“There were gifts from my great-aunt over the years,” I explained. “However, the rest I have earned from my books,” I emphasized, since he seemed to be having some difficulty. “And I have saved most of it, after…”
“Yer father,” he commented, from what I had told him in the past about myself. And there was more, of course, that he had no doubt learned from my great-aunt.
“I promised myself, that I would always be able to take care of Linnie and myself, that I would never be dependent on anyone ever again.”
“And ye have done that, lass, and more. God knows, I could never fault ye for yer reasons.”
He leaned toward me and took my hands in his. “The most I earned as a police inspector with the MET before I left was three pounds seven shillings a week.”
“You did it for the money, of course.”
There was a quick flash of a smile at one corner of his mouth. “Of course. And some sort of need to help others because I knew that I could. To see things set right in some small way.”
And he had with the cases he took on, some of which paid very little, if anything. His way of giving back.
“Do you have a plan?”
“Perhaps. We will need to see what Herr Wagner is able to learn.”
His hands tightened around mine. He shook his head.
“It could be dangerous.”
What a surprise, considering what had already happened.
“Ye are more important to me than my life.”
When I would have replied, he shook his head. “Ye must let me say it.”
And when I didn’t interrupt further...
“I understand verra well that ye are an independent woman. I suppose I wouldna have ye any other way.” He brushed my cheek with his fingers. “Bein’ with ye is never uninteresting, to say the least. But here, in this place and this case, it may become necessary to buy our way out of here. I would have yer promise that ye will do as I ask until this is done. If I ask ye to leave, that ye will.”
I wanted to protest, to argue that the two of us in this situation were better than one by himself. After everything we’d said to one another, he was not ordering me. He was asking. It was a reminder of things I had forgotten in my anger. And he had said it, that I was more important to him than his own life.
I did understand, and it was easier that I thought it would be.
However…
“And if I ask you to leave, you will do so,” I replied. “I would have your promise.”
There was no argument. Instead, he pulled me to him and kissed me quite thoroughly.
I was wakened as Brodie moved about the room. It was quite early, light barely there at the edge of the drapes covering the windows, his shadow moving about as he found his trousers, then his boots. With a soft curse he looked for his shirt, a hand going back through that dark hair in frustration.
“On the floor by the armoire.” I remembered where I had last seen it. “That will teach you to hastily leave your clothes lying about.”
He apparently found his shirt, then returned to the bed, his shadow with those wide shoulders and the darker shadow of the fine dark hair on his chest. He bent and kissed me.
“And it’s seems ye left yer knickers on the floor as well, lass.”
“Whatever will the staff think?”
He stood abruptly. “It seems the staff have arrived.” He pulled on his shirt, then left the bedroom. I heard the sound as the door opened to the sitting room, and a brief exchange of conversation.
Brodie returned. “We are to meet with Herr Wagner in the main restaurant in one hour.” He looked at me as I left the bed.
“Have I told ye that I like yer hair down like that?”
