The Next Duke

Twenty Five

Lillian felt a piece of her soul return to her the moment she breathed in Scottish air. She had just stepped out of the chartered plane and took in the sight before her. It was beautiful and the scenery took her breath away. Everything was still covered in snow, spring had not yet arrived in the highlands.

She closed her eyes and breathed in the scent of clean air that was surrounding Scotland. She opened and knew she had fallen in love with the land. It was something heaven looked like in her mind. A very beautiful piece of heaven.

"The view is not going to go away, love," Joseph said huskily. If he had known this was going to be her reaction, he should have brought her here sooner.

"It's so beautiful. I never thought I will ever see such beauty like this," she said softly. She looked at him with eyes filled with gratitude. "Thank you

He smiled, the woman was something all right, she was the first woman who ever stared at the land as though she was looking at piece of very rare treasure. He wrapped an arm around her waist. "We should get inside, your brother is going to kill me if he finds out his sister has frozen in beauty."He dropped a kiss on her head and escorted her to a waiting vehicle.

Lillian allowed him to take her to the waiting car. But stopped when she saw the ruins. The fallen structure had the makings of a castle. Lillian knew she had to see it up close. She heard Joseph chuckle and grabbed hold of her frozen hand. "Some other time, love. The temperature is dropping," he tugged her hand and guided her into the car.

When they reached the resort, it was huge and had plenty of amenities. The restaurants were a representation of all the cuisines around the world. The spas offered all sorts of treatments including mud massage and other exotic treatments that she wasn't really keen on trying out. She found out she was going to stay with the girls and Joseph was going to stay with the boys to keep them in line. Lillian was relieved about the arrangement, what she didn't know was that Joseph had asked the girls to to let Lillian try out the treatments to help her relax while he saw to more important matters.

They first took her to a mud bath to exfoliate her akin. There she was immersed neck deep in mud. Lillian didn't enjoy the mud. It got into places where she wasn't really comfortable with. What followed next was the body scrub, where she was embarrassed to no end. She remembered the first time she did this. It was after she fell in the diamond death chamber. It was fine when she did it first since she didn't know anyone. But this time her students were all with her.  She wasn't used to letting anyone else see her body. She even still get embarrassed whenever she thought about Joseph seeing her naked. Being terribly conscious of her body, being on the heavy side.  Then massage that followed was even worse. They all booked her for a full body athletic massage.

They all thought Lillian was on the athletic side since she dealt with car parts almost everyday and she handled antiques and lifted them herself. They pretty much had the idea on how much those things weighed, for they all had the displeasure of lifting those paintings and boy they were heavy. Lillian howled in pain as the therapist pushed deep onto her calf.

"What the freaking hell!? I am not a piece of frozen meat!" She admonished.

The messuse looked at her in dis belief, "You're the one who booked for an athletic massage."

"No! I did not ask for a an athletic massage. I didn't even ask for a mud bath. I am getting off this table," she wrapped her towel around herself and was about to get off the table.

Rachel rushed into the room and was completely bewildered as she watched Lillian hop off the table. "And where do you think you are going?"