A Time & Place for Every Laird by Angeline Fortin (ebook reader TXT) 📕

aplacard above a nearby door depicting an easily recognizablestaircase. “I’d rather take the stairs. That …”

“Elevator,” she supplied.

“Aye,” he nodded, adding with completehonesty, “It isnae tae my liking.”

Sorcha blinked not once but twice at him.“Oh, okay then. No big deal. We can walk.”

“Ye needn’t join me if ye’d rather ride,”Hugh offered, though the courtesy only served to deepen herfrown.

“I can walk.”

She led the way, bursting through the steeldoor and tripping lightly down the first series of steps. Hughdidn’t need to be awash in the heat of her wake to know that Sorchawas disappointed in him. The question was why?

Hugh had asked, two nights past, to bereleased from his vow, and had broken it the previous morning, onlyto upset her. Clearly she was determined to deny the attractionthat simmered between them, but ever since that argument, it seemedthat Sorcha had gone out of her way to lure him to the brink ofbreaking his promise again after he had only just redoubled hisconviction not to do so in order to spare her upset. Now, sheteased with her proximity only to pull away. Incited desire only todeny.

Never had Hugh met a more maddening woman.It was almost as if she didn’t have any idea of what she trulywanted.

Chapter 22

“Tell me, lass, what’s gotyer feathers in a bunch now?” Hugh asked as they descended thefinal flight of stairs.

“Are you hungry? I know I am, and if I am, Iknow you must be,” Sorcha responded pertly, ignoring the questionas if it had never been spoken.

She was good at evasion, even if she was notterribly subtle about it. Hugh had noticed before that if aconversation wasn’t to her liking or heading in her preferreddirection, Sorcha simply plucked a new topic from the air andcarried on as if nothing were amiss. She had done so that eveningwhile standing at the sink, the previous morning when she hadoverridden his attempts to apologize, and again last night aftertheir walk on the beach, drawing close to him only to pull quicklyaway with an announcement that she was off to bed.

It was perhaps her most irritatingquality.

Hugh ground his teeth with frustration,resisting the urge to take her by the shoulders and shake an answerfrom her. It wasn’t in his nature to cater so to another’s whims.He was a duke, after all. He had been raised to command and leadwith the expectation of being followed. He wasn’t one to bow downto another, and he had done so with Sorcha only out of appreciationfor her aid and because he had yet to find his footing in thisworld, but at some point she would need to know that he wasn’tgoing to be ridden roughshod over forever.

And now the point had been reached.

When they were once again ensconced in hersmall car, Sorcha started it with the key and reached for thegearshift between them but Hugh laid his hand over hers to stopher. “Hold, lass,” he commanded. “I hae something tae say.”

She looked from their hands to his face, butthis time Hugh refused to comply with the implied request. “I tryverra hard, lass, tae be an accommodating guest tae ye,” he toldher. “I stayed wi’ ye when I know I should hae left, and now Icannae leave, knowing that ye would be left unprotected and at ourfoe’s mercy. I hae given my own will over tae yer wishes because Iken that ye know best in this world, but I am nae fool, Sorcha. Naelapdog to sit and stay on yer command. Nae flea to be brushed awaylike a minor annoyance. When I ask ye a question, I expect ananswer as a matter of common courtesy and if I’ve done something yehae issue wi’ I expect ye tae tell me so. I dinnae like thisevasion, and it has tae stop.”

Sorcha looked away and drew in a deepbreath, her lips parted …

“Nae,” Hugh said firmly, foreseeing what wasto come. “Dinnae even try tae change the subject. There will be naemore of that.”

Sorcha’s shoulders dropped and she bowed herhead. “I know. I do that, and it drives people nuts. It’s like anervous habit or something. When things get uncomfortable …”

“Ye maun be uncomfortable often then,” Hughgrumbled.

“Pretty much since the moment I met you,”she said honestly, slanting him a sidelong look.

“Tell me, then, what hae I done now?”

With a sigh, Sorcha shook her head. “Youhaven’t done anything. It’s just this damned muddled up brain ofmine!” Her hand slid out from beneath his, but before he could sayanything, Sorcha took his hand between her own, squeezing gently.“Hugh, you have to know that you have almost literally turned myworld upside down in the past few days. I might have looked calm,cool, and collected but I was a mess inside. You have no idea howmany times I wavered in my decision to help you.”

“’Tis a good defense foryer actions,” he allowed but added, “in the beginning.”

“I’m still a mess inside,” Sorcha confessed,her eyes begging for something High couldn’t define. “It’s like I’mriding an awful roller coaster and the carny just won’t let meoff.”

Silence.

“Like I’m on a ship at sea during astorm.”

“I see.” Of course, he had known that shewas struggling with her emotions. They both were. “Then why did yenae let me gae my own way?”

She sighed, shaking her head as if askingherself that same question—one he had asked many times but hadnever received a satisfying answer to. “I guess it’s because theride can be just as thrilling as it is terrifying. These last threedays have been more exciting for me than the last three years puttogether. Ups and downs until your head spins, but you know,sometimes all that commotion makes you want to … hang your headover the leeward side of the ship, so to speak.”

Hugh almost had to laugh at her analogy, theanger slipping away… but then his anger with her never lingered forlong. “So yer saying I make ye want tae cast up yer accounts?”

“Sometimes,” she nodded with a playfulgrimace, releasing his hand and shifting to look out the windshieldrather than at him. “But sometimes you