you. My conscience would not bear it." She paused and sighed dramatically: "This tour was a mistake. This is precisely why we tend not to encourage visitors. Please, promise me you'll allow the puir wee one his privacy. Otherwise, I fear I cannot in good conscience continue your tour."
Jake couldn't help but grin. She'd managed to talk him right between a rock and hard place. As much as he wanted to piece together the mystery of these pranks being perpetrated on him, he needed to find the missing Declaration more. "All right, Mrs. Dunbar. I'll leave Young Fergus in peace." For now, anyway . "What's next on the tour?"
"The library," she said, beaming a smile bright as sunlight reflected off the loch.
Again, Jake was struck by his hostess' beauty. Taught by experience, he braced himself against an anticipated, though unwelcome, surge of lust.
It never came. Not when she smiled at him. Not when he followed her out of the guardroom and into the huge, high-ceilinged library. Not even when she familiarly took his hand in hers and pulled him from bookshelf to bookshelf, pointing out old histories and tomes, pride ringing in her voice and the scent of rosewater teasing his nose.
It didn't make sense. What was this on-again, off-again reaction he had to Mrs. Dunbar? Why did just looking at her sometimes make him hard enough to drive nails, while other times he felt only the compulsion to make her sit down and put her feet up to rest?
It made no sense. Sure, he'd endured stretches of celibacy in the past, but it had never affected him like this. Maybe that wasn't the problem. Maybe it was something more.
A sense of trepidation crept up his spine as Jake shifted uneasily on his feet. Maybe something was physically wrong with him and this was an early symptom.
Maybe he was developing a Condition.
Hell.
While his hostess rattled on about the room, Jake took renewed interest in the books lining the shelves. He scanned the titles searching for a medical text, or maybe one of those marriage books he'd heard was popular, if furtive, reading in England.
Now that the horrible possibility had occurred to him, Jake Delaney needed to know the truth. For all his education, this was a subject he knew nothing about. Men didn't discuss it. The very idea gave them the shakes. Jake could feel the shudder in his limbs even now.
He interrupted Mrs. Dunbar. "Does your library have medical books?"
"Why, yes. We have a few. Folk remedies, mainly, but I think we might have a text recommended by the medical school in Edinburgh."
"Where? May I look through it?"
She nodded, then moved to a section of shelves on the north wall. "There. The fifth shelf. It's too high for me, but if you'll-—-"
Jake grabbed the leather-bound tome she indicated off the shelf. Immediately, he began to leaf through it.
He prayed he'd find the answer to his question between its pages. Now that the dreaded idea had occurred, Jake simply had to know.
Could an indecisive cock be the first sign of impotence?
* * *
Seated behind a spyhole into the library, Gillian listened to her sister rave on about books—her favorite subject outside of her husband and the child she nurtured in her belly. Gillian rolled her eyes. Only Flora would lose herself in books at a time like this. "Give me the signal, sister," Gillian whispered.
To her dismay, Flora kept on talking. Gilly peered through the wall, confident of her anonymity. Mr. Delaney would need to possess an extraordinary sense of detail to notice the eyes in the portrait of a sixteenth-century Brodie ancestor hung high above him had changed from a flat gray to a very lifelike blue.
Besides, he hadn't so much as glanced in her direction. For the past ten minutes his gaze had been glued to the pages of the book he was reading. Flora didn't seem to mind. Gillian wasn't certain she'd even noticed. Once her twin started talking books, she tended to get lost in her own enthusiasm.
"My mother-in-law disapproves of fictional
Jake couldn't help but grin. She'd managed to talk him right between a rock and hard place. As much as he wanted to piece together the mystery of these pranks being perpetrated on him, he needed to find the missing Declaration more. "All right, Mrs. Dunbar. I'll leave Young Fergus in peace." For now, anyway . "What's next on the tour?"
"The library," she said, beaming a smile bright as sunlight reflected off the loch.
Again, Jake was struck by his hostess' beauty. Taught by experience, he braced himself against an anticipated, though unwelcome, surge of lust.
It never came. Not when she smiled at him. Not when he followed her out of the guardroom and into the huge, high-ceilinged library. Not even when she familiarly took his hand in hers and pulled him from bookshelf to bookshelf, pointing out old histories and tomes, pride ringing in her voice and the scent of rosewater teasing his nose.
It didn't make sense. What was this on-again, off-again reaction he had to Mrs. Dunbar? Why did just looking at her sometimes make him hard enough to drive nails, while other times he felt only the compulsion to make her sit down and put her feet up to rest?
It made no sense. Sure, he'd endured stretches of celibacy in the past, but it had never affected him like this. Maybe that wasn't the problem. Maybe it was something more.
A sense of trepidation crept up his spine as Jake shifted uneasily on his feet. Maybe something was physically wrong with him and this was an early symptom.
Maybe he was developing a Condition.
Hell.
While his hostess rattled on about the room, Jake took renewed interest in the books lining the shelves. He scanned the titles searching for a medical text, or maybe one of those marriage books he'd heard was popular, if furtive, reading in England.
Now that the horrible possibility had occurred to him, Jake Delaney needed to know the truth. For all his education, this was a subject he knew nothing about. Men didn't discuss it. The very idea gave them the shakes. Jake could feel the shudder in his limbs even now.
He interrupted Mrs. Dunbar. "Does your library have medical books?"
"Why, yes. We have a few. Folk remedies, mainly, but I think we might have a text recommended by the medical school in Edinburgh."
"Where? May I look through it?"
She nodded, then moved to a section of shelves on the north wall. "There. The fifth shelf. It's too high for me, but if you'll-—-"
Jake grabbed the leather-bound tome she indicated off the shelf. Immediately, he began to leaf through it.
He prayed he'd find the answer to his question between its pages. Now that the dreaded idea had occurred, Jake simply had to know.
Could an indecisive cock be the first sign of impotence?
* * *
Seated behind a spyhole into the library, Gillian listened to her sister rave on about books—her favorite subject outside of her husband and the child she nurtured in her belly. Gillian rolled her eyes. Only Flora would lose herself in books at a time like this. "Give me the signal, sister," Gillian whispered.
To her dismay, Flora kept on talking. Gilly peered through the wall, confident of her anonymity. Mr. Delaney would need to possess an extraordinary sense of detail to notice the eyes in the portrait of a sixteenth-century Brodie ancestor hung high above him had changed from a flat gray to a very lifelike blue.
Besides, he hadn't so much as glanced in her direction. For the past ten minutes his gaze had been glued to the pages of the book he was reading. Flora didn't seem to mind. Gillian wasn't certain she'd even noticed. Once her twin started talking books, she tended to get lost in her own enthusiasm.
"My mother-in-law disapproves of fictional
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