Page 95 of To Wed an Heiress
“Are chaperones entirely necessary at this point?”
He sent her a quick glance. “Yes.”
He’d wanted to kill Gregory when he’d seen the man strike her. Now he wanted to hold her close, keep her with him, and do whatever it took to ensure her happiness.
The fact that he felt that way was more frightening than launching himself off Ben Uaine. He pushed back that thought and concentrated on the problem at hand.
“I can’t run away the moment my life becomes difficult.”
He nodded. “I understand, but I’m not letting you go back there now, Mercy. If you want, we’ll fight about it, but I won’t have you mistreated. At Duddingston, at least I’ll know you’re safe.”
When she didn’t say anything, he added, “Please, Mercy.”
She looked like she wanted to say something else, but all she did was nod.
He took her hand back as they descended the glen toward the castle.
“What are you going to do about your airship?”
He glanced back to where he had left it on the road. “Connor will bring it along, at least down to the bridge. We put a tow rope on the nose and pull it like a wagon. Once on the bridge, however, it takes two of us to lift it around to the back of the castle.”
“Should you even be doing that?”
He smiled at her. “You needn’t worry about me, Mercy. I’m a Scot.”
“Stubborn, opinionated, and fond of whiskey. Is that it?”
“You’ve been listening to the English,” he said. “We’re also ferocious, loyal, and magnificent lovers.”
He watched in wonder as her cheeks grew pink.
“There’s something we have to get out of the way, before I take another step,” she said, stopping and pulling her hand free. “Before I ever came to the castle that night I’d already told Gregory that I had no intention of marrying him. I told him in New York. He simply refused to listen. So whatever happened between us had nothing to do with him. The idea that I would pay you to take my virginity was stupid, Lennox. Simply stupid. And I forgot about the silly valise. I carried that thing all the way from New York. It never left my side. But that morning, with you? The very last thing on my mind was the valise.”
He would have spoken, but she held up her hand.
“You’re the one who said that you can’t wrap everything up in a nice little bundle and put a bow on it. That’s exactly what you did by thinking I left the valise there deliberately. That was stupid, Lennox.”
“Here I was forgetting you were part Scot,” he said. “You’ve got a bit of an opinion on you, too. Stupid? I wouldn’t say it was stupid, Mercy.”
“I don’t know what you’d call it. I didn’t pay you to take my virginity.”
“I let my anger get away from me. I was feeling a bit used, what with your slipping away without a word.”
“Why would I want to make things worse than they were, Lennox? I didn’t want to say goodbye to you. It would have been too hard.”
He hadn’t considered that. “Will you forgive me?”
She already had or she wouldn’t have come looking for him, but he wanted to hear the words anyway.
“Yes.”
He looked down at her and the world seemed to drop away. Nothing or no one mattered in that moment but Mercy. He hoped her father took another month or so to arrive in Scotland.
Together they entered the castle and headed for the kitchen.
Irene sat at the table drinking tea. At the sight of them, she stood and came to stand in front of Mercy.
“What happened to you, lass?”
