Lotty’s utter astonishment, her grandmother stood aside without another word.
‘Thank you,’ said Corran in a cool voice.
There was utter silence in the ballroom as he pulled Lotty out of the main doors to where the great state staircase swept down two sides to the marble hall. The area outside the doors was thronging with footmen and guests who had missed all the excitement. Corran ignored them all.
‘God, how do we get out of here?’
Lotty found her voice at last. ‘I’m not sure I want to go anywhere with you after embarrassing me like that.’
‘You’ll never be the perfect princess again,’ Corran agreed. ‘Your reputation’s shot. There’ll always be gossip about you now—and there’ll be even more if we have our discussion here in front of everyone. I don’t mind,’ he said, ‘but you might want some privacy.’
Lotty pressed her lips together, but she knew he was right. ‘We’ll go to my apartments,’ she said.
An astonished footman sprang to life to throw open the door of the apartment for them. Head held high, Lotty swept in first.
Corran shut the footman out and turned to face Lotty, who was standing in the middle of a sumptuously decorated apartment. The diamonds in her tiara flashed in the light. Her head was high, her eyes bright with anger, and in the red ball gown she looked very much a princess.
‘I don’t appreciate being humiliated in front of my family, our staff and a ballroom full of guests,’ she said icily.
‘And I don’t appreciate finding out from Betty McPherson that I’m a father!’ Corran snapped back. ‘How humiliating do you think that was?’
Lotty stared at him for a moment, and then she dropped abruptly onto one of the sofas and covered her face with her hands.
‘I’m sorry,’ she said, her voice muffled. ‘I’m so sorry, Corran.’
The anger leaked out of the air and Corran sat down heavily beside her. Gently, he pulled her hands from her face so that he could look into her eyes.
‘It’s true, then? You’re having a baby?’ His throat was very tight. ‘Our baby?’
‘Yes, it’s true,’ said Lotty, her fingers curling around his in spite of herself.
‘It was that afternoon when we couldn’t wait to go back to the house, wasn’t it?’ said Corran, and her cheeks warmed at the memory of the heat that had consumed them as the dust drifted in the sunlight and the smell of wood shavings filled the air.
‘I think it must have been.’
‘Why didn’t you tell me, Lotty?’
She pulled her hands from his. ‘You told me you weren’t ready for children,’ she reminded him. ‘You told me how Ella tricked you into marriage by claiming to be pregnant. You told me you were never making a mistake like that again.’ She swallowed.
‘I didn’t want to be a mistake, Corran,’ she said, ‘and I didn’t want you to think of our baby as one. I was afraid that if I told you before the baby was born, you’d do exactly what you’ve done, and come rushing out to do your duty.’
‘Duty?’ said Corran slowly. ‘Is that what you think this is?’
‘What else can it be?’ Lotty hugged her arms together to stop herself from reaching for him. ‘I know how you feel. I know that the estate is your priority now. You think having a child would be a disaster, and you don’t want to be stuck with a wife like me. I know all that.
‘I don’t blame you,’ she went on quickly as Corran opened his mouth. ‘I completely understand the kind of woman you need at Loch Mhoraigh.’
‘Do you?’ He put his head on one side and regarded her thoughtfully, a smile hovering for the first time around his mouth and in the depths of his eyes. ‘What kind of woman is that?’
‘You want a farmer’s wife.’ Her voice was dull and she fiddled with the ends of her stole. ‘You need someone practical who’s used to country living. I understand that.’
Corran nodded. ‘I thought I needed a sensible, practical wife too. In fact, I was sure of it, but it turns out that what I really need is a princess who can’t cook.’
Lotty leapt to her feet in agitation before he could go any further. ‘You’re just asking me because of the baby,’ she said, wrapping her arms miserably around herself. ‘I knew this would happen! That’s why I didn’t tell you.’
She took a turn around the room while she tried to get her thoughts in order. ‘I don’t need you to look after me, Corran,’ she said eventually. ‘I’m not denying you your rights as a father. I know you’ll be a good one. I can see you don’t want your child growing up split between two parents the way you did, but you’d never be like your father. I know Mhoraigh will be an important part of our child’s life.
‘I’ll be fine on my own,’ she said, lifting her chin in the unconscious gesture Corran recognised so well. ‘I may be about to fall off my pedestal as far as the country is concerned, and my grandmother may be disappointed, but nobody’s going to cast me out onto the street. Even if they were, I’d rather do that than know you were marrying me because you feel responsible.’
She’d done a full circuit and was back where she’d started. Corran was still sitting on the sofa, watching her with an unreadable expression.
‘You’d feel trapped and resentful, and that’s no way to start a marriage,’ she told him. ‘You’ve already been through that once, and I’m not going to do that to you again.’
‘Finished?’ said Corran, getting to his feet in his turn.
Lotty’s eyes flickered around the room as she tried to work out if that was a trick question or not.
‘Yes,’ she said, but doubtfully.
‘Good, so perhaps I can have my say now?’
‘All right,’ she said with a wary look.
Corran took a deep breath. ‘I know you don’t need me, Lotty,’ he said. ‘Why do you think it’s taken me so long to come and find you? Look at you,’ he went on, gesturing at the diamonds around her neck, the tiara in her hair. ‘You’re a princess! You live in a palace! You’ve got everything you could ever want. What can a man like me possibly give you that you don’t already have?
‘You don’t need me, Lotty,’ he said again, ‘but I need you. I need you desperately. I thought that all I needed was Loch Mhoraigh. I thought if I could be where I belonged, I’d be fine, but I’ve learnt that belonging is about people as much as about place. You taught me that,’ he told her. ‘You made me realise that Loch Mhoraigh is just a place, and that I’ll belong anywhere as long as I’m with you.’
‘But the baby…?’ she managed.
‘The baby gave me the courage to come and tell you myself,’ said Corran. ‘I’d been sitting there at Loch Mhoraigh, missing you, wishing I’d told you how much
