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and, lulled into a fitful sleep by the sound of rain and thunder from outside, she slid into a night of erotic dreams.
     
    Connor leaned against the door that connected his chambers with the room where Heather now slept.  The earl’s suite.  He wasn’t sure why he had brought her to those rooms earlier, the countess’s chambers.  What had possessed him to open them up again other than the fact that she had come back?  But he had, and just knowing that a mere door separated them was driving him mad.
    He could not remember wanting Heather so badly before.  When he had first met Heather, she had just arrived at Duart for their wedding.  It was arranged, of course.  The wish of his father and hers.  Heather had seemed dismayed by him upon their introduction, though he had never known why.  She had been pretty, but shy and haughty.  He had felt no great desire for her; only resolve to have the thing done.  He had spent a day with her, giving her a tour of the castle.  It had been a near ruin at that time; the restoration his father had planned was still in its early stages.  She had been distressed with her future home as well.  She had been withdrawn, but her silence oozed criticism and disdain of everything at Duart, including him.  The next day, he had stood with her before the altar and said his vows, knowing it made her as miserable as it did himself.
    And then she had been gone. 
    Now she had returned.  It was if she had become a different person in the intervening years.  Of course, she had been just a girl then, not the woman she was now.  Time had served her well.  Her appeal, and the attraction he felt for her now, were strong - stronger than any he could remember ever experiencing in his life.  He desired her.  No, he simply wanted her.  What she had said downstairs tore through him again.  She had come back to be with him.  Why?  Why now?  On this day?  The questions stopped him.  Held him. He could open this door now and demand his rights as the husband everyone thought him to be.  Complete what had not been consummated before.  Gain relief from the lust that held him in its thrall. 
    But he knew what held him back. 
    He needed to talk to her but he also needed to talk to his solicitor.  Only his solicitor, Conrad Baines, was aware that Connor had had this marriage annulled two years ago.  Only Mr. Baines knew the woman next door was in fact, no longer his wife in truth or under law.  He didn’t know why he had lied to her, other than pure rage at her appearance.  Perhaps it had been curiosity over her arrival or… something else.  He didn’t know what it was but it served him, for now, to have her think of him as her husband.

Chapter 6
     
    Emmy woke early the next morning and stretched out muscles left tight from sleeping on the soft mattress.  Bright sunshine poured through the tiny windows of the outer embattlements facing the east.  Years of residency had trained her to get her sleep when she could and to function on very little of it.  By habit and training, she was a light sleeper and early riser.  She lay there for a moment, warm and cozy in the cocoon of the feather bed, although the nip on her cheeks suggested the air in the room was much colder.
    Emmy rose and quickly dressed in her clothes from the previous day.  She made quick use of the bathroom, brushing her teeth, and washing her face with the bar of harsh soap. She twisted her hair up in a claw clip and was soon slipping out the door. None of the others were awake or perhaps it all been a dream, she thought as she crept down the hall from her room without seeing another soul.  Maybe the vision of Connor on horseback had been a hallucination from which she was only just now recovering and the rest merely a bizarre, stress-induced dream.  It could now be 2010 as it should be and she was here at Duart on vacation…
    A maid in a long gray, Victorian dress, white apron and cap on her Grecian knot crossed