“Do you realize the trouble you’re in, Elizabeth? You walked away from your contract.

And your responsibilities,” he told her, his voice scolding. “As it is, your little trip will probably cost you a fortune in fines. But that’s nothing compared with what it’s already cost your reputation. You walked out of your operating room, Elizabeth. You left a mess.”

Libby stopped slicing the apple and turned to look at him. “I sent Randal Peters a certified letter saying I had to leave for personal reasons.”

“I talked to Peters, and he doesn’t care what reason you cited. He knows you left because of what happened,” James said, standing up and coming over to her, taking her by the shoulders. “There’s still time to straighten this out, Elizabeth. If you come back right now and apologize to the board and beg their forgiveness, this can be dealt with quietly.”

“What exactly happened,” Michael asked as he stepped through the cellar door, “that requires an apology and begging?”

James spun to face him. “This isn’t your concern, MacBain. It’s Elizabeth’s.”

“And yours?” Michael asked softly, walking up to stand directly in front of James.

“Libby doesn’t strike me as a woman willing to beg for anything. So, tell me what she’s done that needs an apology.”

James returned to the table and stood behind the chair he’d been sitting in. “It was a stupid mistake,” he said, waving his hand dismissively. “She nearly cut into a perfectly healthy woman in her operating room. But that’s not something you throw your career away for.”

Michael turned and looked at her, his pewter-gray eyes gently probing hers. “Is that true, lass? Ya left because of this mistake?”

“It’s a serious mistake for a surgeon, Mr. MacBain,” Katherine said, drawing his attention. “But it wasn’t my daughter’s fault. They brought her the wrong patient.”

Michael looked back at Libby.

She turned to the counter and began cutting the apple again.

“She must have felt responsible,” she heard Michael tell Katherine. “Enough to doubt her ability to perform her job.”

“I repeat, this is not your business, MacBain,” James said tightly. “We will deal with Elizabeth’s problem.”

“By advising her to beg?” Michael asked so softly that shivers of alarm raced up Libby’s spine.

Robbie’s arrival interrupted the tense silence. He ran into the kitchen on a blast of cold air, the door slamming loudly behind him.

“Libby! We had a fire at school,” he said excitedly in greeting, rushing to tell her his news. “It was in the boys’ bathroom, and the whole school filled up with smoke, and we had to leave without getting our coats and stuff.”

Almost without breaking stride, Robbie walked over to Katherine and scratched Timid on the head, giving Libby’s mother a huge grin. “She’ll purr if ya tickle her right here,”

he instructed, guiding Katherine’s fingers to the back of Timid’s ear. “She likes ya,” he added with authority, his grin widening. “Are ya Libby’s mama? ’Cause if ya are, I’ll like ya, too.”

“Then I guess I am,” her mother replied, her warm brown eyes dancing with amusement. “And you can call me Katherine.”

Robbie thought about that, studying her for a good long time. “I think I’ll call ya Gram Katie,” he finally decided. “’Cause old people like it when I call them things like that.”

He turned to face James, completely oblivious to Katherine’s horror. “Who are you?” he asked, lifting his young chin. “You better not have come here to take Libby back to California, ’cause she’s not leaving. We’re keeping her. She’s got kittens and chickens to look after, and she signed a lease with me. It’s a contract that’s… ” He looked at Libby, suddenly uncertain. “What is it again?” he whispered.

“Binding,” Libby whispered back, barely containing her amusement.

Robbie looked at James again, his young features rather threatening. “Yeah. Her contract is binding, and she can’t leave for a year.”

“Well, if you had checked her references, young man,” James said sharply, “you’d know she makes a habit of breaking her contracts.”

“James,” Katherine snapped. “That’s enough.”

“Aye,” Michael interjected. “It is. Come on, son. You and I have to go buy Libby a new bed.”

“What’s wrong with her old bed?” Robbie asked, shooting one final glare at James before giving Libby his attention. “Is it lumpy?” he asked her. “Or does it sag in the middle? ’Cause we can put a board under it if it sags.”

“It-it’s lumpy,” Libby said past her blush, keeping her gaze from coming into contact with Michael’s. “But I want a new headboard as well,” she added, speaking directly to Robbie and hoping Michael was listening.

Why on earth did he have to bring up the subject of her bed now, in front of her mother and James? And dammit, she wanted to pick out her own bed.

Robbie leaned up to speak to his father as he kept a guarded eye on James. “I don’t think we should leave right now, Papa,” he whispered. “That guy with Gram Katie might try to steal Libby from us. We gotta stay until he’s gone.”

Of course, everyone heard Robbie, including the subject of his distrust. James sneered, looking at Libby. “The child has no more manners than your cats.”

Libby had had enough as well. She pointed her knife-skewered apple at James and decided it was time to tell him what she thought of his own manners. But Robbie beat her to it. The boy rounded on the condescending man and took a step toward him.

“I don’t need manners,” he told him, his young fists balled at his sides. “’Cause I’ve got right on my side. And might,” he added, taking another step closer.

“Might?” James sputtered in disbelief, his face darkening with anger.

Libby moved to step between them, but Michael took hold of her arm and silently shook his head, his eyes filled with delight and no small amount of fatherly pride.

“It’s my papa’s might,” Robbie explained, his tone even, his glare filled with challenge.

“He’s a warrior, and he steps over bigger men than you just to get to a fight.”

As threats went, Libby couldn’t have come up with a better one herself. For a worldly, sophisticated doctor who was so much at home in an operating room or a board meeting, it seemed James didn’t have a clue how to respond to the boy’s challenge. He didn’t know how to deal with children, period. Which was why, instead of snapping back, he darted a worried look at Michael, pulled out his chair, and sat down.

Katherine reached over, her smile poorly hidden, and patted his hand. “Why don’t you bring in my suitcase from the car?” she softly suggested. “Then head back to the hotel and register yourself back in for the night. Elizabeth and I will cook a nice dinner, and you can return at seven o’clock and eat with us.”

She looked at Robbie. “Does that sound acceptable to you, young man? You have my word we won’t try to steal Elizabeth away from you tonight.”

Robbie shot an uncertain look at his father, frowned at Michael’s nod, and looked back at Katherine. “That sounds okay, I guess. And her name is Libby, not Elizabeth,” he told her.

“It’s Dr. Elizabeth Hart,” James interjected, attempting to salvage some of his dignity.

“She’s a very important surgeon back in California.”

Libby winced, darting her own uncertain look at Michael when Robbie gasped and spun around to face her.

“You’re not a doctor!” he shouted. “Ya make jewelry.”

Libby tossed the apple and the knife onto the counter and took the angry boy by the shoulders. “I do make jewelry,” she told him gently. “But I’m also a doctor, Robbie. I operate on people who have been in terrible accidents.”

He pulled away from her, stepping back and balling his hands into fists again. “Ya can’t be,” he whispered desperately. “Ya need a hospital to do operations, and we don’t have one. You’ll leave!” he shouted, spinning around and running out the door as quickly and as loudly as he’d come through it.