“How about this,” I said, thinking on my feet. “There's a little cottage on the property not far from here. It used to be the caretaker's cottage but we haven't had anyone there for a little while. It's heated and it's comfortable though, so you could spend the night there.” I watched his face, nervous for his reaction.
He nodded and shrugged his shoulders. “Yeah, sure. No problem at all. Where is it?”
To get there, we had to go through the rain. I went over to the door of the shed and threw it open. The rain has gotten even harder if that was possible. We would be soaked by the time we got to the cottage. It wasn't far, a little less than fifty feet away, but in the rain, we would be wringing our clothes out by the time we got there.
“Are you sure you don't want to wait here and see if the rain lets up a little bit first?” Niall asked.
“What? Are you afraid to get a little wet?” I asked him.
He smirked at me. “Come on, let's go.”
We sprinted through the rain, doing our best not to fall over, slipping on the mud towards the cottage. We were both laughing by the time we got there.
“I asked to stay here so that I could stay out of the rain,” Niall said.
“Well,” I said rifling through the potted plant next to the door for the key to the cottage. “That's what you got for popping up unannounced.”
He laughed and nodded his head. “I suppose I deserve that.”
I got the door open and we walked inside. The air smelled stale and it was cold. Nobody has been inside for a long time. The last time it was lived in was several years ago since the maintenance of the grounds had been the first to go when finances got tight. There were white sheets thrown over the furniture to prevent too much dust from accumulating. It would have gotten sold along with all the other non-essential stuff I had already flogged but buyers weren’t interested since the pieces were so old. I tried the lights and thankfully they were still functional. I turned on the heat and the radiator rumbled into life.
“Here we go,” I said trying to sound bright. It was a small cottage, but it was definitely liveable. There was a sitting room, dining room, kitchen, bathroom and one bedroom. Plenty of room for one person, for one night, but Niall had definitely seen grander accommodations than this. He was probably just being polite about being okay with staying here. It was either this, or sleep in one of our spare rooms on the floor. “Sorry if the place is a little dusty.”
“That's alright,” Niall said. I was glad that he was sparing my ego, even though it was a little bit humiliating. I pulled the white sheets off of the furniture and bundled them up in my arms. The cloud of dust that I upset tickled the back of my throat. I fought back the urge to sneeze, sniffing.
“Why don't you get comfortable? I'll run up to the house and get you some sheets and some food.”
“Do you want me to come with you?” he asked
“No. No just stay here,” I said. He looked a little puzzled by how short I was being with him, but I could not have him in the house. It was better this way, even though this way was far more tedious and a hundred times more wet.
“Are you sure you want to go back out in that downpour?”
“At this point, I don't even think I can get much wetter than this.”
I didn't even hurry on the way back to the house. I was not looking forward to making the trip back with the sheets and the food that I had promised. This was what I got for keeping the secrets of my finances and paternity of my son from him. This was not supposed to be happening. Niall was not supposed to be on my property. I had already told him that he could stay so it was no use brainstorming ways to get him to leave. Perfect. Now what? I let myself back into the house, dripping. Prue, thankfully was waiting on the other side of the door with a towel. I thanked her as I took it and started dabbing at my face. I stole into the guest bathroom in the entryway to get out of my wet clothes.
“Why has the Earl of Arden decided to pay us a visit?” she asked through the door.
“Who?” I asked, peeling my wet clothes off.
“The man who came to the door. I googled him. I didn't know you were familiar with the Earl of Arden.” The what? I wrapped the towel around me and came out of the bathroom, wet clothes in hand. Prue took them from me. I knew that Niall was titled but I didn't realize that he was an Earl. I shrugged.
“We’re acquaintances. He came to pay me a visit and now he can't leave because of the rain. I've put him up in the cottage but I need sheets and dinner for him.”
“He's quite rich, you know. Are you sure the cottage is adequate?”
“Of course, he’s rich. Did you see the car he rode up in? If the cottage is inadequate, he’s welcome t
o find his way in this downpour to the nearest establishment with five stars.”
“Not simply rich, he’s obscenely wealthy. What business brought him here?”
“It's kind of a long story.”
“Oh, I have time.” I shot Prue a look. She was the closest thing that I had to a friend out here and ordinarily, I wouldn't have any issues telling her what was going on, but the story between me and Niall was a little bit too messy to get into at the moment.
“Our guest needs sheets and dinner, Prue,” I repeated. She made a face, but she nodded her head.