He scoffed. “Those are Ealar’s words from a poem he penned about himself.”
“Well, they are true enough, but a man is more than what we see with our eyes, nae matter how starkly beautiful he is.” She almost choked on a wee giggle when he scowled at her. “’Tisna’ yer visage that sets my heart racing with every emotion. Some welcome, some not. ’Tis deeper than that, Logan. Ye are not what I expected. Ye are something I never believed I would see in anyone ever again. ’Tis a difficult truth fer me to swallow, in truth. Ye are the man that birthed all the hatred in my heart, and ye are the only man who can heal me.”
His deep smile proved he intended on doing just that. Could he? What about her family?
“What do I do about it, Logan?”
“Ye can fergive me,” he said, taking her hand. “When ye are ready, fergive my kin. I want to see and hear yer laughter until heaven and earth collide. I want ye to live a happy life. With me. If that would make ye happy.”
She wanted to nod. To say aye, but she couldn’t bring herself to do it. She couldn’t let it all go as if it meant nothing, when it had meant everything fer the last six years.
“I’m not ready to let them go,” she told him truthfully, breaking her own heart.
His gaze on her warmed. “Lass, I dinna want ye to let them go. I want ye to let go of the hate in which ye have encased them. Free them. Free yerself. Tragic things happen to all. ’Tis no’ yer fault fer puttin’ the guardsmen to sleep. ’Tis no’ my fault fer gazin’ at what could have been a butterfly that changed its form to a woman, and fer wantin’ to see her again. And even if it is our fault, we have paid the price fer a half-dozen years. If we can seebeyond the sooty smoke of anger, it would be defeatin’ somethin’ bigger than us both and makin’ way fer a brand-new life.”
Och, but his words were like silken veils across her ears, promising her a better life fer the one she’d lost. Could it be possible? Did she deserve to live a better life when she was the one who had been hiding while her family was being killed?
“I dinna think I have figured out how to do that, Mr. Cameron. Or if I can. Yer words are sweet to my ears, but that is because ye are more strikingly beautiful than any man alive, starting from the inside, then out. To be told such things—and while I look the way I do…” She raised her fingers to her hair.
“Tis what I see in the enormous blue oceans of yer eyes,” he went on. “The tilt of yer brow, the slight quirk of yer lips that revives my soul.”
He went to stand behind her and reached around her to take the mirror and lift it to her face. He held it close enough so that there was no room in her reflection for her hair. “Ye are the bonniest lass in Scotland.”
She had no strength against him. But he didn’t require any. He let her go, right after he dipped his nose to her neck and breathed her in.
And spun her world off its axis.
“I willna ask ye to make any decisions now,” he said, moving around to face her. “Ye’re free to do whatever ye wish. But I hope ye will stay.”
That was it? She thought as he closed his eyes and didn’t say anything else. He was done? Without thinking about it long enough to stop herself, she reached out and grasped his wrist. What should she say when all she could think of doing was kiss him?
She caught a movement out of the corner of her eyes and looked around him to see his cousins arriving fer the day. They’dalready spotted their favored cousin and his untrusted guest and rode toward them through the vale.
There was no time to kiss him.
Was she completely and utterly mad?
He followed her gaze to his kin and then laughed a little sound that quaked Elspeth’s bones.
“Why are ye comin’ after me on the hill, Jamie?” he asked, looking up at the first one to reach him.
“Yer parents are to arrive tomorrow,” Jaime told him, as Steafan and then Ewen joined them.
“What prompted them to change their minds aboot comin’?” Logan asked calmly, though Elspeth noticed his hand clutching his belly.
“Yer mother,” Ewen told him. “’Tis rumored she threatened no’ to speak to yer father during dinner fer a month if he did no’ escort her here.”
Logan let out a slight hmmph sound. “He gave in so easily.”
His cousins agreed with a round of laughter.
“All right then,” Logan said, “Jamie and Steafan, go to my father’s house and tell Ealar to be quick. Help him if he needs it.” He looked at Elspeth and then at Ewen. “Let’s head back to the house. I feel—” He stopped talking to wipe his mouth.
“What is it?” Elspeth asked him.
“Tis nothin’,” he assured her.
Should Elspeth be worried that the Lochiel of Lochaber and his wife were on their way here? They obviously knew who she was and that’s why they were rushing here. It was either to kill her or save him.
