One Night_A Second Chance Romance

by Emma York

She got to her feet, scooping up the papers. “You think you’ve won, sitting there with that smile on your face but you’ve won nothing. You still don’t get to keep the place. You’ll be famous for being the last of the King family to live there.”

  “If it means you don’t live there either, I’m happy with that.”

  She stormed out without another word, the noise of her car engine revving a second later.

  Hedley emerged from the kitchen, sliding a mug of tea across the table to me. “So you’ve sold it,” he said. “And I had a tenner saying you’d stay now you were back.”

  “I’m sorry you lost your money,” I replied. “God, will you ever make a decent tea?”

  “You’re welcome to take your business elsewhere if you don’t like the service.”

  “I’ll be taking it to Italy pretty soon.”

  He scratched his arm leisurely, looking out at the loch through the window. “You’re really going then?”

  “I guess so.”

  “I’m sorry it came to this, Robert, I really am.”

  “So am I,” I said, thinking of the abbot's words once more. “But I’ve done what had to be done.”

  FIFTEEN - TILLY

  I hung up. It was finally done.

  It had not been an easy couple of days and there were several times I wasn’t sure if I was doing the right thing.

  This was right though. This was the only thing I was sure was right.

  Getting back to L.A had been the easy part. Eli seemed to have had a change of heart when he landed, perhaps brought on by the first phone call I made.

  That call led to the meeting with his lawyer. “I want to be clear Mr Caffrey is not accepting any liability in his offer of settlement,” he said, all white teeth and slicked back hair as he tapped the file in front of him on the desk. “But if you were willing to withdraw your complaint in the light of realising a simple misunderstanding took place, I am authorised to finalise this deal today.”

  There were two options available to me. “Just give me a minute,” I replied.

  “Take all the time you need,” he replied, getting up and heading for the door. “Give me a shout when you’ve made your mind up.”

  I turned to my mom, roped into coming to the meeting with me. “What do you think?”

  “What matters more to you, sweetie?” she replied.

  “That doesn’t help.”

  “I’m not sure what you want me to say.”

  “I want you to make my mind up for me.”

  “I know you do. You want someone to tell you what to do but you’ve got to choose this one. No one else can do it for you.”

  She was right but I didn’t want to hear it. I wanted her to tell me what mattered more. If I went through with my threat to share what had happened in the office, it might go in my favour. The world had changed in the last few years. Eli wouldn’t be the first producer to get in trouble for harassment. That was, of course, if people believed me. I’d get nothing but he’d maybe stop doing it with anyone else.

  The other option was to take the money. Eli would be on guard in future which would hopefully make life easier for any other women who worked with him. More importantly, I’d be able to use the settlement to put right the thing I’d made wrong.

  I chose the money. I thought about it for a long time before making my mind up but in the end what mattered most to me was making things right with Robert. I found out the house was on the market because I had a newsfeed on my phone, set up from last time I’d been over to Doon. Any mention of Doon castle anywhere and I knew about it.

  So when the for sale ad ran, I knew about it at once. I also had a check for a million dollars. I rang William Dacre at once and made him the offer. I’d pay the asking price as long as I got to remain anonymous. I didn’t want him to know it was me. That would lead to questions I didn’t want to answer, like why I’d screwed things up in the first place.

  I hung up to find Mom looking at me from the computer desk. “You remember last time we were sat like this?” she said. “You saw this picture.” She clicked her mouse and there was Doon castle. My heart soared to see it again despite my efforts. “I bet you never thought you’d own it.”

  “I don’t own it yet,” I replied. I thought about seeing it for the first time, how it had looked on the screen, hearing Angela’s voice on the answer machine.

  The trip from Glasgow airport, the epic journey just to get to Doon village. Then the castle itself, the mountains surrounding it. And Robert. Meeting him for the first time. It seemed like a lifetime since I’d sat desperately looking for the right castle for Jurgen Harbor, the man who’d gone back into hiding after production shut down.

  “I think you should go see him,” Mom said, looking at me closely.

  “Go see who?”

  “Robert of course.”

  “Mom, he won’t want to speak to me. I’m the reason he’s having to sell.”

  “But that wasn’t your fault. That was all Eli’s doing. You can’t have known he’d be so cruel as to burn millions just to prove a point to you.”

  “Still, I can’t go. I bet he hates me.”

  “Then this ticket’s going to waste.”

  She slid her hand into the desk drawer and brought out an envelope, tossing it across to me.

  “What’s this?”

  “It might be a ticket to Glasgow.”

  “What? Why?”

  “Because if you’re getting a million and using half of it to buy the castle from him, the least you can do is tell him in person.”

  “Mom, I’m not sure…”

  “I am.” She sounded stern. She never sounded stern.

  “You make me feel like a kid who didn’t eat her greens and got found out.”

  “Then do as your mother tells you. Get that flight and go talk to him.”

  “But why?”

  “No whys, no thinking. Just go. Trust me on this one, I’m a lot older than you.”

  “All right, fine, I’ll go. But I’m telling you he’s just going to close the door in my face.”

  “He can’t do that if you own the place can he?”

  “I guess not.”

  I was on the plane the next morning. I never expected to be flying back to Scotland so soon. With production shut down I had a gap in my diary though and with the whispers Eli put out, the gap might stretch out forever. I had half a million left after buying the castle, thereabouts anyway. After paying Mom back for the various flights and paying off her mortgage, I should have just enough left for the other thing I wanted to do. Whether I got to do it would depend on how this trip went.

  I didn’t sleep, I was too anxious. I was worried about seeing him again, not knowing how to begin telling him it was my fault he was having to sell. But then I had an ace up my sleeve about that.

  The journey was Glasgow to Doon was much quicker this time. First time, a saga of a journey that seemed to take forever. Second time with the crew in the trucks. This time I was alone in my hire car.

  I got to Doon while it was still daylight. There was the castle I’d just bought. It didn’t seem real. I stopped at Dacre’s real estate place to sign the papers on the way and transfer the money across. “Congratulations,” he said, shaking my hand. “Can I ask why you want to keep your name out of this?”

  “I have my reasons,” I replied, taking the file from him and heading back out to the car.

  I drove on until I got to Hedley’s cafe. I left the car outside and went in to look for him. “I wondered if I could get a lift across the loch,” I said, making him look up from his newspaper.

  I might have imagined it but I thought I could see a flicker of a smile on his face as he saw who it was asking him. “Let’s go lassie,” he said, folding the paper before marching past me and out the door.

  As the boat chugged across the loch, I watched the castle getting closer, rehearsing what I was going to say. “Would you mind waiting?” I asked when Hedley began tying the boat up at the jetty.
“I won’t be long.”

  He nodded and that was good enough for me. I walked along the track, the castle looming up above me. I took a deep breath when I got to the door and then knocked with my closed fist, waiting and trying not to hyperventilate.

  The door opened and there he was. Another man was standing next to him. “Tilly,” he said, sounding shocked. “What are you doing here?”

  “I wanted to see the place I’ve just bought,” I said, holding out the file from Dacre.

  “What? You bought it? What for, to gloat at me for not being able to keep it?”

  “Look at the file,” I said.

  “Why? What’s the point?”

  “Just look, you idiot.”

  He took the file out of my hand and glanced down at the contract. “I don’t understand. That’s my name.”

  The man behind him glanced down at the contract, nodding to himself.

  “I bought it for you.”

  He blinked then looked up at me, frowning his head turned slightly sideways. “Sorry, what?”

  “I bought it for you.”

  “As your banker, I’d say you don’t need me to talk about your debts anymore,” the man behind him said. “If that’s genuine.”

  “It’s genuine,” I said. “Trust me on that.”

  “What does your boyfriend think about it?” Robert asked.

  “What? What boyfriend?”

  “Don’t act all innocent. Eli told me all about him.”

  “Robert, I don’t have a boyfriend.”

  “What? But Eli told me…”

  “Let me guess, he told you have a boyfriend and you believed him. Didn't think to check with me? Didn't think he might say that to keep you away from me while he tried it on himself?"

  "I'll kill him."

  "You might want to be grateful. Eli is the reason you have that file in your hand.” I quickly summed up what had happened, telling him about Eli and the settlement.

  “So you don’t have a boyfriend?” he asked when I was done.

  “That’s the bit you want to focus on?”

  “I’m sorry, it’s just a bit of a shock.”

  “I can’t believe you took his word for it,” I said, turning to walk away. “You should have talked to me. Why didn’t you talk to me?”

  “I had no reason to think he was lying.”

  “That’s your answer?”

  “I’m sorry, this is a lot to take in.” He looked down at the contract again. “Why have you bought it?”

  “To give to you.”

  He didn’t say anything. He just stood there not saying anything.

  “See you around,” I said, reaching over and kissing his cheek. I spun on my heels and didn’t look back. I had done what I came to do. It was time to go home for good. “Goodbye, Robert,” I said quietly as I reached the boat. “Let’s go.”

  Hedley nodded and the engine roared into life. I looked across at the castle. Robert was still standing in the doorway holding the file in his hand, his banker gesticulating towards me. I looked away at the water as we started to move out onto the loch.

  SIXTEEN - ROBERT

  I watched her go. She walked away without looking back. Time seemed to slow down. Each step she took was longer than the last. I was frozen to the spot, unable to move, unable to talk, like the world was running in slow motion and I was only an observer.

  I wanted to shout after her, tell her to come back, apologise for being a complete idiot. But I couldn’t.

  The boat set off. It was only when it began to move out onto the loch that I heard Seabert say something.

  “Huh?” I turned, blinking slowly as time began to speed up again.

  “I said you need to go after her you complete fucking moron.”

  I came back to myself. “You’re right,” I said, already running, dropping the file on the doorstep. “Look after that.”

  I made it to the jetty but I was too late. They were already far out on the water. Without stopping, I swerved and sprinted for the boat shed.

  I frantically got Nipper ready to move. She was here. She didn’t have a boyfriend. The curtains I had pulled down over my world were shoved aside, letting in the light once more. She hadn’t cheated. I’d been, as Seabert so delicately put it, a complete fucking moron.

  I knew I wouldn’t get another chance. If she made it to the far shore, she would be gone and she wouldn’t come back.

  She’d bought the castle. She’d saved the castle. Not only that but she’d given it back to me. I didn’t even deserve someone that pure. Where Charlotte had taken the money from my parents and left, Tilly had done the opposite. She’d taken her money and given it to me, something I never expected in a million years.

  I was sailing a minute later, cutting through the water, willing the wooden vessel to go faster, praying for the wind to pick up. As if in response, there was a gust down from the mountains and I started to gain on them.

  “Stop!” I shouted at the top of my voice.

  Hedley couldn’t hear me over the sound of his engine. I got closer, too close. I had to yank the rope in my hand hard to turn the sail. I squeezed by the side of Hedley’s boat with an inch to spare, nearly capsizing in the process. “Stop!” I yelled again, waving my arms frantically.

  This time he noticed, hard not to with Nipper right in front of his bow.

  “What are you doing?” Tilly shouted across to me. “You nearly got yourself killed.”

  “I’ve been an idiot,” I yelled back.

  “Yes, you have. You almost crashed into us.”

  “Not that, you. Us. I wanted to say I’m sorry.”

  “Go home, Robert. You got what you wanted, the king got his castle back.”

  “What good is a king without a queen? I don’t want the castle. I don’t care about the castle. I care about you. I want you, Tilly, don’t you get it?”

  “You hardly know me.”

  “I will spend the rest of my life learning every single thing about you if you’ll let me.”

  “I should go.”

  “You can’t leave your castle.”

  “It’s not mine, Robert. It’s yours.” She turned away from me. “Can we get moving?”

  “Wait,” I said as the engine started. “I love you.”

  “What?” she called, putting her hand to her ear over the engine as it died away again.

  “I said I love you.”

  Her expression changed. The anger faded away, replaced by a smile that began to spread over her entire face, her shoulders lifting as she got to her feet. “Say that again.”

  “I love you, Tilly Beal. I have loved you from the moment I first met you. You’ve done something I never thought was possible.”

  “And what’s that?”

  “You’ve made me want to share my life with someone. I want to share it with you. And if you don’t love me then I’ll let you go and I’ll never contact you again if that’s what you want but before you go, there’s something you need to see.”

  “What?”

  “The walled garden.”

  “I’ve seen it.”

  “Not like this, you haven’t. What do you say?”

  She looked from me to the castle to Hedley down to the water. “How cold is it in there?” she asked.

  “Freezing.”

  She was already diving into it before I finished the word. I gasped at the sight of her vanishing below the waves but then she reappeared, her arms sweeping forwards as she swam towards Nipper. “That is so cold,” she said as she reached up and took my hand. “Why didn’t you say?”

  “I tried,” I replied, grabbing a blanket and throwing her around her shoulders. “Why did you do that?”

  “Because I want you to say what you said to my face.”

  “I love you, Tilly.” I stroked her cheek, looking deep into her eyes.

  She smiled. “I love you too.”

  I kissed her then, pressing my lips to hers, all my doubts and fears falling away. The anger, the
guilt, all the negative thoughts vanished and there was just the sheer joy of our embrace as the boat rocked gently on the waves.

  I didn’t hear Hedley moving away but when I looked up his boat was gone and we were alone. “What made you want to stay?” I asked, sliding my hands into hers, still holding her close.

  “I thought you might need a gardener,” she replied. “I’m thinking of taking a career break, that’s all. Something about Hollywood doesn’t taste right anymore.”

  “A gardener I could use, a partner I could use more.”

  “How about both?”

  She stayed close while I sailed us back to the island. Hedley was there at the jetty, loading Seabert onboard and dropping off Tilly’s case. “Thought she might need this,” he said, placing it gently on the ground. “Good luck to you both.”

  “Thanks Hedley,” she said, her hand squeezing mine.

  The two of us walked into the castle together. “Welcome home,” I said, kicking the door closed and pouncing on her a second later.

  “I’m freezing,” she replied, her teeth starting to chatter.

  “Then we better get you out of those wet things,” I replied, tugging at her top.

  She lifted her arms to help and as I pulled it from her we moved into the smoking room. The fire was roaring in the hearth and her clothes began to steam. I paused, taking in the sight of her, the way her trousers clung to her legs, her bra soaking wet and see through, her nipples rock hard.

  “I think we need to get the rest of those things off you,” I said, reaching around and unhooking the clasp on her back. The bra fell away and I ran my hands down her chest, listening as her breathing changed.

  I grew impatient quickly, fighting with her trousers to get them off, yanking at them as she giggled and almost lost her balance.

  “Feeling warmer?” I asked as I stepped back and looked at her naked form, drinking in the sight of perfection.

  “Not yet,” she replied, reaching for my shirt. “But I’m sure you’ll find a way to fix that.”

  I slapped her hands away. “Get on all fours.”

  “Like this?” she asked, sinking to her knees, putting her head down to the rug, her ass sticking up towards me, making my cock throb with need.