“Gowns?” Now Emmy was the one repeating words.
“Aye, we dress for dinner and you will be expected to join us tomorrow evening.”
“If I’m still here,” she murmured under her breath then shrugged. “Well, I haven’t worn a ‘gown’ since I went to the Sigma Chi Sweetheart Ball in college.” Emmy chuckled with rueful humor. “It’ll be just like prom night.”
Dorcas again looked puzzled by the mysterious words, but simply shook her head. “The American terminology you’ve adopted is most strange. The bellpull is over there next to the bed. I will assign a maid to aid you. Breakfast is served until eleven in the morning. I would advise that you do not attempt to flee into the night. That would only serve to upset the laird more.”
“I have nowhere else to go,” Emmy answered honestly. Truly she was stuck here until she could find a way back to the ferry, to her hotel…to her own time.
Emmy stripped down to her camisole and panties, found her toothbrush in her tote and made use of the quaint bathroom. After trying the chain pull on the toilet several times, she washed her face, brushed her long hair and put it in a ponytail. A maid brought her a long, conservative nightgown which she donned over her underclothes as the maid ogled them curiously and got into bed as the girl left turning down the light as she went. She lie cozened down in the deep feather mattress and warm comforters, thanked God for the warm flannel nightgown and tried to plan her departure. But thoughts of escape were not what came to her mind. Instead visions of the laird filled her.
This man, this laird, Connor MacLean, was unlike any man she had met before. He was raw masculinity, not just in his bulging muscles and rough handsomeness, but in his demeanor. He was a ruler and not in a tidy corporate CEO kind of way. It was powerful and magnetic. Emmy was fairly certain that he did not have a feminine side let alone one that he was in touch with, but just the same, his dominating persona was fascinating.
“Connor,” she whispered imagining him sweeping her into his arms. “Why would any woman want to leave you?” she wondered aloud. If he engendered feelings such as these in most females, he must be surrounded by women. Of course, it was possible that he was a serious asshole or something. Possible. Likely? She wasn’t sure.
Trying to focus on the negative, Emmy again found herself wondering about the other possibilities Connor represented. “Ugh!” she moaned burying her head in the pillow. “I will never again go five years without sex if this is how the first hot guy I see affects me!” she promised herself and slid into a night of erotic dreams excited by the sound of rain and thunder from outside.
Connor leaned against the door that connected his own with those where Heather now slept. The earl’s suite. He wasn’t sure why he had brought her to those rooms earlier, the countess’ chambers. What had possessed him to open them up again other than the fact that she had come back? But he had and just knowing that a mere door separated them was driving him mad.
He could not remember wanting Heather so badly before. When he had first met Heather, she had just arrived at Duart for their wedding. It was arranged, of course. The wish of his father and hers. Heather had been dismayed by him upon their introduction, though he had never known why. She had been pretty, but shy and haughty. He had felt no great desire for her; only resolve to have the thing done. He had spent a day with her, giving her a tour of the castle. It had been a near ruin at that time with the restoration his father had planned in its infant stages. She had been distressed with her future home as well. She had been withdrawn yet critical. Disdainful of everything at Duart, including him. The next day, he had stood with her before the altar and said his vows knowing it made her as miserable as it did himself.
And then she had been gone.
Now she had returned. It was if she had become a different person in the intervening years. Of course, she had been just a girl then, not the woman she was now. Time had served her well. Her appeal and the attraction he felt for her now were strong. Stronger than any he could remember ever experiencing in his life. He desired her. No, he simply wanted her. What she had said downstairs tore through him again. She had come back to be with him. Why? Why now? On this day? The questions stopped him. Held him. He could open this door now and demand his rights as a husband everyone thought him to be. Complete what had not been consummated before. Gain relief from the lust that held him in its thrall.
But he knew what held him back.
He needed to talk to her but he also needed to talk to his solicitor. Only his solicitor, Conrad Baines, was aware that Connor had had this marriage annulled two years ago. Only Mr. Baines knew the woman next door was in fact, no longer his wife in truth or under law. He didn’t know why he had lied to her other than pure rage at her appearance. Perhaps it had been curiosity over her arrival or…something else. He didn’t know what is was but it served those mysterious purposes to have her think of him as her husband.
Chapter 6
Emmy woke early the next morning
