“I do, but I still admire your instinct to rush to the aid of others.” Especially since he’d trainedhimself to look after his own survival first. And on more than one occasion, looking to his own well-being and learning how to fend for himself had kept him alive.
“Thank you.” She busied herself resettling her cuffs, pushing in strands of hair that had come loose, and generally ignoring him. Then turned and asked, “Why were you in an East End clinic?”
Oh, she was good. At deflecting her unease with praise toward a new topic, but also giving him cause to reveal more of his history with her searching green eyes and endless curiosity. But he was just as skilled at deflecting unwanted attention.
“You’re not a lady who particularly likes praise, are you?”
“I do.” Her tone rose to a defensive pitch, then she sighed, which he took as an admission. “I like it as much as anyone, I suspect. But what you said about helping others. I’m not sure I deserve that praise. Especially since I came to Scotland to escape it.”
Before he had time to make sense of her comment, the train arrived at the station and the moment it came to a stop, passengers were out of their seats, collecting luggage and moving toward the doors.
“We’re here.” She breathed the words and had that same dreamy look as the first moment he’d laid eyes on her. Though she’d already been to Waverley Station, so once they were off the train, she was more than happy to find their way to the street.
“The Camera Obscura is at the Outlook Tower, and it’s this way according to my map.” She twisted her travel guide in her hands and showed him the map.
But he trusted her navigational skills and had no interest in the map. Only in her and the joy she seemed to find in things as simple as a flower seller’s cart overflowing with hothouse blooms under the chilly autumn sky.
“Would you like some?”
“No, where would I put them while we’re at the tower?”
Her practicality made him chuckle, especially since he’d always considered himself the practical sort.
“When we’re heading back to Invermere then.”
“That would be lovely.” She reached for his arm, then hesitated.
To anyone watching, they must seem a courting couple. James hated that he couldn’t truly offer her anything so formal and simple. He offered his arm anyway and savored the moment she slid her hand in the crook of his elbow. Savored the fact that she trusted him and allowed him the privilege of having her body pressed against his.
Courtship or not, he wanted to touch her not because it was what was expected, but because she was becoming the only thing he thought about, day and night.
She walked quickly, and even with his long-legged stride, she tugged him along.
“Don’t worry. We arrived in good time and have hours before the return train.”
“I don’t want you to have to rush your meeting with the solicitor.”
“We have no set time, and if I must, I’ll merely leave a message for the man directing him to have the surveyor sent immediately.” James stopped her, guiding her off the pavement toward the awning of a shop. “Today is for you to savor.”
Unspoken emotion made her eyes glitter. She didn’t smile, but her mouth softened. For a moment, she looked away from him.
“Us,” she said with quiet determination. “A day for us to savor. To remember.”
He would remember each day, each moment he’d spent with her, but neither of them wanted to say aloud what it seemed they were both thinking. And that suited James just fine.
“Then let’s go make it memorable.”
Lucy kept looking back as they climbed the tower that housed the Camera Obscura to make sure James was still behind her. There’d been a moment on the sidewalk when something seemed to catch his eye, and he’d been distracted since.
But he was there each time she looked back, smiling up at her. “Keep going. I want to see it.”
She did too. They’d already been at the site for nearly half an hour, reviewing the lower floors thatcontained exhibits detailing history and points of interest in Scotland.
The Camera Obscura was bigger than she expected, an enormous concave bowl that reflected an actual view of Edinburgh at that moment.
James stood behind her, his hand warm and comforting at the small of her back, while they waited their turn to be among the half dozen visitors who could circle around the reflective bowl at once.
When their time finally came, James let her stand close and took a spot behind her as a lady in an enormous, plumed hat took up far more space than she should have.
