Chapter 21
“Fine,” Hunter said, barely looking up from his plate of roasted venison in a blackberry sauce, crispy golden potatoes, and some kind of delicious cabbage dish that Nancy didn’t know the name of.
She stared at him across the long wooden dinner table, floundering for a response.
All day, in preparation for dinner, where she’d known she would see him again, she’d been rehearsing what she might say to persuade him to attend this birthday party. She’d braced herself for pushback and protests. Not once had she considered that he might just… say yes.
She glanced down the table at Elsie, who seemed equally dumbfounded, while Isla hid a chuckle behind her napkin.
“It’ll only be for a week, when ye consider the journey, and of course, ye’ll be wantin’ to rest a day either side of the gathering itself,” Elsie chimed in, explaining as if her cousin didn’t actually understand what was being asked of him.
Nancy nodded, following her lead. “It’ll be nice to meet new people, and to see Lady Gibson again. I just thought it would be useful for us both to be seen together at a big event. You know, a united front.”
With a frown, Hunter finally looked up from his dinner and caught Jack’s eye. “Did I imagine I said ‘aye’ or did I actually say it?”
“Ye said it,” Jack replied, grinning.
“That’s what I thought.” Hunter returned to his dinner, tearing into a piece of bread with a ravenous hunger that stirred up all sorts of sensations in Nancy’s belly that were less than appropriate at the dinner table.
“You’re really okay with this?” she asked.
He paused again, his eyebrow raised. “I daenae ken what ‘okay’ means, but if it means do I agree that we should attend, then aye, I do.”
He grabbed his goblet of wine, and as he sipped, a small trickle of dark red escaped the corner of his mouth, running down to his stubbled chin.
Nancy swallowed thickly, biting her lip as her tongue itched to taste that spiced wine. She had some in her own goblet, but it wasn’t the same. She wanted to lick it straight off his skin, to see if the salt and smoke of him accentuated the flavor.
Get a grip!
She shook her head and fumbled for her own wine, needing to wet her dry throat.
“Ye’re serious?” Elsie took over, frowning as if she didn’t trust the ease of his decision.
Hunter brushed the stray wine droplet away with his thumb while Nancy watched, mesmerized. Imagining that thumb caressing her lip before he kissed her.
“I’m nae just a warrior now,” he said, sitting back in his chair.
“I might nae like the tedious part of bein’ a laird—placatin’ and appeasin’ and entertainin’ and listenin’ to petty complaints—but I ought to get used to these diplomatic…
things. It’s me duty. So, aye, ye willnae hear a protest from me.
I might be cursin’ inside, but it willnae escape me lips. ”
Nancy thought of herself last night, swearing loudly at the magic of his touch, and blushed fiercely, as if she were right back there on the edge of the pool with his head between her thighs.
As if sensing what she was thinking, Hunter’s gaze met hers, his green eyes glinting with mischief. Her throat bobbed as he lightly ran his tongue over the rim of his goblet, catching a stray drop of wine.
In twenty-seven years of being on this earth, she’d never wished to be an inanimate object more.
“If you’ll excuse me,” she rasped, her heart racing, her face so hot she could probably roast that venison on it. “I think I hear the baby crying.”
Impossible, of course, considering Freya was several floors up and in the very capable care of the night nursemaid, but if Nancy didn’t get out of that dining room at once, there was a very real possibility that she would sweep away the entire feast and clamber right over the table into Hunter’s lap.
This party is a terrible idea.
She fanned herself with her hand as she stepped out into the hallway, walking quickly in the direction of her bedroom.
Indeed, if it wasn’t for the fact that Jane and Adeline would both be there, with their promised means of getting her back to 2026, she might’ve been tempted to call off the whole thing.
After all, how was she supposed to make it through an entire week alone with Hunter and not explode with frustration?
More importantly, how was she supposed to stay near him, getting closer to him, yearning for the passion he stoked within her with just a look, when the clock was ticking on his life?
Oh God, please don’t let me do something stupid. Please don’t let me break the universe for one man.
“How do you do this without going stir crazy?” Nancy muttered, her body aching with the effort of trying to keep herself in one position on the velvety bench of the carriage.
On the opposite side, perfectly content, Isla chuckled. “You daenae have carriages where ye hail from?”
“No, not like this,” Nancy replied. “Where I come from, you don’t need horses, and it’s not so damn bumpy.”
She’d been tossed and jerked around for a full night and day, and if she’d bothered to check, she knew she’d find a multitude of bruises across her skin. Mostly, however, she just wanted to be out of that suffocating box as soon as possible.
Hunter had offered to let her ride with him, but she’d figured that was an even worse idea, considering she had never ridden a horse in her life and would have to spend the whole time nestled against him, pressed against his body.
It was difficult enough trying to push thoughts of their night by the stone pool out of her head without having a physical reminder of what she was missing.
Although she couldn’t deny that the view was incredible.
Dramatic mountains with misty peaks, glinting with snow, appeared like giants against the gray skies that had plagued them since leaving Castle Lochlann.
In the shadow of those mountains were sprawling valleys where streams glittered and undulating stretches of heath, where stags and does raised their heads to listen to the passing rattle of the carriage.
Majestic creatures who probably didn’t have to worry nearly as much about hunters.
Then, all of a sudden, there was the sea.
A furious, frothing expanse of wild blue that stretched to the bruised horizon.
In the distance, Nancy thought she could almost see some kind of land.
Islands, maybe. She shuddered, unable to think of anything worse than crossing that tempestuous sea, though she happened to like ferries.
“It’s not very hospitable here, is it?” she asked with a frank laugh as the carriage struggled up a narrow, winding path that didn’t seem to lead anywhere but into a sheer face of rock, still a fair distance ahead of them.
Isla smiled. “Nae so much, but Laird and Lady Culloch are.” She paused. “Well, Lady Culloch is.”
As she pulled down the window to stick her head out, eager to get a better view for Emily’s research, Nancy squinted at the steep ascent.
They seemed to be on a cliff edge, which she tried not to think about, and though it seemed like there was nothing up there, she began to pick out unnatural shapes as her eyes adjusted.
Almost like one of those magic eye games.
She noted towers jutting up from the natural rock and a few pointed spires that resembled shards of stone. And there, hidden in the rock, appeared to be a gate.
That’s some camouflage, she marveled, while a shiver ran through her.
Just looking at the castle made her feel cold, although that might’ve had more to do with the biting wind lashing at her face, tinged with the salt of the sea.
She quickly ducked back inside the carriage and closed the window, feeling as if she’d just done an ice plunge. Refreshed and invigorated… and more than a little nervous about this gathering.
Before long, the carriage came to a halt inside a sheltered courtyard, with high walls of seemingly natural stone curving around it. As if the castle itself had been hewn out of the cliff.
It will be fine. Adeline is here. Jane is here. This is exactly where you need to be, Nancy told herself as she reached for the door handle.
Before she could turn it, the door swung open to reveal Hunter, windswept and flushed from the ride. Yet, he didn’t seem the least bit cold despite the unforgiving weather, as he stood there in his shirt and belted plaid and nothing else. Not even a cloak.
He held out his hand to her, and after a brief hesitation, she took it and allowed him to help her down, fighting with her skirts as they sought to catch on the doorframe.
She had barely set foot on solid ground when a familiar figure came hurrying out of the main doors of the unusual castle.
“Nancy!” Adeline cried excitedly, forgoing formalities as she wrapped her arms around Nancy and pulled her into a hug. “I couldn’t believe it when Jane said Laird Lochlann was coming and he was bringing you with him.”
With his hand on the small of Nancy’s back, Hunter cleared his throat. “I couldnae attend without me bride.”
His bride…
That funny little feeling fluttered in Nancy’s chest, her heart skipping a beat. She’d never thought she would be anyone’s bride, even if this was just pretend.
Adeline drew back, her face a mask of shock. “Your bride?” She looked at Nancy. “Is this true? Are you getting married?”
“Aye. I’ve invitations for ye, for our engagement celebration,” Hunter replied before Nancy could. “It was me cousin’s idea.”
A bright grin spread across Adeline’s face, a look in her eyes that seemed to say, I knew it!
It would probably be quite the disappointment once Nancy pulled her aside and explained the situation properly, but she couldn’t very well do that with so many other people around. Especially Isla, who didn’t seem to realize that the betrothal was a ruse.
“Is Jane not here?” Nancy asked, eager to steer the conversation away from engagements and such.
Adeline smiled. “She’s just bathing Sylvia before dinner.
We didn’t know when you were going to arrive, but I saw you coming up the road and thought one of us should greet you.
” She cast a more professional smile at Hunter.
“My husband is in Laird Culloch’s study, if you want to join them?
I think they’ve got the good whiskey out. ”
“I will, thank ye,” he replied.
“Well then, let’s get you all inside and settled,” she said cheerfully, before turning and leading the way across the courtyard.
Hunter’s hand didn’t stray from Nancy’s back, his body slightly turned toward her as if he meant to protect her from some unseen threat, his other hand resting on the pommel of his broadsword.
There was something so… intensely powerful about being within the sphere of his protection that she couldn’t even tease him for being on high alert inside an ally’s castle.
She liked to think of herself as independent, occasionally to a fault, able to take care of herself no matter what, but she’d never in her life felt as safe as she did in that moment. Almost like she could breathe for the first time.
“Nancy, shall I show you to your room?” Adeline asked, as they paused in the entrance hall. “I picked the best view for you.”
Hunter leaned in, whispering, “Go on, ye should rest after our journey. I heard ye complainin’ for miles, so ye must be sore.” He leaned in closer still, his lips nearly grazing Nancy’s ear. “I’ll see ye again at the cèilidh.”
With that, he withdrew his hand, though he didn’t move away until Adeline took her by the arm and guided her toward a drafty, spiraling stairwell. Even then, Nancy could feel his presence, his touch still tingling up her spine, as if he were still at her side.
“So… you found yourself a Scotsman, too?” Adeline asked with a grin, once they were out of sight.
Nancy puffed out a breath. How on earth was she going to explain this?