The Last Debutante by Julia London

collapse into a maidenly display of angst. She would let him see nothing but determination to kill him at the first opportunity. He had ruined her with this, had ruined her reputation, her life . How would she ever live this down? Any gentleman worth his pedigree would avoid her if word of this abduction got out. The last debutante of Hadley Green would indubitably become the last spinster of Hadley Green! If she hadn’t been between a pair of iron thighs and an iron arm, Daria would have kicked herself for having sought this adventure. Yes, she had longed for something other than waiting for life to find her, but this ?
    This was disastrous.
    Daria couldn’t help but expect the worst. She was reminded of Captain Mackenzie, Lord Eberlin’s closest friend and the captain who had brought her to Scotland—and the one who had swept Charity off to Edinburgh, which, incidentally, would give some credence to Lady Horncastle’s assertion that Captain Mackenzie was a man of questionable morals, a fact that she averred with the authority of someone who had examined all the sea captains and should know.
    Nevertheless, Mackenzie had told a harrowing tale at a supper at Tiber Park one evening of a French heiress who had been kidnapped and held for ransom. She had complained about her accommodations aboard the ship to the point of distraction for all the crew, and when the money was finally delivered, the heiress was returned to her family dead. Fever, the crew said. And they claimed that the bruises around her neck were not from being strangled, no, but the unfortunate effect of their having lashed her dead body down to keep it from rolling about.
    Daria shuddered. She would remember to bite her tongue if she thought to complain about her accommodations.
    Mr. Campbell’s arm tightened a little more around her.
    Why didn’t he speak? He was exasperatingly silent! Daria forgot her fear and blurted angrily, “I cannot understand your reasoning for this, in truth. Do you intend to hold me in your cottage? I warn you, it is quite close when a stranger occupies a room. You will find it as tedious as I did; have you thought of that?”
    Beside them, Duff snorted and looked the other way.
    “You ought to be ashamed of yourself, Mr. Campbell, for taking an innocent woman from her grandmother. I’ve done no harm to you.”
    “He is laird,” Duff said.
    Daria was startled that the big man spoke to her and jerked her gaze to him. “I beg your pardon?”
    “Laird. No’ Mr. Campbell, aye? Laird .”
    “At a time like this, you would instruct me on forms of address? Whatever I might call him has no bearing on the fact that he has willfully and unlawfully taken me from my grandmother. It is indecent!”
    “It is the fault of your grandmamma,” Mr. Campbell—or Laird, whoever he was now—said hoarsely.
    His point was rather hard to argue, but Daria did her best. “That may well be, I’ll grant you. Yet you cannot deny that this abduction hardly improves my situation. Is there no other way, sir? Can we not perhaps negotiate a better—”
    “Uist,” he said, squeezing her like a plum. “No more talk.”
    Daria could feel his weight beginning to sag against her. She shifted, but he did not move back; if anything, his body pressed against her even more. He was obviously in quite a lot of pain. Perhaps his pain could be made worse so that he would let her go.
    She pressed against his injured leg and heard his sharp intake of breath. “You might have listened to Mamie, you know,” she said petulantly. “You might have taken the brew she made you to ease the pain.”
    “Stop moving,” he growled. “I might have taken her brew and died, too, aye?”
    Daria shifted again; he jerked her tight against him, his hold surprisingly strong given his state, squeezing the breath from her. She stopped, giving in completely. He relaxed his grip, and with a sigh Daria looked up at the treetops. Her mind raced—she was angry and fearfully