Page 100 of Some Like It Scot
“But... but Sarah was someone who made a room better just because she entered it. She had a way of putting people at ease and bringing joy. Sometimes very bossy joy, but it ended up being a good thing.” She sighed. “And she could sing! When Mom asked me to join the choir like my sister, I tried to talk her out of it because I really can’t sing. I didn’t last very long.”
A lightness entered her voice as she spoke, so I kept with the conversation. “Did she look like you?”
“Ha! No.” She shook her head. “Sarah would have been like one of your Scottish faeries. She had this magnificent blond hair and blue eyes. Effortlessly beautiful, elegantly slender.”
“I’m fond of gingers, myself.” I shot her wink. “Tall ones.”
She looked over at me, those quivering lips of hers tipped upward a little. “Nice move for the weepy woman whose face probably looks like the inside of a watermelon right now.”
Her description unleashed my grin, but I mastered it back into a serious expression. “I mean it, Katie.”
Her gaze held mine, searching, as if for the truth of my words. “I don’t know why.”
“Would you believe me if I told ye?” I looked over at her from my periphery as I drove.
Her brow crinkled anew. “I... I don’t know.”
I drew the car to a stop at the front of Craighill and turned to face Katie. “I have some orders to make tomorrow, but will you join me for supper on Tuesday?”
“Mrs. Lennox has us booked up with lessons in preparation for the ball, but maybe lunch on Wednesday?”
“Aye.” I grinned. “That will give me even more time to make my list.”
“Your list?” She wiped at her eyes with her fingers.
“Of all the reasons I like you, so you’ll have a different voice in your head than your mum’s.”
She shook her head as she looked down, but her smile spread. “You don’t have to do that, Graeme.”
“I want to. And I want to spend as much time with you as I can, Katie. If you fancy spending time with me.”
And maybe that was the trouble. Me.
She looked back up, her fingers twisting together again. “I’d fancy that.”
“Good.” I released the breath I hadn’t realized I was holding. “Lunch? At the cottage?”
“Aye.” The word shook out in a small laugh, and she reached for the door handle. “And thank you. For everything, Graeme, but especially for welcoming me into your home and family and... chasing after me. That... that means a lot. Please apologize to your family for me.”
“My family was glad to have you, Katie.” I took her arm as she made to move, pausing her escape to add emphasis. “And so was I.”
Her smile flashed wide for a second. “See you Wednesday?”
“Aye.” I released her arm. She exited the car, and something in me wondered if I’d see her again or if she’d resume the escape plan she’d started when she left my parents’ house.
I prayed she’d be brave enough to stay. To finish out her plans.
Even if her plans didn’t include me.
***
Katie
Monday started delightfully relaxed.
Mrs. Lennox gave all the guests the morning free in preparation for a visit from the new fashion expert, who was due to arrive and fit us for our ball gowns. Evidently Mrs. Lennox had made an agreement with her from the beginning to design original ball gowns for each of the ladies at the house as part of the experience. And as a historian and designer, her dresses would not only promote one of the benefits of visiting Craighill but would work as cross-promotion for the designer’s skills.
Evidently she was an up-and-coming fashion genius.
