Page 79 of The Highlander's Kilted Bride
“Thank you,” she said with a smile. “I enjoyed it, too. I’m just sorry that you had to sit through that dreadful spectacle at dinner.”
“My dear girl, that was the most entertaining part of the evening. I wouldn’t have missed it for anything.”
Charlie doffed an imaginary cap. “We aim to please, sir. Now, if you’ll just give me a moment to retrieve my brooch, we can sneak back upstairs undetected. As a spy, I’m sure you’re very good at that.”
She opened the cabinet and reached for the small lacquered box on the bottom shelf. When it felt too light, her brain tripped and stumbled to a halt. With trembling hands, she flipped up the lid.
Kade was at her side in an instant. “What’s wrong?”
Unable to speak past the constriction in her throat, she simply showed him the empty box.
He frowned. “Charlie, are you sure this is the right one? The blasted things all look the same to me.”
Shehadbeen rushing that day, so perhaps . . .
Hastily, she checked the boxes on the two bottom shelves, then the others. All were empty.
“It’s gone,” she said, as panic punched through her shock. “It’s really, really gone.”
“Well, that’s no good,” he replied.
“And that is a ridiculous understatement,” she snapped, unable to stop herself.
He ran a hand down her arm. “Charlie, it’ll be all right, I promise. We’ll figure it out.”
Full-blown panic was now surging through her body like a roiling thunderstorm, along with the hideous conviction that she’d brought this dreadful state of affairs upon herself.
Stupid, stupid, stupid.
“The bloody thing is gone and somebody obviously took it,” she exclaimed, waving her arms.
She spun on her heel and paced the room, too agitated to remain still. Her thoughts whirled about inside her skull, making it hard to think rationally.
“Perhaps one of the maids found it,” he suggested. “Might they have come in early to dust?”
“No, because they would have returned it to Papa immediately.”
Then she stopped pacing, struck by a hideous thought.
“What if Richard already found it, or Sir Leslie? Papa will be an absolute terror. He’llinsistthat I marry them. Him. Whomever.” She covered her face, feeling ill. “This is a disaster.”
A moment later, Kade gently pulled her hands away and gathered them to his chest. His gaze was tender and more than slightly amused.
“If you dare to laugh, Kade Kendrick, I swear I will throw you out the window.”
“I wouldn’t dream of it, sweetheart. But you know as well as I do that your father cannot make you marry anyone.”
“No, but he and Mamma would pester me endlessly. Andeveryonewill be talking about it, andeveryonewill be pressuring me to uphold the family honor. Either way, my life will be ruined.”
She knew she sounded dramatic, but she couldn’t help it. She’d tumbled into more than a few scrapes in her life, but nothing compared to this. This one was a monumental disaster.
He shook his head. “I won’t allow that to happen.”
“Kade, you don’t understand. This is going to be—”
He let go of her hands and tipped up her chin. Then he lowered his head and . . .
Kissed her.
