Adam started in surprise. What Trenton said was true. His wind machine certainly could help bring power to rural areas. But how had the man known of it? He looked over at Rachel. There was no way she had time to tell him of it, had she? He felt a twinge of ire at the thought of her sharing his work with her father, though he hadn’t exactly asked her to keep it a secret.
She shook her head almost imperceptibly at him, however, telling him that no, she had not said a word. He looked back at the man, saying nothing, but allowing him to continue.
“I should like you to come to London. Come share your work with my partner. He will know more about how best to incorporate it into our operations. You will be paid handsomely, of course, if anything should come of it. Why, perhaps you can even join our business, could he not, Thompson?”
Vincent did not look convinced, but remained silent.
“Father,” Rachel asked for him, as Adam sat there mutely, rather taken aback at the conversation. “How do you know of Adam’s work?”
“Adam? My, how we’ve become familiar with our hosts,” said Trenton with a glint in his eye. “When I was at Galbury Castle I happened upon some of his work. It was meant to be, I suppose!”
“You let yourself into my workshop?” Adam asked, gritting his teeth. There was no way anyone at the castle would have allowed a stranger into the building they knew Adam was so protective of.
“You could say I was led there,” the man said, letting out a bellow of laughter which shook the jowls of his cheeks. “Come, now, my boy, does it really matter? What matters now is the future! We have it within our reach. We return to London in two days’ time. What do you say?”
Adam wasn’t sure how to respond. He didn’t trust the man, that was for certain. Yet if what he said was true, this was an opportunity to make a difference in the lives of many, to bring power to them and move them forward in the future. For once, the countryside would not be left behind, but rather, would be as advanced as the city folk.
“I would never work without being a partner myself and the Highlands would have to be serviced first,” he finally said, not committing either way. “But besides that, my invention… it’s not finished.”
“Aha!” said the man, pointing his finger and nearly jumping out of his chair as if it he found the key to what he had been searching for. “That’s the beauty of this! Together we can finish it. Together, we can find the answers you are searching for, as I have the resources at my disposal to help. We will create a partnership in its truest form. Will you come?”
Adam wasn’t sure what to say. There was something off about the man, something that greatly bothered him — there had been since the moment he arrived on their land. But then he looked at the woman sitting beside him, her wide eyes framed by the petite face and freckles that had emerged from her time in the sun to cover her nose. She looked at him, so hopeful, and he realized he could not say no to her unspoken question.
“Aye,” he finally answered. “I’ll come.”
17
As the train clattered into the station, Rachel couldn’t help the mad beating of her heart that seemed to be keeping time with it. When her father had told her just weeks ago that he was coming to Scotland, she had felt something calling to her from this land, a land she knew hardly anything of. However, she could never have imagined what would await her. Her life had changed so drastically in just a couple of short weeks since she left the city she had always known, the city she had grown up in. She had left as a girl and was returning as a young woman with a man by her side.
Well, make that men, for Vincent was still persistently present. However, she no longer cared, as long as Adam was there too. She wasn’t sure exactly how deep her feelings for him ran. She was inexplicably attracted to him — to his dark good looks, the mysterious smile that would sometimes cross his face. And yet when he had asked her, in that moment, to stay with him, she had felt a moment of panic.
It was too much, too soon. Rachel had always done what had been asked of her, what was expected, despite the desire for something more that always seemed to gnaw at her. Now that the more was here, she hardly knew what to do with it, and she felt like a fool.
She had hardly seen Adam over the past two days. She hadn’t gone out hunting, of course, and besides that, he was no longer leading the expeditions. She wondered what his family was thinking of this venture. It was only temporary, as far as she knew, but the McDougalls were so close that it must have been hard for them to see him go, and on such short notice.
She looked over at him, where he sat across from her in the dining car. His dark eyes bore into her, and he gave her a half grin as he swayed back and forth in rhythm with the wheels starting their slow grind over the tracks.
Their time together in the hunting cottage, short as it was, almost seemed like it had never happened. It was as if it were a dream, when time had stood still and magic had brought them together. It had felt so right, so
