A Secret Scottish Christmas

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Excerpt from A Secret Scottish Christmas... the Powell twins meet Ailie's setters

When  the Powell twins, Robbie and Nash, first encounter Miss Aileen Stephen,  the sister of their Scottish host, they are both taken with her and  thereafter compete to win her heart. The first night, as they go down to  dinner, they encounter her and her two dogs on the stairs:

This short scene is from Robbie’s point of view:

      They began to descend the stairs just as Aileen Stephen came through  the front door, her cheeks rosy from the cold. She let her tartan scarf  fall to her shoulders, revealing a bounty of bright red hair. A tempting  picture to be sure.
     Two great black and tan dogs bounded in after her.
      “Why, hello,” said Robbie, giving her one of his sincerest smiles.  Beside him, Nash tensed, none too pleased at Robbie’s initiative.
     His brother smiled at the girl. “What dogs are these?”
      She looked up at them, her dogs wagging their long tails, their paws on  the steps sniffing at Robbie’s feet. “Goodness and Mercy, a gift from  the Duke of Gordon. He raises them on his estate in Moray to the north.”
      Robbie stepped down to the entry hall’s stone floor and patted the head  of the closest dog, a friendly sort, then returned his attention to the  girl.
     Nash alighted from the last stair to scratch one of the  dogs behind the ear. “How ever did you come up with those names, Miss  Stephen?”
     “You may call me Ailie. Most everyone here does. You are Robbie and Nash?”
     “I am Robbie and this is my brother, Nash,” said Robbie, gesturing first to himself and then to his twin.
      Her beautiful face lifted in a one-sided grin as she glanced between  them. “’Twill be difficult telling you apart. As for the names of my  dogs, do ye nae ken yer Scriptures?”
     Robbie exchanged a look  with his brother. Neither, he was certain, had a clue as to her meaning,  yet she had spoken in the way of the Scots, intentionally deepening her  accent. Perhaps she meant to suggest Englishmen might be ignorant of  the Good Book’s teachings.
     “The twenty-third Psalm ends,” she recited, “‘Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life…’ aye?”
      “Clever,” said Nash. “I won’t be forgetting their names any time soon.”  From the admiring look Nash gave the girl, Robbie surmised his twin  wouldn’t be forgetting her either.
     Robbie returned his attention  to the large lean dogs he decided were setters, but not the black and  white speckled ones he was used to. These two were mostly black with  small bits of copper and white trim. “I can scarce see a difference  between them.”
     Her brows lifted. “This from two brothers who are  made from the same mold? Really, ’tis easy to tell them apart. Goodness  is the male and Mercy is the female.”
     “My brother’s a bit slow,” muttered Nash.
     Robbie shot Nash a look of annoyance. “Seems I recall you accusing me of being too fast, Brother.”
Nash  coughed into his hand. “I was speaking of understanding just now, not  your manner of living.” Then to Ailie, “Please excuse my brother.”
     “I always make excuses for English rakes,” she said matter-of-factly.
     Robbie sputtered. Beside him, Nash appeared bemused.
      “If you’re looking for the others, I believe they are in the parlor.  Just there.” She gestured to a set of double doors. “I will join you  shortly.”
     Robbie watched as she proceeded to a door to the right  of the stairs, the dogs following on her heels, as the psalm suggested  they would.
     He turned toward the parlor. “I believe we have been  dismissed.” Then, in a low voice, “Now there’s a tempting armful and,  for a green girl, most interesting. A sharp tongue, perhaps, but  interesting nonetheless.”
     “She’s not one of your ‘women on the  town’,” said Nash, looking over his shoulder as Aileen Stephen and her  dogs disappeared through the door. “She’s a spirited innocent. I find  her… enchanting.”