She smiled and it smote him directly to what heart he had left. “Thank you for the day.”
“It was most definitely my pleasure.”
Her smile faltered a bit. “I don’t want you to go, but I don’t know how to ask you to stay.”
He shook his head. “You need to sleep in a bed tonight, not sit with me next to the fire. I’ll be back first thing in the morning.”
She nodded, but didn’t move. He was acutely aware of the fact that the laird of the hall was standing with his back to his fire, no doubt marking any possible missteps for later payback in his lists. He looked at Mairead, considered, then thrust out his hand.
She looked at him and slowly put her hand into his. “Are you unwell?” she ventured.
“I’m saving myself a skewering from your grandfather.”
“Ah,” she said slowly. “I see. I thought—”
He considered, ignored Jamie’s pointed clearing of his throat from across the hall, then stepped forward and put his arms around her. That she put her arms around his waist and held him tightly was, he had to admit, one of the better moments of the day.
“I’ll take you to the shore tomorrow,” he whispered, “and we’ll talk about anything you want. If you leave your blade in the car, I might even attempt a chaste kiss or two.”
She laughed a little, then pulled away and looked at him uneasily. “I’m likely looking too far above myself.”
He took her hands in his. “Mairead, I want you to choose your path, but I would be lying if I didn’t tell you that I would very much like that path to include me.”
“In truth?”
“In truth.”
She smiled. “As you will, then, Oliver.”
“Sleep well, Mairead.”
She nodded and stepped back. He pulled the door shut, took a deep breath, then jumped a little at the shadow that detached itself from the side of the hall. He supposed he was fortunate he managed to stumble down the stairs without landing on his face at the bottom of them as a result, but luck was with him in that at least.
“You,” Ewan Cameron said, “are pathetic.”
Oliver scowled at him. “And what would you have done?”
“I would have kissed her and dared James MacLeod to stick me for it.”
Oliver refrained from pointing out that Ewan had definitely not faced Jamie over blades only because he didn’t want to think about all the things Ewan had been keeping from the whole bloody, clueless lot of them.
“I also made you a lengthy list of useful dating ideas for your Life Manual. Didn’t you read it?”
“I was going to,” Oliver muttered.
Ewan ruffled his hair, then stepped smoothly out of the range of Oliver’s hand that would have delivered a friendly yet bracing slap. “I would study it closely before tomorrow morning. Let’s get you home so you can do that.”
He caught up with Ewan and walked back up the meadow. Day One of Mairead MacLeod’s Flawless Future Adventure was successfully in the can, which was a relief. He could only hopeDay Two would go as well, which might necessitate a reading of Ewan’s notes. He shook his head. His life was no longer his own, it seemed. Who would have suspected that his Horrible Highland Holiday would swerve so fully into things he never would have expected?
He might have to write his mates a thank-you note almost entirely free of foul words and promises of gross bodily harm for sending him on it in the first place.
Twenty-two
Mairead sat in the frontof the automobile Jamie had loaned them for their journey to the shore and divided her time between watching the scenery go by at speeds she never could have imagined in her lifetime and watching Oliver, fresh-scrubbed, braw lad that he was, driving that same contraption apparently without thinking anything of it.
She smoothed her hands over her skirts and considered her own condition. She’d presented herself very early at Elizabeth’s door, taking the lady of the hall up on the invitation to be turned into a proper Future miss. She’d subjected herself quite willingly to all the bathing and grooming duties Elizabeth had guaranteed would leave her looking like the gels she’d seen in the village, though they’d both agreed she didn’t need to copy the very short skirts and too-tall shoes.
She’d been pleased to see that her eyes were a lovely green much like Patrick and Jamie’s and that the rest of her features were not as unattractive as Kenneth’s. Then again, that one had brawled endlessly where she had definitely not, so there was that. She was nervous about the crookedness of her lower teeth, especially when compared to Elizabeth’s, but there was nothing to be done about that save hope Oliver wouldn’t notice.
