The Heir’s Chosen Bride

CHAPTER NINE

HAMISH went upstairs. He paused by Marcia’s door, feeling bad. He knocked lightly and opened the door a crack. Marcia was on the phone, her laptop on her knees, listening intently to the person at the end of the line and staring at her screen. She looked up briefly, saw it was him and blew him a kiss, using the phone instead of fingers.

He wasn’t wanted. He closed the door and went to his own room.

Bed.

Sleep?

It was nowhere to be found.

Why had he kissed her? It wasn’t as if he could possibly take this any further. It was so unsuitable. Hell, if he married Susie she’d expect…

More than a telephone kiss good-night?

It could never work. He thought of the house he’d grown up in, a house full of hysterical women who had used their emotions to manipulate everyone around them. He’d fought so hard to get away from that. To catapult himself back into it…

Susie wouldn’t try to manipulate him.

No, but she couldn’t help it. He thought of finishing work and heading home as he usually did, exhausted beyond belief. Collapsing into bed before getting up to do some hard gym work before the next day at the office. How would Susie fit into that?

She’d hate it. He’d hate it. He wouldn’t do it.

What would he do instead?

Cut it out, he told himself fiercely into the night. You’ve spent the last thirty years building up the life you want and to toss it all away for one…one…

It wouldn’t be one, he told himself grimly. It’d be more. Susie came with attachments. Rose. Taffy. And more. She’d want more.

And they’d all be emotional. He thought of Taffy sitting on the grass and howling her lungs out because she couldn’t get what she wanted.

He grinned.

No. Be serious. Get up and go see what’s Marcia working on.

She wouldn’t thank him for the interference. She was fiercely independent.

Good. Great.

Life was fine. Go to sleep.

Ha.

He lay for another half-hour or so, listening to the soft hush-hush of the sea. The castle was quiet.

Maybe he could go down and chat to Ernst and Eric.

As if on cue, there was a knock on the door. He didn’t have to resort to tin-plated armour, he thought. It’d be Marcia.

‘Come in,’ he called, and wondered why he felt empty. As though Marcia coming in was going to expose something he didn’t want exposed.

But it wasn’t Marcia. It was Susie, peering round the door, her face worried in the moonlight.

‘Sorry to wake you.’

‘You didn’t wake me.’ He was half out of bed. ‘What’s wrong?’

‘Nothing. I just… Is Taffy here?’

‘No.’

‘Are you sure?’

‘Sure I’m sure.’ He frowned. ‘My bedroom door was shut when I came upstairs and it’s shut now. She couldn’t have got in.’

‘Oh. Sorry, then.’

‘Is she lost?’ He was out of bed, crossing the floor, concerned.

‘No,’ she said, urgently, stopping him in his tracks. ‘There’s no need for you to come.’

‘But if you can’t find her…’

‘She’ll be somewhere sound asleep,’ she said. ‘This place is too big. We’ll find her when she wakes up.’

‘But you were looking for her now.’

‘I thought I’d take her outside for a piddle before I went to bed. But if she’s curled up somewhere I can’t find her then I’ll have to wait until she wakes up.’

‘But…how will you know?’

‘I’d imagine Taffy is very good at letting us know where she is when she’s hungry,’ she said, and he could tell that she was making a huge effort to keep her voice light. Damn, he shouldn’t have kissed her. It had brought in all these tensions that he didn’t have a clue what to do with. ‘You’ve heard her howl.’

‘So I have,’ he said. ‘But-’

‘Go back to bed, Hamish,’ she told him.

‘Have you checked Marcia’s room?’

‘Yes. She’s been working all the time. She’s still working now. I thought… Anyway, if you hear Taffy raising a riot in the wee small hours you’ll know what it is. I’ve warned Marcia.’

‘Let me help you find her.’

‘No,’ she said flatly. ‘Please, Hamish, go back to bed.’

‘I’d like to help.’

‘I don’t want you helping.’ She hesitated. ‘Hamish, I need to be by myself. For the rest of the time I’m here. I’m not sure why what happened tonight happened, but it was dumb and meaningless and I need to back right off. Good night, Hamish.’

She closed the door before he could respond.

He should follow. He could help her search. The thought of Susie searching for her pup in this vast castle left him uneasy.

The thought of Susie doing anything alone left him uneasy.

What had she said? What happened tonight was dumb and meaningless?

Of course it was. They both knew it. Susie was a woman who was controlled by her emotions, and he…well, he knew where emotions belonged.

They didn’t belong with Susie!

‘Taffy?’

If Hamish heard, he’d come down and help. He mustn’t hear. But where was a little dog out here in this huge garden? And the cliffs so near… Taffy had gone over the road to the beach with them so she knew the way. If she’d tried…

There was only one path down to the beach. If she’d become disoriented and ended up on the rocks…

Should she ask Hamish for help?

No. It was as she’d assured him. The night was calm and still and if Taffy needed anything she only had to howl. She’d be snoozing in some obscure corner, and if Hamish came down and helped her search for a puppy who didn’t need finding then they might…they might…

She daren’t ask Hamish for help. But she needed to find Taffy. She needed to hug her.

She needed to hug someone.

She was bone weary. She had a huge day tomorrow. She should be in bed right now.

Instead, she was just going to walk over the road to the beginning of the path to the beach. Just to check.

‘Taffy?’

Seven a.m. Hamish walked into the kitchen, wanting coffee, and Jake was standing at the kitchen bench. Fully clothed. Pouring coffee.

Maybe it was a guy thing but walking in on a man who was fully dressed and looked ready for business-hard, physical business-when wearing boxer shorts and nothing else made Hamish feel a bit like retreating. Fast. He eyed Jake’s workman-like moleskins and heavy-duty shirt with misgivings.

‘Morning?’ he said cautiously, and Jake swivelled to stare at him.

This wasn’t a stare of ‘Ooh, who’s wearing ancient boxers?’. It was a stare of active dislike.

‘Good of you to join us,’ he growled.

Hamish glanced at his watch. Seven was not what you’d call a slovenly hour to wake up.

‘Are you here for breakfast?’

‘We had breakfast an hour ago.’

‘We?’

‘The girls and I. Kirsty’s taken Rose home with her. Susie’s searching the bushland behind the garden. I’ve come back to make a few phone calls. We’ll get some back-up.’ His voice was so cold each word was practically an icicle ‘I want Susie to get some rest. She’s not fit to be searching as she’s been doing all night.’

His heart stilled.

‘Taffy,’ he said. ‘Hell, she didn’t find Taffy.’

If anything, Jake’s expression grew colder. ‘She said she told you the pup was lost. I thought she must have been mistaken. To let her stay up all night…’

‘She didn’t stay up all night.’

‘Oh, she didn’t?’ Jake said. ‘Fine.’

Hamish stared at Jake in consternation. Jake stared back, as if Hamish was something lower than pond scum.

‘I offered to search with her,’ Hamish said desperately. ‘She said she was sure the pup was somewhere in the castle. That she’d howl when she woke up. She’s good at howling.’

‘It’s not much use howling when you’re outside,’ Jake muttered, more to himself than to Hamish. ‘There’s owls hunting at night. If Taffy’s attracted one of them… I’m thinking that’s what will have happened.’

‘She’s not outside,’ Hamish said flatly. ‘She’s in the castle.’

‘If she was in the castle she’d be howling by now. She’s a ten-week-old pup who hasn’t been fed for twelve hours.’

‘But she was locked in the wet room. Susie put her there when she put Rose down for the night.’

‘I gather Marcia used the wet room as a passage early last night,’ Jake said. ‘It seems she left the door open.’

Hamish thought back. Marcia in the conservatory, fielding phone calls. Marcia walking back to the house to get notes. She’d never notice a pup…

‘Where’s Marcia now?’

‘On the phone to New York. Where do you think?’ Jake’s voice said Marcia was right there in the pond with Hamish.

‘She hasn’t seen the pup?’

‘What do you think?

Hamish was already backing out the door, heading for some clothes. ‘Why are you here?’

‘Susie rang Kirsty at dawn.’

‘Over a dog?’

‘Dumb, isn’t it?’ Jake said cordially. ‘Only a dog. But Susie loves her.’

Hamish closed his eyes. ‘I’ll get dressed.’

‘Right,’ Jake said politely, turning back to the phone. ‘I’ll add you to the search party, shall I?’

‘She’ll be dead.’ Susie stood in the middle of the cove and stared despairingly along the beach. ‘She’ll have been taken by an owl or an eagle. It’s just dumb to keep looking. Dumb, dumb, dumb.’

‘Hey, it’s not hopeless,’ Kirsty told her. She’d left all the kids with her housekeeper and come straight back. ‘We have half Dolphin Cove out searching. Jake says the numbers are up to eighty already.’

‘Eighty?’ Susie hiccuped on a mix of laughter and a sob. ‘For one little puppy.’

‘Everyone loves you,’ Kirsty said solidly. ‘There’s people coming from everywhere to look.’

‘She’ll be dead.’

‘We’ll keep looking until we find her.’

Hamish couldn’t believe it. He’d been out in the bushland behind the castle-three hours of combing the rough gullies and hillside, searching in what seemed an increasingly hopeless case. He’d returned to find the kitchen like a military planning area.

‘What’d happen if a child was lost?’ he asked in amazement.

Kirsty looked up from the table where she was crossing grid lines off a map and gave him a weary smile.

‘More of the same.’ She shrugged. ‘Much more. OK, it might be over the top but the wind’s up, which means the fishing fleet can’t get out, so the fishermen don’t have anything else to do. And everyone knows Susie’s leaving tomorrow. We’re upset about it already, without this happening.’

‘Where’s Susie now?’

‘I talked her into having a lie down.’ She hesitated. ‘You know, Susie’s not just devastated because of the puppy.’

He thought about it and decided, yes, Kirsty was right, but he knew where Kirsty was headed and there were places there he didn’t want to go.

‘She’ll miss you, too,’ he said, deliberately obtuse, and she gave him a long, thoughtful look that reminded him uncomfortably of her twin.

‘As you say.’

‘Is Jake out searching?’

‘Jake had morning surgery. He had to go.’

So Jake was getting on with business. ‘Well, someone has some sense.’

Her face stilled at that. Yes, she really was very like Susie, he thought, and then he thought about what he’d said. Maybe it hadn’t been…sensible?

‘Sense is a really strange thing,’ she said softly. ‘Just when you think you have it cornered, it turns into something else. Be careful what you think is sensible, Hamish Douglas. It might just turn around and bite you.’

‘Hamish.’

As if on cue, a voice came from the door. He turned and Marcia was standing in the doorway, looking displeased. ‘Where have you been?’

‘Out searching.’ The cell phone in her hand vibrated before he could say any more. She stared at the screen, prioritised and abandoned the caller.

How often was she separated from her phone? Hamish thought, and then he wondered how often he’d been separated from his. Until he’d come here, maybe never.

‘You’re wanted,’ she said briefly, obviously annoyed.

‘Susie wants me?’

‘By the hotel assessor,’ she snapped. ‘You knew he was coming this morning. He’s in the drawing room. I’ve shown him around but he wants to talk to you-and to Susie.’

‘I’ll come,’ he said wearily, raking his hand through his hair. ‘But Susie’s not to be disturbed.’ He turned back to Kirsty. ‘Let me know if there’s any news.’

Hamish had to focus.

Lachlan Glendinning was the representative of an international realty firm. He’d been valuing a hotel up in Northern Queensland and he’d taken time and considerable trouble to travel to Dolphin Bay. Telling him he couldn’t spend time with him because a puppy was missing-especially when Susie had the whole town combing the surrounding estate looking for him-seemed crazy.

But there was no mistaking that outside with the search party was where Hamish wanted to be.

Why? he wondered as he answered Lachlan’s endless questions, going over the family history as he knew it. Luckily he’d read many of Angus’s family papers so he had the answers to most questions. But his eyes kept straying outside. People were going back and forth under the window. He could see people down on the beach.

‘I hear there’s a lost dog,’ Lachlan said genially. He was smooth and slick and clever, knowing exactly what he was looking for in the real estate market and knowing he’d found it in Loganaich Castle. ‘This is quite some community spirit you have here. The town’s picturesque, too. I’m thinking we could build this really big.’

‘I’m sure you could,’ Marcia agreed. She’d abandoned her cell phone and had joined in the conversation with enthusiasm. She and Lachlan spoke the same language.

‘I really would like to speak to Mrs Douglas,’ Lachlan said regretfully. ‘Are you sure there’s no way?’

‘There’s no way.’ Hamish rose. ‘Marcia, would you like to show Lachlan the grounds? If he’s seen all there is here…’

‘I’ve seen enough of the inside,’ Lachlan said. ‘It’s a great interior.’ They passed into the hall and he poked at Ernst with his gold-embellished fountain pen. ‘Though these guys will have to go. I know where we can get some real ones.’

‘Ernst and Eric are coming home with me.’

It was Susie, entering unannounced. Her face was pale and there were the ravages where tears had been, but there were no tears left now. She was dignified and in control, and she introduced herself and took Marcia’s place by Lachlan’s side as if it was her right.

‘I’ll show you the garden,’ she told him. ‘I’m sure Marcia and Hamish have business to attend to.’

‘I should go back online,’ Marcia agreed, and Susie gave her a bright and brittle smile.

‘Of course.’

‘I’ll go back to the search,’ Hamish said softly, but the look she directed at him had no trace of a smile left in it.

‘It’s no use,’ she told him. ‘Taffy’s dead. She’s been out all night. If the nocturnal owls didn’t kill her, the wedge-tail eagles will have by now.’ She turned to Lachlan. ‘I’m sorry I wasn’t here to greet you. Marcia says you’ll be thinking about converting the conservatory to a swimming pool before any sale is made. You need to see it. I’ll take you.’

‘Susie, you don’t need to think about that,’ Hamish said uneasily, and received a flash of anger for his pains.

‘I know I don’t need to think about it, Lord Douglas,’ she snapped, emphasising his title with a short, harsh syllable. ‘My plane leaves tomorrow afternoon and after that this is all your business. This castle is in the hands of the heir. That’s you. And you’re going to sell it and put the money in the bank.’

‘Which is the only sensible place for it,’ Marcia interspersed.

‘It is,’ Susie agreed dully. ‘Of course it is. So, shall we see the possible site for your luxury swimming pool, Mr Glendinning?’

‘Susie, go look for your puppy,’ Hamish said desperately, and she looked like she wanted to slap him.

‘My puppy is dead.’

Then why wasn’t she crying? Hamish thought. She should be crying. He’d know what to do if she cried.

What was he saying? He wanted a woman to cry?

‘We’ll show Mr Glendinning the conservatory together,’ he said, gently now, but her anger was increasing.

‘We’ll do nothing together.’

‘Susie…’

‘Let her go,’ Marcia said. ‘She’s got the time, Hamish. Surely you have better things to be doing.’

What? he thought blankly. What?

‘I’ll go back to the beach.’

‘Give it up,’ Marcia said wearily. ‘Didn’t you hear Susie? The creature’s dead.’

The creature.

He was supposed to be marrying this woman.

He thought of Taffy last night, sitting plump on her bottom and howling her displeasure.

The creature.

‘We have no proof she’s dead,’ he said, to the room in general. ‘If you’ll excuse me, I’ll keep looking until we’re sure.’

And he walked away and left them to it.

Why hadn’t she cried?

All that long day Hamish watched Susie move like an automaton. She spent a long time with Lachlan, detailing the castle to his satisfaction. She worked in the kitchen, feeding the searchers. She did a bit more searching herself but her back was obviously paining her. She was limping badly and when Kirsty decreed she should stop, she stopped. She went back to packing, the pile of stuff she was discarding growing higher and higher.

‘I’ll ship Ernst and Eric over to you,’ Hamish said at one stage, and if looks could kill, he’d have been dead right then.

‘I’ve changed my mind. They’d never be at home with me in America. They belong at the foot of the stairs and if you want to shift them…well, that’s your business and I don’t want to know about it.’

‘Susie, stay a little longer,’ he urged.

‘Why?’

‘We don’t know about Taffy.’

‘We do know about Taffy. Cut it out, Hamish. I’m leaving.’

She wouldn’t budge.

At dusk Marcia came to find Hamish. She met him on the way upstairs to change. He’d been bashing through thick bushland in an increasingly hopeless search for Taffy, and he was filthy.

‘We need to take Lachlan out to dinner,’ she said. ‘He’s spent the day photographing the castle from every angle-not that you’d have noticed. Honestly, Hamish, your behaviour has been less than civil. He’s staying at the pub tonight. It’d be better if we could put him up here, but I dare say you won’t ask the widow to do that.’

‘Do you have to call her the widow?’

‘You know who I mean.’

‘I won’t ask Susie to have another guest on her last night,’ Hamish snapped, wondering again how he’d never noticed how insensitive Marcia was. ‘It’s bad enough that we’re here. Jake and Kirsty are bringing dinner. Susie needs her family and no one else.’

‘Then you and I should at least take him out to dinner. You’re not Susie’s family.’

He wasn’t. Hamish hesitated. Marcia was right. He should give Lachlan dinner. And…would Susie want him to be around tonight?

But Kirsty came through the front door then, carrying a casserole.

‘Hi,’ she told them. ‘Dinner in thirty minutes?’

‘We’re going out to dinner,’ Marcia said, sounding efficient.

‘Oh?’ Kirsty raised her eyebrows. ‘You, too?’ she asked Hamish.

‘Um…’

‘I shouldn’t put pressure on you,’ Kirsty told him. ‘But it would be better if you were here tonight.’

‘Why?’ Marcia demanded. ‘Why should Hamish stay?’

Kirsty looked a bit taken aback at that, as if she hadn’t actually expected an argument.

‘To leaven the loaf,’ she said at last. ‘Susie’s miserable. We’ve searched a two-mile radius and Taffy’s nowhere. Taffy was supposed to be the little bit of Dolphin Bay she was taking away with her. Now there’s just Susie and Rose.’

Not even Ernst and Eric, Hamish thought, leaning back on a suit of armour. Welcoming the sharp dig of a halberd in the small of his back.

‘Susie will be better off without a pup,’ Marcia said sharply. ‘The fewer encumbrances, the better.’

Kirsty looked at her thoughtfully. Appraisingly. Then glanced sideways at Hamish, leaning wearily on his halberd.

‘You’re taking the assessor, Lachlan, out to dinner?’ she asked Marcia.

‘That’s right.’

‘Then can I ask that you, Marcia, take Lachlan out to dinner, and you, Hamish, stay here and see if you can cheer Susie up. Wear your kilt or something.’

‘I suspect there’s not a lot that’ll cheer Susie up,’ Hamish said.

‘No,’ she admitted. ‘But we can try.’

Hamish hesitated.

Marcia looked at her watch. She tapped her foot. She looked at Hamish and saw indecision. Or maybe…decision. There was one thing that could always be said about Marcia: she was good at sussing which way the wind was blowing. She was excellent at not wearing herself out fighting the inevitable.

‘I’ll go, then,’ she said, visibly annoyed. ‘Honestly, Hamish, someone has to keep a business head on their shoulders in this whole debacle.’

‘They do,’ he agreed, but he was watching Kirsty, seeing Kirsty’s disapproval, thinking how very like her twin she was. Was Susie vibrating with the same disapproval?

Probably not, he thought. She’d be in her bedroom, sorting the last things she wanted to take from this place. She’d be thinking of Angus, or of Taffy, or of walking away from her vegetable garden and leaving her wonderful conservatory to be ripped apart. There’d be no room in her distraught mind for disapproval of one dumb would-be earl.

‘You’re not spending more time looking for the dog?’ Marcia was demanding, looking at him as if she didn’t know who he was any more. Which, come to think of it, was pretty much exactly how he was feeling about himself. ‘Everyone’s saying it’ll be dead.’

‘She’ll be dead,’ Kirsty said softly, and the look she gave Hamish then was slightly doubtful. ‘But we’ll give the grounds one more sweep after dinner.’

‘Miracles don’t happen,’ Hamish said flatly, and Kirsty gave him another odd look.

‘We’ll see. We certainly have enough pumpkins around here for a spell or two to happen.’ She shook herself, obviously perturbed that she was getting fanciful. ‘OK. I have a full casserole dinner ready to be brought in from the car, provided by the ladies of Dolphin Creek. Any crisis round here, sick baby, lost puppy, can’t solve yesterday’s crossword, you’ll be handed a casserole-so we have, at last count, eleven. Marcia, if you and Lachlan aren’t joining us, we’d better start now. We have a lot of eating to do.’

It was a very strained meal. They had eleven casseroles. Between them they ate about half of one, and that was with Kirsty and Jake’s twins helping. The two little girls were the only bright company during the meal, but even their chatter was pointed.

‘Daddy, why does Aunty Susie have to go back to America?’

‘That’s where her home is.’

‘But her home is here.’

‘This castle belongs to Lord Hamish now,’ Jake told them gently.

‘But everyone says Lord Hamish doesn’t want it.’

‘Lord Hamish doesn’t have to want it,’ Susie told the girls, with only a hint of a tremor in her voice. ‘It’s just the way things are. It’s his, and I don’t belong here any more.’

‘But you’re our Auntie Susie,’ Alice said tremulously, and Penelope agreed.

‘We want you to stay. And you haven’t got a puppy to take home now. You’ll be really, really lonely.’

‘I’ll have Rose,’ Susie said, her voice strained to breaking point. She rose to fetch the coffeepot from the stove and started to pour. ‘Coffee, Hamish?’

‘Please.’

‘None for me,’ Kirsty told her, and Susie stilled. She’d been facing the stove. Now she turned, very, very slowly, to face her twin.

‘You always have coffee after dinner.’

‘I… Not now.’ Kirsty seemed all at once uncomfortable and Susie’s face grew even more blank.

‘I was right,’ she said, and her voice was devoid of all expression. ‘At the fair. You deflected me with Taffy and I was so preoccupied I let myself be deflected. You’re pregnant.’

‘Oh, Susie,’ Kirsty said, her face twisting in distress.

‘That’s lovely news,’ Susie managed, and stooped to give her twin a hug. But there was no joy, Hamish thought, watching the tableau in incomprehension. What was going on?

‘I so didn’t want you to find out.’

‘Until when?’ Susie turned back to her coffee cups.

‘I thought…until you were settled back in America.’

‘Won’t this make a difference?’ Hamish asked, concerned. They both seemed on the edge of tears, but there were no tears. Just rigid control.

‘Sure,’ Kirsty said coldly. ‘Ask Susie to stay because I’m pregnant? How could I do that to her?’

Easy, Hamish thought, remembering his mother and his aunts. He knew exactly how emotional blackmail was done.

‘I won’t ask for the same reason Susie hasn’t asked you not to sell the castle. Not to destroy the greenhouse. I bet she hasn’t, has she?’

‘No, but-’

‘And if I did and you agreed?’ Susie said, suddenly fierce. ‘How do you think that’d make me feel for the rest of my life? And if Kirsty thought I was staying now just for the baby…she couldn’t bear it. That’s why she hasn’t told me. I don’t know where you come from, Hamish Douglas, but we don’t do emotional blackmail here.’ She swallowed and turned her back on him, facing her sister again. ‘You’re due when?’

‘Not until November. It’s early days yet.’

‘If I can, I’ll come back.’

‘Of course you will.’

‘To stay?’ Hamish said cautiously, and got another glare for his pains.

‘To visit. Like normal people do.’

‘But you guys are twins,’ he said, feeling helpless. ‘You should be together.’

‘They’ll be together for the birth,’ Jake said, putting his hand across the table to reach his wife, taking Kirsty’s hand in his and holding it firmly and with love. ‘If I have to sail across the Atlantic single-handed and haul Susie back here in chains, I promise you’ll be together for the birth. I’m covering the expenses and if Susie argues, then she’ll see what brothers-in-law are really made of.’

‘Oh, Jake,’ Susie said, choked.

And Hamish thought, Here at last come the tears. But they didn’t. Susie stared at her sister and her brother-in-law for a long moment-and then went back to her coffee-making.

With one mug of hot chocolate for the expectant mother.