Chapter 29 #3
And that was as far as she got for a bit.
She wasn’t sure if he was rewarding her for not caring that her father had not only agreed to be in a play with him but had exerted absolutely no influence on the selection of Hamlet himself—which she was sure Derrick would appreciate later—or if he had missed her, or if he just loved her.
“I missed you,” he said simply. “And I love you.”
She looked at him blearily. “Was I talking out loud?”
He laughed a little. “You were distracted.”
“You have that effect on me.”
He pulled her close, wrapped his arms around her, and held her tightly.
“Marry me,” he whispered against her ear. “Please.”
“Yes. When?”
“You decide.”
“After Hamlet,” she said without hesitation. “I don’t want to be distracted by you while I’m watching you.”
“When I figure out what that means, I’m sure I’ll agree,” he said dryly. “Your aunt Mary left you a wedding dress back at the keep.”
She turned her head and rested her cheek against his shoulder. “She’s got to stop poaching things from the past. She’s going to get herself in big trouble.”
“It’s actually from the present. She jetted over to Paris with Emily earlier in the week. Actually, they brought you samples so you could decide what you wanted.”
“My mother will have a fit.”
“Probably,” he agreed, “but your father thoroughly approves. He signed off on an entire trousseau and not a damned thing in it will be polyester.”
She pulled back and looked at him seriously. “I was too nice to them, probably.”
He shook his head. “It says a great deal about you, doesn’t it? I believe I Like That You’re Kind to People Who Don’t Deserve It was number ten on that list I made you, wasn’t it?”
She took a deep breath. “It was. It was number eleven on yours, wasn’t it?”
“Wonder why I got bumped like that?” he asked innocently.
“Because number ten had to do with your being lovely to old women who do deserve it.” She smiled. “I’m not very original, but it was heartfelt.”
“I think you’re remarkably original and I love your lists. Let’s go buy a round for the lads, then we’ll make a list of all the lovely things they say about you. Then we’ll go home.”
“Home?”
He smiled. “We’ll figure that out, too.”
She let him take her hand, but she didn’t move. He stopped and looked at her in surprise. “What?”
“One condition.”
He studied her thoughtfully. “You get two days’ bossing to my one?”
“It’s about time traveling.”
“Nay, I will not take you to Elizabethan England for our honeymoon.”
“I think I’m serious,” she said, finding that she was very serious indeed. “I don’t want to tell you what to do, but—”
He shook his head before she could finish. “I’ve already hung up my skates, as it were, and Oliver and Peter have already paid a social call to the laird down the way. I don’t think he’ll lack for company.”
She let out the breath she’d been holding. “Thank you.”
He slid her a look. “Don’t want to change your mind and give me my freedom?”
“Derrick?”
“Aye, love.”
“Go to—” She took a deep breath. “You know the rest.”
He laughed, pulled her into his arms, then swung her around a couple of times before he set her on her feet, kissed her soundly, then pulled her toward the door. “Let’s go, then we’ll figure out when to marry, then where we’ll live.”
“Do you mind?” she asked. “Letting Jamie go on his jaunts without you?”
He ushered her out the door, then pulled it shut and locked it behind them. Then he looked at her and his expression was suddenly serious.
“It is an activity for a single man,” he said, “or a laird who can’t seem to find any extreme sport mad enough to satisfy his need for massive adrenaline rushes.
I think I can safely say that James MacLeod will never find himself in need of a rescue, but he was born in a different time and has a different skill set than most men.
And a wife who sighs a lot and knows he’ll be home for dinner, eventually.
Actually, I think he just does it to provide her with authentic period details for her novels, but I’ll deny it if you repeat that. ”
She smiled. “Then what will you do?”
“I don’t know. What will you do?”
“Paint your view.”
“Paint our view.”
“Yes,” she said happily. “Our view.”
He kissed her for her trouble, then took her hand and walked over to her car. He opened the driver’s side, helped her in, then walked around and got in on the passenger side. He pulled out his phone, sent a text, then leaned back and smiled.
“Lots of legroom,” he said contentedly.
“Who’d you text?”
“Oliver, to come get the Rover.”
“Does he have a key?”
“He doesn’t need one, unfortunately.”
“Interesting skill.”
“He can pick any lock invented,” Derrick said with a smile. “It might serve him in good stead one of these days. Richard Drummond, Sir Richard Drummond, was certainly grateful for that several hundred years ago.”
“No one would believe it,” she said. “I can hardly believe it and I was there. I wish I’d had pictures of that bedroom.”
“Oliver took some.”
“Well, he did have a camera.”
“Bragging rights,” Derrick agreed.
She would have to get copies, because there were bed hangings that she had wanted to examine more closely but had never had the chance. She sighed. Perhaps she was never going to get history out of her blood, but perhaps now it didn’t matter as much.
She backed out of her slot next to the house, turned around, then headed toward the village. She looked down at the ring on her finger briefly—it was rather hard to miss, actually—then at Derrick. He was simply watching her, a small smile on his face.
“What?” she asked.
“Thank you for saying yes.”
“Like I would have said no.”
He lifted one shoulder in a half shrug. “You might have.”
“Come on, didn’t you do more research than that?”
He took her hand, kissed it, then put it back on the wheel. “You give me too much credit. That’s why I was pacing like a caged animal for the past two hours wondering if you would change your mind at the last minute and drive somewhere else. The fact that you didn’t hurry led to my anguish.”
She smiled. “Had to keep you guessing somehow.”
“Heaven help me.”
She laughed a little because she was happy for him, happy for herself, and their lives were stretching out in front of them with treasures to be found and procured. So many good things already in their lives and so many wonderful things to look forward to.
She could hardly wait to make a list.