Page 15 of An Irish Kiss
“Yeah, I think that qualifies as hot, not warm.”
She peered at him.“I didn’t figure you for being pedantic about such things.”
“But you don’t know me, do you?”
A beat.“No.”
Had that sounded more abrupt that it should have?He didn’t want to sound harsh, even if he did want to be real.“Thanks for the umbrella.”
“It’s okay.”She shifted to the doorway.
“Wait, you’re not going to leave, are you?”
She shivered.
“Look, you can’t go out in this rain, even if you are more used to it.I don’t want to be the reason you come down with a cold, just because I set off without a rain jacket.”
“I truly don’t want you to think I’m intruding,” she said.Her smile flashed.“And I didn’t want you to think that I’m always rude to tourists either.”
Huh?Oh.“You mean earlier at the bookshop.”
She winced.“Mary mentioned you were interested in some local history.And look, I didn’t mean to imply that we don’t want you here.”
“I don’t think you implied it.”
“Phew.”
“You straight out said it.”
Her nose wrinkled.“I’m so sorry.Sometimes my mouth runs away on me.We just had some guests stay who were quite patronising, and I hate feeling like we’re supposed to be grateful for people who look down their noses at us.”
He studied her.“Are you kidding me?”
“What?”
He shook his head.“How can you live here and have such an inferiority complex?You live and work in a flippin’castle, for crying out loud.”
“Well, my family might own it, but we had to open it to the public to keep a roof over our heads.Literally.”
Huh.Earlier, he’d been shocked when he’d learned from Mary that the Fairalls owned the castle.But he’d never really thought about the upkeep of a grand old building like Griffin Castle.“I bet a new roof cost a bit.”
She nodded.“Nearly half a million euros.”
He whistled.
“I know that sounds an awful lot, but if it wasn’t fixed, water would have continued to soak through the walls and damage the plaster and ceilings and contents.So it needed doing.”
“It looks good.You’d never know it had issues.”
“Well, that’s the hope.But it’s also why our prices are higher than other local accommodation options, and why my sister, Mam and I work here sometimes.The castle costs require it.”
“We don’t have castles where I’m from.And I’m guessing most of your visitors don’t have castles that are hundreds of years old either.”
Her smile poked out again.“Some of them do boast about castles built by rich merchants in the early 1900s.Call me a snob but I don’t really think that counts.”
“Yeah, that’s just a pretentious millionaire’s mansion if you ask me.”
She nodded, and something like a wave of understanding rolled between them.“It’s not got the history we have here.”
