Payton glanced at Mared, his gray eyes blazing with amusement. “Quite impressive. Personally, I find education—as well as the ability to use a bow and arrow—to be quite attractive in a woman.”
“Ah, here is the tea,” Sarah said, and rose gracefully from her seat to attend it as a footman, under the eagle eye of Beckwith, entered with a large and heavy silver service, piled high with fine china tea pots and cups and a plateful of biscuits—what would have been a veritable feast at Talla Dileas.
“I should very much like to hear about yer studies, Miss Crowley,” Douglas continued. “I’ve oft said that educating our women will bring this country forward, for it is only through education that reform and natural progress may be gained. Ye are to be commended.”
That was such rubbish that Mared caught a cry of disbelief in her throat that unfortunately sounded like an unladylike snort.
“I beg yer pardon, Miss Lockhart, did ye say something?” Payton asked with a hint of a smile.
Natalie mistook Mared’s snort of disbelief as one of pain and quickly and rather loudly said, “Miss Lockhart is educated, too! There are lots and lots of books at Talla Dileas!”
“I had no idea ye are so keen on educating girls, Payton,” Miss Douglas remarked as she directed Beckwith to pour tea.
“No? I am very much indeed. I canna abide ignorance in general, for no matter their sex, ignorant people will perpetuate the old ways and impede the natural progress of a nation.”
Of all the ridiculous—Mared could not remain silent, for progress to this man meant displacing people from their homes. Cottages were left standing empty all over the lochs as people left for Glasgow or points farther south in search of work. “I should think it quite depends upon what one calls progress, milord,” she said. “I suppose ye believe that progress is to push tenants from the land in favor of raising sheep, while the old ways are to raise cattle and croft the land so that everyone prospers, aye?”
“Prosper!” He laughed gaily, as if a child had uttered an amusing bit of nonsense. “I hardly call it prosperity when a family canna grow enough in the commons to put food on their table. No, Miss Lockhart,” he said congenially, “true progress is about the enlightenment of a people. When the old ways no longer provide, then we must find a new way to prosper. Together.”
“And she’s quite accomplished at the pianoforte, and she speaks French, too, with only a bit of an accent,” Natalie desperately avowed.
“Aye, yer auntie is well accomplished, lass,” Payton said with a smile.
Oh, how she wanted to box his bloody ears! “Really, milord, will ye bore Miss Crowley with all this empty talk of progress?” Mared asked cheerfully.
“Oh no!” Beitris quietly protested. “It’s really quite interesting.”
“Miss Crowley has had occasion to be abroad,” Mared continued determinedly, ignoring Beitris. “Did ye no’, Beitris?”
“Well, I…I did have occasion to travel to France.”
“France. I adore France,” Miss Douglas remarked, perking up. “Did ye enjoy yer visit there?”
“I canna say that I did,” Beitris said, putting aside her tea, inexplicably eager, all at once, to speak. “We had rough seas on our crossing, and I wasna fully recovered for the fortnight I was in Paris. And then there was the voyage home—I am still rather weak from it.”
Now she would make herself seem too weak for a man as virile as Payton Douglas. “Miss Crowley, ye are too modest,” Mared quickly interrupted. “Ye are the very picture of health.”
“Miss Lockhart has not taken ill a single day since she was as old as me,” Natalie avowed rather loudly.
“Quite remarkable,” Douglas said with a wink for Natalie. “But I believe yer auntie differs from us mere mortals in that her constitution is ironclad.”
“Oh no!” Mared exclaimed with a sweet laugh. “’Tis naugh’ but the Highland air! It is no’ befouled with factory smokes as is the air that comes from the sort of progress they enjoy in Glasgow.”
Payton gave a snort of laughter at that. “Touché,” he said, bowing over his teacup. “Well said. Here in the lochs, we can all rest assured that the lack of progress will, if nothing else, lend itself to our good health.”
Oooh, but she could feel her temper rising. The man was as stubborn as the Lockharts’ blasted mule! She suddenly put her tea aside and stood up. “Might I have yer leave, sir, to show Natalie a portrait of another deceased Douglas?” she asked sweetly, indicating a large portrait of his grandfather on the far end of the wall. “I hadna quite finished reciting our family histories.”
“As ye wish, Miss Lockhart,” he said pleasantly.
Mared gave the bloody mule a winsome smile and strode forward, her head high, with Natalie walking quickly to keep up.
As they reached the far end of the room, she heard him say, “Ye’ve no’ yet had the pleasure of viewing our gardens, Miss Crowley. Might I show them to ye?”
“Oh,” Beitris choked out. “Please!”
“Cousin Sarah, will ye join us?”