Page 48 of A Flower for Angus

‘Black widow eats her way into millions and leaves the country.’

It was more than Poppy could bear.

“I-I don’t want to come home, Morgan. What if the DA tries to drag me back into it again? Or worse yet, Edna accuses me of something I didn’t do? I won’t come back—I can’t do it,” she groaned painfully as the pressure in her head increased.

The room started to spin and Poppy slid off the edge of the bed and landed on the floor. Moaning at the splitting pain in her head, she pulled her knees up and tried to shrink herself into a tiny ball where nothing could get to her. The phone landed on the floor a few feet away from her but she was beyond hearing Andrea’s frantic voice calling to her. Where could she turn? Even the safe haven of Angus’s arms now seemed suspicious.

Who could she trust?

***

ANGUS STARTED AFTERPoppy but Lucerne stopped him. “Let me, Angus. I’ll talk to her.”

He sat back down and stared accusingly at Darro. “What was that all about, lad? Ye aren’t tryin’ to do me any favors are ye? Because this isn’t the way to earn Poppy’s trust if ye are. I can only imagine the hell that lass has been through this last year.”

Darro ran his hands through his dark hair with an exasperated sigh. “Not at all, Angus. Lucerne and I just want to help Poppy and we didn’t want her to feel obligated to stay on as a housekeeper now that she doesn’t have to hide anymore. She seems to have an over developed sense of obligation to her job commitment, and she’s been working herself to the bone since she got here. Frankly, Lucerne has been very worried about her because she seems so fragile and brittle, especially since Vince showed up.”

Angus nodded with a worried frown. “Aye, she’s told me a bit about the media feedin’ frenzy after her husband died, and then being stalked for months until she finally left the country in fear for her life. It’s the stuff horror stories are made of. She passes it off as just uninterestin’ history that she wants to get past, but I think it goes deeper than that. She’s a private lass though, and I no want to press her.”

Darro nodded. “Of course, I have to agree. Poppy can keep her position if that’s what she really wants to do. We just wanted her to have options but it apparently didn’t come out right. For that, I apologize.”

“Darro! Angus!”

Lucerne’s frantic cry had them both jumping up from the table and running to where Lucerne was urgently motioning them into Poppy’s room. “Angus, ye need to get Poppy off the floor and Darro, ye need to talk to Andrea and Morgan.” She handed Darro the phone, her pretty eyes filled with worry.

Seeing Poppy curled into a fetal position had Angus’s heart jumping into his throat. He rushed forward and gently lifted her up in his strong arms. She was incredibly cold and moaning. “I’m takin’ her into the livin’ room where I can hold her and get her warm,” he said, striding out of the room.

Once in the living room, he grabbed a warm throw from the back of the couch and tucked Poppy’s head into his shoulder as he covered her up. He wondered what the hell had happened now? What had her daughter told her that had caused this reaction?

“Docs on his way,” Darro announced as he and Lucerne came into the living room and sat down across from Angus. Doc MacCandish was Darro’s uncle who’d gone into medicine half a century ago and had a practice in Inverness. His given name was Evan, but everyone just called him Doc in deference to his profession. He’d preferred medicine to sheep and had left Neamh to seek his own fortunes when he and Whipcord were young men. Whipcord had stayed with Neamh.

Angus scowled. “What did Andrea have to say?”

Poppy stirred in his arms and he glanced down. She was warming up finally, he could feel the bare skin of her thigh and arm heating where he held her. One small hand reached out and pushed the cover off her chest as she tried to get up.

His arms tightened and he growled possessively. “Where do ye think ye are goin’?”

Eyes seeming the size of Canada stared mutely up at him. The doubt he saw in those depths made him want to strangle whoever had put it there. Before Darro had, that is. Then she tried to put her legs down off the sofa.

“Unless ye want to be turned over and warmed up from an up-ended position, I suggest ye sit still, wee one.”

Poppy glanced over at Darro and Lucerne and then blushed. “I don’t want to sit on your lap,” she hissed.

“I didn’t want to find ye collapsed into a ball of ice on the floor either, but then we don’t always get what we want, do we?”

She closed her eyes, but not before he saw a flash of fire in those brown orbs. “My head was aching and I slipped off the bed. It just seemed more comfortable to stay on the floor than move at the time,” she scoffed, rubbing her forehead.

“This isn’t the first time ye’ve mentioned havin’ a headache. How long have ye had them?” Angus asked in concern. “Is it still bad?”

“I don’t remember,” she replied wearily. “And no, it’s not as bad, but it still hurts.”

“Have ye seen a doctor?”

“Not for a long time,” she quipped facetiously. “It tends to give hidey holes away when you do things like that. Besides, Ibuprofen and Tylenol are cheaper.”

Her sarcastic comments told Angus a lot. One, she was trying to shut him out. And two, she’d been through a lot more than she wanted to admit. Maybe it was time to take the kid gloves off. The feelings he had for Poppy grew deeper every day and he knew she cared for him as well. He wasn’t about to let her run away from him or hide.

“Let me explain somethin’, Poppy,” he growled. “Darro and I are not plottin’ together, ye are not fired. Ye jump to conclusions without listenin’ more often than I’d like. Ye need to calm down and show a little faith and trust in us instead of flyin’ off the handle. And if ye don’t, I’m goin’ to see that ye start sitting a little sorer than ye’re used to.”

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