“I came to tell you something,” he said, stepping back from her. He couldn’t touch her without wanting her. At her look, he smiled. “You’ll hear I’m taking my airship up tomorrow.”
Her expression was carefully expressionless, but he knew to look in her eyes.
“I came to tell you not to worry,” he said, tracing his finger along her jaw.
She looked away, her view of the abandoned crofter’s hut evidently of great interest. Finally, she turned to face him, her regard steady and unwavering.
“How do I do that?” she asked.
“Trust me to know what I’m doing,” he said.
Again, that look.
She nodded, finally, almost a reluctant concession.
He didn’t care how he protected Veronica but protect her he would. He wasn’t a borrowed Scot, damn it. He was as stubborn, determined, and as Scots in his way as Veronica was in hers.
Afew hours later, Veronica decided she was not going to tolerate this behavior from Montgomery anymore. He could not reveal the secret of his past in Virginia one moment and, in the next, retreat into silence. He’d not come to dinner. She hadn’t seen him since this afternoon.
She was going to have to tell him exactly what she wanted. If, in time, she divulged her emotions, then so be it.
He would know she’d fallen in love with him.
Perhaps he wouldn’t ridicule her, but he might get that look in his eyes, the one that said she confused him. But if he thought he was going to push her away again, however, she was having none of it.
She dressed in her new emerald dress, a shade that brought out the green of her eyes and made them sparkle. Since Elspeth had not yet returned, and since she hadn’t wanted to bother Mrs. Brody for a temporary replacement, she left her hair loose, spread over her shoulders.
She took the servants’ stairs to the back of the house since she didn’t want to be seen heading toward the distillery. They should call the building something different going forward. The Airship Building, perhaps.
The distillery was dark when she stood in the doorway, but before she could call out for Montgomery, she found herself grabbed and hauled bodily behind a kettle. She would have screamed if a hand hadn’t suddenly clamped over her mouth.
“What are you doing here?” Montgomery whispered, relaxing his hand.
“Looking for you,” she whispered back. She turned in his arms. “Why are we whispering? And why are we in the dark?”
When he didn’t speak, she slapped her head against his chest. “Talk to me, Montgomery.”
“I’m laying a trap.”
“Why?”
“I know who sabotaged my airship,” he said.
“Were you going to tell me?” she asked.
“No.”
She took a step away from him. “You weren’t?”
“Not until it was over,” he said.
She folded her arms in front of her.
He grabbed her and pulled her close.
“I didn’t want you involved,” he said softly, “because you could get hurt. He’s after me, not you.”
“I don’t want you hurt, either,” she said, standing stiff within his embrace.
