a bit.
Andrew watched Cat as she paused in conversation with group after group of the McGregor tenants and clan when they stopped her as she made her way toward the house.
Before coming to Scotland, Andrew had made the mistake of thinking it was a wild and lawless country with very little in the way of comfort or social niceties to recommend it.
Catriona McGregor, with her graciousness and elegance of appearance and her bright and fiery personality, had very firmly contradicted what he now admitted to have been an uneducated opinion.
This manor house was large and comfortably furnished. The food provided by Mrs. Murray far surpassed many dinners Andrew had attended in London.
But at the heart of all of it was Cat.
She was as beautiful as she was gracious, with a passionate nature Andrew had discovered was more than a match for his own. He had found it difficult to take his eyes off her for even a moment today.
“She’s nae for the likes of ye.”
Andrew drew in a deep and controlling breath as he easily recognized the harsh and irritating voice of Alec Munro. Strange that Cat’s accent was so light and lyrical when this man’s had all the aggression of a dog snapping and snarling.
He turned to face the younger man. “I believe that will be for myself and Cat to decide.” He glanced across to where he could now see Cat had slipped quietly inside the house and felt an aching in his chest to join her. “Indeed, I am very much looking forward to our visit to Inverness together tomorrow.”
Annoyance darkened Munro’s surly features. “Perhaps ye should consider that Catriona still has to live here after ye’ve taken yersel’ back to London.”
Andrew’s eyes narrowed. “Exactly what do you mean by that remark?” It had sounded like a threat to him.
Munro shrugged. “I have already told ye how we feel about loose women in the Highlands.”
Andrew’s temper blazed. “Listen to me, you pompous little upstart—” He broke off to draw in several deep and controlling breaths. He had always been slow to anger, believing that any insult was better dealt with through cold logic and a clear head.
Apparently, neither of those things applied when it came to Alec Munro daring to insult Cat in his presence.
Andrew pulled the Scotsman away from where they could be overheard. “If you ever make a remark like that again about Cat in my presence, then you can consider yourself challenged and may choose either sword or pistol. Do I make myself clear?”
The other man looked Andrew up and down. “Ye’re not only attempting to seduce Catriona with yer sophisticated London ways, but also trying to look like ye belong here today by wearing her dead brother’s clothes,” he sneered. “I thought Catriona had more sense than to be flattered by the attentions of a sleekit basturd like yersel’, but it’s obvious to me now that I thought too highly of her altogether.”
“I am assuming being called a sleekit basturd isn’t flattering,” Andrew bit out derisively, taking no offense for himself. No doubt he had been called far worse than what sounded as if it might translate to sly bastard. “As for my belonging here…” he scoffed. “As Malcolm’s uncle, I have far more right to be at Cat’s side in support of both her and Malcolm than her ex-brother-in-law.”
The other man’s complexion became mottled with anger. “I’m only saying—”
“Far too much, as far as I am concerned,” Andrew snapped. “Now I suggest you take yourself as far away from me as is possible. Before I give in to the physical need I feel to ensure you know your place from now on. Which, if you did not know it, is as far away from Cat and Malcolm as can be.”
Munro’s nostrils flared. “I should have a care on yer journey back to London, Your Grace. The Highlands can be a dangerous place for those travelers that dinna appreciate how treacherous the area can be.”
There was no mistaking Munro’s threat this time for anything other than what it was. Or the ease with which he had made it.
Leading Andrew to question whether the other man might have made or carried out a similar threat before today.
To his surprise and fury, Andrew was given an answer to that question not ten minutes later.
And from a source he had not been expecting.
Cat breathed a sigh of relief once she had applied a salve to her throbbing bottom cheeks. The lotion lessened the sting.
Before, as Andrew had warned, he administered another spanking later this evening.
Something which filled Cat with anticipation rather than dread.
She had never thought of herself as a particularly sensual woman, but these past twenty-four hours in Andrew’s company had shown her that she responded to everything about him. How he looked. How he spoke to her. How he touched her. How he made love to her.
She stepped over to the window of her bedchamber so that she might look down at all the guests milling about. She couldn’t see Andrew, but she was pleased to observe there seemed to be a lull in new arrivals and Mrs. Murray had now seated Malcolm at one of the tables so that he could eat some of the food she had so lovingly prepared for the occasion.
It had touched Cat immensely how protective of Malcolm the household staff had become after Hugh and Elena died, from the cook and maids in the house to Dougal McGregor and the men working on the estate. They had
