“Elspeth! My Elspeth.” He backed up but didn’t let her go as his cousins and brother sped by them on their horses. Roderick would never outrun them. God had decided.
“Are ye hurt?”
“Nae, nae, I am not hurt,” she reassured him. She was so happy to see him, she couldn’t help but smile, but her brother… “Thank ye fer coming fer me, Logan.”
Gazing into her eyes, he returned her smile and stepped closer. But he stopped again and looked around. No one was there except the two of them. His gaze found her troubled one. “Yer brother.”
Her eyes opened wider. “How…how did ye know?”
“Ealar and I met up with Ewen and the others returning from bringin’ Helen to Tor. Ewen had gotten her to confess that the man she was helpin’ was Roderick Woodburn. He wanted me dead because ye hadna done it. She told Ewen that Roderick planned to bring ye to Skye.”
“Why Skye?” she asked, but he only shook his head.
“We dinna know.”
“I had nae idea he was alive until he came fer me,” she told him.
“In the middle of the night.”
She nodded. “Helen must have shown him how to get in.”
Did she tell Logan what her brother had done?
Exhausted, she fell into his arms. “Dinna let me go,” she whispered.
She closed her eyes and let her tears fall in silence. Logan and the Camerons were innocent. They lit the keep on fire, but it was Roderick who took the lives of her family. She could not be happy or relieved about the Camerons when the blame fell on her brother.
“My love, I know how hard this must be fer ye,” he whispered into the top of her head. “Yer joy over seein’ yer brother is mixed with terror that one of us would kill him.”
“Nae,” she cried into his chest. “I have nae joy over seeing him. I wish he would not have been born.”
“Elspeth, what happened?”
How could she tell him? The shame of it was too unbearable. A child who murdered his parents had a special place in hell reserved for him.
“Whatever ’tis will be all right.”
He was trying to soothe her, but it would not be all right.
“Logan?”
“Aye, love.”
This was no time for her heart to skip and stall. He called her—
“I am deeply sorry for every unkind thought I had about ye and yer kin, fer trying to kill ye, for every accusation I made against the Camerons. Fergive me.”
He pulled her closer into a tight embrace. She felt safe here. “Logan, there is something I wish to tell ye, but I’m too ashamed.”
“Tell me later, lass. After ye have rested.”
She didn’t argue with him. If his kin caught Roderick and brought him back, she didn’t want to see him.
She used to think she could forgive her siblings for anything. She was wrong.
Logan hoisted her into his saddle then leaped up behind her.
“Logan?”
