‘Nothing at all,’ he agreed, stepping back, crossing his arms in front of his chest as he did so. ‘Tell me,’ he mused softly, ‘does anyone like your fiancé? Apart from you, of course,’ he added scornfully.
She gasped incredulously. ‘Brice, you go too far—’
‘Not as far as I would like to go, believe me,’ he grated harshly.
Sabina did believe him. That was the trouble. Brice was a law unto himself. Heaven knew what this weekend was going to be like!
She had thought, when Richard had decided he would accompany her, that it would at least solve one problem for her concerning this proposed trip to Scotland; Brice wouldn’t be able to just kiss her whenever he felt like it with her fiancé around. But with the unmistakable antagonism from Brice directed towards Richard, she wasn’t sure Richard’s presence wasn’t going to just make the weekend even more unbearable.
If that were possible!
The sooner this portrait was completed and she no longer had to see Brice, the better she would like it!
Where on earth was Chloe with that coffee? More to the point, perhaps, had the other woman known Brice would be calling in here today?
‘There is just one other thing about this weekend…’ Brice said slowly.
Sabina eyed him warily. ‘Yes?’
Brice shrugged. ‘My grandfather is in his eighties…’
Her tension increased. ‘Yes?’
‘This is no moral judgement on your lifestyle, I hope you understand?’ He grimaced.
No, Sabina didn’t understand—yet. But she had a definite feeling she was very shortly going to!
‘Go on,’ she invited huskily.
‘It’s quite simple, really,’ Brice continued lightly. ‘How you and Latham live when you’re in London is your business. But when in Rome—or, in this case, Scotland…’ He paused.
‘Brice, would you just get to the point?’ she snapped, having a feeling that Brice was enjoying this. Whatever ‘this’ was!
‘The point is, Sabina,’ he bit out succinctly, ‘that my grandfather, being elderly, also has some rather old-fashioned views. And the fact that you and Latham live together when you’re in London does not mean my grandfather is willing to accommodate that arrangement when you’re in his home! Consequently, you and Latham will be given separate bedrooms during your stay in Scotland,’ he concluded with satisfaction.
That was the point!
Sabina could feel the colour suffusing her cheeks, swallowing hard before speaking—she didn’t want her voice to come out less than assured. Even if she felt less than assured!
‘I’m sure that neither Richard nor I will have a problem with that,’ she told him coolly.
Brice’s expression darkened. ‘I don’t give a damn how Latham feels about it. It’s you I wanted to save from any embarrassment,’ he added grimly.
‘How thoughtful of you, Brice,’ she said dryly—sure that his actions had nothing to do with kindness. He seemed to spend most of his time embarrassing her in one way or another! ‘Now, if you’ll excuse me,’ she added lightly. ‘I really should change out of this gown.’ She moved away.
‘One other thing, Sabina…’ Brice called after her.
She stiffened, turning slowly. ‘Yes?’ she prompted warily.
His eyes glittered, with amusement, or something else, Sabina couldn’t tell. As she couldn’t tell too much from his bland tone when he finally spoke, either. ‘It’s a very old castle, centuries old, and while over the years my grandfather has had a lot of the modern conveniences discreetly installed—’
‘You mean it now has indoor plumbing?’ Sabina taunted. Blonde brows raised mockingly.
‘Amongst other things,’ Brice confirmed dryly. ‘But I was actually referring to the fact that my grandfather hasn’t had too much success solving the problem of creaking doors and floors,’ he concluded challengingly.
Creaking doors and floors—?
Sabina’s frowning brow cleared, her cheeks filled with angry colour now as she realised exactly what Brice was intimating; he was warning her that any nocturnal wanderings, by Richard or herself, would in all likelihood be heard by the people in bedrooms close by!
Her gazed was steely as she looked across at him. ‘I’m sure that Richard and I can manage to sleep alone for two nights,’ she snapped, an angry edge to her tone. ‘If that’s all…?’ she prompted coldly, not waiting for his reply before marching determinedly over to the cubicle and closing the door firmly behind her.
How dared he? How dared he!
Moral judgement on her lifestyle, indeed! Brice knew absolutely nothing about her ‘lifestyle’ when she lived in London.
Absolutely nothing!
Because if he did, he would already have known that she and Richard had never done anything else but occupy separate bedrooms…
CHAPTER TEN
BRICE wished, and not for the first time, that he had accepted Richard Latham’s offer to drive himself and Sabina up to Scotland independently of Brice. At the time it had seemed simpler to Brice if they all arrived together; for one thing Latham had no idea, once he reached Scotland, of how to actually get to the castle, and for another, Brice had used the excuse to spend as much time in Sabina’s company this weekend as possible. But spending time with Sabina in the company of her fiancé was not a pleasant experience.
Not for Brice, anyway. The other couple seemed to feel no such inhibitions, chatting away together quite happily in the back of Brice’s car. Almost as if Brice were superfluous. He might just as well have been the damned chauffeur!
‘I hope I’m not driving too fast for you?’ he rasped, glancing briefly in the driving mirror—only to find Sabina looking back at him with mockingly raised brows. Almost as if she were well aware of how disgruntled he felt. Minx!
‘Not at all,’ Richard Latham was the one to dismiss. ‘We were just saying we hadn’t realised how beautiful it is up here.’
‘Honeymoon country,’ Brice rasped.
‘The Prince and Princess of Wales certainly thought so,’ Richard Latham acknowledged dismissively.
‘But look what happened to their marriage,’ Brice couldn’t resist returning caustically.
Richard laughed softly. ‘I had the Caribbean more in mind for our honeymoon.’
He would, Brice acknowledged irritably, the thought of Sabina spending a honeymoon anywhere with the other man not exactly improving his mood.
Although another glance in the driving mirror lifted his spirits a little when he saw Sabina was looking at her fiancé with more than a little surprise, giving Brice the impression this was the first she had heard about a honeymoon, in the Caribbean or anywhere else.
In which case, Brice acknowledged slowly, that comment about their honeymoon must have been a direct barb aimed at him…
He straightened in his seat a little at the realisation. He had been wary when Latham had changed his plans and decided to come to Scotland with them, but this last exchange seemed to confirm his suspicion that Richard Latham was aware of Brice’s personal interest in Sabina…
Great! Now it seemed his every move this weekend, every word he spoke to Sabina, was going to be under scrutiny.
‘My grandfather’s estate,’ he rasped unwelcomingly as he turned the car into the long driveway that led up to the castle.
‘It’s beautiful,’ Sabina murmured wonderingly a few minutes later, having driven up through the huge herds of deer, the castle itself now in sight.
Brice had been used to staying at his grandfather’s castle all his life, knew it as his second home, but that didn’t mean he didn’t still appreciate the haunting beauty of the castle itself, with its mellow stonework, and huge romantic turrets reaching up into the cloudless sky.
‘I believe my fiancée fancies herself as a Lady of the Castle,’ Richard Latham drawled a few minutes later as they got out of the parked car, Sabina’s pleasure obvious by the look of wonder on her face as she looked around her.
Brice eyed the other man coldly. ‘I believe my grandfather is already spoken for,’ he returned icily before turning to smile at Sabina, her almost childlike pleasure in her surroundings giving him pleasure too.
‘Never mind, Sabina.’ Richard Latham put his arm about Sabina’s shoulders with light possession. ‘If you really want a castle, I can always buy you one.’
Almost as if he were indulging a child with a new bicycle, Brice acknowledged frowningly.
This was not going to be an easy weekend to get through, he realised heavily, when everything the other man said and did irritated him almost to the point of violence. How much more pleasant it would have been if he could have brought Sabina here on her own, sharing the unusual serenity of the family home with her, showing her round, walking the grounds with her, going down to the stream where the family fished for salmon.
‘This castle has been in my family for centuries,’ he told the other man scathingly.
‘Brice is right, Richard.’ Sabina spoke huskily. ‘This sort of beauty can only be inherited, not bought.’
Brice watched as the other man’s mouth tightened fractionally, his obviously having taken exception to the conversation. Or, at least, Sabina’s part of it…