A Contract for His Runaway Bride

Elodie took the ball of plastic from her twin and stuffed it in the box she had set aside for recycling. ‘We’re not having a paper marriage any more.’

Elspeth’s eyes twinkled. ‘Wow!’

‘Wow, indeed.’ Elodie picked up one of the sketching sets she’d ordered and placed it on the table. ‘This is probably way too much information to share, even for a twin sister, but I’ve never really enjoyed making love with anyone other than Lincoln.’ She glanced at her twin. ‘Is that weird, or what?’

‘It’s not weird at all,’ Elspeth said. ‘It shows you care about him. You do, don’t you?’

Elodie sighed. ‘Way more than I should, given we’re only staying married for a matter of months.’

‘That might change. I mean, Lincoln might change his mind and offer you more.’

‘He was pretty blunt about it. Six months and six months only.’

‘But he changed his mind about the paper marriage, right?’

Elodie picked up another parcel from the box she was unloading, a small frown tugging at her brow. ‘I haven’t decided yet if he always intended to tweak the rules or if I managed to convince him. He’s so hard to read sometimes.’

Elspeth started to unwrap another velvet chair, a small smile playing about her mouth. ‘I can only imagine the lengths you went to in order to change his mind.’

Elodie laughed. ‘Now, that would be sharing way too much information.’

***

Elodie got back to Lincoln’s London home to find Morag preparing dinner in the kitchen. She hadn’t seen much of the housekeeper since she and Lincoln had returned from Spain. She had deliberately stayed away during Morag’s working hours. But now that she had no choice but to interact with her, Elodie decided to try a new tactic—to act her way into feeling more positive about the grumpy housekeeper.

It was worth a try. Anything was worth a try.

‘Can I do anything to help?’

Morag wiped the back of her hand across her forehead. ‘No. I can manage.’

Elodie narrowed her gaze on the older woman’s strange-looking pallor. She had a greyish tinge to her skin and beads of perspiration peppered her forehead. ‘Are you okay?’

Morag gripped the edge of the kitchen bench with her hands. ‘I... I think I might need some insulin... I might have missed a dose...or eaten the wrong thing...’

Elodie rushed over and took her by the shoulders. ‘Let me help you. Come and sit down and I’ll get your insulin for you. Where is it?’

Morag sank into the chair with a sigh of relief. ‘In my bedroom...’ She took a gasping breath and slumped forward with her head bent over her knees. ‘In the chest of drawers...top drawer, I think.’

‘I’m going to call an ambulance.’

‘Don’t you dare. I’ll be fine once I’ve had a dose.’

‘Maybe you should lie down while I get it?’ Elodie suggested. ‘I don’t want you to fall off that chair.’

Morag lifted her head to glare at her. ‘Just bring me the insulin, will you?’

Elodie ground her teeth and ran upstairs to the top floor, where Morag had a small suite of rooms for when she stayed over. She rushed over to the chest of drawers, but the insulin wasn’t in the top drawer as Morag had thought. She opened the second and third drawers, rustling through the housekeeper’s belongings, but failed to find any medication.

The fourth and bottom drawer was stiff to open, and while she doubted the medication would be stored there, she thought it best to check anyway. She finally managed to get the drawer open and rummaged around the contents. Her eyes suddenly homed in on a velvet ring box, and her heart came to a complete standstill. She stared at the box for countless seconds, her heartbeat restarting with a loud ba-boom, ba-boom, ba-boom that made her suspect she was having her own medical crisis.

She reached for the box with a hand that wasn’t quite steady, opening it to find her old engagement ring glittering there in all its brilliance. Something dropped like a tombstone in her stomach. Morag had the ring. All this time, the housekeeper had had the ring. But why?

Elodie heard the sound of Lincoln’s firm footsteps coming along the corridor and quickly stashed the ring back in the drawer. She tried to shove it closed. The drawer wouldn’t close all the way, but there wasn’t time to worry about that. She straightened and glanced around the room, and saw an insulin kit sitting on a chair next to the bed. She snatched it up just as Lincoln came through the door.

‘You found it? Great.’ He took it off her and raced back downstairs, with Elodie in hot pursuit. ‘I called an ambulance. It should be here any second now.’

‘I offered to, but Morag insisted I didn’t.’

‘She can be difficult about her illness. She hasn’t really accepted it.’

They got back to the kitchen and Lincoln helped administer a dose of insulin as if he had been moonlighting as a physician for years. Morag recovered within a few minutes, but by then the ambulance had arrived and Lincoln insisted she go to hospital to be checked out.