A Laird for All Time by Angeline Fortin (room on the broom read aloud txt) 📗

right for her but this was all wrong!  She was supposed to fall in love with a man she could live the rest of her life with and she had no intention of staying here in old time Scotland.  She needed technology, her career, Starbucks!

Yes, he was everything she had ever wanted.  He was intelligent, caring and responsible.  He was funny and sexy and handsome, her thoughts warmed.  He made her feel challenged, made her think, made her feel like a goddess.  Connor brought out every extreme of emotion in her.  She had never felt such anger as that he roused in her but she had never felt such passion and contentment either.

She loved him!  Truly, honestly, deeply.

Now what?

Stay here?  Hah!  And did she even have a choice?  She wasn’t entirely sure what Donell’s point had been in bringing her here.  Second chances?  For Connor?  Most likely for Dory if she had taken his implications correctly that Dory would not make it through her delivery. That was most likely the tragedy he spoke of.  But second chances for herself?  Why did she need a second chance? She had her life lined up and waiting for her.  But whatever mystical force Donell had employed to get her here could just as easily yank her right back without warning.  If that happened it would break her heart and maybe, maybe? his as well.

But an hour of his love was better than none at all.  Take what you can get, wasn’t that the old motto?  Well, she was ready to embrace it completely, but that man, that aggravating man, had fled like a coward rather than to face her and take it like a man.

Emmy could break down his thoughts pretty well.  He was more vulnerable than he thought.  He had a fear of rejection that she had been able to read from day one.  His defenses were built from prideful humiliation rather than love and a broken heart, but clearly he feared that same shame happening again.  So he fought it.  He refused to allow the opportunity to present itself and he had taken himself off before she had a chance to reject him, probably never considering that she might return his feelings.  Men!

All she could hope was that he would overcome that impulse that had set him off soon and come back to share the love between them while they still had time.  ‘Please, Connor, come back’, she beseeched in her mind.  ‘Before I’m gone.  Gone!’ she moaned.

Ian had kindly offered to open the window when her moan had vocalized itself.  Connor, it seemed, had warned him of her maleficent relationship with the carriage.

“Thank you.”  She breathed in the cold air.  October was drawing to a close now.  Five days she had been here.  Emmy wondered if anyone had missed her yet in her time and concluded that given she was still on her vacation that they had not.  But when that time was over, it was anyone’s guess what would happen then.  Missing person’s report?  Maybe they would think that she was dead in a ditch somewhere, taken by a serial killer and buried in the middle of nowhere.  Amnesia!  That would be interesting.

“You have the strangest smile on your face,” Ian’s voice interrupted her morbid musings.  “What are you thinking about?”

“I was just wondering what all my friends might be thinking became of me if I don’t come home soon,” she confessed.

“And that is amusing?” he questioned with a frown.

“My sense of humor can sometimes go terribly wrong.”

“Can I ask you a personal question?” he asked at length.

“Sure.”

“What did you say to my brother to get him to leave like that?”

“Ha!  I knew it wasn’t a business trip!” she felt very satisfied with herself.  “What did he tell you?”

“Nothing beyond what I have already said that he had urgent business in Glasgow he must attend, but I knew that couldn’t be entirely true as no messages or telegrams had arrived recently.”  His eyes were inquisitive as he awaited her response.

“Did he seem angry at all?”

“No, I wouldn’t say so, that I could understand.”  Ian shook his head thinking.  “If I had to define it, I might say he was defeated in some way, but that is certainly unlike my brother.”

“Defeated?” she repeated.  Why defeated?  What had run through his mind?  “We did have a fight.”

“I know,” he shrugged and grinned.  “Everyone knows.  The entire castle can hear your arguments.  It sort of resonates.  Never knew it could do that but then I don’t think anyone has ever yelled like that in there before.”

“I’m sure that Connor has shown his temper plenty of times in his life,” she murmured drily.

“Surprisingly, no,” Ian corrected. “I have never heard him yell.  He never even showed anger, always that icy demeanor.  Connor has always been the sort to simmer in his anger.  When he is truly maddened, he is cold and fierce and everyone says out his way including myself.  I have never heard him bellow that way in my lifetime.”

“You don’t think he was mad when he screamed right in my face then?” she asked in disbelief.  “Because from where I was sitting, he looked pretty pissed.”

“Pissed?”

“Pissed,” she nodded in confirmation and he grinned again.

“I rather like that one.”

“We all do.”  It was hard not to smile at Ian and Emmy didn’t even try to contain the amusement they shared.

“You are a rare corker, Emmy,” Ian, like Dory, had taken to calling her by the name she preferred.  She wasn’t sure if he believed her but was sure that Dory must have said something to him.  Generally he was too good-natured to make a fuss.

“And, you see, there is one I am not used to,” she teased.  “I gather it means I’m pretty funny?”

“Very much so,” he agreed.  “I do so enjoy hearing you speak.  There is always an element of expectation involved waiting to see what will come next.”

“Glad I don’t disappoint.”  She twisted her lips mockingly.  Nothing was more