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For the first time he felt as if he was equal to the challenge.
* * *
Heather stared at the rucksack on her bed, filled with only the things she’d brought with her when she’d arrived at Lengroth Castle. She couldn’t take any of the things Cal had bought her. Not now.
It looked strangely empty, though.
She should have left already. She should have run the moment that Anna had gone from the castle. How could she stay now all their secrets were out?
Cal had spent a lifetime keeping his family’s secrets—and his forebears had been doing it for much longer. And she... She’d worked so hard always to do the right thing, never to make her father worry, never to bring gossip and talk to his door—until this year.
This year she’d thrown caution to the wind—twice—and given up everything she’d fought for since her mother had left in her own cloud of disgrace.
The moment Anna published news of the Lengroth scandal—online or in print—Heather’s name would be out there. And so would her misdeeds.
She had to get home to her father and tell him before he heard it from someone else. But she had to talk to Cal first. Which was why she was still standing there, staring at a half-empty rucksack as if it reflected her own half-empty heart.
‘The kids are in bed.’
Cal’s quiet voice behind her made her jump. She spun to see him standing in the open doorway, leaning against the doorframe, his amber eyes watchful.
‘I’m sorry. I should have stayed with you. But I needed to—’
‘Pack,’ Cal interrupted, his gaze flicking to the rucksack.
‘Think,’ she corrected. ‘And I wasn’t going to leave without talking to you first.’
‘But you are going to leave.’ His eyes weren’t watchful any longer. They were hard. ‘You said you weren’t going to do that.’
Heather swallowed. ‘My contract with you finishes next week anyway. You’re sending the kids away, remember?’
Cursing under his breath, Cal crossed the room and took her hands. ‘Do you really think things are the same as they were at the start of this summer? Heather, everything has changed.’
‘Does that mean you’re going to pay me anyway? Even if I leave a few days early?’ she joked, but Cal didn’t seem to find it funny.
‘You can take all the money you want if you’re insisting on leaving. I’d hoped... I’d thought we could talk tonight. Come up with a plan for what happens next.’
Heather gave a small bitter laugh. ‘We both heard what Ryan and Daisy said to Anna. I think we know what happens next. The whole country finds out that I slept with a married man, got knocked up from my one-night stand with him, then came here to seduce his brother and win over his other kids. My father will spiral into despair at my actions, and I will become an absolute outcast and a scandal.’
She’d seen it before. Her mother would have been forced to leave the village in the end—even if she hadn’t taken off with her lover. It would have become untenable for her to stay.
Just as it was for Heather now.
‘It doesn’t have to be that way,’ Cal offered.
Heather shook her head. ‘You know better than that, Cal. How can I walk into Lengroth with Daisy and Ryan now, with everyone knowing who I am and what I’ve done?’
‘With me at your side,’ Cal said, squeezing her hands as he dropped to one knee. ‘Heather, stay here and marry me.’
A chill swept through Heather as if the Lengroth ghost had walked right through her. That poor woman who’d been knocked up by the old Earl and murdered when she’d tried to tell the truth about it.
Now here was Cal, offering her everything that any woman could have wanted—and Heather knew she couldn’t take it.
‘I can’t—’ Her voice broke on the words.
‘Why?’ Cal didn’t move from his knee. ‘We can make this work, Heather—you’ve taught me that. You’ve taught me that I can love, even if my parents never could. I know I can do this now—be a parent to Ryan and Daisy, love them the way they need to be loved. And if I can do that maybe I can even have a happy marriage—as long as it’s with you. You’ve shown me that it’s not always what we do that hurts others, it’s the secrets we keep. So I’m not going to keep secrets any more. I’m going to shout the truth from the turrets of this cursed castle.’
