"No. Shola is an entirely different complicated story." She recalled that she'd told him a bit of it that first day and smiled warmly, grateful that they'd become so close so quickly. It made this much simpler. "The engagement was to Shinobi. A man I'd met some years before I ended up in Scotland. We had a brief fling and then he found me again, entirely accidentally, because his stepmother was living at the castle."

It was difficult, even now, to sum Shinobi up in so few words, but he wasn't really relevant to the story except, "He loved me in his way, but he couldn't say it, even after he proposed. I think the only way I made it through that engagement as long as I did, was because I had Scott, whose love was clear and strong, even if it had to be platonic."