A/n's: I'm baaaccckkk!!!! Ok, I'll admit it, I have more for this...but I was to lazy to type it up...I'll put it up tomorrow I promise.
Chapter Six
Because the weather was kind, the reiteach took place on the open land near where Sharni had landed. Joey Rannach would play the fiddle all night, fingers never tiring. Sharni noticed that Joey had a livid black eye.
"It was Mr. Cronin," said Sally Fergusson. "He's Mark Calloways' factor. He's been going round to all the tenants 'discussing' their tenancies. He told several people that the rents were 'uneconomic.' He nearly had a fit when Joey told him he didn't pay any rent at all."
"I told him is was a gentleman's agreement between me and Himself," Joey put in indignantly. "He thought I was talking about that one at the Castle now. I told him Mark Calloway would never be Himself if he stayed here a hundred years."
"You see how it is," Sally said, distressed. "How can we pay what Mr. Cronin calls 'economic rents'?"
The music started, and at once the dancing area was crowded. Sharni looked around. She refused all partners, remembering her promise to Mark.
Suddenly a tall, red-haired man had come to stand on the edge of the circle. His eyes were brilliant, and they scanned the crowd.
Sharni could see how those closest to Mark Calloway had stopped what they were doing to stare at him. She could tell he knew of the politely veiled coolness that everyone felt towards him and, incredible though it might seem, he minded desperately.
His eyes were on her as she walked towards him. She saw the slight sag of relief in his shoulders, which no one else would have noticed. As she neared him she stretched out her hands in welcome.
His words came awkwardly. "Am I too late for my dance?"
"No."
Joey struck up the sweet, gently refrain of a waltz, and Mark Calloway took her into his arms.
"I asked you to have dinner with me, and you sent me a refusal so cold it almost froze my hands on the paper."
"You didn't really want to take me," she protested.
"After what there was between us, you though I didn't want to see you?"
"But that...that was so long ago. I thought you'd forgotten-"
"I'll never forget," he said simply. "And neither will you."
It would be useless to deny it. With her body pressed against his, her blood sang from the close contact. He wanted her. And an instinct born deep in her newly wakened senses told her that he had wanted her throughout every moment of the weeks they had spent apart.