Highlander Assassinated (Highlander In Time #16)

Chapter 15

CHAPTER 15

N iall blinked at her, clearly too astonished by the suggestion to come up with a more diplomatic response. “You?” he said incredulously.

“Me! Think about it — they’re not going to look at me and think I’m any kind of threat, right? Especially if Amelia can lend me some clothes to help me fit in — we’re around the same height, I’m guessing we’d wear the same size…” She wavered. “Corset? I don’t know. Anyway, I can keep an eye on things, and provide a bit of backup if the scene gets ugly. It’s better than going in completely unarmed, right?”

To his credit, she could tell that he was considering it — even though she could also tell that he highly doubted that she’d be much use in a fight. Well, let him think that. Plenty of people had underestimated her before, to their downfall — it was, in fact, the exact thing that made her a great choice for this particular mission. “How would we explain who you were? Your connection to the case?”

“Way ahead of you.” Her grin widened, and she was all the more pleased by how taken aback Niall looked. “We use this weird situation to our advantage, right? I look exactly like your wife? So I’m your wife. I came along with you from Glasgow, it’s only polite for them to let you bring me along with you, right?”

He looked shocked by the suggestion — but more than a little intrigued, too, she couldn’t help but notice. “You’d be willing to do that?”

“Sure I would. I’m assuming they don’t know what happened to her?”

He shook his head, his eyes shadowed. “It was a short illness, and I’ve never been in the habit of sharing my personal affairs around. I’d be very surprised if any of them even knew if I was married. But…”

“Would it be strange, for you?” Lissa softened her voice a little, reminding herself to tread carefully around this issue. As much as the idea of getting involved in this diplomatic incident had piqued the curiosity of a mind desperate for distraction from the wider situation, she was aware that she could quite easily do some emotional damage here — and to a man who’d been through enough pain for one lifetime. “I mean — it wasn’t so long ago that you lost her, was it?”

“Almost three years,” he said softly, his eyes far away. But then they refocused on her, and the warmth of his smile made her heart skip a beat despite her determination to keep things professional between them. “But no, Lissa, I have absolutely no objection to being your husband — even as a diplomatic ruse. What concerns me is your safety.”

Lissa grinned. “Well, that’s the one thing you don’t, in fact, have to worry about. I’m a professional bodyguard, Niall. This is the one thing I know how to do. If anything, I’m going to be safer with you than I would be wandering around this castle unattended.” Her mind was racing with ideas. “It’s a shame I don’t have any of my weapons with me,” she said, grimacing as she remembered the luggage situation. She hadn’t bothered bringing any firearms along with her — the very thought of the paperwork involved for international travel with a firearm had been enough to put that idea out of her head. But she’d brought a few smaller items along for self-defense… items that were, of course, in the suitcase she’d left with Davey.

Items that wouldn’t even exist for a few centuries, she realized, feeling another strange, giddy sweep of disorientation.

“Even if you had, we’ll likely be disarmed by the English,” Niall pointed out, frowning slightly.

“They’ll only take the ones they can find, though,” Lissa said brightly. “And I’m guessing they’re not going to be so impolite as to search beneath a lady’s skirts?” The alarmed look on Niall’s face — and the color that rose immediately to his cheeks — was answer enough. “Exactly,” she said smugly. “If there’s one thing I know about men, it’s that they tend to underestimate women — I’m guessing our two worlds have that much in common?”

Niall nodded agreement, still looking faintly alarmed by how quickly this plan seemed to be spiraling out of his control. “Unfortunately, that is the case, yes.”

“Not unfortunate at all,” she said brightly. “At least, not right now. In this particular circumstance, I’d say it’s very fortunate indeed. Because it means you’ll be able to bring an armed, highly trained bodyguard with you — one who can hide in plain sight.” She sat back in her seat, pleased with the case she’d made. “Well? What do you say?”

Niall hesitated again, but she could tell from his expression that he was tempted. “We’ll have to get the Laird’s approval,” he said cautiously. “And speak to Hamish and Amelia, of course.”

“No problem,” she said cheerfully. She’d gotten the distinct feeling from Amelia that she was a woman after her own heart — and she’d be willing to bet she’d be in full support of this plan. As for the Laird — she didn’t know much about him, but she knew he, too, was married to a woman from her world, and that had to mean something. “I’m happy to convince anyone who needs convincing.”

“I don’t doubt that,” Niall said softly, a faint smile on his face. “You’re…” He broke off, shaking his head. “I shouldn’t keep bringing her up.”

“No, it’s okay.” She leaned forward, curious. “I’d like to know more about her, honestly. She’s part of why I’m here. What were you going to say? That I’m not much like her?”

“Well, no — though you are quite different,” he said, a faint smile twitching at her lips. “I was thinking that she’d have liked you a great deal.”

That set an odd warmth glowing in her chest, and Lissa couldn’t help but smile. “I hope so,” she said softly. “I hope I’ll make her proud.”

Niall made his departure shortly afterwards, stopping to gather up the now-empty breakfast platter on his way out — whether he was trying to earn another tick of approval or he was just a thoughtful man, she couldn’t be sure, but either way, it was an endearing gesture. There was an odd moment, just as he was leaving, when for a moment she was almost convinced he was going to lean down and kiss her goodbye… and, even more surprising, for a moment she was all too willing to go along with it. Thankfully, they both seemed to catch themselves, and he left without further comment — it wasn’t long before she was half convinced she’d imagined the moment altogether.

Get it together, she scolded herself. Wasn’t it enough that she’d already muscled her way into pretending to be his wife? So much for taking it slow and working things out… but all the same, she couldn’t bring herself to regret having made the suggestion. The alternative course of action — letting her new friends go to the Manor without her while she sat around in her room fretting about them — was simply too horrible to imagine.

No — her intuition was telling her that this was the right course of action, strange as it might have seemed. In such a profoundly unfamiliar setting, doing the work she’d been trained for seemed like it would bring her comfort. Strange, to think that she’d come all the way to the other side of the world just to get away from her job… only to find herself throwing herself back into it full force when circumstances conspired to take her even further away than she’d ever imagined she could get. It felt oddly close to fate… another idea that she’d never had much time for. You made your own destiny, that had been her position for as long as she could remember. But how could she have possibly made this destiny for herself? What action had she mindfully taken that had brought her to a diplomatic incident in medieval Scotland?

Well, whatever had brought her here, at least she knew what she was doing now — more or less. Now that she had a goal, the next step was to make a plan. Step one — get the Laird’s permission, whatever that entailed. Niall had said he’d put things in motion on that front. She knew she’d need to talk to Amelia and Hamish, too — they might take some convincing, just as Niall had. But step three… step three would help with that, she suspected.

Step three was to remedy the unfortunate situation she found herself in of not having any weapons. She needed to get hold of something deadly, whatever that looked like in medieval Scotland — and she needed to make it clear to the people around her that she was more than capable of using it.