“I’m sure Collin is pleased with them as well.”
Quinn blushed, not from Mavis’ comments, but from remembering just how pleased Collin had been.
“You look lovely, dear, and it fits perfectly,” Mavis said, coming to stand beside Quinn.
“I’ll be lucky if I don’t pass out.”
“You’ll live,” Mavis said, moving behind her to untie the torture device. “And you’ll be the prettiest Menzie at the ball.”
“I’m not a Menzie,” Quinn corrected her.
“No’ yet.”
“I’ll tell you what. You learn to make pizza, and I’ll consider coming back to visit, as long as you promise I won’t have to eat haggis.” Quinn chuckled, relievedher lungs had expanded as the garment loosened.
Quinn slipped back into her clothes as Mavis held the dress. “I’ll get this steamed and leave it in your room.”
Her room. Her room where the knife-wielding killer had been. “Uh…can you just leave it in Collin’s room?”
“Of course, dear. I just dinnae want to assume.”
“No assuming. I slept there last night, and apparently, someone entered my room while we were busy.” Multiple orgasms busy. She kept that comment to herself.
“Oh dear.” Her brows dipped, and her lips turned down. “Have you told Collin?”
Telling Collin would require a deeper conversation about the message that was left. Quinn still hadn’t decided what, if anything, to tell him. Her past was her past. She was proud of many things in her life, but Danny’s death wasn’t one of them. “Not yet. I don’t want to worry him.”
Mavis rested her palm on Quinn’s arm. “Trust Collin. He’s a good man.”
Quinn pasted her most sincere look on her face, which she normally reserved for funerals and her mother. “I do and I will, just not today. This party is a big deal for both clans, and I don’t want to start another clan war when he starts accusing everyone within earshot. Next thing you know, someone else will be painting apicture depicting me as the charlatan capable of breaking the bridge over the great divide. No, I think I’ll wait.”
The dress, along with the ruby broach, would be enough to incite an attack. An attack she could handle. Talking about the skeletons in her own closet? Not so much. Quinn turned to leave and paused at the door. “Can you make sure the dagger and sheath are included with the dress?
“Of course.”
“Thank you for this, and your secret.”
“All of my ancestors before me have taken care of the lady of the house. You might not officially be a Menzie, but you are the lady ofthishouse. The returned emerald confirms it.” Mavis smiled as if she knew something Quinn didn’t.
The woman was a bit delusional, but who was Quinn to call her out on the misconception? Quinn had done a good deed and returned the emerald. It wasn’t as though she’d come riding in on a white horse with a sword to slay a dragon.
Quinn gestured with her thumb over her shoulder. “I’ll be in the library if anyone needs me.”
“I’ll send in cookies and refreshments.”
An endless supply of cookies from Mavis, delusional though she may be, might have been worth the whole trip. Notto mention the sexy Highlander whose touch made her body sizzle. “Thanks.”
Quinn entered the humongous library. New and old books covered the floor-to-ceiling shelves. She stood overwhelmed by the sheer volume of books that waited. It was going to take her all day to find the magical book with the answers. A road map would have been nice.
Hours later, with a cookie in hand, she had cleared one wall looking for the intricate spine when she spotted a shadow by the door. She turned, and her heart stilled. Quinn clutched the cookie to her chest as if it would stop her impending heart attack.
The caretaker, Garth, stood on the threshold, blocking the entrance with his hands behind his back. She held his gaze, afraid to move, hell, afraid to breathe. That man could snap her like a twig. Without a word, he stepped into the room and came right toward her.
Quinn lifted her chin and refused to cower. “I’m Quinn.”
“I know who you are,” he answered in a deep, dark voice with his hands clutched behind his back. Did he have an ax ready to slice her in two? “You’re the one causing quite a stir.”
“Now listen here, you big lumberjack…” The words died on her lips as he moved closer, pinning her back against the wooden shelves. The sharp angles of the shelves and hard spines pressed into her skin. He reached over her head and slid a book back into place before grabbing another one.
