Not Without Juliet - By L.L. Muir Page 0,29
Jilly dear,” called Lorraine. “But funny you should use those words today.”
Jilly almost climbed back into the car. Monty was right. It was never good news when those two came around. And why did they have to pop up when she and Monty finally had a chance for some privacy—enough privacy to share her exciting news? She hadn’t quite told him the truth about their little shopping trip to the city, unless you could call it shopping when she was hunting for a trustworthy OB/GYN.
Loretta looked at her funny. Her eyes dropped to Jilly’s middle, then looked away. Jilly instinctively covered her stomach with both hands, then she forced them to her sides before anyone noticed.
“Why is it odd that she speaks of ghosts, ladies?” Monty left the lights on and walked to the middle of his hood, then leaned back against it, crossing his arms, bracing himself for bad news. Jilly shut her door and stood next to the front tire. She didn’t want to get between her husband and the women he considered his nemeses.
“Someone else thought we might be ghosts, just today if you can believe it.” Loretta gave Jilly a nervous look. Guilt? Pity?
“I’ll bite,” Jilly said, against her better judgment. “Who thought you were ghosts?”
“Would you like to sit down, Jilly dear?” Lorraine also stared at her middle.
“No. I don’t want to sit down. Spit it out so we can get out of here.” She would never forgive the sisters if they messed around and told Monty she was pregnant. How the hell did they know anyway?
“Fine, then. You remember we gave you a chance to sit down.”
Jilly glared at Lorraine, daring her to piss her off. Didn’t she know better than to mess with a pregnant woman?
“Your sister,” the old woman blurted.
“Morna?” Montgomery pushed away from the hood and unfolded his arms. He was alarmed as he always was just because Morna and Ivar lived too far away for him to be any protection. It hadn’t quite sunk into his head yet that dangers in the twenty-first century were very different. If they had problems, they would call.
“Not your sister, Laird Ross.” Lorraine paused and looked her in the eye. “Jillian’s.”
Jilly didn’t understand. She didn’t have a sister. But the thought of finding more family caught her breath.
“Yes, Jilly. Your sister. We met her today. Lovely thing, too. I’m sure you’ll agree—Montgomery, catch her!” Loretta ran forward.
Jilly was surprised to find that she was the her that needed catching. She hadn’t noticed before, but she was teetering to her left, sliding along the fender with little attention for the ground rising up to meet her. She ended on her bottom, in the gravel, with Monty kneeling beside her.
“Jillian! Ye will be fine.” It was definitely not a question, but an order. She’d gotten used to his fifteenth century, bullying ways, but she knew he was only bossy when he was worried. Unfortunately, he worried a lot.
“Yes. I’m fine. Of course I’m fine. I was just caught off guard. I forgot to breathe. I don’t have a sister, that’s all.” But deep down somewhere, it sounded true. Deep down, she wanted it to be true.
After her grandmother’s death, and the shock of her huge inheritance wore off, the first thing she’d done was go looking for more family. She’d started at the geneological library in Salt Lake City, but she hadn’t even started digging when these Muir sister’s had gotten her distracted by the Curse of Clan Ross. Of course, she couldn’t be angry with them now, in spite of all their conniving. If it weren’t for them, she’d have never slipped back in time to find the one and only love of her life.
She’d been waiting for the right time to tell her husband she wanted to start looking again, but the poor man hadn’t completely adjusted to the twenty-first century yet. She had to wait until he was comfortable with his own country before she exposed him to too many Americans.
But a sister? She’d been hoping for a cousin. A sister just seemed...greedy.
And if there was a sister she hadn’t been told about, who else might her grandmother have hidden from her?
She searched her memory for some image, for a time when it hadn’t been just her and Grandmother, but she found nothing. She remembered a doll she named Necklace. Seeing a bear at Yellowstone. Little else. There couldn’t have been a sister. Grandmother couldn’t have been that cruel.
“Yes, Jilly. You do have