Page 19 of Meet Me Under the Mistletoe
“A guest?”
“Why is that so shocking?” she asked.
“I suppose it’s not really, if you run inthosekinds of circles. I saw some of your fellowguestssmoking out on the lawn earlier.”
“Is smoking on lawns illegal now?” she asked exasperatedly. “And what do you meanthose kinds of circles?”
“People with more money than sense.”
“You don’t know anything about them, so stop being so judgy,” she said, affronted. “And for your information almost all of them have more sense than money, which amounts to a lot of sense indeed!”
He smiled, his peevishness replaced by amusement. “Sorry,” he said. “Ignore me. I’m not usually such an arse. But smokingisbad for you.”
“Okay.”
Nory was having trouble keeping up; this guy was capricious.
“You still haven’t told me what you were doing in my flower beds. Were you burying something incriminating?”
Nory narrowed her eyes at him. “I wanted a closer look at the hellebores near the back of the bed. I don’t recognize the cultivar.”
Isaac seemed unable to hide his surprise.
“But then a big oaf scared me half to death, and well, you know the rest,” she continued. She shivered despite the warm coat. Her teeth had begun to chatter loudly, and her feet were stiff with cold to the point of painful.
“Shall I escort you back to the castle?” Isaac asked. His voice was deeper than she remembered it, much deeper, but it had a soft edge to it.
Nory groaned. She didn’t really want to go back to thecastle wearing a ripped cocktail dress infused with eau de heifer. No doubt they’d all still be drinking and reminiscing, and if they saw her now, she would be the butt of their jokes for the rest of the stay and all reunions thereafter. The expressionmud stickswould in this case be both idiom and literal.
“No thank you, I’m going to the folly.”
“The folly is closed for maintenance.”
“Oh.”Dammit!“Is there another option? Couldn’t I maybe hide in a barn for a while, just until my friends have all gone to bed? Snuggle up with a nice warm sheep maybe? I’m already covered in crap, so I don’t think things can get much worse on the dress front, really.”
“Didn’t you only just arrive this afternoon?”
“So?”
“So, isn’t it a bit soon to have already pissed off your housemates?”
“I haven’t pissed anyone off! I’m just... Oh, don’t bother!” She harrumphed, yanked off his coat, and shoved it at him. She began to hobble away on frozen feet, the cold biting deeper into her skin after the respite of a warm coat.
Isaac came after her. “What are you doing? Don’t be stupid. Put the coat back on.”
“Wow, I’m stupid too?” she stuttered through chattering teeth.
“I’m sorry, okay? Now put the coat on. Please. I can’t afford to have a guest get frostbite on my watch.”
Nory realized she must look pretty pathetic because she saw his concerned expression. He held the coat out and she shrugged back into it, muttering a thank-you.
“Look, if you really don’t want to go back to the castle right now, I could maybe rustle you up some clean clothes. You can warm up by the fire in my cottage,” he said. “I’m not a weirdo, Ipromise. And then I’ll drive you back round later; you can sneak in through the servants’ quarters.”
She looked up and found him smiling at her. Suddenly she was sixteen again, the kid sister, bumping into her brother’s mate on the stairs as he made to leave the house, his rare smile making her flush.
“That is the best offer I’ve had all night!” she said, and she meant it.
Eight
