Authors: Beth Trissel
“No
thanks.
I’ll just make a run for it.”
“Come on,” he coaxed
.
“We’re siblings
until after Midsummer’s Eve.
It’s my duty to see you
safely
home.”
Thunder crashed so loudly
she jumped, and the rain flooded
dow
n over the eaves.
This sort of storm could last for hours
.
“Gully washer,” Lyle said.
“Duck under my jacket a
nd I’ll walk you to your door.
Then be off.”
She weighed his offer.
His eyes were fr
iendly, his manner congenial
. May
be she’d been too hard on him, easy to do with Will so opposed to the man. She couldn’t blame Lyle
for trying to date her, as long as he didn
’t carry her off. “Very well.
Thanks.”
“That’s the first sensible thing you’ve said all evening.”
She smiled.
“I am
playing Ophelia.”
“Oh, was that it?” he
said with a grin
.
She giggled despite herself––
halting when
the lights flickered
and went out.
The hall was lost in dusky shadows, eerie
with the storm raging outside. “The electric’s gone.”
If she’d possessed
any false bravado it would’v
e gone too.
“It’ll probably be out awhile
.
Got any candles back at your lodge?”
he asked.
“
Charlotte left me a scented one in a glass jar and a lighter.”
“Just the ticket.
Come on, then.”
They walked across the darkened hall to
ward
the bac
k entra
nce.
It seemed
as if
unseen eyes followed
them
and not only the portraits
on the walls
.
Hadn’t Charlotte used the plural when she’d
spoken of spirits at Foxleigh?
Julia didn’t w
ant to meet with any new ones.
Even the thought of old Joe waving from the stair landing, so comical before, now sent
a twinge
of dread through her.
Almost
against her will, she
glance
d
over her shoulder.
Was it only her heightened imagination or did a faint mist form on the stairs?
Choking back a gasp, s
he quickened her pace.
“It’s spooky
in
here.”
Lyle scanned
the murky room.
“Yeah.
Like someone’s watching.
But who?
Gives you the creeps.
”
He’d
voiced
the hair-raising sensation
crawling
down Julia’s spine.
“
Ooooh
. Don’t say that.”
“No worries.
We’re almost through.”
Lyle stopped at the door.
With a flourish, he held out his ja
cket and beckoned her beneath.
It was so large she might have taken she
lter under a Highlander’s great kilt
.
Hand on the knob, he
swung open the door. “Let’s go.”
Rain-swept wind hit her and s
he hovered in the entryway.
Lyle
stood
behind
her
with the jacket
held
o
ver her head.
The gale bent
trees
and drove
t
he torrent into every crevice.
Water washed over t
he pebbled walkway and the yard ran
rivers
.
Lightning flash
ed fiery white above the oaks.
She squealed as the resounding boom exploded
at
what seemed
only
a short distance
away.
“That was
bloody
close,
”
he said.
A
nother bolt sliced a sizzling arch across the churni
ng bl
ackness.
She started under his
jacket.
“This is the worst storm I’ve ever seen
.”
“You still want to run for it?”
Even so, i
t was preferable to what linge
red inside.
“Yes!” she shouted,
to make herself heard above the din.
“You’ll ruin those white shoes.”
Before she knew what had happened
,
Lyle swept her up a
nd carried her down the steps.
Her vision was hampere
d by the downpour and his coat
, but she shud
dered to think what would follow
if
Will saw them now.
Rain stung her under the jacket as
Lyle
easily
bore her
into the yard
.
In seconds
,
his long
stride had gotten
them across the rushing sea
to her door.
He stood her on her feet, still holdin
g the makeshift tent over her.
She couldn’t possibly send him away into the teeth of the storm.
“Come on in for a cup of tea,” she invited,
with a prayer that Will wouldn’t
return
until Lyle had gone
.
Hurrying
into
the gloomy room, she
made straight for the kitchen while she could
still see to light the candle.
The flicker of the lighter was reassuring and the scent of
vanilla warmed the close room.
The glow from even one
single
candle made her feel better.
Lyle shoo
k out his wrap
and flung it over a chair.
“Don’t know how you plan to heat water for tea, but I didn’t like to point it out.”
“Darn.
I forgot.”
“Easy to do, unless you’ve camped out
in the bush
as I have
.
Then you get used to
having
no electricity.”
She sat the candl
e on the kitchen table.
“Well, then, bushman, what do we do now?”
He smiled broadly.
“Shouldn’t ask a man that.”
She felt her cheeks warm. “Never mind.
There’s cold tea in the fridge.”
“Wouldn’t open that, sweetheart, unless you want all the cold air to rush out.”
“
Ohhh
––” s
he’d done it again.
He chuckled.
“A quick peek won’t hurt.”
“Right.”
She cracked the
refrigerator
door and
sna
tched two bottles
of tea
. A box of crackers, a
pples, and left over brownies ro
unded out the stash.
Candle in hand, she walked back to the living room
and set it
on the coffee
table
.
“Not too shabby.”
Ambling
behind
,
he carried
the bulk of the take.
Again
,
she spread the quilted spread
on the floor
and settled before the dark heart
h
with an impromptu picnic.
He grun
ted contentedly. “This is more like it.
What I call living the high life.”
“You’re easily impressed.”
“Bushman,” he reminded her, and settle
d amicably where she gestured.
He unscrewed the cap of cold
tea and handed it to her, then opened a second bottle for himself.
She scrutinized
him uncertainly as she sipped.
He swallowed.
“Are you
waiting for me to attack you?”
“If you did, I wouldn’t stand much of a chance.”
“Snapping your neck holds no thrill for me and I’m not into carving
up
women and stuffing them in
to
the fridge.”
Julia’s cons
cience chided her. “I’m sorry.
I
t’s just that
––
”
“Lord
Wentworth
told you I was a bad egg and not to have anything to do with me?”
“Something of the sort.”
“U
nderstandable,” Lyle said
, a slight glint in his eyes. He looked directly at her.
“That happens when two
men both covet the same woman.
I w
ouldn’t object to another kiss.
I
liked that one this evening real well.”
She swallowed hard.
“Don’t stare wide-eyed at me. I won’t force one from you.
I’ll bide my time, but I assure you Laertes will continue to be a very affectionate brother,” he smiled.
“Lyle
––
”
H
e saluted her with the bottle. “Cheers.
You actually uttered my name.”
Admittedly, h
e was amusing and Julia found herself liking him more all the time, but she had to let him know friendship was
all he could expect from her.
“The thing is
,
I’m engaged.”
“
Naw
,” he countered, shaking his
he
ad, red hair beaded with rain.
He eyed her quizzically,
and
then said
, “Some secret pact with
Wentworth
?”
“Yes.”
“I didn’t think the fellow had it in him to take on the old duchess.”
“Not Will.
Cole
Wentworth
.”
Lyle drew his
auburn
brows
together and his t
anned face creased in a frown.
“Do you take me for a bleeding
fool?
That dude’s been dead nearly as
long as Hamlet’
s old man.
Either you’re balmy, girl, or having me on.”
“I’m perfectly serious.”
His
lips twitched and he chuckled.
“What do I care if your elevator do
n’t go all the way to the top?
As long as I get a ride.”
“You won’t!”
“We’ll see, Ophelia.”
Julia didn’t hear
the door open, but
she felt the wind at her back.
Then Will was there
.
O
h, how he was there, face flushed,
eyes
shot through wi
th fire.
“What in hell are you doing in here, McChesney?”
She sprang
to her feet
.
“Please
,
Will.
I
t’s not what you think.”
Lyle stood
, casting a long shadow
on the wall
.
“Oh, it woul
d be if the lady were willing.
But she’s holdin
g out for some dead guy.
Reckon t
his is my cue to be on my way.
Night
night
all.”
“
Hold on
!” Will roared.
“We’re not through yet.”
The
candlelight
cast a
vanilla
-scented glow over
Lyle’s brazen
cockiness
and
Julia’s pale
apprehension
.
It goaded
Wil
l that his sudden appearance seemed
the cause of her uneasiness, as though everything had been
just fine
before
he’d arrived
.
She was disturbingly susceptible
to the Aussie’s
wiles
, despite Will’s warning.
And h
e
was torn between wanting to clutch her to
him
,
snarling
and snapping
at
Lyle, and just ripping into the fellow
right now.