“I’ve done only what I thought best.” Thewords encompassed his actions not only that night but for most ofthe week.
“Do you think that excuses you?”
“I think much can be excused if it is donefor the right reasons.”
Sorcha humphed. “I’ll remember you saidthat.”
Chapter 37
“What the fuck? It’s one in the morning!”Hugh’s pounding on Danny’s door was met with those irritable wordsas it swung open.
Claire pursed her lips impatiently. “Oh,give it a rest. It’s not like you were asleep yet.”
He might not have been sleeping but he didlook like hell. “Claire? What are you doing here?” Danny scratchedhis head as he looked with confusion from his watch to thesuitcases they carried. “You’re supposed to meet Jake at the boatin like an hour.”
“Obviously there’s been a change of plans,lad,” Hugh said pleasantly, his present mood clearly a far sightbetter than either of the siblings’. “Would ye hae us stand in thehallway for the remainder of the night or might we come in?”
Danny must have realized that Hugh wasasking in a far more amiable manner than Claire might have, givenher fatigue and raw emotions, because he stepped back and wavedthem in without further comment.
“There were agents surveying the ferry,”Hugh continued before Claire could say anything more. “We managedtae evade them but our escape route was compromised.”
Danny frowned at that. “Why come here? Whydidn’t you just call me? I’m sure they would have held the boat foryou. You’ll never make it now.”
“I don’t intend to,” Claire said flatly butdidn’t offer anything further on her newly minted plan. Better notto alert either of them at this point and inadvertently compromiseher next escape route as well. “We can work it out tomorrow, butright now I just want to sleep. Can we use your room?”
“What if I was sleeping there?” Dannyasked.
Claire snorted at that, noting that thoughher brother was alone in the loft, a bank of active computermonitors cast the only light in the room. “Any sleep you get isprobably done between eight and noon. Do you mind? Please?”
“Well since you used the magic word …” Dannyshrugged and waved an arm toward one of the bedrooms and turned hisback on them to wander into the kitchen. He pulled out a can of RedBull before returning to his computer station, leaving them to maketheir own way.
They undressed in silence down to theirundergarments and Hugh pulled Claire tightly into his embrace asthey slipped under the tangled sheets. Absorbing the warmth of hispresence, she set to memorizing the feel of his body next to herswhile in the back of her mind she examined the variables of herplan. “Ye should sleep, lass.”
“How did you know I’m not?”
“Because ye keep wriggling yer arse againstme. What is on yer mind?”
“I keep wondering if the sheets aresanitary,” Claire quipped in a whisper and felt the warm rush ofHugh’s laughter against her hair.
“It looked clean enough,” he said. “I wouldwager he doesnae rest here often.”
“You’re probably right.”
Silence reigned for a moment with only thehum of electronics to break the peace. “I’m going to ask Danny totake you to Canada,” Claire said into the dark room, feeling Hugh’snegative response in the tightening of his body behind hers beforehe even spoke.
“Nae, my love. We will go on together asplanned.”
The denial of Claire’s newly conceivedOption C came as no surprise. In truth, she hadn’t expected him toaccept total abandonment as a possibility any easier now than hehad at the ferry terminal. At least now she wasn’t in a position tobe forcibly bent to his will.
But she couldn’t bend him to hers, either,which left them at an impasse of sorts. During the nearly two-hourdrive it had taken to get to her brother’s loft by swingingcompletely south of Puget Sound and traversing Tacoma, she hadweighed her options, hoping for inspiration. The term stubborn Scotwas something Claire had heard before, but with Hugh she now knewexactly what it meant. He was stalwart and implacable in the faceof her pleas to drive on without him. Even if she refused to drivethe car any further, there was nothing she could do to force him todrive it away from her. She was stuck with him, Hugh said, andthere was nothing she could do to change his mind.
But she had to try.
“A logical man, a manof reason,” shedrew out the word, “would see that you would have better successwithout me.”
“I suppose that would depend on how yedefine success,” he whispered into her ear. “If success tae me ishaving ye wi’ me and that instinct is pursuant tae my pleasure thenreason argues that I hae the right of it.”
Of course Hugh would pullout a classic argument of Voltaire’s from the enlightenment periodthat a man’s desire to pursue his personalhappiness above all else was instinctive and therefore reasonable. Self-entitled duke or not, Claire thought it was awfullyconvenient that he would argue such a thing now, and told himso, adding as she rolled onto her back tolook up at him, “That’s a pretty liberal interpretation of theoriginal philosophy. Voltaire didn’t mean that just because youwant something, that makes it all right.”
“Betwixt the two of us, who can better saywhat he meant?” Hugh argued, pushing himself up onto one elbow, hisfree hand splayed across her midsection. “Personal freedoms aregiven tae us by God and right.”
“This is no time for a philosophical debate,Hugh,” Claire said, though as with many conversations they’d hadover the past week, a thrill of challenge shot through her at thethought of engaging in just that. That they would do it half-nakedand in bed made it all the more interesting. There could be nothingsexier than Hugh arguing philosophy wearing nothing but his boxers,and nothing harder than making a logical argument due to thedistraction offered by the same. “A statement like that can lead toall sorts of arguments, like the rights of governments and monarchsover those personal liberties you use so
