Chapter 26 #3
Cameron knew it wouldn’t serve him to brawl with the man in his own living room, but he was damned tempted.
He glared at Alexander. “The timing of this was not my choice, which I’m sure you know,” he said slowly.
“Now, why don’t you consider the exorbitant sum I’m paying you to help me end my current troubles so I might wed your sister-in-law quickly and keep her safe? ”
Alexander Smith told him quite descriptively what he could do with his money.
Cameron might have laughed, but he suspected Alexander was perfectly serious.
Then he realized something else: Sunny had gone very still.
He wondered about it, then realized with a start what he’d said.
He had to force himself not to shift uncomfortably.
He was actually rather grateful Sunny didn’t have a blade to hand and he seriously hoped she wouldn’t be able to get his out of his pocket before he could stop her.
“Sunny—” he began slowly.
“You said two days ago that you were going to marry Penelope! ”
“Aye, I did say that,” he began gingerly. He took a deep breath, then looked at her. “I hedged.”
“And you couldn’t have been bothered to tell me about that hedging before now?” she demanded. “You couldn’t have dug deep for some sort of hint in that direction before you put me through hell?”
He would have tried to come up with something useful to say, but he imagined he wasn’t going to have the luxury of enough time for that. Sunny looked as if she were torn between wanting to kill him and wanting to burst into tears.
“This should be interesting,” Alexander said helpfully.
Cameron shot Alexander a glare, then turned a brief smile on Margaret. “Excuse us, my lady.”
Margaret waved him away. “By all means. Take all the time you need.”
“Which will no doubt be quite a bit,” Alexander added with a snort.
Cameron suspected Alexander might have that aright. He took Sunny by the hand and hauled her over and through the first open doorway he saw. It was the loo, but he didn’t care. He turned on the light, shut the door with his foot, then pulled Sunny into his arms before she could hit him.
“Damn you, Robert Francis,” she gasped, her voice muffled against his shoulder. “Damn you to hell and back.”
He closed his eyes briefly. “Sunny, I couldn’t tell you.”
She took a deep breath, then she burst into tears. He decided that he was through being the reason for it unless they were tears of joy. He held her close, soothed her as best he could, then waited for her to get hold of herself.
It took quite a while.
She finally dragged her sleeve across her eyes, then pulled his head down and kissed him.
She kissed him until he thought that perhaps she should stop.
But when she started to pull away, he stopped her.
He returned the favor so thoroughly that he thought he might have to remain in the bathroom quite a bit longer than he’d anticipated simply to recover from it.
He tore his mouth away from hers finally, then clutched her to him and buried his face in her hair.
“I was trying to keep you safe.”
“Damn you to hell,” she croaked. “Or did I already say that?”
“Trust me, Sunshine, I’ve been there,” he said, with feeling. “Every moment of every day for the past month when I couldn’t have you in my arms.”
“I don’t suppose I want to know when you came to this decision, do I?”
“That I couldn’t live without you, or that I wanted to wed you?”
“Either,” she said. “Both.”
“I knew I couldn’t live without you from the moment I first saw you in Jamie’s hall,” he said, sighing deeply. “I knew I had to wed you—or at least try to convince you that you might want to wed me—the morning you rode back with me to my hall.”
She pulled away and looked up at him in shock. “You decided then? And you couldn’t tell me until now?”
He reached for a towel and dried her cheeks, then his own. “Didn’t I tell you it was killing me to leave you?”
“I didn’t think you meant this.”
He took her face in his hands and kissed her softly. “What else could I have meant, my love?”
Her eyes filled with tears again. “I didn’t dare hope for anything, actually.”
He managed a smile, but it felt a poor one indeed. “I think, my lady, that I asked you to wed with me in another time, didn’t I?”
“You don’t remember that pseudo-proposal.”
He smiled. “My head doesn’t remember, but my heart always has.”
She sighed deeply, then looked up at him. “Is it all this serious, Cam? As serious as Alex is making it out to be?”
He took her hands in his and turned them over. “Proof enough?”
“This was a fluke.”
He shook his head slowly. “It wasn’t, my love.
” He kissed her palms gently, then put his arms around her again.
“Let’s go see what he has for us. I’ll add anything he hasn’t discovered on his own, then you’ll have the entire sordid tale laid out for you.
” He paused. “Just know, Sunshine, that I didn’t keep silent because I didn’t trust you, or because I was being perverse.
I thought that if you didn’t know anything, you wouldn’t be attractive to anyone who might want to strike out at me.
” He paused again. “I was trying to protect you.”
“You and your medieval sensibilities.”
He smiled. “Aye.”
She pursed her lips. “I wish I had a good secret to keep from you.”
“You’ll think of something. I’m sure it will involve lobelia.” He looked at her hopefully. “A penance?”
She looked up at him seriously. “I’ll think about it.”
“And you’ll wed me?”
“Is that a proposal?”
“Not offered here in the loo.”
She leaned up and kissed him softly. “Then ask me later. I’ll think about that as well.”
He gathered her close, was rather grateful he felt nothing sharp going into his belly, then released her and turned her toward the door. “Let’s go, before they think you’ve done damage to me.”
She smiled at him as they left the loo, that same hesitant smile she’d given him that morning they’d walked to Patrick’s. Only this time, he was much closer to being able to enjoy it legitimately.
It was progress.
He sat down next to her on the couch and looked at Alexander. “My apologies. Business, now?”
Alexander apparently thought Cameron had gotten what he’d deserved, because his antagonism had disappeared. He actually smiled. “Whisky first, to help you recover?”
“I would love one, but I’ll regret it and I need a clear head.” He took a deep breath and reached for Sunny’s hand. “Shall I take notes?”
“I’m a high-class operation,” Alexander said with hardly a hint of a smirk. “I typed you up a few things on my Selectric.”
Cameron looked at Margaret as Alexander went off to dig up his papers. “How do you put up with him?”
She shrugged. “We meet in the lists every other day or so. I put him in his place and we carry on.”
He felt his mouth fall open. “The lists?”
Margaret smiled blandly at him, then began a discussion with Sunny about the advantages of settling differences thus. He looked at the Countess of Falconberg, dressed as she was in jeans and a T-shirt, and somehow still suspected there might be more to her than met the eye.
He leaned back against the couch and hoped that, considering what Alexander likely had to tell him, Margaret’s birthdate would be the only thing to surprise him that night.