“Back in the…?”
Emmy gestured to the couple noting that Ian’s hand was resting lightly on Dory’s back and absently creeping lower. Seeing the earl noticed with movement as well she arched a brow at him.
“Ahh, I see,” and indeed he did. She had nosed in on another person’s personal problem and tried to fix it. Amazing that most of her solutions were such simple ones. ‘Let it go’, ‘make love’. The doctor seemed to give good advice. The Dory he knew would never allow herself to behave in such an unseemly manner in public. Yet there she was now cozying up to his brother while he had his hand nearly on her arse. Incredible. He said as much to Emmy. “Dory’s not a bad sort, I think,” Emmy said eying the couple much as he was. “Just a bit retentive and OCD about things.” Feeling his questioning gaze turn to her, she offered. “She’s a control freak.”
Connor laughed out loud freely drawing the incredulous looks of his entire family. “That she is! That she is! Brilliant! Och, Heather lass, what a corker ye are!”
“Thank you, I think,” she accepted his praise and sipped her wine studying him as he reigned in his amusement. The laughter, though it had clearly surprised him, had lit Connor’s face allowing the years to fall away. Her eyes caressed his face. How beautiful he was! His dark eyes danced with light and humor, his lips still tipped up at the corner showing his white teeth. “Look at you, Connor,” she whispered. “For a moment there you looked almost happy.”
He reached out and caressed her cheek with his thumb. “For a moment there I almost was.”
The butler called the assembled to dinner and the earl cocked his arm to her and she took it gladly as they moved into the dining room. “Felt good, didn’t it?”
It did, he thought, looking forward to a meal for the first time in a decade. It did.
Chapter 15
Connor couldn’t remember the last time he had enjoyed a meal more. Heather had kept him amused with stories of her time in the Americas. It seemed she was a ‘big fan’ of baseball, a sport which he knew nothing about. She related it to cricket and he was able to grasp some of the basic principles of the game. She enjoyed watching these games in person, she said but preferred football on the ‘TV’. She made Baltimore sound like the most wondrous place on earth, he thought, and considered that he might enjoy going there with her some time to see all the places she spoke of.
He lingered only briefly over his whiskey, eager to join Heather in the parlor to continue their conversation. She amused him so completely with her stories and touched him with the depth of her caring for the women she treated. She had told him how she was joining a new medical practice when she returned from her holiday and Connor had known almost instantly that he didn’t want her to leave again. He wanted her to stay in Duart permanently…with him. What did that mean? Did he really want to try marriage again? Certainly not! How utterly appalling to even consider it!
Yet as he entered the parlor and saw her seated at the piano concentrating on the piece she was playing, he was not so sure.
He listened to her music for a moment before wandering over to the piano. He recognized the tune ‘Climbing over Rocky Mountain’ from Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Pirates of Penzance which he had seen in London several years before. She played the lively tune with spirit and a grin on her face. Clearly she was enjoying herself. “Having fun?” he asked anyway taking a seat next to her on the bench.
Emmy had watched him saunter over with a relaxed half-smile on his face where only moments before a nearly horrified expression had taken hold. She wondered what he had been thinking about, but didn’t dare ask. Whatever it was, it wasn’t pleasant. “I am,” she answered his question as she reached the end of the piece. “How did you like it?”
“Very well done,” he complimented sincerely. “Ye play with spirit and joy.”
“Six years of lessons.”
“I saw that opera when it opened at the Opera Comique in London.”
“Did you? Lucky you.” She tickled out a few notes feeling a bit of envy. “I just love musical theater and a good show tune. I’ve taken the train up to New York a few times to see some shows. Saw Wicked a few months ago. It was wonderful.”
“Can’t say I have heard of that one.”
“No,” she sighed, her earlier depression slipping back over her at the reminder of where she was. “I don’t imagine that you have.” Well, of course he hadn’t!
She seemed so morose for a moment that Connor scooted closer to her and took her hand in his. “Are ye alright then?”
Emmy gave him a half-smile and shrugged. “Just a little homesick, I guess. Do you want me to play something else for you?”
Allowing her to change the subject, Connor affirmed and watched as she stared at the ceiling for a moment before she launched into a slower melody. “Ye’re good, ye know,” he offered. “I didn’t even know ye play.”
“Mmmm-hmm,” she responded in time to the music. “And the guitar, too. Mom always insisted that music developed good math skills. She had read some study on that years ago and thought better safe than sorry.”
“I have never heard of any such thing.” He listened to her play for several minutes watching her hands as they moved lightly over the keys. “Ye two must have been particularly close.”
“I miss her every day,” Emmy admitted. “It’s hard not having any family left.”
“Ye have Dory,” he corrected.
Emmy glanced over at her ‘twin’ sister who was almost giggling as Ian whispered in her
