Chapter 27
Sunny looked down at the square diamonds that sparkled all the way around her finger.
She wondered when Cameron had found her ring and what had possessed him to have it inscribed in a way that would leave her in tears every time she looked at it.
It was truly exquisite, made all the more precious by the man who had given it to her.
Never mind that she was tempted to kill him.
She sighed, pulled her feet up onto the couch with her, and leaned against its back.
No, she didn’t really want to kill him. All she had to do was grab something too quickly or kneel down unthinkingly to have her hands and knees remind her that there were people gunning for Cameron who didn’t mind who else they hurt in the process.
Cameron had been trying to keep her safe and keep her close at the same time.
She couldn’t blame him for not being able to balance it perfectly.
She would have preferred to think he was overreacting, but she couldn’t. If her hands and knees hadn’t convinced her, the way Alex was practically salivating over the details he was spewing out would have.
She watched Alex’s eyes twinkle as he divulged what was no doubt some salacious bit of something that he shouldn’t have known.
She liked him very much, partly because he was Zachary and Elizabeth’s brother and partly because he loved his wife and was kind to his children.
He was also ruthlessly intelligent and insatiably curious.
She wondered, sometimes, if he knew when to turn all that off.
Margaret seemed to survive it well enough, but Sunny imagined she hid the batteries to his laptop on a regular basis.
Sunny loved him like a brother, but she couldn’t have lived with him.
Cameron, though, was another story entirely.
She made herself more comfortable and allowed herself the pleasure of looking at him.
She couldn’t say she was past the point of being a little startled by his beauty, but she now saw other things.
She saw the hint of lines at the corners of his eyes, as if he’d been smiling a great deal or—more likely—walking over his land and squinting up into the occasional burst of sun.
She could tell when something surprised him by the faint lifting of an eyebrow.
She knew the complete absence of expression when he was digesting, or the way half of his mouth quirked up when he was either skeptical or amused in spite of himself.
She loved his laugh, his quick smile, his wry sense of humor.
She could hardly believe that she might actually have what her heart had longed for so desperately for the past few weeks.
She supposed she should have known what he was getting at when he’d asked her how she felt about London society, but as she had said to him in the bathroom, she just hadn’t dared hope.
“Sunny?”
She realized he was looking at her. She smiled. “Forgiven.”
He looked rather relieved. “No penance?”
“Well, I’m still thinking about that.”
He smiled, reached up to tuck a bit of her hair behind her ear, then looked back at Alex. “Where were we?”
“Well, you and I were chatting. I’m not sure where Sunny was.” He shot her a look. “Didn’t you make out with him in the bathroom long enough already, or do you need to go back in for round two?”
Sunny threw a couch pillow at him. “You are an odious man.”
Alex only laughed at her, then looked at Cameron. “She might be useful to you if she could just concentrate on something besides lusting after you.”
Sunny smiled in spite of herself. “All right, I’ll stop. What did I miss?”
“Just chitchat,” Alex said. “I was unbending enough to tell your friend there that his little medieval secret is safe with me. I don’t think I would have thought anything of him—given how polished and domesticated he is—if I hadn’t endured my own share of time with a few medieval members of my household. ”
“Careful, husband,” Margaret said, slipping her bare foot in between his. “Endured, indeed.”
“And domesticated, my arse,” Cameron groused. He looked at Margaret. “I’m almost a feared to ask about the tale I sense here.”
“’Tis a very lovely one, actually,” Margaret agreed. “Alex walked through a fairy ring near Jamie’s keep and found himself in 1194—”
“Chained to your bed,” Alex interrupted with a lazy smile thrown his wife’s way.
He looked at Cameron. “She fell in love with me on the spot, of course—ouch, Meg,” he said, wincing at Margaret’s tug on his hair.
“All right, the truth is I fell in love with Margaret right off, but I had to do some pretty fast talking to get her to return the favor. I won the right to marry her in one of King Richard’s tournaments and it’s been nothing but bliss ever since. ”
“Aye, it has,” Margaret said, leaning over to kiss Alex briefly. “But I don’t think there is bliss in the other chamber. I hear the cries of teenagers who believe they’ve been put to bed too early. I’ll go see to it.”
Alex watched her go, then turned back to Cameron.
“So now you see that it wasn’t really my superior investigating skills that led me to suspect you; it was recognizing the signs.
Of course, you’ve been the topic of discussion over ale in front of Jamie’s fire more often than you’d probably be comfortable with. ”
Cameron cleared his throat. “Indeed. And here I thought I was being so subtle.”
Alex smiled. “You have been, actually, though you may want to see about making a little clandestine adjustment to the parish records in the village. I suppose you might also be interested in knowing that one of the reasons Jamie wanted to do the leisure center was he determined, as he does you know, that you’d been up at Cameron Hall for too many years without any brothers.
He thought if he offered you a bit of business, you might come down off your mountain without your sword in your hand and join in our familial madness. ”
Sunny felt Cameron feel for her hand. She looked at him, saw the complete and utter lack of expression on his face and suspected she knew what he was thinking.
All those years he’d been up there on his own, probably believing he was the only one living his particular experience, and all the time there had been men down the way who could have at least talked to him about it. She leaned close.
“A little visit to the bathroom?” she whispered.
He took a very deep breath. “Any more visits, and Alexander will start charging us rent.” He released her hand, dug the heels of his hands into his eyes, then shook his head and looked at Alex. “Thank you,” he said simply.
“You’re welcome. I suppose I should also add that Jamie pushed you to meet with him about that same business when he did because he wanted you to meet Sunny and see if it dislodged a few pertinent memories. But I imagine you’ve guessed that by now.”
“The thought had occurred to me,” Cameron conceded. “I think, if you don’t mind, I’d prefer a few unpleasant details now—lest I embarrass myself by showing undue and undomesticated emotion.”
Alex laughed. “Heaven forbid. Let’s get down to your business, then. I’m sure it’ll make you feel much better.”
Sunny watched him hand Cameron a thick stack of papers, which Cameron immediately handed to her.
“I think better just listening,” he said with a smile, then turned back to Alex. “Go on.”
Sunny flipped through the pages as Cameron and Alex talked. She hadn’t realized Rodney Ainsworth had died so recently, or that he’d made Cameron the executor of his will. She couldn’t imagine Nathan had been particularly happy about that. She wondered, absently, what Penelope thought.
“Here, Sunny,” Alex said, handing her a thick manila envelope.
“It’s Lord Ainsworth’s autopsy report. I’m no doctor, but I thought Rodney’s decline was rather rapid considering his particular sort of cancer.
I also thought it was very suspicious that no one was interested in finding out why.
Then again, it is rather odd that Rodney’s doctor has a daughter of marriageable age who is quite enamored of our good lord Nathan and likely wouldn’t have much use for him behind bars. ” He paused. “Isn’t it?”
“Unethical,” Sunny said, shaking her head.
“But not impossible, as you well know. Take a look and see what you think. Now, Cameron, let’s move on to something else. I noticed in Rodney’s will that he left you a box filled with mementoes. What were those?”
Cameron shrugged. “Just a handful of things from his travels. They weren’t valuable, if that’s what you’re after. Nathan could sell the whole lot and buy a cappuccino, nothing more. I imagine Rodney thought I would value them where his children might not.”
“No hidden messages? No diamonds stuffed behind clan badges? No clues to buried treasure?”
Cameron smiled. “Wishful thinking, my friend.”
“And you would know because you checked.”
“I might have given them a shake or two.”
Alex looked at him seriously. “I think you might want to do more than shake. I also think, as I’m sure you do, that there’s much more to this than meets the eye.
You’ve had a rather bumpy road since Rodney’s death and I imagine you suspect Nathan and Penelope both of causing it—as well as suspecting both of them of coming after you—”
“Really?” Sunny interrupted in surprise. “Is that what you think?”
Cameron nodded gravely. “Aye.”
“And you’re still engaged to her,” Sunny said in disbelief.
“Keep your friends in your hall and your enemies at your table, as my father was wont to say,” Cameron said with a faint smile. “Unpleasant, but effective.”
She shivered. “I can’t believe this is what you’re involved in.”
“’Tis why I didn’t dare tell you anything, lest you be drawn into it as fully as I was. Which you have been now just the same,” he finished with a sigh. “And I’m sorry for it.”