A nervous, little laugh escaped Miss Windermere. No small amount of relief in that laugh.
Unluckily, she overcompensated to the right and tilted off-balanceentirely, tumbling off the ladder and falling?—
Into arms Rory only just got into cradling position in the nick of time.
He was no small man, but his knees nearly buckled beneath him when the full force of her weight hit. Though tall and willowy, Miss Windermere didn’t lack substance.
Warm body snugged against him, face inches from his, he met her direct emerald gaze. His lungs forgot how to breathe and his heart forgot how to beat and the Earth might’ve forgot how to turn on its axis.
Her hair had come loose from its knot at the base of her neck and now spilled over her shoulders in waves of black silk, releasing a scent of sage and jasmine. Miss Windermere’s scent, he now knew.
What intriguing intimacies she’d unwittingly shared with him—the scent of her…the feel of her.
He’d been holding her for a few ticks of time too long.
But he didn’t seem to know how to stop, for she felt…right…in his arms.
Then Delilah was there, and he was releasing Miss Windermere.
Physically.
The memory of her wouldn’t be so easily surrendered.
He found himself talking, his voice a gruff approximation of itself. “Shall I collect you here on the morrow for our, erm, wander-about? Ten of the clock?”
“Or,” she began, “perhaps it would be easier for your morning duties if I meet you at Baile Ìm around midday tea?”
He nodded. That was most considerate of her.
Delilah’s eyebrows crinkled so deeply on her forehead, they might’ve left a permanent indentation. “Wander-about?What wander-about?”
“Kilmuir has volunteered to show me places similar to those Scáthach would’ve experienced,” Miss Windermerelied, cool.
“Did he?” This from Ravensworth, who was watching the proceedings with entirely too much knowing in his eyes.
But the man didn’t know anything, and Rory intended to keep it that way.
Whatever was happening between him and Miss Windermere…
He felt oddly protective of it.
And he had a feeling it wouldn’t bear up against too much scrutiny.
It was time to leave. But he had one more thing to say to Miss Windermere. “You’ll not be placing any more flowers today, correct?”
She drew herself up to her full height. “As it happens, I shall not.”
He nodded. “I’m off.”
“I’ll take that as my cue, as well,” said Ravensworth.
Both men pivoted on their respective heels and didn’t speak again until they were outside beneath a sky just beginning to accept the idea that it would have to turn into night eventually.
“Where are we going?” asked Ravensworth. The man might rub some people up the wrong way with his dukely imperative, but those people didn’t know him for the friend Rory knew him to be. Sebastian was loyal and protective, almost to a fault.
“To find the nearest loch to jump into.”
A laugh rumbled at his side. “Can’t think of a better idea.”
