His Cinderella Heiress by Marion Lennox

Author:Marion Lennox
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2016-07-02T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SIX

JO SEEMED TO spend the next three days avoiding him as much as she could. The tension between them was almost a physical thing. The air seemed to bristle as they passed, so they spent their time doing what their separate skills required, separately.

Finn took inventory of the farm, working his way through the flocks of sheep, looking at what needed to be done before any sale took place. Inside the castle, the personal stuff was deemed to be Jo’s, to do with what she wanted. She, after all, was the granddaughter of the house, Finn said firmly. She wanted none of it—apart from one battered bear—but things needed to be sorted.

She had three categories.

The first contained documents that might be important and photographs she decided to scan and file electronically in case someone in the future—not her—needed to reference them.

The second was a list of the things that seemed to go with the castle—the massive furnishings, the tapestries, the portraits.

The third contained items to be sold or given to museums. That included the storeroom full of ancient clothes. At some point in the far distant past, one of their ancestors had decided the amazing clothes worn on ceremonial occasions by generations of Conaills were worth preserving. A storeroom had been made dry and mothproof. The clothes smelled musty and were faded with age but they were still amazing.

‘A museum would kill for them,’ Jo told Finn.

He’d come in to find her before dinner. She was on the storeroom floor with a great golden ballgown splayed over her knees. The white underskirt was yellowed with age, but the mass of gold embroidery worked from neckline to hem made it a dazzle of colour.

‘Try it on,’ Finn suggested and Jo cast him a look that was almost scared. That was what he did to her, he thought ruefully. One kiss and he had her terrified.

‘I might damage it.’

‘I will if you will,’ he told her. He walked across to a cape that would have done Lord Byron proud. ‘Look at this. Are these things neckcloths? How do you tie them? I’d have to hit the Internet. I’m not sure of the boots, though—our ancestors’ feet seems to have been stunted. But if I can find something... Come on, Jo. We’re eating dinner in that great, grand dining room. Next week we’ll be back to being Finn the Farmer and Jo the Barista. For tonight let’s be Lord and Lady Conaill of Castle Glenconaill. Just for once. Just because we can.’

Just because we can. The words echoed. She looked up at him and he could see the longing. Tattoos and piercings aside, there was a girl inside this woman who truly wanted to try on this dress.

‘Dare you,’ he said and she managed a smile.

‘Only if you wear tights.’

‘Tights?’

‘Leggings. Breeches. Those.’ She pointed to a pair of impossibly tight pants.

‘Are you kidding? I’ll sing falsetto for ever.’

‘Dare you,’ she said and suddenly she was grinning and so was he and the thing was done.

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