Chapter Two: The Kiss
Lexie settled straight into life at Glenbogle House with it's slightly mad routine and eccentric occupants over the next few weeks and soon began to consider it her home. She struck up an affinity and friendship with Molly straight away. Duncan was sweet if a bit daft at times, and Golly the strong silent type but always willing to listen or give out sound advice if she needed it. And Hector was, well Hector. He frequently complained about her cooking, but never failed to eat it, and could usually be found cooking up some hair brained scheme or other with his neighbour, Lord Kilwillie.
But Archie, Archie was different. They'd not seen eye to eye at first and several times she had feared her quick tongue was going to get her into trouble with him, but it never had, and now they'd settled into something akin to friendship, although in truth friendship was the last thing her traitorous mind and body felt towards him. But that was something she kept deeply hidden inside her, preferring to to cover it with jokes while covertly watching him.
Not that she stood a chance with him, she knew, not while Katrina Finlay was around fluttering her eyelashes at him and making up any old excuse to come round on an afternoon and then stay for dinner. And Archie like a fool lapped it up and couldn't see that Katrina was only using him - trying to get him to fall for her so she could use him and his status to advance her own position.
So instead Lexie settled for friendship and kept her feelings buried, preferring instead to make it her mission to make Archie laugh and smile, since he often looked so serious as he pored over the estate finances. On that front, she knew she could be successful as they shared a smile or an eye roll over her quick-tongued response to Hector complaining about her cooking, or a laugh as she told him of the time she'd accidentally on purpose thrown coffee over someone who'd tried one too many times to feel her up by claiming that she'd slipped.
Duncan had tried in his own bumbling way to ask her out for than once, but she always refused as she'd soon began to think of him as brother. She'd ventured down to the village a few times on her afternoons off, but most of her time she spent at Glenbogle, preferring instead to walk down by the loch at sunset, and if Archie happened to occasionally be down there at the same time then she stubbornly refused to admit that it had been a concious decision on her part to walk down there.
The place was beautiful and for the first time in a long time - perhaps even ever - she felt happy. She'd moved up there to forget her painful past, and now, as the months went by, she found herself scarcely able to remember just what she had been running away from. The place and the people in it seemed to heal her, to be a balm for the scars of her past. Glenbogle was her home now and she never wanted to leave it.
The dishes done, she slipped out of the back door and made her way down towards the loch to take her usual path along the shore and up into the sand hills where she often sat and contemplated things. Tonight though, instead of finding herself alone - or with Archie - she saw Katrina hovering near the edge of the loch. She hesitated, hoping to slip away unseen, but it was too late as Katrina had seen her.
"Lexie!" she called, making her way towards her.
Lexie watched her shrewedly for Katrina never usually bothered to speak to her, being too busy trying to catch Archie's attention instead.
"I hoped to find you out here tonight," said Katrina as she approached her.
Lexie shrugged. "I like to come for a walk before it gets dark." She set out along the edge of the loch and Katrina fell into step beside her.
"I wanted to talk to you about Archie."
Lexie glanced sideways at her. "What about Archie?" she asked.
"Well you know that me and him…"
"What about you and Archie?" she asked, trying to ignore the twinge of jealously that tore through her gut at the words. "As far as I know there is no you and Archie."
Katrina had the grace to flush at her words. "Well no, not yet there isn't, but it's only a matter of time."
Lexie stopped walking. "What do you want, Katrina? Believe it or not, I don't want my walk interrupted by talk of your relationship - or lack of - with Archie."
Katrina looked taken aback by the bluntness of her words. "I don't want you getting in the way of me and Archie."
"And how on earth am I going to get in the way of you and Archie?" she asked, ignoring the churning feeling in her gut.
"I've seen the way you look at him."
"I don't look at Archie like anything," she replied quickly.
"Yes, you do, you fancy him rotten, and do you think I don't know all about your cozy little walks down here?"
"We don't have "cozy little walks" down here as you put it, and what I feel for Archie is my business and mine alone."
"It's my business if you get between me and him. Just give it up now, Lexie, because he will never choose you and he'll never see you as anything other than the housekeeper."
Tears stung Lexie's eyes but she blinked them away, determined not to let Katrina see how her words cut her. "I know I'm just a lowly housekeeper and could never compete against you, Katrina, but at least I know that I see the real Archie and not an ideal or a means to an end, and at least I know I have his friendship, so if you want him then you can have him, because I'm not the one standing in your way - you are."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Figure it out for yourself," she said before she stalked off, leaving Katrina at the edge of the loch.
By the time she'd reached the house she was still angry with Katrina, but also with herself for having being so transparent as to let her feelings for Archie be seen.
She didn't speak to Katrina again over the next few days, but despite promising herself she wouldn't bow down to Katrina's demands, she managed to avoid spending any time alone with Archie, even forgoing her evening walk when she knew Archie was out there. Tired from all the cooking and cleaning up after Hector's birthday party, Lexie yawned as she walked along the corridor from the kitchen with the intention of heading upstairs to bed. As she walked past the sitting room the clink of a glass alerted her to the presence of someone. Pausing, she peered round the door, expecting to see Hector having a nightcap. Instead it was Archie.
She must have made some slight movement as he turned his head and smiled when he saw her. "Hey, Lex, fancy keeping me company for a bit?" he said, patting the seat next to him.
Despite her tiredness and the warning voice in her head, Lexie found herself nodding and moved into the room to sink onto the sofa next to him. She sighed with relief as she finally took the weight off her feet and closed her eyes for a moment.
"Are you alright?" asked Archie.
Lexie opened her eyes to see him looking at her with concern. She nodded. "Yeah, just tired - it's been a long day."
"Yeah," he agreed, "but it was a good day. I think my father enjoyed himself and I was surprised to see how many friends he actually has," he joked.
Lexie laughed at his comment. "Be nice."
"Thanks for all your help today, we couldn't have done it without you," he said, reaching out and squeeze her hand.
"Thanks, Arch," she said as she tried hard not to think too much about his touch. God knows, she'd told herself plenty of times since she'd arrived at Glenbogle six months earlier that there was no way Archie would ever see her in the way she wanted him to - housekeepers weren't exactly known as being an attractive option for Scottish Lairds unfortunately.
"I can't believe my father decided to announce to everyone present that he thinks it's time I provided him with a grandchild though," said Archie, bringing her back to the present with a bump. "I'm only twenty five, I think I've got plenty of time for that yet."
"Yeah, but the look on your face was priceless though - you looked like you wanted to ground to swallow you up," she laughed.
"Oh, I'm so glad you can have a laugh at my expense, but what about you - do you want kids?"
She nodded. "Yeah, someday."
"I may not have been top of my class at school, but even I know there has to be some male input in the making of a baby," he joked.
"Yeah, and you blokes think far too much of your male input," she retorted, giving him a friendly shove on his arm.
He laughed and leaned into her. "Come on, Lex, you wound me with your words, I know we haven't exactly always seen eye to eye, but we're friends now, aren't we?"
Suddenly, he was too close and she forgot how to breathe.
A sound behind them had them springing apart guiltily and Lexie fought to keep the blush off her cheeks just as Hector walked into the room.
"I'm off to bed. Night, Archie. Night, Lexie."
Lexie smiled. "Night, Hector." She stood up. "Before you go, I've got something for you." She walked over to the sideboard and took a bottle out of the drawer where she'd hidden it earlier that day.
Hector took the bottle from her eagerly. "Finest single malt," he read, caressing the bottle lovingly. "Small bottle though, isn't it?"
Lexie laughed heartily at his words. "It's all I could afford on a housekeeper's wage."
"Archie, my boy, you need to pay the girl more," he said.
"Duly noted," muttered Archie.
Hector turned back to her. "Thank you, Lexie, I appreciate it."
"You're welcome," she said as he walked out of the room.
"How do you do that?" asked Archie.
"Do what?" she asked as she returned to her seat next to him, hyper aware of just what might have been before Hector interrupted them.
"Get along with my father so well. I've been trying all my life and I still can't get along with him that well."
She shrugged. "His bark is worse than his bite," she replied, repeating Molly's words from months earlier.
Archie shook his head. "We argue all the time. I always feel as though I'm never good enough. I know I was never meant to be Laird and it should have been Jamie, but just for once I would like him to appreciate that I am trying my best here."
"Have you tried telling him that?" she asked.
He looked at her with surprise. "I think he's more likely to bite my head off if I tried that!"
"You might be surprised, Arch," she said quietly. "I know I haven't been here that long so I don't know you both that well, but it seems to me that Hector, that Hector is still in pain over Jamie, just as you are, and that he does appreciate what you're doing but just doesn't know how to show it."
"I hadn't thought about it that way," he said quietly.
"Just promise me you'll think about it?"
"I will," he assured her. "When did you get so wise?"
Lexie bit her lip and hesitated before finally answering him. "When I ran away from home and lived on the streets," she admitted.
Archie looked at her with surprise. "Really?"
She nodded. "Yeah."
"Why, what happened?" he asked.
"My dad walked out when I was five, and ever since then my mother had an endless stream of boyfriends. She wasn't exactly bothered about what kind of person she brought into our home and I was fifteen when her latest one decided to make a pass at me."
"What happened?"
"I told her and my own mother didn't believe me. She told me I was making it up because I was jealous of her. As if I was jealous of her! I couldn't stay there any longer so I left. You soon learn to grow up when you're living on the streets of Glasgow," she mused.
"Where did you go?"
"I lived on the streets for a while, and then in hostels. I eventually managed to talk myself into a job waiting tables which was enough to feed me and get a room in a share house."
"That must have been tough," said Archie.
"Yeah, it was," she agreed, "but at least I was away from my mother and all her conquests."
"How on earth did you end up in Glenbogle then?" asked Archie.
Lexie laughed. "Honestly?"
Archie nodded. "Yeah."
"I went to the train station late one night and asked how far I could get on my last twenty pounds." She shrugged. "I ended up here."
"I'm glad you did," said Archie sincerely. "I can't imagine life at Glenbogle without you in it now."
"Well there'd be a few less burnt offerings," she joked.
"But there'd be less laughs, you brighten the place up, Lex."
"Why thank you," she replied, suddenly flustered by his warm words.
"I'm serious," he said, leaning closer again and reaching out to touch her cheek.
She forgot how to breathe again, and every rational argument she had told herself for why falling in love with Archie McDonald was a mistake went out of the window when she felt his lips on hers. Despite knowing that kissing him back was a bad idea, she couldn't help but grip his jumper and pull him closer as she opened her mouth to deepen the kiss.
After several blissful moments reality kicked in and Lexie pulled away from him. "I should go to bed," she said quickly, standing up.
"Lex, wait!"
She ignored him and backed away several steps before she turned and fled upstairs, only allowing herself to succumb to tears once she was safely in her room.
Why had she allowed herself to kiss him? Why hadn't she tried harder not to fall in love with him? Because she knew without a doubt that she had, and now that she had kissed him she wasn't certain she could go back to pretending that she didn't feel anything for him. There was nothing she could do about it, except perhaps leave Glenbogle, but then where would she go as she had nothing. Glenbogle was her home and she didn't want to leave it.