Page 53 of Princess of Pride
To my surprise, he doesn’t have a comeback. He just carries me off the plane and down the stairs like he’s an expertly trained firefighter.
The first thing I notice is that it’s late morning with a hazy sky. A crisp, cool breeze brushes across my skin, drawing goosebumps. At least it’s not raining. Isn’t it always raining here? Or is it dryer in June?
I feel like an idiot being carried from the plane to one of two waiting black Range Rovers. Lachlan settles me into the back seat of the one with the door already open and closes it behind me, trapping me with the beefy driver I remember as Connal. Then he climbs in on the other side, and shuts the door, sealing us inside the warmer space.
“Go,” he instructs.
My guess is Rory and Wes are in the Range Rover in front of ours.
I focus out the window, ignoring Lachlan’s oak and rain scent, and the way my heart softens every time he calls me beautiful. He’s not trying to compliment me. He wouldn’t bother. I know that much about him. He means what he says, and what he doesn’t say has meaning too. His silence isn’t him being agreeable. It’s calculating. A mistake I made during our first conversation in the pool house bathroom, and a mistake I won’t make again.
12
YOU’RE HUMAN
The foggy green landscape draws my gaze as we leave the private airport. Lachlan’s legs are spread in the backseat, his knee touching the side of mine. There’s enough room for space between us, but he tugged me closer once the car began to move. I thought it was to keep me from the window, but now I’m wondering if it’s so he can touch me.
He kept brushing my thigh on the airplane, and he held me on his lap. I didn’t need to be protected, so why did he do it? Even his brother pointed out that Lachlan was being possessive. They said something else too, something about Lachlan needing me for something, but my mind can’t recall anything specific that was said.
My conversation with my mom, before I was drugged, jumps forth in my mind. She said I wasn’t her daughter. Some lady named—what was it?—Elora is, and that’s why my name starts with an E. As a child, I questioned her about that. Mom and Pippa had a closeness she and I don’t have. I never felt as good as Pippa in Mom’s eyes. Could this have been the reason why?
My stomach rolls like it did in the airport bathroom in New York. God, I’m not even in America anymore. My parents traveled internationally all my life, but Pippa and I were only invited on a few trips to England, France, and Switzerland. Our sightseeing was limited to where our nanny was allowed to take us. Mom and Dad did their own thing. I wouldn’t call them family vacations.
I’ve never been to Scotland. Under different circumstances this would excite me. Now I just want to go home and get the answers I deserve from my mother—secrets she’d never divulge while sober. Not that she is often.
Another thought grips me, and my lungs tighten. Am I the reason she drinks so much?
I need answers, but with the way my stomach feels and the stress constricting my chest like an A-cup bra, I don’t know if I can handle the truth.
“Breathe,” Lachlan murmurs and touches my knee.
I jolt and stare at his face.
“You’re safe,” he says with a sincerity that isn’t often in his tone.
“I’m not scared.” I lower my gaze to my hands on my lap, my fingers tightly hooked together. I could use a deep breath though. I force myself to inhale then exhale slowly.
“You’re not scared?” he asks with doubt, his tone carrying a bite this time.
“No.”
“You should be.”
I glare at him. “You just said I’m safe. Which is it?”
His jaw muscle ticks. “You’re only safe if you do as I say and stay in the castle.”
“You should have left me at my parents’ estate. I was safe there too.” Not once has there been an attempted kidnapping on me or my sister.
“You hated living there.”
Unable to deny that fact, I turn my head and stare out the window. Green rolling hills stretch for miles.
“You’ll like the castle,” he says, his tone placating. “You could get lost in it for days.”
Maybe I will.
“It has an indoor pool.”
