Chapter 5

CHAPTER FIVE

She was surprised to find herself standing on a smooth pathway wide enough for two. Not only that, but there was a lit torch, which looked to be made of twigs and moss in a metal holder high up on the equally smooth wall, to light their way.

It was too smooth to be man-made with picks and shovels, a la the seven dwarfs, Belle mocked herself. The passageway was also too narrow for it to have been made with a boring machine.

But it must have been, she chided herself. There was no other way it could have been made so perfectly smooth.

Nevertheless, her uncertainty remained as Lachlan walked beside her along the passageway as it led deeper into the heart of the mountain. He matched what she was sure would be his much longer strides to her smaller ones. Belle appreciated his thoughtfulness. Most men nowadays didn't bother making those sorts of allowances.

The farther they walked, the more she realized the cold and lack of food for the past thirty-six hours meant she was feeling a little weak. Not that she was going to own up to that. Having Lachlan Drake carry her would just be too much.

There were lit torches every ten feet or so to light their way, and yet when Belle turned to look back the way they had come, it was to discover the torches were no longer burning behind them.

Torches didn't go out on their own.

These had!

And maybe the opening in the back of the cave had disappeared too?

No, the opening into the cave would still be there if she went back and checked, and a strong wind blowing through that opening was probably responsible for the torches going out.

That was the logical explanation for both those things.

Any other explanation, such as Lachlan Drake having magically made that opening appear and his having lit and then tamped out those torches behind them with a sweep of his hand, was ridiculous.

No more ridiculous than believing in dragons, the voice of reason once again taunted inside her head.

She really needed to have a talk with her inner self concerning mocking her belief and research into dragons that had, so far, been the most intense and satisfying work of Belle's academic life.

Yes, she believed that dragons had existed centuries ago, but she also believed they had then gone the way of the dodo. Which was why they no longer existed rather than being as common as any other raptor.

But that didn't mean she believed in magic too. That would be taking things too far for a methodical brain such as her own.

Besides, he might be very big and even more imposing, but Lachlan Drake was still only a man. Which meant he was as incapable of creating magic as she was.

Maybe the torches had some sort of sophisticated sensor that meant they flared up and then died down again when the people in the passageway had passed by.

There, a perfectly logical explanation.

Maybe…

Lachlan was fascinated by everything about his mate. How much shorter and tinier than him she was. Her wide-eyed interest in their surroundings as they walked down the passageway together. The trusting way she allowed him to continue holding her hand. The endearing way her upturned nose wrinkled slightly when she was deep in thought.

Troubling thoughts, judging by the frown between her beautiful blue eyes.

"How are you feeling now?" he prompted huskily.

"I'm fine to keep walking, thank you," she answered primly. "And my backpack still isn't too heavy."

But the way Belle had kept such a firm grip on it told Lachlan that it must contain something valuable. Lachlan doubted it would be gold or jewels, but something far less obvious that was of value to Belle but perhaps not to anyone else.

Perhaps she didn't have many possessions, making what she had in the backpack all the more precious to her.

If she became his mate, she would never have to go without ever again.

If…

"Are you still cold?" Lachlan asked.

She opened her mouth to answer him and then closed it again, a puzzled expression forming on her face. "Actually, no. I seem to have thawed out, and I'm feeling pleasantly warm right now," she added with obvious incredulity.

Lachlan could feel his dragon's pleasure was as great as his own for having made that happen for Belle. They had transferred some of their own body heat into Belle through the link of their joined hands.

"Where are we going?" she prompted now.

"I told you, to my home."

"Would that be the building at the bottom of the mountain?"

He tilted his head. "Drake House," he confirmed. "You've seen it?"

She nodded. "Yesterday, on my way up the mountain. It looks more like a castle than a family home."

That's probably because, many centuries ago, that's exactly what it was. But several decades ago, the brothers decided that Drake Castle was too much of a curiosity to the tourists who had started to flock to the Highlands every year. Together, they had used their powers to redesign the castle to look more like a large manse to the human eye. They had also changed its name to the more innocuous Drake House.

Private Property signs had been placed around the house and the grounds, with strategically placed security cameras installed, monitoring for intruders day and night.

People in the twenty-first century tended not to recognize other people's boundaries, certainly that of property. A failing that would once have earned them time in the stocks or possibly death itself for having trespassed against another.

The fact Belle had been able to see the castle in its original glory was interesting. More than interesting.

And confirmation she was his mate?

If Lachlan had needed confirmation!

Which he didn't.

He could feel their connection through their joined hands, telling him Belle could feel it too, even if she didn't yet know why it existed. He could also sense some of her emotions through that physical link, most especially her puzzlement at that feeling of connection with a man she had just met.

For now, Lachlan had a more immediate matter to worry about. Specifically, whether or not he should take Belle through the opening looming ahead of them. The one that led into the main cavern.

Because that cavern contained the individual treasure hoards of the Drake brothers' dragons and those left behind by their parents. Vast piles of gold and jewels, accumulated over centuries, more than any one human would have ever seen in one place before.

Lachlan could use his control of the elements to mask that hoard, of course.

That didn't seem to have been too successful with Belle in regard to Drake Castle.

He could take Belle around the cave rather than through it.

But he could sense his dragon wasn't happy with either of those ideas. Probably because he wanted to show off their extreme wealth to their mate as evidence that they would be able to care for her if she agreed to mate with them.

If.

Because Lachlan knowing instinctively that Belle was his mate didn't mean, despite the connection between them, that she would accept him as being hers.

Mainly because humans didn't have mates. They fell in love and then chose, or did not choose, to have partners or wives and husbands.

Becoming a dragon's mate was something stronger, far more intense, than those relationships. Once they had mated and shared the dragon bite, their bond would last for the whole of their very long lives together.

Lachlan knew from their parents that once a dragon took a mate, even if one of them was human, they would share the same longevity. When one died, so would the other.

Their mother and father had also told them that one of the couple could refuse to accept the mating. If that happened, the dragon who had been refused would live out the rest of his or her life in an emotionally barren wasteland, which would eventually drive them insane before they died.

Belle was human, so that fate would not befall her if she should refuse him.

She might feel, deep inside her, that something was missing from her life. But as she had no idea what that something was, she would dismiss that slight hollowness and live the life she had chosen.

If Belle didn't accept and want Lachlan as a dragon as well as a man, then he would face centuries of emotional torment before going insane and dying.

Show her our treasure, his dragon encouraged.

Lachlan hadn't known Belle for very long, but long enough to think she wasn't the sort of lass who would be impressed by extreme wealth or rare jewels.

Her clothes and appearance said she was a woman of practicality, not greed or self-importance. The fact she didn't drink alcohol or enjoy parties said she wasn't a frivolous woman either. Nor was she wearing a single item of jewelry.

Lachlan's dragon hoard was immense, as was the rest of his family's. So much so, it took up the whole floor of the main cavern and almost reached the top of its vaulted ceiling.

No, it was too soon to show Belle their treasure.

Just as Lachlan believed it was too soon yet to reveal his dragon.

True mate, his dragon urged fiercely.

Soon, Lachlan soothed his beast.

He hoped, prayed, he was telling the truth, and that Belle would agree to be theirs once she knew who and what he was.

Belle had no idea what thoughts were going through her rescuer's head, only that in this moment, Lachlan's attention seemed to be focused elsewhere. The frown on his face almost looked as if he was having an inner debate with himself about something.

"Are we nearly there?" Belle spoke into whatever those troubling thoughts were.

She just wanted to get away from this mountain. To be able to go to the railway station and board the first train that would take her back to London. Or anywhere but the Scottish Highlands, really. She would investigate Sister Agnes's claims another time. Right now, her only priority was to get as far away from Scotland as soon as possible.

"Not long now," Lachlan reassured as he veered to the right, taking them through yet another opening leading into another lit passage.

The even floor of this one tilted downward, giving Belle the impression they were almost at Drake House.

The bottle of water had kept her hydrated, but she was hoping for a cup of hot tea and maybe a biscuit or two, or possibly even a sandwich to eat when they got there. She was starving.

After eating and drinking, she was going to hope the trains were running and ask Lachlan if he would take her to the station. It was a couple of miles away from Drake House, too far for Belle to walk in the drifting and still-falling snow. She was hoping to catch up on her sleep on the long train journey home.

Come to Scotland for Hogmanay, Ben had invited.

Hah.

When she'd accepted the casually given invitation, Belle hadn't known it would lead to Ben thinking he would be sharing her bed.

Or that she would be lost overnight on a Scottish mountain.

Then rescued the following day by the hugest and most imposing and mesmerizing man she had ever set eyes on.

If she had known any of those things, even with the temptation of investigating the contents of Sister Agnes's journal to spur her on, then maybe Belle would have quashed her impatience and visited the Highlands in the warmer weather during spring, as she had originally planned on doing.