Marblestone Mansion 01 - Scandalous Duchess

They are not outrageous; you wanted it done properly, did you not?”
    His voice got a little louder as he spoke, “I wanted the place repaired, not paved in gold.”
    She ignored the distain in his expression. “I do hope you do not bring up the subject of his invoices when he comes, he hates discussing such trifle things.”
    “ I do not find a man’s pay trifle. Are you saying you dinna pay him?”
    “ Of course I did, only his complaints are many and he requires much more.”
    Hannish lowered his angry eyes and stared at the table. “I see.” He motioned for Keith to refill his teacup, and waited a moment more before he broached the next subject. “I have already received invoices for gowns from New York clothiers, and I expected you to bring your purchases with you. Where are they?”
    “ I sent them home, naturally, to wear next season.” She finally put her fork down and paid more attention to him.
    “ Olivia, you dinna come to stay, did you?”
    She watched his eyes and did not quickly answer. “My home is in Scotland. My friends and my society are there. We shall simply have to do with visits from time to time.”
    “ Visits?”
    As if it didn’t matter, she went back to eating. “I can come to you one year and you can come to me the next.”
    “ I dinna call that a marriage.”
    “ Well, ‘tis the best I can do.”
    “ And children, what are we to do about that?”
    She put the last bite of ham in her mouth and took her time chewing it. “I had not considered that just yet. I suppose we can work it out once it is a possibility.”
    “ Nay, Olivia, I want my children with me.”
    She finally nodded for Keith to take her plate away. “And I will want them with me. Children need their mother.”
    “ And their father.”
    “ My love, do you not see? Living in Scotland is the only way for us to be happy.”
    “ I am beginning to. Why did you come?”
    She looked a little surprised by that question. “I came because I love you, I miss you and I want to talk sense to you. Come home with me Hannish, come home where we can at last be happy. We’ve a fortune now and there is no need to live apart. Say you will come home, everyone wishes it.”
    “ You will not try to be happy here?”
    “ This is America, Hannish and you know what everyone thinks of Americans. They’ve a reputation of being impertinent and if you asked me, ridiculous. Everyone hates them.”
    “ Everyone?”
    “ Everyone who matters.”

    CHAPTER 6

    Keith was delighted when Ronan brought the desert tray to the dining room. Quickly, he picked up the tray of dirty dishes and hurried off to the kitchen, and they were all there, American and Scot alike.
    “ She hates Americans,” Keith said just above a whisper.
    “ Fret not,” said Alistair, “she hates Scots too.”
    “ She is English?” Charlotte asked.
    Alistair rolled his eyes, “She says she is, but she is Scot the same as we.”
    Keith set the tray on the bar and joined McKenna at the table. “She told him she brought Mr. Graham with her.”
    McKenna’s mouth dropped. “She told him?”
    “ She did,” said Keith. “He is to come tomorrow.”
    “ God have mercy. If Hannish suspects, he will kill him,” McKenna whispered.
    “ And with good reason,” Jessie muttered. “I once saw…”
    “ I dinna wish to hear it, Jessie. What I dinna know, I will not have to lie to my brother about.” She did not mean to raise her voice and toned it down. “I know Hannish wants us to be honest, but think how it will hurt him if he knows for certain. I beg of you, dinna tell him.”
    “ And the time they spent in New York together, how do we explain that?” Millie asked.
    Keith again whispered, “The duchess is not staying.”
    “ Good,” several of them muttered.

    Hannish watched Olivia choose a desert from the tray Ronan held. The ring on his wife’s finger was the biggest square of Jade he had ever seen and he had to pull his eyes away, before he was tempted to ask how much that cost him. “I am afraid we are not as wealthy as you think,” he decided to say.
    “ How wealthy? You never did say how much you sold the mine for.”
    “ Unfortunately, I have spent most of what I made building this house and repairing the old one.”
    “ Oh, but you could sell this one, am I right?”
    “ Perhaps.”
    “ Of course you could. I have read much about the men who have gotten rich off the gold mines in Colorado. There must be ten or twelve at least.”
    “