“Ye lasses sleep here tonight,” he offered. “The lads will ride to Tor tonight,” he cast them all a warning look then turned back to Elspeth and the others. “I will sleep in my father’s house.”
“Let me help with the cleanin’,” Jamie offered, smiling at Helen when their gazes met.
Logan caught her eye before he left with Ewen and Steafan. “May I have a word with ye, Miss Woodburn?”
She nodded, allowing it, and followed him outside. The rain had stopped and the breeze rushing through the air was scented like pine-covered mountains. “I know ye helped me stay alive,” he told her, walking in the opposite direction of his cousins. “Didye put hot rocks in my makeshift bed?” He smiled at her under the light of the moon.
Nae,she wanted to tell him,’Twas my body that warmed ye.“Ye stayed alive by yer own will.”
“Ye carried all my blankets to me, lass.” He laughed, a deep, throaty sound that heated her belly. “Are ye so determined to convince me ye didna help me?”
“So what if I did?” she scoffed. “It doesna mean anything.”
“Ye have been talkin’ about killin’ me fer days now, but when I could have died, ye kept me alive.”
“That is because if ye died, I wouldna have the chance to kill ye myself.”
His laughter deepened and he looked at her the way she used to look at Lady Millicent’s wee baby daughter when she first learned how to walk.
“Ye think I am no’ a danger to ye, Mr. Cameron?”
“Och, lass, that possibility has no’ once crossed my mind.”
What? What did he mean by that? She couldn’t think straight when he was near and smiling all doe-eyed at her.
“Promise me ye willna leave again.”
She stared at him. What was he saying? And why was he saying it? Did he… like her?
“Now ye see how dangerous ’tis out there,” he told her.
“Dangerous,” she echoed. She wanted to laugh at herself for thinking he liked her, but she did not feel merry.
“Ye’re safe here,” he went on. “I would never hurt ye more than I already have. Surely ye know that by now.”
Aye, by now. After she had tried to kill him. How come he hadn’t done anything about it or even mention it? No one else would have let her get away with it. Why did he? Mayhap he didn’t. Mayhap he was deceiving her while he planned her demise.
What did he have to plan, really? It was not as if he didn’t want her kin to know. No one would try to avenge her if he took her life. She wanted to ask him if he hated her, but what if he said nae? What if he said aye? Which was worse? And if he did hate her, should she not rejoice in it? She had a thousand questions but only one thing left her mouth when she opened it.
“I told myself I left to gather herbs to help ye, but ye were well on yer way to recovery. Ye didna need more herbs. I had to leave.”
“Why?” he asked, concern lacing his voice. “And dinna say because ye hate me. I willna believe ye.”
Her eyes opened wider. How dare he not believe she-?
“Ye didna hurt me when I was at my weakest,” he went on, quieting her. “So then, did one of my cousins say or do anythin’ to make ye feel unsafe?”
“Nae,” she told him. “’Twas ye.”
“Me?” he asked, backing away from her. “What did I do?”
Should she tell him? How could sheeven wantto tell him? Looking at him made her good senses vanish, made her want to confess her hopes, dreams and regrets to him while she gazed into his warm, dark eyes.
There were too many torches lit around the outside of the house. She stepped out of the light and into the shadows, knowing he would follow her.
He did.
“Miss Woodburn,” he said, taking her wrist to stop her advance when she would have gone deeper into the darkness. “What did I do to make ye leave? I wasna even awake.”
