Chapter 33 #2
“You just keep driving. We have a few last-minute details to take care of in the village.” She made herself more comfortable in seats that were too comfortable to start with. “So, how did everything finish up in London?”
“As you might expect. Nathan is locked away at the moment pending a review of his sanity, which I hope will put him away for as long as he deserves. Penelope and I had a meeting with our brokers yesterday and stock has been happily put back into the appropriate hands.”
“Is there anything left of Ainsworth Associates?”
He smiled at her briefly. “I wish I could say aye. She’ll likely have to restructure the entire thing.
Those Swiss accounts we found directions to in the safe-deposit box will go a long way to helping her with that, but the road will still be difficult.
I think she’ll be doing without quite a few luxuries for the foreseeable future. ”
“It builds character,” Sunny said solemnly.
“Doesn’t it though,” he said, shooting her another smile. He looked back at the road. “The diamonds will help, which I imagine Rodney foresaw. Penelope insisted I keep a selection of gems and a pair of rough diamonds for you, an offer I accepted with my best show of graciousness.”
“You’re a very decent man, Robert Francis.”
He laughed. “Aye, well, I was vastly relieved to simply be doing business with her instead of trying to escape an engagement with her. She didn’t want to take either the money or the gems since her father had left them to me, but I assured her we both thought he’d done so as insurance for her.
” He smiled. “I think we can see her at social things and not worry about her cursing either of us. Isn’t that a relief? ”
“Absolutely,” she agreed. She looked down at his hand around hers for a moment, then looked up at his face. “Do you worry about Nathan?”
“If I had any sense, I probably would,” he said with a sigh. “Jamie showed me the what-absolute-bollocks stare he gives to anyone who talks to him about time travel. I’ve been practicing it. Want to see?”
“Of course.”
He gave her a look that was so reminiscent of Jamie, she burst out laughing.
“Did it work?” he asked.
“I think you might want to practice a bit more,” she admitted with a smile. “Or maybe you can just hope no one would dare ask you something that ridiculous to your face. It’ll just be our secret, otherwise.”
“And Derrick’s, and Ewan’s, and that whole MacLeod clan’s,” he grumbled. “I have never in my life trusted so many people with something of such import.”
“Maybe you’ve never had so many people to trust,” she said softly. “Time has made amends, Cam.”
He took a deep breath. “Aye, it most certainly has, most gloriously. Now, what do we have on our calendar this afternoon that we might cancel so we can commemorate that bit of amends?”
She laughed. “Nothing, so drive on, my laird, and let’s get all these last-minute details over with. I might be able to sneak out of Jamie’s and meet you in the stables before dinner tonight if we do what we have to now.”
He squeezed her hand, then had to concentrate on avoiding sheep-encrusted tarmac. Sunny was torn between watching the scenery and watching the man beside her. Cameron won. She’d seen Scotland before, and while she loved it, it couldn’t hold a candle to the man sitting beside her.
Though she was profoundly grateful she was going to have a life filled with both.
“Not even half an hour?” he asked with one of those quick smiles she loved.
She sighed and pulled her pink phone out of the glove box. “I’ll call Emily.”
“I’ll find a likely spot to pull over.”
She laughed, because she was happier than she’d dreamed she would be and there was a man sitting beside her who loved her to distraction.
Time had made amends, indeed.
The sun had just set when Cameron pulled up in front of James MacLeod’s hall in his Range Rover, dressed appropriately for the ceremony Jamie had no doubt made up just to do justice to the seriousness of losing his witch.
He’d considered riding a horse to the current bit of business, but it was raining and he hadn’t wanted any stray encounters with any time gates he didn’t know about.
Jamie’s map, which he now owned a handmade copy of, was only good if the ink hadn’t run because of the wet.
So to avoid any untoward journeys to time periods not his own, he’d driven.
He was dressed in his medieval clothing because it had seemed fitting, and he’d brought his sword along with him because he suspected he might need it.
He got out of the car and started to put his keys in his pocket only to realize he didn’t have any pockets.
That was a bit of a problem, actually.
He sighed and tossed them on the seat, then shut the car door and hoped for the best. He strapped his sword to his back, wondered if he should feel slightly ridiculous, then cast aside the thought.
No doubt everyone inside would be dressed just as authentically.
As it happened, the only lights he could see outside were from torches.
He might have thought he was in the past if it hadn’t been for Patrick’s black Jaguar parked next to Ian’s red one.
He took a deep breath, then climbed the steps and knocked.
Zachary Smith answered the door, as usual. He was dressed in rather authentic clothing himself with a rather authentic sword at his side. Cameron smiled.
“Nice.”
Zachary flashed him a brief smile before he cleared his throat and put on a frown. “What is it ye want?” he asked in remarkably authentic Gaelic.
“I’m here for the MacLeod witch,” Cameron said seriously.
Zachary stepped back. “Come inside and we’ll see if you’re worthy of her.”
“Heaven help me,” Cameron muttered under his breath as he walked inside.
Zachary laughed, apparently in spite of himself. “If it makes you feel any better, my lord, Sunny put her foot down about anything interesting tonight. She said we’d done all the damage we were allowed to last week.”
Cameron grunted at the memory. Jamie had invited him over for a bit of swordplay and Cameron had found himself running through MacLeods and their various and sundry relations—one right after another.
He hadn’t complained, because his prize had sat on a bench against the wall and watched the entire time.
He would have gone through weeks of such torment to have her, and he’d wanted her to know as much.
She’d done him the very great favor of giving him a massage after the fact under the very watchful eye of Patrick MacLeod himself, so he’d counted the day well spent.
“I assume I passed the test,” Cameron said pointedly.
“I let you in, didn’t I?” Zachary shut the door, then stepped back. “After you, my laird.”
Cameron looked into the hall and had to stop for a moment and fix the scene in his memory.
The entire cast was standing near the fire.
Jamie, Elizabeth, and their children; Patrick, Madelyn, and Hope; Ian, Jane, and their two wee ones; Alex, Margaret, their children, and their bard; and Zachary standing next to his sister, with Jamie’s minstrel Joshua standing next to Zachary.
Sunny’s parents were there as well, both busily jotting down what Cameron could only assume were Gaelic idioms they would want to discuss at length later.
Linguists to the core, as he’d already found out during supper with them earlier in the week when they’d ruthlessly grilled him on whatever suited them in all the languages he claimed to speak.
They were interesting, to put it politely.
They had consented to his taking Sunny to wife, though, and for that he’d been grateful.
He was also grateful for the little group of souls who were apparently there to represent him: Derrick, Ewan, and, the saints preserve him, Emily as well.
She didn’t look too terribly surprised by what she was seeing, so he supposed he could add yet another soul to the tally who knew his most private secrets.
And in front of them all stood Sunshine Phillips, the only light he had in his life.
Jamie stepped forward and folded his arms over his impressive chest. “What is it ye’d be wanting, Cameron?”
Cameron inclined his head just the slightest bit. “The MacLeod witch, if you please.”
“And if I don’t?”
“I’ll be happy to satisfy you over blades,” Cameron said without hesitation. “Again.”
Jamie shot Sunny a look over his shoulder.
“I understand I’ve had as much satisfaction as I’m allowed.
” He pursed his lips. “Well, I suppose I’ll see how you plan to take care of her, we’ll look over a document or two, then I’ll see if she’ll have you.
Though I want it noted that I would have preferred another go with swords, myself.
” Jamie leaned forward. “You’ll have to keep on your toes with this one, Cameron.
She’ll run roughshod over you if you’re not careful. ”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” Cameron promised.
Jamie looked at Zachary. “Fetch chairs, brother, and let’s be about this.”
“Always me,” Zachary muttered under his breath. “Someone please grow up soon so I can be done with all this fetching.”
“Derrick is likely about your age,” Cameron said with a smile. “Ewan, as well.”
Zachary nodded toward the two of them. “Come help, then.” Cameron watched his lads troop along after Zachary and found himself slightly surprised to see they were both wearing very medieval gear as well.
Sunny’s doing, no doubt. He had to take a deep breath before he dared look at her.
He caught her eye and was the recipient of a tender smile.
He supposed she didn’t know there were tears leaking out of her eyes.
He suspected he might be close to it himself.