Love Came Just In Time Part 20

Gideon frowned at her. "I think you've been working too hard." He sidestepped her and started down the hallway.

Megan watched in horror as the kilted one drew a sword and waved it menacingly at the first.

"They're going to kill each other!" She leaped toward Gideon. "Duck," she said, jerking on his arm.

"You're going to get your head chopped off!"

Gideon pushed her gently back into the doorway of his bedroom. "Megan," he said calmly, "there's nothing in the hallway. I'm going to go have a look in your room. You stay here until I get back."

Megan watched him turn and walk straight into the path of a swinging sword.

"Oh my gosh!" she exclaimed, clapping her hands over her eyes so she wouldn't have to watch him be decapitated.

"Megan?"

Megan paused, then peeked at him from between her fingers.

Gideon was standing in the middle of the hallway, unhurt. But the two swordsmen were going at each other with murder in their eyes, neatly fighting right around him.

"Don't you see them?" Megan asked incredulously.

"See who?"

"Those two men fighting? Right in front of your nose, Gideon!"

Gideon put out his hand, waved it up and down, side to side, then shook his head.

"Nothing."

Megan rolled her eyes. "I can hear them calling each other names." She paused. "And not very nice

names, either." "Enough!" a voice roared from her left. Megan fell back against the door with a gasp. A man strode angrily up the stairs. He was wearing a kilt as well, along with a very long broadsword. His cap was tilted at a jaunty angle; the feather flapped

madly as he leaped up the remaining steps. He advanced on the two fighters. "By the saints, you lads are trying the limits of my patience today! You, Fulbert, leave young Megan be. She has enough to think on without you tormenting her."

"But look what she's done to me newy-"

"She's done nothing that didn't need doing. Now, be off with you!"

The first man shoved his sword back into its scabbard, threw Megan a disgruntled look, then vanished.

"And you, Hugh," the one seemingly in charge scolded. "I'm ashamed of you! Brawling in the

pa.s.sageway thusly!"

The red-haired one ducked his head. "I was just defendin' me wee one's honor."

"Well, I can't say as how I blame you," the other said, with a nod, "but it isn't seemly to hack at the

blighter in front of her."

"Aye, Ambrose. Ye're right, of course."

"Then off with you, Hugh."

The other put away his sword, then vanished.

Then Megan watched in astonishment as the commanding one turned and made her a deep bow.

"My deepest apologies for the disturbance, granddaughter. Please carry on with your day."

And then he walked through Gideon and disappeared into the closet at the end of the hallway.

Megan bolted after him and jerked open the closet door, fully expecting to see someone hiding inside.

Instead she came face-to-face with stacks of bed linens. She clutched the door frame and came to a quick conclusion.

"I'm losing it," she announced.

"I think I agree," Gideon said, coming up behind her. "You need a holiday."

"What I need is some fresh air." She turned, pushed past him, and walked down the pa.s.sageway.

"Maybe I should go get some work done. That would probably snap me right back into reality."

"I've been a bad influence on you," Gideon said, trailing after her.

"No, I think you've been just the opposite," Megan said, thumping down the stairs. She reached the entry way well ahead of him and strode to the front door purposefully. A nice walk to the castle would be just the thing to clear her head of the surreal experience she had just had.

She opened the door and peeked out-into a hurricane.

"It's just a little rain," she said. She turned the collar up on her coat and steeled herself for the worst.

A large hand caught the door before she could open it any further.

"Megan, it's raining too hard to go out."

"I don't care," she said, putting her shoulders back. "I have work to do."

Gideon eased her back from the door and shut it. He turned her around and looked down at her

gravely.

"There's more to life than work," he said.

"But," she said, gesturing toward the door, "I need to look at the castle-"

"It's been there for centuries. It will be there for another day or two."

She looked up at him with a scowl. "Why the sudden change of heart?"

He smiled and shrugged. "I've come to realize quite suddenly that there is more to life than work."

"You've got to be kidding."

"I've been distracted by freckles."

"Freckles?"

"Yours."

"Oh," she said. Then she froze and felt a blush creep up her cheeks. "Mine?"

"Oh, yes," he said, with a nod. "Enough to make a man rethink his priorities."

"Oh, really," she squeaked. She cleared her throat and dredged up the most uninterested expression she

could. "Well," she said, her nose in the air, "there is more to me than my freckles. Attractive though they might be."

"You have my full attention."

"Hmmm, well," she said, quite at a loss for words. This about-face by a dyed-in-the-wool CEO was very hard to believe. "I would elaborate on my other desirable qualities if I had the time," she said finally.

"You have the time. It's too wet to go out right now."

She wanted to argue, but couldn't. It was just as nasty outside today as it had been when she'd walked to the inn and she had very vivid memories of that soggy trip. "I suppose it is a little on the rainy side," she said reluctantly.

"You can go after Christmas. The castle will keep until then."

He had a point. "All right," she conceded. "I'll wait until then."

"Good," he said. "Interested in breakfast?"

"If you stir."

"Done."

And then Megan watched as he took her by his comfortable, companionable hand and led her toward

the kitchen. And she went with him, partly because it was too wet to go to the castle and partly because she had to see more of the Gideon-on-vacation side he seemed to be showing. And, lastly, she went with him because there was something about a man with bouncing purple curly cues on his toes that was just too much to resist.

Gideon stopped at the entrance to the kitchen and looked around, seemingly perplexed.

"I must admit, I haven't the vaguest idea where to start," he said, scanning the area.

"Clean-up first, then cooking," Megan said. "Here, I'll show you what to do."

Organizing was definitely one of her strong points and she used it to its best advantage. Once the kitchen

was tidied, she turned to Mrs.Pruitt's notes. She flipped through until she found something she thought they might manage.

"Ever had bannocks?" she asked.

"They're tasty enough. I think we could manage."

"All right, here goes."

Megan did her best to decipher Mrs. Pruitt's scrawl while Gideon sifted and stirred to her specifications.

Megan looked into the bowl.

"I think they're supposed to look like pancakes," she said, tipping the bowl this way and that. "This is too runny."

Gideon looked at her helplessly. "Should I stir more?"