He happily prepared their breakfast of hare stew with carrots, turnips, and squash, and just a short while after the food was served, two of his cousins arrived.
“Where is Steafan?” Logan asked after him.
“Alina warned him not to come with us once she found oot aboot the lasses,” Jamie advised him as he made his way to Helen.
“Why did he tell her?” Logan demanded. “I told ye all no’ to tell anyone.”
“Logan,” Ewen said, sitting next to Miss Woodburn—where Logan planned to sit, “’twas only a matter of time before ye parents found oot who was here.”
Logan’s belly flipped and tightened into a knot then loosened again when he tried to swallow. “Are ye sayin’…they know?”
His closest friend looked at him straight in the eye and nodded. The Lochiel wants to ride here but he is meetin’ with Duke of Nottin’ham and canna come to ye in the near future.” He smiled. “By the time he gets here, ye will have already found a place fer her. Aye?” he added when Logan didn’t respond.
“Aye,” Logan agreed. What else was he to do? Given the choice, Miss Woodburn would likely flee, mayhap return to kill him later. If he told his cousin the true reason she was still here, Ewen would bring her somewhere else.
“Logan, tell me ye are no’ lettin’ her charms get to ye.”
Colored in the dim light in shades of fine wine were Logan’s eyes when he set them on Ewen. “What do ye know of her charms?”
“Are ye jealous fer her sake, Cousin?” Ewen asked him.
Logan laughed a little, but it sounded forced to his ears. “When did ye say ye were leavin’?”
“Yer mother asks that I stay and keep an eye on ye with this woman.” He grinned and shrugged as if there was nothing he could do.
Ewen wasn’t food driven like Jamie, so Logan couldn’t threaten to take his food. As far as Logan or the others knew, there was no lass who had caught Ewen MacDonald’s fancy. There was only one vulnerable spot for Ewen.
“Ewen,” Logan began, “Where does yer loyalty lie, with me or with Lady Ismay Cameron?”
“With ye, Logan.” He dipped his gaze to his boots. “Yer mother didna save my life three times.”
“Then dinna go along with her when she treats me like a child.”
“Aye,” Ewen said, but Elspeth had leaned forward to speak to him above the clatter of voices around them. Logan stopped hearing anyone but her.
“Mr. Cameron, who is this Ealar yer kin speak of?”
“My younger brother,” he told her. “What are they tellin’ ye?”
“That he is the most handsome lad in Lochaber. He can recite most of the poets and he’s been known to do so while in battle.”
Logan nodded. “Aye. ’Tis all true.”
She gave him a doubtful smirk. He raised a curious eyebrow. “Ye dinna believe it?”
“Only some of it,” she confessed.
“Ah,” he smiled and leaned forward with her, “which attributes dinna ye believe?
“I dinna believe that he is the most handsome man in Lochaber.”
Was that a playful spark in her eyes?
“Och? Have ye met the true title holder?”
She nodded, smiled into her fingers, then sat back in her chair.
“Who is he?” he asked, needing to know.
