At the beginning
of chapter thirteen, Heather and Tim leave Mrs. Croft's place early
in the morning, after Tim has cut tons of wood for the widow and left
quite a large tip. Then they do some walking. A lot of walking.
During this time, we find out that Heather doesn't mind that Tim is
holding her hand so much. She recognizes the possessiveness of the
gesture, but doesn't mind it coming from him. Also, because most of
their walking is uphill, at one point, Tim manages to see The
Highlander behind them. He lets Heather know, and the two walk as
quickly as they can, over landslides and more windy, hilly roads.
Oh, also Heather is glad Tim told her what was really going on and
had a discussion with her about it instead of just deciding
something, so she stops and kisses him full on the mouth to thank
him. He really likes this kind of thanking.
Eventually, they
reach one of the villages right next to the Vale, and they keep
going, but now with more purpose. Just before they make a final turn
around a lane up to the manor, Tim looks back and sees the Highlander
a ways behind them. The two have a stare-down, kind of difficult
when you can't see the other's face, until Tim turns and follows
Heather around the bend.
The Highlander
apparently figured out that Heather is intelligent, stubborn, and
brave just from the way she walks. Also, that Tim is a nobleman and
a warrior and that Heather's future is safe with him. The only thing
bothering the Highlander is where the duo was going. It looks like
they're on an estate, but there's no handy sign to say whose it is,
so the Highlander goes to the tavern in the nearby town of Knockgray
to inquire, discretely. He learns that the manor belongs to some of
the Cynsters. Now satisfied that Heather will be safe, once he's
done with his drink, the Highlander leaves the tavern and lets
Hercules run down the road. The Highlander doesn't want to deal with
all of the drama that's home, but he's still glad to be going back
there. Still, I don't think we've seen the last of him.
Heather and Tim
get a very enthusiastic welcome from Catriona's and Richard's five
children, as well as the lord and lady of the manor and just about
all of the servants. So, some names: Lucilla, Marcus, Annabelle,
Calvin, and Carter are all Catriona's and Richard's kids. Algaria is
looking after Calvin and Carter as a sort of nurse, but she is also
teaching Lucilla magic. Apparently, the Lady of the Vale is
essentially a witch. That's Catriona's title now and used to be
Algaria's. Also, there's a protector of the Lady of the Vale, who is
currently Richard, but the next one in training will be Marcus,
Lucilla's twin. Got all of that? Good. I'm not sure how much of
that will actually be important in this book.
Then the adults
all escape to the library and send the children away with promises of
food to make it less of a punishment. Once Heather, Catriona,
Richard, and Tim are all settled in the library, Heather starts
telling their story. She makes it very clear that nothing was Tim's
fault and that he's been great about the whole thing. Tim only
interjects what he needs to and lets Heather take the lead in telling
the story. Good plan. It seems like they leave out the steamy
scenes they had the last few days, but that's probably for the best.
They go right up until Tim's stare-down with the Highlander, which he
didn't tell Heather about. Then both Heather and Richard write
letters to others in the clan to assure them that Heather is okay.
Once the letters
are done, Catriona takes Heather upstairs to have a bath and a change
of clothes, which gives Tim the opportunity to tell Richard that he's
planning on marrying Heather. Unsurprisingly, Tim doesn't want to
tell Richard that he's fallen in love with Heather and really really
wants to marry her. Tim just says that he's willing to do so in
order to save Heather's reputation and whatnot. Pansy. Also, the
tale that they'll tell Society is that someone played matchmaker for
Heather and Tim and the two wanted to meet somewhere private to see
if they would want to marry each other. So far, Society just thinks
Heather has a nasty, contagious cold so no one has gone to verify the
story. I guess no one cares that Tim has been missing because men
can't be ruined. Or something. Oh, also, in the public story, even
though most Cynsters marry for love, Heather decided not to because
she's about to reach the ancient age of twenty-five and she figured
she may as well not be a spinster if she could have a title. Right,
because that totally sounds like her.
Catriona comes
in at the end of this and Richard explains it all to her. She turns
to Tim and asks the important question: “Have you discussed this
with Heather?” After hearing that he hasn't, Catriona suggests
that he does, and then sends both men to their rooms to prepare for
dinner. After they've left, Catriona smiles knowingly and then
wanders away to take care of other things. She knows Timand Heather
are in love before they do. It's always nice when someone in the
story knows what's going on.
A bit later,
Richard and Catriona talk about Heather and Tim. Catriona points out
that Heather has a thing for Tim. Also that The Lady, her goddess,
steered the two of them here to get their shit together and realize
that they're in love. Because apparently that happens in the Vale a
lot.
Chapter fourteen
opens with Tim lying in his bed alone at night. We all know where
this is going, but it takes the scenic route, so put your patient
pants on for a bit. Tim thinks back over dinner that night and how
lovely it was. Everyone was so warm and accepting, sharing life
together and all of that awesome kind of stuff. Also, Tim noticed
that Richard was looking at him with sympathy and this bothers Tim.
All of the Cynster guys see the ladies as princesses and the chance
for any man to marry them as an honor. So, Richard being sympathetic
makes no sense to Tim. Also, Catriona welcomes Tim with open arms,
apparently not caring that the Cynsters only marry for love and that
Tim is planning to marry Heather for other reasons. Tim is so
thick-headed, but I guess we need something to fill the next seven
chapters.
Back in his
room, Tim thinks of and dismisses the possibility of letting Heather
go. That is unacceptable. They're going to have the white picket
fence and the 2.75 children, or the stereotype of their time and
location. Tim realizes that he wants to build a home, both the
structure and the family to inhabit it, and he wants to do this with
Heather. He tosses and turns for about an hour, unable to sleep.
Tim thinks about how he knows of one activity that is guaranteed to
make him sleep, but that it would be ungentlemanly to go to Heather's
bed now. Good thing Heather isn't bound by such rules.
She sneaks into
his room and gets naked pretty quickly. Then they bang. Heather
takes control for a little bit. She gets Tim on his back, and I
think she gets him close to climax before he flips her back onto her
back and gets control back from her. So there's that. Once they
both orgasm, they fall asleep in each other's arms. Tim wakes up
just enough later to realize that the reason he couldn't sleep before
was because he wasn't holding Heather. Aw.
The next
morning, as soon as Heather is awake, they bang again. For real
though, is Heather pregnant yet? In many books and movies it seems
like it only takes once to make a baby. Anyway, since we're in
Heather's POV, we get a reminder that, although she'll pretend not to
care when Tim finally ends their time as lovers, Heather doesn't want
their intimacy to end. So, they're all cuddled together afterward
when Tim has to open his mouth and say the wrong thing. I mean, he
proposes, but in a terrible way.
His exact words
are, “We need to get married.” Way to be romantic and appeal to
her emotional attachment to you, dude. So, essentially, Tim says
that they need to marry in order to save her reputation, and Heather
replies that she doesn't give a damn about her reputation and then
leaves. Meanwhile, Tim is thinking that he totally does want to
marry her, but he never says it to her. Coward. After Heather
leaves, Tim spends a moment mourning the loss of the perfect future
he built the night before. Then he puts on his big boy pants and
decides that he's going to fight for Heather's heart. ...which is
kind of romantic, but would be creepy if we didn't know that she
loved him as well. They're both just too dumb and pig headed to
admit it to themselves and each other. So, we've gotten to the
standard part of the romance novel now.
For the next
chapter, I predict that Catriona will try to beat some sense into
Heather. Probably not literally. Also, we won't hear anything big
from the Highlander, but we might in the chapter after the next one.
Oh, also, Tim will discover lollipops for the first time and be
entranced by their tastiness.
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