The Madness of Lord Ian Mackenzie (Mackenzies & McBrides, #1)

by Jennifer Ashley

I do not think of him as Lord Ian Mackenzie, aristocratic brother of a duke and well beyond my reach; not as the Mad Mackenzie, an eccentric people stare at and whisper about. To me, he is simply Ian.

I confess, Inspector, I can’t imagine what you are trying to tell me.” “I bring up your mother and father because I want to speak frankly with you about topics that might cause a lady to swoon. I am establishing that you are a woman of the world and not likely to faint at what I have to say.” Beth fixed him with an icy stare. “Rest assured, I am not prone to swooning. I might have the footmen throw you out, yes, but swoon, no.”

“You’d take the word of a madman?” he asked. “You’re not a madman.” “I was put into that asylum for a reason. I couldn’t convince the commission that I was sane.” She smiled. “One of my husband’s parishioners firmly believed she was Queen Victoria. She wore black bombazine and mourning brooches and talked constantly of her poor, deceased Albert. I can’t believe you are as eccentric as she.”

Ian didn’t understand love, by his own admission, but he knew having Beth in his life was something worth striving for. She’d said no the first time he’d asked her to marry him; she’d explained in her sensible manner that she had no inclination to marry. But Ian would change her mind. Ian Mackenzie had learned to be good at getting what he truly wanted.

Isabella had been right that the brothers often forgot to dampen their very masculine manners for ladies, but Beth didn’t mind. She liked that Mac and Cameron were comfortable enough around her to be themselves, and she knew their rough manners hid good-heartedness.