I sat, completely stunned, staring at Aunt Elspeth. I could not believe how wrong she was. Only a few seconds before I had been dreaming of a life with Willie Kemp, that large and honourable, if poor and eccentric man, and now she had told me I was to marry the dandified John Forres, a creature with the smoothest of tongues and the slyest of eyes.
“No,” I said. “You cannot mean it!”
Taking my exclamation for joyous disbelief, Lady Elspeth smiled and nodded.
“Oh, I do, Alison. As soon as I heard that he admired you at Lady Caroline"s Hogmanay Ball, I knew that he was just the husband for you. Imagine; you will be married into one of the largest landowning families in the Highlands, your own part of the world. When Mr. Alexander Forres dies, Mr. John Forres will have an income of some £20
