All for the Heiress Read online

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  All for the Heiress

  by Cassidy Cayman

  All for the Heiress

  Mellie’s having a quarter-life crisis. It’s to the point that she’s taking life advice from Shane Brodie, the notorious village flirt, who’s trying desperately to get to the eighteenth century to keep Catie Ferguson from marrying anyone but him.

  She not only decides to help Shane go back in time, but agrees to go with him as part of his plan to distract Catie’s posh English suitor. It won’t be too much of a chore since Oliver is exactly what Mellie’s always wanted in a man.

  If she isn’t eaten up with guilt over betraying her friends, doesn’t freeze to death in the forest, and can manage to keep from screwing up history (or the future!), she might just find what she needs to be happy.

  In the present, Piper’s going nuts trying to plan Evie’s wedding, which has completely put her off wanting to plan her own, much to Lachlan’s dismay.

  Evie can’t find the perfect dress and is beginning to wonder why she wanted a big wedding in the first place. Will Sam ever get a ring on her finger?

  More books by Cassidy Cayman

  Lost Highlander

  Reunited

  Revenge

  Sam & Evie

  Reckoning

  Smitten by the Spinster

  Wild about the Witch

  Visit online at cassidycayman.com

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  Chapter 1

  Everyone agreed that the gilded birdcages, hand-wrapped with thousands of glittering crystals, were beautiful. Well, Lachlan took a very deep breath and blew it out in a gust, the closest anyone would see to him agreeing.

  “The problem isn’t their fine looks,” he said, taking Piper’s shoulders and trying to swallow back a smile. “I’m fairly blinded by them. But why must there be so many?”

  He wrapped his arm around Piper, who looked like she wanted to be mad at him, but gave up and nestled under his arm. She turned to her best friend for backup. Evie held up her hand to shade her eyes from the early morning sun bouncing off the birdcages that lined the kitchen wall from floor to ceiling, creating dozens of tiny reflected rainbows. Mellie watched them with affection, tainted by shame over what she’d done.

  “There seem to be a lot of them now, because they’re all clustered together,” Evie said diplomatically. “It won’t be so overwhelming when they’re scattered around.”

  “That’s exactly right.” Piper reached up to kiss Lachlan’s cheek. “It’s going to look like an enchanted Regency era garden. Wait until you see the little fairies I got to go in the cages.”

  He snorted. “Ye’ve found a way to enslave the wee folk for this mad affair of yours?”

  “Wait, did we agree on the fairies?” Evie interjected, looking uneasy. “Weren’t they too creepy with their tiny doll eyes?”

  “Remember, we found different ones? The porcelain ones from Italy, with the painted faces that didn’t look like Satan’s minions.”

  Lachlan let out a blend of laughter and groan as Piper and Evie settled down at the plank table to make a big mess and get very little done.

  Mellie tuned out the increasingly frantic wedding chatter and folded chocolate chips into the muffin batter. Concentrating on the mundane task helped ease her guilt over spilling the secret she’d been keeping for more than a year.

  She still didn’t know what made her tell Shane Brodie that the girl he thought he was in love with was from the eighteenth century. That their employer was a witch who could travel through time, though she hated to do it, because something terrible always seemed to happen. That the big, handsome, and somewhat scary Highlander who lived with them at the castle had also come here from the eighteenth century and would most definitely not look kindly on Shane trying to get back there to go after his sister.

  Mellie had been hoping he’d get over it, and had been dodging him at every turn, not an easy task when he worked at the castle every day, and seemed determined to squeeze more answers out of her. Even though she swore up and down she didn’t have any more.

  The lad was pathetic in his supposed heartbreak, and she was a pushover. Not a good combination. She knew if he managed to get close enough to work his sad, green-eyed charm on her, she’d fold as easily as the chocolate chips, so she’d been avoiding him for the past three days. It was exhausting, especially since everyone who worked at the castle ended up popping into the kitchen for a snack or drink at least once during the day.

  She’d been hoping to have some peace and quiet as soon as Piper and Evie left for their shopping trip in Inverness, shoving down the new flash of guilt she felt over her plan to skip her nursing school class that day. She’d wanted to use that stolen time to get some baking done, get a start on dinner, maybe futz around in the herb garden, but she was going to have to hole up in her room with headphones on, hiding from Shane when he inevitably came looking for her.

  He was daft, of course, for wanting to chase after Catie Ferguson. She didn’t doubt his feelings for the sweet teenager who’d come to this time thinking she needed to rescue her brother Lachlan from the fierce witch, Piper. The problem was, once she realized Lachlan was perfectly, blissfully happy here, she chose to go back to her own time, without a backward glance in Shane’s direction. And why should she, when she had a chivalrous, thoughtful, and yes, Mellie was going to go there, sexy guy from her own time.

  Mellie put the muffins in the oven with a little more clatter than she meant, remembering Oliver Cliffstone. Even a broken nose couldn’t hide his good looks, and she smiled to herself, thinking of his soulful, kind eyes, and thick, glossy brown hair. On the drive to visit his ancestral land to see what it looked like in this time, he’d been funny and interesting and … she sighed. None of it mattered.

  She’d never see him again, and he was also in love with Catie. If Catie hadn’t been so sweet, she’d certainly hate her, and that added another layer of guilt. When had she become such a bad person? Spilling secrets, coveting men who weren’t hers, impure thoughts— yes, she’d had them! And shirking responsibility. A glance at the clock told her she could still make it to her class. She was nowhere near being late. But she knew she wouldn’t go. What was the point? She didn’t even want to be a nurse anymore.

  She heaved a massive sigh and realized both Piper and Evie were looking at her expectantly. Had they been talking to her? And where had Lachlan run off to?

  “Sorry, what?” she asked, focusing on a fabric sample board Evie held up. It was about fourteen different shades of pink and Mellie pointed vaguely at the middle row. “That one’s pretty.”

  “Okay, but do you like these better?” She held up another one in various shades of peach, barely distinguishable from the first sample board. Seriously? Trying not to laugh, she pointed at the top row.

  “God, Mel, get your head in the game,” Evie said, holding up a new board, this one at least on the opposite side of the color wheel, with shades of green.

  Mellie couldn’t help it, and laughed. “What’s this for? Bridesmaid dresses? I like the green if I’m going to be wearing one of those colors.”

  “
Well, of course you are. And you haven’t even seen the turquoise samples yet.” Evie rummaged for it, getting frustrated when it wasn’t near to hand. She reached for her plate of toast, only to find it empty.

  “Why don’t we concentrate on your dress, first,” Piper said soothingly, pushing her own unfinished breakfast plate closer to the pregnant Evie. “It’ll make it easier to choose a bridesmaid color.”

  “Won’t your dress just be white?” Mellie asked, getting a double death glare.

  “There’s different shades of white,” Piper said. She looked at her watch and gasped. “Oh, we better get going.”

  “I found the turquoise samples,” Evie said happily. “What do you think, Mel? And, what do you think about these shoes? They’re dyed to match, or we could just do nude.”

  Mellie wrinkled her nose at the sky high satin heels. Normally, she would have eaten this sort of thing up with a spoon, but her sour mood affected everything these days.

  “I think when I get married, I’m going to elope,” she said, feeling bad when their faces fell at her lack of enthusiasm.

  Evie stood up and stretched. “That actually doesn’t sound so bad.”

  “I will murder you for even thinking it,” Piper said. “You’re having a proper wedding. Your family will be there, Sam’s family will be there, my family will be there. The train on your gown will be thirty feet long—”

  “And there’s the crazy,” Evie interrupted, with a wink at Mellie, who motioned to keep her out of it.

  Piper snorted. “The thirty foot train makes you think I’m crazy? Not the murder? Anyway, just wait until you see yourself in a wedding gown, you’ll change your tune.”

  As much as she loved them, Mellie was glad to wave goodbye to them. She’d never been happier since Piper offered her the live-in job at the castle, but the last few days had been difficult, and she was delighted for the silence that settled over the huge kitchen.

  She took the muffins out of the oven, poured herself a cup of tea and went to sit by the fire, letting the comforting crackle and warmth relax her for a few minutes before she hid away in her room. Piper was always telling her she could have a room upstairs if she wanted. They were bigger, and many of them had their own fireplaces, but she liked her little room that was a part of the old servant’s quarters. It was cheerier down near the kitchen. She wasn’t going to lie, the upstairs spooked her, ever since Lachlan had mysteriously appeared in the tower room, sent here accidentally by a crazed witch from his own time.

  As soon as she began to relax and daydream in front of the roaring fire, she spied Shane through the window, making his way toward the back door, his hand covering most of his face. She jumped up and made a run for it, but he saw her when he flung open the door. He stopped swearing and smiled, removing his hand to reveal a face half covered in blood.

  “Tawny kicked me in the head,” he said, heading for the sink.

  She opened her mouth to tell him she had to get ready for class, and there was a first aid kit in the pantry, but then she imagined the huge mess he would make if left on his own. Red drops already splattered all over the tile counter. God, he looked pitiful, grinning at her as blood oozed down his face. With another sigh, she got the first aid kit.

  “Did she knock you senseless?” Mel asked, shoving him onto a bar stool and pressing a towel against his hairline, where she suspected the cut originated.

  “Aye, a bit. I saw stars, for sure. Those wee trotters of hers are sharp. I hope we eat her for Sam and Evelyn’s wedding,” he said.

  “Ah, she won’t be fat enough by then.” After swabbing at him, she saw it was a superficial head wound. A mess, but nothing to be alarmed over. “I thought your brother was supposed to take care of her. Didn’t she try to kill you once already? And why was your head near enough for her to kick?”

  He held up a finger, wincing as she dabbed him with alcohol. “Danny is out of town with my da. Aye, that murderous pig has been out to get me since she arrived, all tiny and cute.” He paused, held up another finger, realized he’d already answered two of her questions and held up a third. “And I had to fix the fence. She was pretending to sleep on the far side of her pen, and as soon as I got down there, raced over and attacked me. Bloody fast, like a blur.”

  “Will you be able to sleep tonight?” she asked, brushing aside his hair to stick on a plaster. The bright red blood streaked his deep ginger hair like a punk dye job.

  “Ye can laugh all ye like. That beast is possessed.”

  She rinsed the towel and wiped the remaining blood off his face as he sat patiently like a sweet child. Feeling suddenly awkward under his earnest gaze, she stiffly patted his shoulders and stepped back.

  “I think your fine looks won’t be permanently damaged,” she said.

  He really was good looking. He knew it as well as she did, and let her sarcastic comment go, not offended at all, but she felt a mild pang at taking a jab. She didn’t know why his certain brand of handsome made her go stupid. He was ridiculous, but she did like to look at him.

  “Do you know what year it is?”

  She winced at her choice of question. She’d only meant to make sure he wasn’t truly addled, but had just opened the door for him to harangue her about Catie. She was going to pass out from all the sighing she was doing today.

  His eyes brightened and she knew she had to distract him quickly. She went to the refrigerator and pulled out a slab of bacon. “I know what will restore you. How about I fry up a little revenge?” she asked.

  “Aye, I’d love some, thanks. And we can talk about Catie while it’s cooking.” His self-satisfied smile told her he knew exactly what she’d been up to with the generous offer.

  With a grimace, she pulled out a pan, stuck cooking another breakfast and discussing the very thing she wished to avoid at all costs.

  “Shane, I’ve told you I don’t know precisely how it’s done.” She spun around to avoid his cajoling smile. Because in the mood she was in, she was highly susceptible to being cajoled.

  “Ye dinna think ye could find out? I feel like ye could, ye’re so crafty.”

  Ugh, flattery now? She slapped several slices in the pan and held it up to show him. He nodded at the package and she added a few more. He kept silent while it crackled away and when she slid the plate across the bar to him, he merely quietly thanked her and started eating with vengeful gusto.

  “Sam’s cousin Lila has a little crush on you,” she said, hoping to offer him a salve for his broken heart.

  His eyebrow shot up and he laboriously swallowed his mouthful of bacon before answering. “She’s sixteen.”

  “That’s only a year younger than Catie,” she said, stopping mid-scrub of the pan and cursing herself for her absolute stupidity. She needed to shut up, kick him out, and go take a nap with all the ways she was failing to distract him.

  He blinked at her, which she took as a supreme effort on his part not to roll his eyes. “Sam and his brother would pummel me if I was inclined to show any interest in wee Lila. Which I’m not.” He cocked his head to the side. “Do ye have a class? Let’s watch talk shows if ye dinna.”

  “Are you slacking?” she accused.

  “I’m recuperating from a head wound.”

  She laughed against her will and pulled the small television from the cabinet and switched it to one of the tawdry daytime talk shows. The second she was comfortably settled on the stool across from him, he attacked.

  “I’m determined to find out how to do it,” he began, reaching over and holding onto her wrist so she couldn’t escape.

  She knuckled the back of his hand and he released his grip. “Even if I found out how they do it, there’s no guarantee it would work for you. And you wouldn’t survive five minutes in the past.”

  “How do ye know that?” he asked, rubbing his hand. “I wake up early. I’m a hard worker, and not overly addicted to modern conveniences.”

  She snorted, pointing at the telly. “No, not at all.”


  “Och, if it’s available, why not? But I could certainly live without.” He put on a puppy face. “I miss her,” he said, biting his lip.

  “Does that work on a lot of people?” she asked bitterly, not wanting to admit it was working on her. She had to look away in fact, damn him.

  “A fair few,” he said. “Are ye close to graduating, then? Ye never seem to leave the grounds anymore.”

  She was in too dismal of a mood to accuse him of stalking her, and she shrugged. “I don’t see the point. I guess I’ll catch up somehow, eventually.”

  “Ye should finish, even if ye dinna get a job in the field. It had to be expensive, and ye’ll end up regretting wasting all that money, and time as well.”

  “Thanks, mum,” she said, pushing a still warm chocolate chip muffin at him to shut him up.

  His words were true, and all the more painful coming from him. If Shane Brodie was spouting words of wisdom at her, she’d sunk really low. She didn’t know what had happened to her over the last year. Since she was thirteen years old, she’d wanted to be a nurse. She planned to move to London and get a job, then decide whether to stay there or continue on to America. Either way, she wanted to live the bustling urban professional life in a big city. A place where people had more fascinating stories to tell than how they took the long way when the bridge got flooded, a place where no one got kicked in the head by a pig.

  Now it all seemed unrealistic, especially when she’d researched leasing fees for London flats. She’d never leave Castle on Hill, she’d end up married to Shane’s older brother, work in the tiny clinic in the next village, and help out at the inn Shane’s parents owned on holidays and weekends.

  A tear rolled down her cheek and landed on the edge of the muffin plate. She pushed it away and wiped her eyes before Shane noticed.

  “Are ye crying, Mel?” Shane asked, standing up and coming around the bar to take her elbow. He led her to the cozy chair by the fire as if she were a sad granny and crouched down in front of her. “What’s wrong? Did I set ye over the edge? I’m sorry if I did.”