All for the Heiress (19 page)

He hadn’t been nice, as it all came back to him. The look on her face when she’d asked him why he kissed her made his skin crawl with shame as he remembered his ugly rejoinder. He’d expected her to fight harder, like she always did, not end up quietly apologizing to him. That apology hurt worse than any of her silly punches.

He got dizzy trying to pull on his socks, and sat down on the floor. He held onto his breakfast, half wanting to be sick from the pain of his head, and half from the pain of hurting her feelings. It had gone wrong from the moment she’d put her hands all over Oliver.

What he’d planned on saying was completely different from what came out. He’d thought it over while he was hunting around the backyard for whatever passed as a loo in this time. Whatever Mellie wanted was what he would do. He was willing to admit their plan was a wash if she gave even the slightest hint of wanting to go home. Then he’d gone mentally incompetent from jealousy. No, not jealousy, because why would he feel that? Whatever it was, it sucked. It made his head throb and his chest ache.

Honestly, the reason he gave for kissing her had been true, but the sneering, flippant way he’d said it and his accusation that it hadn’t been serious, made it all wrong. He had wanted to kiss her for almost as long as he could remember, and the way she looked standing in the road, covered in the dirt of their shared trials, he’d been overwhelmed with something he’d never felt before. Never. He was powerless to do anything but kiss her, because he had no words to tell her how absolutely perfect she’d looked to him at that moment.

And the kiss had been ... well, he needed to stop thinking about it. No good could come from going down that dead end road. If those bandits hadn’t come along and tried to end him, Mellie would have probably done the job herself.

The door opened and he hurriedly got off the floor so Mel wouldn’t think he’d fainted or something unmanly, and his smile froze when he saw it was Lizzie peeking her head in the room. She hurried to help him up, and he assured her he was just resting a minute down there.

She laughed and held up a warm looking pair of boots. “A going away present,” she said, motioning for him to hold out his foot.

Knowing it was futile to argue, he let her wrestle a boot onto one foot, then the other. He took a few steps, and nodded appreciatively at how comfortable they were.

“Thanks, these are great, but I’m not going back.”

Lizzie raised her eyebrows and sat down, staring at him until he sat on the edge of the bed. “Oh, no?” she asked. “Well, I have to admit, it’ll be nice to have someone around from the same time.”

“It will?” he asked, glad he wasn’t about to get a lecture, and surprised she accepted it so easily.

“Oh my goodness, yes. Don’t get me wrong. I adore Quinn, but there are so many things I miss. I mean, you’d be surprised at what pops up besides the obvious stuff like running water and antibiotics. Big things like my best friend’s birthday, wondering if she’s going on a pub crawl or if she’s met someone special yet, and then little things like all those lovely fabrics that don’t wrinkle or smell like sheep.”

He thought of his parents and pain in the ass brothers, but before he could feel the sting of what they might feel when he never returned, she continued.

“Snaps, zippers, jelly babies, fizzy drinks, toilet paper, actually all paper— being able to flip a switch for light, all information or communication just a click away.” She sighed, and he thought she was done, but she started up again. “Goodness, would you ever think you’d miss adverts? I mean, missing the telly, your phone, computers, that’s a given, but I actually miss the background noise, you know? The dumb jingles that get stuck in your head, and music— rap music, the really fast ones with the amazing rhymes— even country music, and I was never a big fan. The music now is …” she trailed off and looked past him wistfully. “It’ll be good to have someone around who knows what I’m about when I bust into song. You can even join me, and won’t be scandalized by the lyrics.” She smiled brightly at him. “There’s more of course, but I don’t want to bore you.”

He felt sick, and pressed his hand against his hot forehead. Hearing the many things she missed made him think of at least ten things for her one that he didn’t want to give up. His mother crying over not knowing what became of him almost made him burst into anguished tears himself.

“But you can go back,” he said, having to clear his throat. “Why do you stay?”

She shrugged. “Well, I suppose for the same reason you want to stay.” He shook his head, desperate to understand how she did it, and she laughed. “Love, silly. This is Quinn’s time, and I can’t live without him. No matter that I think about modern things sometimes, and miss them terribly, I can’t even imagine having them again if I couldn’t be with Quinn.”

He looked at her, and saw she meant it. She had to, to give up so much. He thought because he liked taking care of the animals at Glen Castle that he could live in this time, and he wondered now if that wasn’t naive.

He put his head in his hands, trying to think about spending the rest of his life with Catie on this farm or one like it. The wretched vision of Mel clinging to Oliver clouded his thoughts and brought back the anger. The way she’d so quickly dismissed him when he really should have got a rise out of her made it worse. People who cared didn’t apologize and leave quietly. They fought for what they wanted. She probably went straight to find Oliver when she left, which meant she was with him now. She was with the person she cared about and it wasn’t him. He gripped the sides of the mattress to keep from flying to find her and making a further fool of himself.

God, he’d been trampled by a boar, beaten senseless by thieves, his pride couldn’t take much more. It was no wonder Mel thought he was useless. But Catie didn’t seem to think he was so bad, she’d been as sweet as ever to him. She’d never thump him in the side of the head. He pushed aside the emptiness that plagued him and knew he’d just have to adapt. He’d show Mel he could make it in this time, and learn to be able to see her with Oliver without wanting to break something.

“Are you coming down?” Lizzie asked, getting up and looking out the window.

“In a bit,” he said absently, still lost in thought.

“Well, don’t wait too long if you want to say goodbye. The carriage is almost ready, they’ll be rolling out soon.”

No. Mel wouldn’t leave him. Would she? Why wouldn’t she? He wished his head would stop throbbing so he could have a coherent thought. He barely registered Lizzie leave, and sat frozen with shock. He’d be damned if he hobbled down there to say goodbye, only to see how little she cared that he chose to stay. If she really wanted to go, there was nothing he could do.

All at once, a pain overtook him that had nothing to do with either of his injuries. It was deep inside him, and he lay down, pulling the blankets over his head to try to hide from it.

The carriage was the newest model, and it was surprisingly comfortable inside. Quinn had been quick to explain the money used to buy it had come from Lizzie’s shoe profits, and he most definitely hadn’t gone back to gambling.

“Ye know I was never that good at it, anyway,” Quinn said, stroking the carriage door proudly. “I’ve learned that hard work and a talented wife are the best ways to get ahead.”

Mellie crawled into the seat and sat dejectedly while everyone said their goodbyes. She kept peeking out the window to see if Shane would change his mind at the last minute, or at least come down to wave at her, but he didn’t. After a lot of fretful clucking from Piper, they were finally on their way, flanked on either side by two staunch guards on horseback.

“Are you sure, Lachlan?” Piper asked repeatedly, at least once every five minutes. She kept sticking her head out of the window and looking back, then fidgeting anxiously. “We should have given it more—”

“It’ll be fine, love,” Lachlan said.

“Riding would have been faster,” Mellie said, thinking Piper was anxious to get back to Daisy. “This thing is nice but I think even walking would have been faster.”

They once again exchanged their conspiratorial looks, then Lachlan rubbed Piper’s belly. “Perhaps for a young lass like yourself, but Piper shouldna have ridden in the first place.” He raised his eyebrow at her and she felt properly ashamed by his subtle reproach.

“Sorry,” she said, feeling miserable for causing trouble in the future, on top of being broken-hearted.

Every few seconds it hit her that she’d never see Shane again and she wanted to either scream and run back to the farm, or put her head in her lap and cry. But she’d caused enough trouble for this Piper and Lachlan, and her own wouldn’t know anything about what she’d done, if she was lucky. She was destined to suffer in silence for the rest of her days.

As they rolled along so slowly it seemed they went backwards, Piper got more and more agitated. She made them stop twice so she could use the woods as a restroom, apologizing profusely, but taking her sweet time to get back into the carriage. Even Lachlan seemed to get antsy after an excruciatingly long hour went by. He rapped on the roof to get the driver to stop.

“Have ye felt tilting to one side?” he asked, staring hard at Piper. “I think something’s wrong with a wheel.”

Mellie hadn’t noticed anything, but Piper quickly agreed they were definitely tilting.

“At least we can stretch our legs,” Piper said, scrambling out of the carriage.

Mellie didn’t think they’d been driving long enough to need to stretch, and wanted to point out that Piper had been out twice already, but these two were beginning to seem like strangers to her. She almost wanted to stay to avoid having to know them in the future.

It seemed like it was going to take more than a few minutes to fix the wheel, so she begrudgingly got out and sat next to Piper on the side of the road.

“What happened with you and Shane?” Piper demanded the second she hit the ground.

“What?” Mellie asked, dumbfounded.

She didn’t think she was being too obvious. She must look miserable, but surely they took her ordeal in the woods and on the road into account. Surely Piper didn’t suspect her feelings toward Shane.

“How did you say goodbye to him?”

Mellie’s cheeks burned. She hadn’t actually said goodbye, she’d walked out so she wouldn’t spout tears like a lawn sprinkler.

“Piper, have a care, aye?” Lachlan called.

“I don’t understand this,” Piper said, looking back toward the farm. “Lachlan, I think we need to—”

“Zip it, my darling,” he said. He walked over from speaking to the driver and guards, and stared down the road as well.

“What is going on with you two?” Mellie demanded, tired of feeling awkward around them. If it was going to take an eternity to get back to the castle, she wanted them to stop being so bizarre.

“Lachlan, we need to—” Before Piper could finish her sentence, he leaned down and scooped her off the ground.

“Enough,” he said. “Get back in the carriage. The wheel is fine, we’ll just be on our way again.”

He stuffed her inside, and her head immediately popped back out the window, a look on her face that said she was raring for a fight. Something she saw further down the road made her slump with relief.

“Thank goodness,” she sighed, slipping happily back into the carriage.

Mellie and Lachlan turned to see someone riding hell bent toward them. Instead of alerting the guards or drawing his sword, Lachlan breathed out a long sigh.

“About damn time,” he muttered and joined Piper.

It didn’t take long for Mellie to see it was Shane who thundered toward them. Her first thought was concern that he’d hurt himself riding so hard in his condition. Her mind went blank after that, not daring to even speculate why he might be riding so hard toward them. Absolutely not daring to hope. He stopped a few feet away and jumped off the horse, gritting his teeth in pain when he landed hard on his injured leg.

“Ah, dinna bother calling me a name, I know I shouldna be riding,” he said. His bandage was gone and she tried to grab at his head to check the stitches. “No, leave it. I swear I’m fine.”

“Why?” It was all she could get out, just happy to see him again. It couldn’t have been much more than an hour, but it had already begun to feel like forever to her. She couldn’t smile she was so scared of the answer, and stood staring at him. “Are you coming back with us now?” She struggled to unfreeze her face as he frowned at her seeming lack of enthusiasm.

“It’s because …” he paused and looked past her. Her heart hitched and she had to remind herself to breathe. “I can’t live in this time,” he said in a rush, shaking his head as if disgusted with himself. “That’s all there is to it.”

Now was the time to tell him, if she was going to tell him. Full disclosure only seemed fair. She didn’t want to, but her mouth opened and the words perversely fell out. “Shane, Catie’s rich. I think she may be filthy rich, actually. If you stay and marry her, you could live an easy life. Well, easier.”

He narrowed his eyes at her. “What do ye mean?”

“She has an inheritance she gets when she’s married. It’s from her mum.”

“Well, that changes everything,” he said, his face closed off and angry looking.

Was he that mad at her for keeping it from him? So now he’d have to ride all the way back and explain?