Page 42 of Heirs and Graces at Highland Hall
‘You didn’t see him. Trust me, I’ve never seen anyone that angry. I get that I deserved it, but he was so horrid.’
‘And Kieron?’ Lorna prompted.
Bex couldn’t quite put it into words. Kieron had been gentle with her, understanding, non-judgemental – basically everything Duncan hadn’t been, even though she had needed him the most in that moment. If Duncan had wrapped his arms around her, told her he loved her and needed her, she would’ve wilted into him, letting all the difficulties fall away. But he hadn’t. Kieron had been the one who was there.
An urge flooded through Bex. The urge to tell Lorna what had happened.
‘I kissed him,’ she blurted out.
‘What? When?’
‘When we were in the bedroom… I don’t know what I was thinking. Well, I’d thought he was going in to kiss me and he wasn’t, but I kissed him anyway.’
Lorna had moved past the wide-eyes stage and was now staring at Bex, her jaw near unhinged.
‘So what’s going to happen now?’ she asked.
Bex shrugged. She wasn’t trying to be coy. She just really didn’t have a clue.
‘I don’t know. I know I like him. I do. But he’s not, not…’
‘Not Duncan?’ Lorna finished for her.
Bex nodded. ‘Yeah. But then Duncan made it very clear that there’s no chance of him and me rekindling things. Even if I wanted to.’
As Bex waited for a reply, Lorna narrowed her eyes as she tilted her head to the side. ‘But I thought you didn’t want to rekindle things? That’s what you’ve been saying to everyonesince you got here. That it wouldn’t work. That it was better in the long run that?—’
‘Yes, I get it,’ Bex cut in. The last thing she needed was to hear every word she had said about why she and Duncan shouldn’t be together. But then, how did she explain her change of heart? Because he was the person she had thought about when she’d thought she was going to die. That having him yelling at her was better than not having him in her life at all. That just sounded ridiculous.
And if one of her friends had ever come to her and said that, she’d know exactly what she’d have told them. It was the trauma. They weren’t thinking straight. They needed some time to recover and get their thoughts together.
So that was what she was going to let herself do.
‘What’s he like?’ she said instead.
‘Who? Kieron?’
‘Yeah.’
Lorna drew in a long breath. ‘I don’t know. I mean, no one seems to have much to say about him. Except Duncan. He hates the guy, in case you didn’t pick up on that.’
‘I had noticed,’ Bex replied. ‘Did something happen between the pair of them?’
‘I don’t think so,’ Lorna said as she shook her head and crinkled her nose. ‘I think Kieron was a bit of an arse when they were kids. Referring to him as the help and stuff. And Duncan’s always thought Kieron should do more for the community, you know. As the heir and everything. But that’s because Duncan’s happy to give his whole life to the castle and village, and he can’t understand when someone else won’t do the same. Especially not when they’re going to inherit it one day.’
Bex pondered the words. Duncan did give his all to this place, which was the reason she couldn’t be with him. Not because she’d come second. No, she was okay with that. It was givingeverything else up that she couldn’t do. A job. A corner office. London life. None of which she’d thought of as she sat there shivering in the cold.
‘Clearly he’s gorgeous.’ Lorna continued to talk about Kieron in a slightly more upbeat manner. ‘And he throws incredible parties. Oh my God, if you did get together with him, imagine the wedding at the castle. How amazing would that be? Not that I’m pushing you and Kieron, obviously. I have to be team Duncan all the way. You understand that. But a castle wedding would be phenomenal.’
Bex chuckled. ‘Of course I understand.’
Her laughter faded almost as quickly as it had started.
‘So only five days until Burns Night,’ Lorna said. ‘I guess you’ve got until then to decide whether you’re going to be his date.’
34
Lorna went to bed a little after Bex had told her about the kiss with Kieron, and it was only when she then looked at her phone that she saw it was after ten. Ten in the evening, and she hadn’t done a single hour’s work. Part of her wondered if she should ring Nigel and tell him that she had been sick – it was the closest she was going to come to telling him what had happened – but she was near enough a junior director now. She could be trusted to take days off only when she needed it. Besides, it wasn’t like it affected her work in London. That had already all been delegated. So instead, with Ruby having moved over to the armchair, she closed her eyes, ready to start again in the morning.
