He pursed his lips. “I’m never going to live that down, am I?”
“We’ll see how the rest of the winter goes.”
He supposed they would, though if he had anything to say about it, he would have his problem solved far sooner than the full arrival of a hard winter.
“Feeling pulled?” she asked.
He had to get up and pace a bit. “I might be.”
“I’m ready whenever you are.”
“Let’s go find some dinner, then we’ll catch a late train.” He didn’t add that he was almost tempted to try to sleep for a change. He wasn’t going to be worth anything to anyone if he didn’t and he was finding that he had a very good reason to want to stay alive.
He helped Emma put books back in their proper places, let his secretary know he was on his way out of town for a few days—grateful he didn’t have to explain the same yet again to his business partner—and didn’t waste any time getting to the station with Emma.
There was something he loved about being on a train. It was the perfect combination of the opportunity to sleep along with the chance to think. He sat in a comfortable seat, held Emma’s hand, and watched the moonlight spilling down on the countryside they passed through. He glanced at Emma to find her watching not the countryside but him instead. He smiled.
“Enjoying the view?”
“If I thought you were really that conceited, I would tease you about it.”
“I’ve no doubt you would,” he said. He shifted to look at her. “I texted Patrick earlier to come get his little runabout you’ve been using.”
“Thinking of stranding me in my cottage now, are you?”
“We’ll pick your car up on our way home,” he said. “Andjust so you don’t think I’ll be turning my back on you any time soon, I booked us all the way through to Inverness. I’ll have Brian pay one of his flunkies to go fetch mine from the airport in Edinburgh.”
“You’re in a hurry.”
“I’ve never been in less of a hurry for anything, if you know what I’m getting at,” he admitted. “But I can’t deny that I feel like I’m late for an appointment.”
“I won’t go with you this time,” she said quietly.
“You’re damned right you won’t. You’ll sit by the fire like a proper medieval clanswoman and wait for your man to do his duty. This time and every other time until I solve this.”
“If you like.”
He wasn’t sure how that acquiescence, if that’s what it was, made him feel, but he was fairly sure it didn’t make him feel any better.
She had seen Gerald and potentially not in the current day. He wasn’t sure where to even begin with that. The last thing he wanted was to scour the MacLeod forest inanycentury looking for his daft cousin who likely wanted him dead.
He closed his eyes and enjoyed the feeling of Emma’s hand in his. He liked the idea of her having a car parked in front of the cottage down the road from his. It felt permanent, which he liked, but it left her near him, which he liked but didn’t like at the same time.
He was starting to feel torn in two in a way he never had before.
He had the feeling that the sooner he had his answers, the better.
Chapter 23
Emmastood in her small living room and looked at the wall in front of her. She still had things to add to what was already taped there, but it was a start.
She was looking for a pattern.
She contemplated what was there a bit longer, then forced herself to walk into the kitchen and get something to drink. She’d been staring at the same things all morning without anything new coming to her. Sometimes letting her mind work on the problem while she was doing something else was the way her best breakthroughs were made. The trouble was, she wasn’t sure what she could be doing. Walks were out, she couldn’t even check her email, and pacing in her house was about to drive her crazy.
She finally took her life in her hands and walked out onto her little porch. It was cold, very true, but she had the coat Nathaniel had bought her, as well as clothes she hadn’t needed but he’d insisted on purchasing for her anyway while they’d been in New York.
She had to admit dinner with his brother and a decent show that had had nothing to do with anything but someone else’s reality had been a welcome relief as well. She’d felt like they were just a normal couple out on an enjoyable date. She’d actually slept on the plane back to London, confident that she would wake up in the same century.
