A Laird for All Time by Angeline Fortin (best motivational books for students .TXT) 📕

His participation in the birth had also shown his caring for his people…and for her?  His later praise over her performance had made her feel more flattered than the appreciation given by Margo and her mother.  What did that mean?  That his opinion mattered more than anyone else’s?

Only what she had already guessed, that she was falling for him hard and fast.

“Oh, God,” she groaned again, “I should have gone to the Bahamas or better yet, Cabo.”

“Where is Cabo?”

Emmy started and rolled over to find Connor lounging in the doorway to the parlor.  “Geez, Connor, you scared me!” she scolded as she patted her pounding chest.  “Didn’t your mother teach you to knock?”

“The door was open,” he replied as he strolled casually into the room.  The door had been open but only because he had left it that way the previous night.  She had been as groggy as a drunken sailor when they had returned the previous evening.  So reluctant to rouse herself that he had carried her up and put her to bed.  Connor had taken great pleasure in removing most of her clothing and tracing the colorful lines of her tattoo with his fingertip.  As he stared down at her lovely face relaxed in slumber, tenderness such as he had never before experienced had clenched at his heart.  She was so unique, unlike anyone he had ever met, competent, beyond intelligent and funny as well.  His lips quirked, even half asleep she jested whether his mother had taught him to knock.

“I came to see if ye were planning on sleeping the day away,” Connor took a seat on the edge of the bed as she propped herself up on her elbows and stifled a yawn.

“I just might,” she teased and he laughed.  “Care to join me?”

Connor leaned over and caught her lips in a tender kiss.  “An appealing offer.”  He kissed her again and she arched up to deepen the contact.

“Oh, m’lady!  I’m sorry!”

Emmy drew back and turned her head to see Margo backing out of the room balancing a large tray on her hip.  “Wait, Margo!  Is that food?”

“Aye, m’lady,” the maid confirmed.  “You missed dinner last night and I thought you might be hungry since it is almost noontime.”  She nudged her way back into the room and put the tray on a small table by the fire.  “I’ll just go…”

“It’s okay, Margo, I’m getting up,” Emmy shot Connor a regretful glance which he returned with a disappointed sigh.  “Oh, gimme a break, I’m starving.  Aren’t you?”

“I ate over an hour ago.”

Emmy raised a brow at his superior tone as she slipped on a dressing gown.  “Well, goody for you.  Either sit and keep me company or go away if you’re going to be a sourpuss.”

Connor toyed with her phrase while taking a seat across from her at the table and snatching a roll from her plate.  “Hey, that’s mine!  I thought you already ate.”

“I did,” he drawled as he drizzled honey on the bread and took a bite.

“Well, just keep away from the rest or you might end up with a bloody nub for your trouble, kay?”  Emmy took a bite of eggs and rolled her eyes in bliss.  “God, that’s good,” she mumbled around a full mouth.

Margo hovered a bit drawing Emmy’s attention.  “What’s up, Margo?”

“I finished hand washing your unmentionables this morning and hung them to dry,” the maid told her.

“Thanks, I appreciate it,” Emmy responded shoving another forkful of food in.

“And I found this on the floor while I was picking up.” Margo held Emmy’s iPhone out in one and the ear buds in the other.  Interest was bright in her eyes.  She wanted to ask what it was to be sure, but Emmy simply took them with a nod and tucked them in the pocket of her gown.

“Thanks.  How’s your mom this morning?”

Realizing that her curiosity was going to go unsatisfied, Margo answered, “Very well, thank you.  I’ll just leave you alone to eat.”  She bobbed a curtsey and turned to leave.

“Oh, Margo?”  Emmy’s eyes twinkled with mischief as she grinned at Connor.  “It might be best if you knocked and waited for an answer for the time being.”

“Aye, mum,” the maid grinned as well as she departed closing the door pointedly behind her.

“What?” Emmy drawled innocently at Connor’s speculative look.  They smiled at each other and she added.  “Better safe than sorry, right?”

“Of course.”  Connor reached over to snatch a piece of bacon earning a smack on his knuckles for his trouble.  Rubbing his hand, Connor changed the subject.  “I’m curious, where is this Cabo ye mentioned?  I have, of course, heard of the Bahamas as it is a territory of the Crown, but not the other.  Is it an American colony?”

Emmy bit into the second biscuit licking a drop of jam from her fingers.  While on some level he was once more appalled by her horrible manners, he more enthralled by the comfortable casualness her manner and relaxed posture encouraged.  She answered around the mouthful of bread and jam, “No, Cabo, Cabo San Lucas is in Mexico on the Baha peninsula…south of California.”

“The Cape of St. Luke?” he translated the Spanish.  “I have never heard of it.  Ye’ve been that far west?  I understand many areas are still quite violent and dangerous,” he was astounded that she had traveled such a distance.  Alone?  He tried not to speculate.

Thinking herself of Hollywood and east L.A., Emmy admitted the west still had its dangerous elements but added, “Cabo is a resort town though, the police there try to keep it safe for the tourists.”

“So ye traveled there on another holiday, then?”

“Oh, yea, the ocean, the beaches, a little snorkeling.  It’s a party.”  She raised her brows and waited for him to say something, anything that would give her leave to approach the whole ‘I’m from the future’ topic, but he disappointed by merely responding with a thoughtful ‘hmmm’.  She wondered what pictures were floating through his mind.

“What did Margo give ye?”

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