If You Dare

Llorente glared at the book, read it again. His face was tight when he turned to him. "Then you must swear it."

Court hesitated, then finally nodded. "Aye, my word. Let me finish my tasks first, and I'll never have to see her again."

Chapter Thirty-four

"These are eggs?" Olivia asked A

Olivia glanced up to see the chit put her hand over her mouth. Her face was turning green again. If A

She could just see herself confessing to Aleix that A

A

Olivia smiled pleasantly. "After I marry your brother, I will have the kitchen stocked with spices. Expensive ones." She picked up a book from the stack she'd plundered from the library downstairs, licked her thumb, and flipped through with desultory flicks of her wrist. "And we'll get a Spanish chef who knows how to use them. And who will sing opera."

A

Yes, Olivia had been doing that among other things. For Aleix, she was keeping his little sister from going mad or getting sick. When A

"Did MacCarrick leave me a message?" A

"He told me to tell you that they would be through in a few weeks. And that Ethan would see us down when it is safe," Olivia had answered, veering from the truth. Llorente had told her that; MacCarrick had given no such assurance or message. When Olivia had asked MacCarrick if there was anything he'd like to relate—and yes, she'd asked—he'd only grated, "Olivia, if you are unkind to her in any way…"

So ever since they'd gone, Olivia had hedged the truth—and met every sign of tears with snide comments and crude observations. Yet she could only stem the tide for so long, and even now A

Olivia slammed the book flat on the table. "That is one thing I'm not looking forward to—a watering pot for a sister. The embarrassment of it!"

"How would you feel?" A

"One more time—your brother would be dead right now if MacCarrick hadn't put him away, and MacCarrick never lied to you about that. He merely omitted, a tactic I know well and use whenever I feel that I'm getting just shy of hellbound. Say good-bye? He was with you the entire night before he left. I'm sure he said quite a few things"—she raised her eyebrows accusingly at A

"He could have left me a letter."

"Now you're just being silly. He's a mercenary—he's not going to go about pe

A

Olivia slid her nail file across the tabletop to drop it in her palm, then leisurely filed. "Oh, I'm not worried about your brother."

"What?" A

"MacCarrick will look out for him. To please you." Olivia wasn't fearful for Llorente in the least. MacCarrick? She gave him a one in two chance. "I'm confident he'll be safe."

"MacCarrick would do that, wouldn't he?…" She sniffed.

"A

"You would cry in my position!"

"No, I emphatically would not. I'd scrounge something to eat in this blasted British house, and I'd take care of myself so that when I saw him again I wouldn't be skin and bones with eyes red from crying. And if I had questions about MacCarrick that couldn't wait, and I was stuck in a house rife with answers, I'd find them."

"What do you mean?"

"The servants. Servants know everything."

"I tried! Courtland often said a Gaelic phrase to me, and it signified something important—I know it—but when I repeated it to Erskine and the cook and the maids and the footmen no one would translate it for me."

Olivia snorted. "I wouldn't have taken 'no' for an answer."

A

Olivia rolled her eyes. "Of course not. You would use boiling oil."

In a sighing voice, A

Take it back, Olivia almost sputtered. "I'm not being nice to you, I'm acting nice to you. Your brother seems to think I can behave appropriately to certain people." She began filing her nails again. A

A

"I did know that." Olivia blew on her nails. "So it's a good thing I came along to force his hand."

A

"I can see that you agree."

"If you are what makes Aleix happy, then I will have to tolerate you."

"Oh. Since I was awaiting your approval."

A

"What did he say when you told him?"

A

"You never told him?"

"I wanted to. I was going to," she said as she stood to pace. Olivia wondered yet again if the trembling bottom lip or the pacing was worse. "I just wanted the perfect time and…and, very well, I lost my nerve."

"Would you have been able to tell him if you were pregnant? You could be, you know," Olivia said, wondering if A

A

Olivia's lips parted in shock and she dropped her file. Can't have children? Oh, the devil's red boots, this was getting worse and worse. The chit had absolutely no clue she was pregnant. No wonder she didn't understand why she felt so poorly—or why her emotions were roiling.

Olivia had thought she was keeping it a secret, but no, Olivia was going to have to explain, and in terms more delicate than "In another month, I'll be the only one wearing your clothes." She repeatedly knocked her forehead against her hand on the table. Llorente owed her this marriage.