Love Came Just In Time Part 19

"Ah ha," he said, feeling the force of the moment reverberate through him. What could it hurt to take a day or two and put work aside? It wasn't as if he could do much about itanyway, short of walking to the village and hiring a car. It would just be time wasted. Stephen might notbe interested in the company, but Adam MacClure was. He could hold down the fort for a day or so.

Besides, Christmas was right around the corner. People all over the world were contemplating holidays with their families. There was food to be prepared, gifts to be wrapped, carols to be sung. He hadn't done any of that in years. Christmas had always seemed a perfect time to catch up on things at the office. Stephen had always thrown a lord-of-the-manor type of affair, doing his d.a.m.ndest to revive old customs. Gideon had thought it politic to just stay in London and not spoil Stephen's party.

But now he was, for all intents and purposes, prisoner on the Scottish border with only time on his hands and Megan McKinnon to admire.

d.a.m.n, but the holidays were shaping up brilliantly.

"I think," he said, reaching out and relieving Megan of the fire extinguisher, "that a holiday is just the thing

for me."

She blinked. "You do?"

He shrugged and smiled. "I hear they're quite therapeutic. Perhaps you'd care to show me how they're

done?"

He watched her look at him, and then her eyes narrowed. "Why?" she demanded. "So you can sneak in

some fixing?"

Gideon shook his head. "I was wrong to even bring it up. I apologize."

"Well," she said, looking quite off balance. Gideon suspected she'd been bracing herself to really let him

have it.

"Well," she repeated, "I just don't need to be fixed."

"No, you don't."

She looked at him suspiciously. "What's the deal with your new angle here?"

"No angle. No agenda. I've just come to realize rather suddenly that I'm the one who needs some fixing.

I work too much."

She reached up and felt his forehead. "You're a little warm. Maybe you caught a bug from being out in the rain."

Gideon took her hand and pulled her back into the house. He'd caught a malady and it had red hair and green eyes. He set the fire extinguisher down and shut the front door.

"I'm officially on holiday. What should we do first? Decorate the place?" He looked about the entryway. "We could investigate the nooks and crannies of the inn, or learn how to cook. Sing a carol or two in front of the fire." The more he thought about it, the more appealing it sounded. Perhaps he would stretch his holiday into three days instead of two. After all, Christmas was in three days and he certainly wouldn't get any work done then. "Read d.i.c.kens before the fire," he said, his head filling with ideas. "That Ghost of Christmas Past is one of my all time favorite characters. Why, I'm starting to think this will be brilliant," he said, beaming down at her.

"Can't."

He blinked. "I beg your pardon."

She smiled up at him. "I have to work. See ya."

And she turned and walked back to the stairs.

"Work?" he asked, aghast. "Now?"

She looked over her shoulder. "I'm here to work, Gideon. Remember? My brother's castle? I have to go take a look at it." "But, surely that can wait..." "Nope, I've got to get right on it." "But-" She waved at him over her shoulder as she mounted the steps. Gideon stared after her in shock. "But it's Christmas!" he called after her.

She didn't stop.

Well, this just wouldn't do. Gideon watched her disappear upstairs and frowned. He tapped his foot impatiently, which generally provided him with stunning solutions. All it did now was make him dizzy. He shook his head. How could she be so consumed with work this close to Christmas?

"Work can wait," he said, trying the words out on his tongue. They felt, surprisingly enough, quite good. "It isn't everything," he added. That felt even better. "Why, holidays are a good thing," he said, with enthusiasm. It occurred to him, suddenly, that he was possibly responsible for Megan's desire to work through the holidays. Good heavens, had he been the one to drive her to this madness?

Well, he would rectify that. He had just recently seen the light and burned with the enthusiasm of the freshly converted. Holidays were good for a body. Too much work was hazardous to one's health.

And he would know.

Chapter Six.

Megan tugged on her leather jacket and shoved her feet back into her still-damp boots. It was raining outside anyway and she would get soaked within minutes, but it didn't matter. She had work to do. A little rain wasn't going to stop her because she'd be d.a.m.ned before she would fail at this job. She would show them all that she could follow through, do what she said she would, make things happen. Her family would finally think she was a success.

As would Gideon.

Not that she cared what he thought. No sir.

She stepped out into the hallway and shut the door firmly. No time like the present to start down the road to success. She put her shoulders back and marched smartly down the hallway.

"d.a.m.n the gel if she hasn't ruined him for decent labor."

Megan froze. Then she put her fingers in her ears and gave them a good wiggling. Surely there was no one else in the hallway. She was just hearing things.

"She may as well have gelded the poor lad!"

Megan whirled around. She would have squeaked, but she had no breath for it.

There, standing not fifteen feet from her was a man. A big man. A man wearing a sword. In fact, he

looked to be wearing chain mail too, what she could see of it under his folded arms and knightly

overcoat-like tunic. He might have looked like something out of an historical wax museum collection if it hadn't been for the disapproving look he was giving her.

Megan gulped. "Help," she whispered.

"Doin' a full day's work's no sin," the man grumbled.

"Help," Megan squeaked. "Help, help!"

"You're fillin' me boy's head with womanly notions!" the man exclaimed. He unfolded his arms and

shook his finger at her. "I'd take it more kindly if you'd stop with it!"

"Gideon, help!" Megan screamed, backing up rapidly.

"Megan, good heavens!" Gideon called from a distance.

Megan heard him thumping up the stairs behind her, but she didn't dare take her eyes off the knight to

look at him. She backed up into him and pointed down the hallway.

"Look," she whispered.

"Look at what?"

"There's someone in the hallway. Look, down there!"

"I can't see a thing," Gideon said.

"He's standing right there!"

"Who?"

Megan spun around, grabbed him by the tunic front and shook him. "There's a man at the end of the

hallway wearing chain mail and a sword, you idiot!" she said. "Open your eyes and look!"

Gideon put his hands on her shoulders to steady himself. "Megan, you're thinking too much about

work-"

"See?" the man behind her complained. "Look at what you've done to him, gel!"

Megan pointed back behind her. "He's talking to me. There at the end of the hall."

Gideon put his arms around her. "Now, Megan-"

"Don't you 'Now, Megan' me," she warned. "Mrs. Pruitt said there were ghosts and I'm telling you there's one standing at the end of the hallway!"

Gideon gave her a squeeze. "If it will make you feel any better, I'll go have a look."

Megan looked over her shoulder and squeaked at the new addition to the troops.

"d.a.m.n ye, Fulbert, dinnae scare me wee granddaughter like that!" a red-haired man in a kilt exclaimed in tones of thunder.

"I was only tellin' her-"

"I heard what ye said-"

"Wait," Megan said frantically as Gideon tried to move past her. "Now there are two of them!"