“My father’s Bugatti.”
He looked at her in surprise. “Is that so?”
“I’m not a fan,” she said. “Too showy. But I have driven it more than he realizes.” She held out her hand for the keys. “I’ll pull your Range Rover inside and not tweak you about this one.”
Which was exactly why he might well hand her the keys at some point. He pulled his car out, waited for her to pull his Rover into the same spot, then transferred their gear. He locked the garage up, half wondering why he bothered, then got them out of Inverness with as little fuss as possible. He glanced at Emma to find that she was watching him.
“Should I be nervous?” he asked.
“I’m just wondering about you.”
“I’m not sure I want to know why, so let’s talk about you instead. But let me find us a hovel to stay in first. I have a mate who has some connections that might suit us.”
That was a gross mischaracterization of the reality, but that was probably something he would be better off not telling her at the moment. Brian did, after all, have a handful of little boutique places where Emma might be willing to stay if she didn’t know their price. He spared a kind thought for whomever had decided a satellite phone was a good thing to put in his car, then waded through a pair of assistants to get to his end goal.
“Nat,” the disembodied voice said with a laugh. “You lazy sod, where have you been? Slumming in some Caribbean resort?”
“My pasty-arsed self says nay,” Nathaniel said dryly. “Brian, I have a friend with me who is listening to every vile thing you say, so watch your mouth.”
“Ah, awomanfriend?”
“Aye, and I’m trying to impress her with my good taste in mates, so, again, mind your manners. I need a pair of rooms in the city and a place for my car.”
Brian laughed. “Of course you do. Don’t you have a secretary for this sort of thing?”
“I don’t, which you already know, and you owe me, which is why I called you personally,” Nathaniel said. “Pay your assistant a bonus to find me something close to the castle, will you?”
“Done. I’ll text you details. I’ll meet you for drinks if you have an hour or two free whilst you’re here.”
“Absolutely,” Nathaniel said. “Cheers.” He hung up, then looked at Emma to find her watching him. He smiled. “Business mate.”
“What do you do? I’m guessing you’re not making payments on this thing.”
“I invest,” he admitted. He started to elaborate, then realized she had gone a bit still. “Not a fan of that sort of thing?”
“It’s what my father does,” she said with a shrug. “Big money behind the scenes. He’s a bit abrasive, though, which is why others do his talking for him.”
“I know the type,” he said. Actually, he was related to that type in the person of his illustrious paternal grandfather. He didn’t particularly fancy talking about that grandfather, who he’d fairly recently made a second career out of avoiding, so he pushed on to other things. “I am not a scorched-earth sort, if that eases your mind any.”
“Your friend seemed to like you.”
“He has no taste,” Nathaniel said, “so I’m not sure I would take his opinion very seriously.” He blew past a trio of lorries cluttering up the road, then settled in for a long drive made with reasonable adherence to the speed limit. “Your father sounds like he’s made enough to buy himself a nice little runabout. Along with the lads to polish it up, no doubt.” He shot her a look. “You needn’t give me details if you don’t care to.”
“Oh, I’ll complain about him all day,” she said with a faint smile. “Tell me if you get bored.”
“Not any time soon. Press on, lass, and pray let him have dealt out just deserts to someone who deserved it.”
She snorted. “I’m not sure he’s deep enough to factor that into anything he does, but I’ll be happy to share some of the juicier details.”
He had to admit after listening to her for a good part of the journey south that her father sounded like a first-rate—well, perhaps there wasn’t even any point in calling the man uncomplimentary names. He was someone, Nathaniel decided, who he wouldn’t want to share a meal with. He might, however, want to see if there were something of his grandfather’s that Emma’s father might want. Watching those two scrap over a choice piece of property might be worth the effort of setting the meeting up. Something to tick off his to-do list at some point, definitely.
“So let me understand this,” he said slowly. “Your da paid for law school and had the keys to your Jaguar—”
“A perfectly restored ’67,” she interrupted. “And he hadn’t paid for school,Ihad paid for school with an inheritance from my grandmother. The car was my prize for passing the bar.” She sighed deeply. “It was a beautiful car.”
“Of course,” he said. “So, you had passed the bar, he was holding out your keys, and then tell me again what you did? I’m sure my ears failed me at that point in your story.”
“I told him I didn’t want to be a lawyer,” she said. She paused. “I might have told him to go to hell as well. I’m a bit foggy on that part.”
