Page 41 of Shy Innocent In The Spotlight

Sabine reached for her hand across the table and gave it a supportive squeeze. ‘I thought you two had a special connection. Are you going to see him again?’

Elspeth shook her head. ‘I don’t think it’s wise. We want different things out of life.’

Sabine leaned back in her chair, her expression thoughtful. ‘I don’t know... Mack seemed really drawn to you.’

Elspeth gave her a wry look. ‘That’s because I was pretending to be Elodie.’

Sabine frowned. ‘But he knew you had switched places. He was the only one who guessed. Elodie told me when she called me yesterday.’

‘Yes, but he’s only interested in a short-term fling. I want the fairy tale.’

Sabine sighed and picked up the cardboard menu that was propped up against the salt and pepper shakers on the table. ‘Don’t we all?’

Mack spent the next three weeks travelling as he saw to various business interests. The evenings he spent alone in his hotel room. He wasn’t in the mood for socialising, he had no interest in pursuing a hook-up. His gut churned at the thought of sleeping with anyone other than Elspeth. How had he been satisfied with such impersonal hook-ups all these years? It made him feel ashamed of himself, that he had settled for such shallow encounters when he could have enjoyed a deeper connection.

A connection he still missed.

He got back home to Crannochbrae to find the piano he had ordered had been delivered and tuned. He sat down at the shiny black instrument and stretched his fingers out in front of him. Years had passed since he had played. Too many years. Could he even do it now? He had memorised whole sonatas in the past, pages and pages of music filed away in his brain. Could he access those notes now or had the years wiped them away?

He took a deep breath and placed his fingers on the keys. He began playing Debussy’s ‘Clair de Lune’, the hauntingly beautiful cadences filling the music room, unlocking something in his chest. He continued to play, losing himself in the moment...or was he finding himself? The music spoke to him on a cellular level. It was part of who he used to be and yet he had not allowed it any room in his life for years. He hadn’t realised how much he had missed it until now, when he was playing again.

And that was not the only thing he missed.

His body throbbed with a persistent ache for the feel of Elspeth’s arms around him. He longed to see her clear blue eyes looking into his. He longed to feel her soft mouth crushed beneath his, her body welcoming him with such enthusiasm and sweet trust it made his heart contract even more than the music he was playing.

His heart...

His fingers paused on the keys, the press of his last notes giving an eerie echo in the music room. Since when had his heart been involved in his casual relationships? Never, not until Elspeth. She had opened him to the possibility of feeling something for someone other than lust. He realised with a jolt that the emptiness he was feeling was because he loved her. He was unfamiliar with the emotion in this context. Of course, he had loved his parents and still loved his brother, and Clara and Daisy also had a special place in his affections and always would.

But no one had captured his heart like sweet, shy Elspeth. She had unlocked his frozen heart, making him need her far more than physically. He needed her emotionally. He needed to be with her, to share his life with her, all the ups and downs and trials and triumphs that, up until this point, he had been experiencing alone. Without her, he was an empty music room without a piano. A suit of armour without a body.

But he was no longer willing to be a cold, hard, empty suit of armour. He was a living breathing man with a beating heart—a heart that beat for a young woman who was perfect for him in every way. He couldn’t let another day pass without seeing her. Without telling her how he felt, how he had felt from almost the moment he’d met her. He had sensed she was his other half. The one person who could encourage him to be the person he was meant to be.

Elspeth was walking home from work with her head bowed down against the driving wind and rain. She had forgotten to bring an umbrella and the cold needles of rain were pricking her face like tiny darts of ice.

A tall figure appeared in front of her and she looked up to see Mack carrying a large umbrella. Shock swept through her. She had never expected to see him again. She blinked a couple of times to make sure she hadn’t conjured him up out of desperation. But no, it really was him. Her heart leapt, her pulse raced, her hopes sprouted baby wings. ‘Mack?’ She couldn’t keep the surprise out of her voice, couldn’t stop the hammering of her heart, the ballooning of her hopes.

He placed the umbrella over her head. ‘May I escort you home?’ His deep mellifluous voice with its gorgeous Scottish accent almost made her swoon on the spot. How she had missed him! But why was he here in London? She knew he occasionally came down for business, but her place of work was a long way from the business district he worked in. Had he made a special trip to see her? But why?

‘Oh, thanks. I didn’t realise it was going to rain.’ Elspeth fell into step beside him, her heart beating harder than the rain pattering down on the skin of the umbrella above them. ‘What brings you to London? Business?’

He stopped walking and held her in place under the shelter of the umbrella with a gentle hand on her arm. ‘I came to see you.’

Elspeth looked up into his grey-blue eyes and those baby wings of hope in her chest began to flutter. ‘Why?’

Mack gave a crooked smile. ‘Because I can’t live another day without seeing your beautiful face. I’ve missed you, m’eudail.Ever since we parted in France, I’ve been moping around like a wounded bear. I can’t believe it’s taken me this long to realise I love you.’

Elspeth gaped at him in shock. ‘Did you say love?’ She was dreaming...surely she was dreaming. The rain must have soaked through to her brain and turned it to mush.

He brought her closer, somehow juggling the umbrella above their heads while the rain cascaded down around them, hitting the footpath in loud plops and splatters. ‘I love you with every fibre of my being. You are the one person, the only person who has opened my heart to love. You were right, I was too afraid to harbour the possibility of loving someone. I was too afraid of being vulnerable, of one day losing that love. But loving someone always comes with a risk. But I’m prepared to take that risk now, but only with you.’

‘Oh, Mack, I can’t believe you’re here and saying the words I longed so much to hear,’ she said, wrapping her arms around him and squeezing him so tightly he grunted. She looked up at him under the shadow of the umbrella. ‘I love you too. So much it hurts to be away from you. I’ve missed you every second we’ve been apart.’

Mack stroked her face with his free hand. ‘I never want to be parted from you again. I know it’s a big ask for you to move to Crannochbrae with me. We can commute back and forth so you can keep working in London. I’ll buy us a house here. I’ll do whatever you want but please say you’ll be my wife.’

‘Your wife?’ Her eyes went out on stalks. ‘You’re asking me to marry you?’

He smiled so widely it transformed his features. ‘Forgive me for not going down on bended knee, but right now there’s a river of water running over my feet.’

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