Elise startled but managed a hasty, "I'm not sure what you mean."
Sophie's eyes twinkled. "I know my cousin." She laughed, a small snort escaping in the process. "Still, he did surprise me with the decision to wed again." She leaned close. "Marcus had formed no lasting attachments since Jenna's death. Though he is no womanizer—he is a remarkably discriminating man—he isn't one to refrain from female company."
"I didn't have the impression he denied himself the company of women," Elise said dryly.
Sophie's eyes widened with mirth and she clapped a hand over her mouth. Elise blinked, then gave into the infectious laughter.
Sophie lowered her hand. "All right, Cousin, what has he done?"
Elise hesitated. How did she explain that Marcus hiding the fact he was a rich and powerful man could prove to be his and her undoing?
When Elise had finished relating the tale of how she had come to Scotland and of Marcus's deception, Sophie took a deep breath. "I suppose learning the man you're to marry will one day be a duke could be a shock. But the fact he cares for you—" Sophie halted, and Elise knew her shock showed.
"You doubt his feelings?" Sophie asked.
She didn't, but she hadn't grown used to the idea, and the fact Sophie had so easily seen it made her want to cry. So, she countered with, "How can any woman know what a man thinks?"
"Come now, you must comprehend that Marcus isn't a man to make a commitment lightly."
"What I comprehend is that Marcus is a man accustomed to having his way."
"That is true of any man with half a wit."
Elise couldn't help laughing. "I suppose you're right."
Sophie's expression softened. "You aren't betraying your husband by loving again."
Elise nearly choked. "N-no, of course not."
"There is no one for you to return home to?"
She recalled the blood darkening Steven's coat. "No."
"Your husband's family, what of them?"
"There is no one."
Sophie sighed. "A shame."
"Yes," Elise replied, and couldn't prevent a picture of the two who waited for her at the bottom of the sea. Her chest tightened and she rose. "Would you care for a drink?" She crossed to the sideboard. "Marcus keeps an excellent Napoleon brandy."
"Brandy?"
Elise paused, her hand on the decanter lid, and twisted to look at Sophie. "Don't tell me you're going to lecture me. Are all MacGregors so puritanical?"
Sophie's eyes lit with amusement. "I've heard the MacGregors called many things—bloodthirsty, uncouth, barbaric, ignorant—but never have they been compared to anything so noble. Puritanical, indeed."
Elise couldn't resist. "There is port, if brandy is too strong for you."
"Brandy it is," she said without hesitation.
Elise poured two glasses of the brandy and returned to the divan. She handed a snifter to Sophie, then sat down.
"Did I mention that I tried escaping to Australia?"
"I do not recall the story," Sophie replied with such gravity that Elise couldn't help wondering if someone had indeed repeated the tale in the short time the countess had been there.
"Marcus's men retrieved me," Elise said.
"Retrieved you?"
"It seems strange now that I left," she said more to herself than Sophie.
"What happened when my cousin's men came for you?" Sophie asked.
"Cameron sent them. Marcus wasn't aware I had left. He told me if he had come, it would have gone far worse for me."
"I can well believe that. Why did you leave?"
Elise grimaced. "The reason was sound."
"Do you mean to extract a little revenge now?"
Elise looked at Sophie. "Things aren't always as simple as they seem."
Sophie nodded once. "And often not as complicated as we think. What stops you from leaving again?"
"He would only come for me again."
"But of course," Sophie agreed. "There is nowhere you could hide from him. I do see your point."
Elise looked sharply at her. Merriment danced in Sophie's eyes, and Elise realized she referred to Marcus and not Price, as her imagination had jumped to think. She was hallucinating—either that or drunk.
"Just how rich is my husband-to-be?" The countess's eyes widened, and Elise cried, "Good Lord, that didn't come right at all." She groaned and collapsed against the divan back.
"I imagine you wonder what sort of reception you'll receive once you leave Brahan Seer?"
Elise's heart jumped, but the reaction was stalled by the honesty that shone in the countess' eyes. "I swear, Sophie, as foolish as it sounds, I had no idea he was a duke. Here at Brahan Seer… I knew him as Cameron's son and leader of the MacGregor clan. I knew they weren't destitute, but a duke!" She laid a hand on Sophie's hand. "I am no duchess."
"And I was no countess," Sophie replied.
"What?"
"I was only Lady Ashlund. Of course, my family has money." Sophie's eyes danced. "All Ashlunds have money. But, then, so does Justin."