My Heart's in the Highlands Angeline Fortin (easy to read books for adults list TXT) đ
- Author: Angeline Fortin
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âWhat lass?â
âHadnât ye seen her?â the hotel keep asked.âCurious lass to begin wiâ, requesting the Ladyâs Chambers as shedid. Then out wiâ that painting. I swear I was fair startled, aswere half the bidders when they brought it out. The resemblance isremarkable, really. I had thought there was something familiarabout the lass when I first saw her last night. So curious. Why,she looks just like her.â
âWho does?â Ballantrae asked absently.
âWhy, the American lass,â Smith said withsome exasperation.
âShe looks like who?â
âThe Marchioness of Ayr, lad. What do yethink Iâve been talkinâ aboot?â he asked, thinking of the paintingof the marchioness. A lovely blond-haired woman with almostturquoise eyes that matched her peacock blue evening gown. Thespitting image of his young guest.
âThereâs a woman here who resembles themarchioness?â the earl asked, then shrugged dismissively. âSo?â
Smith shook his head emphatically. âNotmerely resembles, lad. Looks just like her. Itâs uncanny. Youshould have seen the heads turn when the portrait was broughtout.â
Ballantrae stilled. âExactly?â
âAye, exactly like her. Well, the Americanlass is a wee bit younger, perhaps. A bit fitter. Other than that,ye couldna tell the difference between them,â the innkeeperinsisted.
The already still earl became statuesque, andSmith felt as if he held Ballantraeâs full attention for the firsttime that night.
He was wrong.
Jason MacAuliffeâsâthe Earl ofBallantraeâsâthoughts and focus were more than a hundred yearsaway. It could not be. It must be some kind of cruel joke.Something Smith had said nagged at the back of his mind. âYou weresaying earlier that she had requested a certain room as well?â
âAye, the Ladyâs Chamber,â Smith said. âLad,all this is just too incredible. Too coincidental, and I think yemight know something of it.â
Jace ignored the probing words, fighting theurge to take the man by the shoulders and shake the truth loose.âWhat else?â
âWhat do you mean?â
âCan you tell me more about her?â
Smith looked prepared to withhold anythingelse he knew in favor of pressing more answers from Jace, but thedesperation Jace felt must have shone in his eyes because the manrelented with a sigh. âRight curious lass, I told ye. Dinnae kenwhat to make of her. Bid ardently through most of the day, thensuddenly left when the portrait was brought out. I followed her tomake sure she was all right. It must haâ been a shock to her aswell.â
âIâm sure,â Jace mumbled, but his mind wasspinning away. Could it be possible? Could Hero have come to thefuture? Just as he had gone to the past? It seemed unlikely, yetwasnât his own experience equally so?
If it were true âŠ
For the first time in months, Jaceâs heartraced with excitement, with possibilities. Aware that Smithcontinued to eye him as curiously as a scientist might examine adisease through a microscope, Jace struggled to remain nonchalantin the face of his examination. It wouldnât do for Smith or anyoneelse to see the madness lingering beneath the surface. âAnythingelse?â
ââTwas odd enough how ye both bid on the samelots,â Smith continued. âAnd, as I said, I found her a curiouslass. Melancholy last night, and then when she left the auctiontoday, she went straight away to the cemetery, to the marchionessâstomb. I wager the portrait roused her curiosity âŠâ
Reggie Smith was fairly bursting withcuriosity, but what could Jace say? That heâd fallen in love with awoman whoâd been dead for almost 150 years? Jace scoffed. Hecouldnât mention any of that, lest he wanted to experience the finetailoring of a well-fit straightjacket. But again he couldnât stophimself from asking, âDo you know her name?â
Bloody hell but he felt ridiculous.
âYes,â Smith replied as he reached into hiscoat pocket and pulled out a small stack of business cards.Shuffling through them, he said, âShe left me her card. Seems sheâsa curator or such for a museum in the States. Here it is. MikahBauer.â
Jace was not listening any longer as he heldthe card in his hand, staring but not seeing. His mind was alreadyon the days ahead. Never had he dreamed that in coming to Cuileanto regain some small piece of Hero, he might find her again.Pocketing the card, Jace looked up at his longtime neighbor, whowas waiting with more patience than a man in the throes of suchavid curiosity should be capable of displaying. âThank you,Smith.â
âMy lord, really! What is this all about?âSmith said insistently, denying the dismissal. âYe ken something, Iknow it!â
âLetâs just say that I believe I might knowher,â Jace prevaricated, then smiled. âWe share a love of Cuileanâshistory. If she is truly the woman I once knew, I will invite youto the wedding.â
âHer young man might have something to sayabout that,â Smith said with a frown.
âHer what?â
âShe came here with a young man,â Smith toldhim. âThey seemed quite close and ⊠well, they did share aroom.â
Jace felt his welling hope slither away intodisappointment. Perhaps she wasnât his Hero, then. If she was, shewould feel the same as he did and not be able to look at anotherromantically. Even his girlfriend of some years hadnât been able topull Jace away from the love he still held in his heart for a womanlong dead, much to her dismay and his motherâs as well.
No. The Hero he had known in the past hadremained there and this Mikah Bauerâs resemblance was surelynothing but a coincidence. She had a life of her own, a lover whowould be unlikely to understand a man who pursued her only for herresemblance to another.
Who demanded answers to questions to whichshe couldnât possibly know the answers.
He would not make such a fool of himself.
Chapter Forty-Two
Frederic Nietzsche once said, âThere isalways some madness in love. But there is also always some reasonin madness.â
Jace certainly felt the madness, but thereason was somehow escaping him. Despite telling himself that hewould not seek out this mysterious doppelgÀnger of his long-goneHero Conagham, not only had he done so but he was skulking in theshadows like a mad stalker.
He might have escaped Cuilean unscathed if hehadnât caught sight of her when he left the restaurant.
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