Chapter 28 #2
“While you were standing one against at least a dozen, a man slipped behind you and threw himself against me.” She took a pair of deep breaths.
“I was holding your knife and he impaled himself on it before I could do anything about it. I didn’t mean to kill him, but I think he would have raped me right there if I hadn’t.
” She pulled away far enough to turn and look at him.
“It wasn’t an easy time to live in, was it? ”
He shook his head slowly. “Nay, it wasn’t.”
She managed a brief smile. “After that, we ran back to the keep and you worked Giric over a bit. I think you enjoyed that.”
“I wouldn’t doubt it,” he said wryly. He looked at her for a long moment. “My only regret in all this is that I can’t recall every moment of every day I had with you. And that dwelling on the memories leaves me heaving in the loo.”
Sunny leaned over to kiss his cheek. “I’m sure there was a backhanded compliment in there somewhere. Let me go make you some tea in repayment.”
“Will it taste good?”
“What do you think?”
“I think this morning I never should have given you any money anywhere near a stall that sold herbs only you know the use for,” he said grimly.
She only smiled at him, then went to boil water in a coffeepot.
He watched her fuss with little packets of dried bits of weeds that he was certain would only make him heave yet again once they hit his stomach.
He saw his life stretching out before him, full of light and laughter and all sorts of green things.
Bliss.
Assuming he could get past the current battle.
He considered the things he’d learned in Alexander Smith’s hotel room and supposed the thing that was most surprising was to realize where— or when—Alex’s wife had come from.
Perhaps there were more time travelers wandering around in present-day England than he wanted to think about.
The thought was a little unsettling, actually.
“Here’s your tea,” Sunny said several minutes later as she sat down next to him.
He took it gingerly. “That’s what I’m afraid of.”
“It will make you feel better.”
“You make me feel better,” he said honestly.
She put her hand to his forehead. “You’re feverish.”
“That’s part of it.”
“Drink it, Cameron, then go to bed,” she said dryly. “You’ll feel more like yourself in the morning.”
“Are you coming along with me, Florence?”
She smiled. “If you like.”
He did and he drank an entire cup of the vilest business he’d ever tasted for the privilege.
He had to admit, as the sun was rising, that the brew had been worth the price of its taste. He’d woken at dawn after a marvelous night’s sleep, then spent a very pleasant quarter hour watching the light grow and reveal a woman near him who looked like a Botticelli angel when she slept.
It was inspiration enough to finish his current business as quickly as possible.
He rolled from bed, tested his stomach’s resolve, then left the bedroom and shut the door behind him.
He found Derrick pacing at the far side of the sitting room, talking quietly into his phone.
Cameron walked over to the little dining table under the window, then called down for a hearty breakfast for two.
Derrick was off the phone by the time room service arrived. Cameron sat down with him and ploughed through a meal that Sunny most definitely wouldn’t have approved of.
“Well?” Cameron asked as he pushed his plate away.
“Here’s the news from yesterday,” Derrick said.
“Oliver said Nathan’s lads were ballistic when they realized it was only him and Rufus making the very long car journey to Inverness instead of you.
Rufus caught one and expressed a little displeasure with his fists.
The leader escaped. The last one, Jim, had the misfortune of falling into Oliver’s hands. ”
“Did he indeed?” Cameron asked with interest. “And how did things go for the lad?”
Derrick smiled. “Oliver took him to the pub, learned all his secrets, then ruthlessly used them against the lad first thing this morning when he woke with a mighty hangover. Then he threatened to have all of us beat the bloody hell out of Jimmy in succession if he didn’t play turncoat.”
Cameron sat back. “Inventive. What’s it going to cost me?”
“The lad was making a hundred quid a day. He was rather breathless at the thought of three plus bonuses if he produced anything useful. Oliver pointed out to him that we had all Nathan’s offices and phones tapped and that we would know if he betrayed us.
And speaking of eavesdropping, I heard a very interesting conversation this morning. ”
“Did you, indeed?”
Derrick nodded. “I was listening in on Nathan’s private mobile and heard him talking to a particularly Scottish-sounding character.
I couldn’t decide if it was a man or a lad attempting to roughen his voice to sound like a man.
” Derrick looked at him solemnly. “He was likely using some sophisticated masking device. ”
“Handkerchief over the mouthpiece?”
Derrick grinned at him. “Aye, my thoughts exactly.”
“So, what did this master of vocal disguises have to say?” Cameron asked.
“He suggested that perhaps it was time they did a bit of poking around into your background.” Derrick paused. “Something to call you to heel.”
Cameron froze.
“Nathan said, and I quote, ‘He’s Alistair’s nephew; what’s there to find out?’ And the answer was, ‘He’s much more than that.’ ”
Cameron had spent his life perfecting the ability to hear shocking things and not react.
He’d done it when he’d learned of his father’s death, lest the clan think him unfit to lead.
He’d done it countless times in battle, lest his enemies think they had the upper hand.
He’d done it for eight years in the future, lest everyone around him think he was completely barking.
Yet after all that, he couldn’t stop his mouth from falling open now. “What utter rubbish,” he managed.
Derrick only looked at him mildly. “I daresay. The lad hung up and Nathan spent a few minutes going on to himself about being forced to deal with all manner of drunken Scots, then he hung up as well.” He paused.
“You know, Cameron, I wonder if we’re going about this all back-arsewards.
I wonder if Nathan is behind all this trouble with your businesses after all.
” He paused again. “I’m wondering if it might be this Scottish lad who wanted it and he found Nathan to carry out the scheme. ”
Cameron felt a chill slither down his spine. He would have happily discounted Derrick’s words, but they were too close to what Alex had said to be dismissed so easily.
“Cameron, I daresay you have a certifiable nutter stalking you. Didn’t you buy off all Alistair’s cousins and sundry distant relations before he died?”
“You know I did, because you helped me do it,” Cameron said faintly. “Apparently we missed one.”
“Shall I go dig?”
“Nay,” Cameron said without hesitation. “Not yet.” Nay, this might be something he needed to see to himself. He paused. “I’ll do a week’s worth of work in the next two days, then we’ll go home and split up. Between the two of us, we might turn up what we need.”
Derrick toyed thoughtfully with his fork for a moment, then set it down. “You look like you might manage it now. I wasn’t so sure yesterday.”
“I had a headache.”
“I can understand that,” Derrick said. “I saw what was left of your head all those many years ago. I’m surprised you have any wits left.”
“So am I,” Cameron said with a snort.
Derrick rose and stretched. “I’ll go see what’s happening outside, then let you know. The lads are waiting for us at the airport. Ring me and I’ll have a cab waiting, shall I?”
“Please,” Cameron said.
Derrick nodded, then left the suite. Cameron looked out the window and considered for quite some time what he’d just learned.
A Scottish lad?
A Scottish lad who knew enough about him to suspect he might be more than he appeared to be?
He cast about for a reasonable explanation, but found nothing particularly comforting.
It could have been someone with an overactive imagination, perhaps.
Or, as Derrick had suggested, it might have been a disgruntled cousin looking for more money.
Or it could have been someone else entirely.
Cameron rubbed his hands over his face, then shook his head to clear it.
It didn’t serve him to speculate overmuch.
He wondered, briefly, if he was making a mistake by sending Sunny home, then he pushed aside the thought.
Nathan might have been talking to a Scottish sounding lad, but that was no guarantee the lad was in Scotland.
It made more sense to think that mysterious lad would be in London where he could do more damage to Cameron personally.
All the more reason to get Sunny away from him.
He picked up his phone and dialed. It would serve him to have a very pointed conversation with Patrick MacLeod about the care and feeding of one Sunshine Phillips before she was there to argue.
An hour later he was sitting next to Sunny with the Channel sparkling below him, watching her with a smile.
She did not like to fly. Even knowing that they weren’t going to be up much longer didn’t seem to be helping her.
He watched as his steward sat down in the seat next to Derrick, facing them. Ewan smiled at Sunny.
“How did he introduce me?” he asked, without preamble.
“More than stewardess, less than trustworthy,” Sunny said, looking a little green.
Cameron glared at Ewan, who also happened to be his cousin an appalling number of generations removed, but Ewan only winked at him and turned back to Sunny.
“I am unsurprised. Why don’t I give you the VIP tour of the plane?
You’ll be quite pleasantly distracted by all the reasons this Gulfstream is the obvious choice for the discriminating traveler with deep pockets like our good lord Robert there.
” He leaned forward. “Did he bother to mention that we’re cousins?
Or that he pays me slave wages? ’Tis a wonder I can keep food on the table, really. ”
“You do look a little emaciated,” she agreed weakly.
Ewan laughed. “I raid the galley when Cameron’s back is turned. You know, Sunshine, you shouldn’t worry about the flight. Cameron’s pilots are, as they will tell you without having been asked, the very best in the sky. But as I can see that might not reassure you, how about a whisky?”
“Aye, only if she wants to spend the rest of the flight in the loo,” Cameron said darkly. “Ewan, leave her alone.”
“No, it’s okay,” Sunny said weakly. “Distraction is good.” She took a deep breath and looked at Ewan. “He flies a lot, doesn’t he?”
“Several times a week,” Ewan said, looking at her apologetically.
“He can actually fly the plane, too, you know. When Penelope the Shrew is on board, he locks himself into the cockpit and leaves me to put up with her. Och, and now he’s going to dock my pay again.
” He unbuckled himself and rose. “Come with me, Sunshine. I’d best get out of his sights so he forgets I’m on board. ”
Cameron shot Ewan a warning look, caught Sunny’s hand on her way by and smiled at her, then sighed deeply and leaned his head back against the seat.
He took a moment to enjoy not only his luxurious surroundings, but the fact that he could savor them without worrying about who might be creeping up behind him with evil intent.
Derrick was sitting across from him, poking around on his laptop and listening raptly on his mobile to some conversation he no doubt shouldn’t have been at the same time, and Sunny and Ewan were laughing in the aft cabin.
He had never in the half dozen times he’d allowed Penelope on board had a decent flight. There had certainly been no laughter.
How Sunny had changed him and everything around him.
“She doesn’t have a sister,” Derrick stated, not looking up from his screen. “Available, that is.”
“She doesn’t,” Cameron agreed.
“Damn.”
Cameron smiled to himself. He looked up as Ewan brought Sunny back and gallantly offered her his arm to help her over Cameron’s feet. Cameron reached out quickly and caught Ewan’s hand before he could buckle Sunny in.
“I’ll take care of that, lad.”
“Just being useful,” Ewan said innocently.
Cameron growled at him to sit down, then buckled Sunny in himself. He took her hand, then leaned his head back against the seat. He was tempted to close his eyes, but couldn’t bring himself to. How could he, when he had Sunny to watch?
“How shall we pass the rest of the time?” Ewan asked brightly.
“Poker? Gin? Robert Cameron trivia? I know all his most disgusting habits, you know. I see he’s holding your hand, which leads me to believe that there’s something going on here that I obviously haven’t been informed of, but before it’s too late, let me give you the truth.
You can still run, you know. And I happen to be available, if you’re interested. ”
“Ewan?” Derrick said with a sigh.
“Aye?”
“Shut up.”
Cameron smiled. He felt Sunny squeeze his hand and smiled a bit more.
Ewan commenced asking her all sorts of personal questions and she hedged with skill even a Cameron would have had to admire.
Ewan promised her the truly appalling bits about Cameron himself once they’d kicked Cameron off the plane in London and were headed on to Inverness.
Derrick periodically called Ewan names, but that was nothing new.
Cameron never failed to be impressed by the scope of Derrick’s slanders.
Things from each side of Hadrian’s wall were given equal time and attention.
Thinking about things north of the border reminded him unhappily of what Derrick had told him that morning.
He looked across the aisle out the window and wondered about that Scottish lad.
Nathan wouldn’t have had anything to do with a Scot without there having been a very compelling reason.
Perhaps the lad was Tavish trying to be something he wasn’t.
Perhaps it was someone he didn’t remember, someone he’d offended in the past so greatly that he was seeking revenge at any cost.
Perhaps it was Giric, come through the gate to make his life a living hell.
Cameron could hardly bear to think about the last.
He blew out his breath and consciously forced away thoughts about what he would face when he landed. Whilst he was happily captive for the next half an hour, he would allow himself the pleasure of his lady’s hand in his and the companionship of souls who weren’t trying to kill him.
Reality would intrude soon enough.