“Ah, good, ye are both here,” he said to his parents. “I want to go to the ridge and look oot with Ewen. If no’, then allow me to return home to Tor where I dinna have to wait alone.”
Ismay MacPherson rolled her eyes toward heaven. “Ealar, no one is going home until this villain is caught.”
“Go meet up with Ewen,” the Lochiel said to his son. “Dinna distract him.”
“I wanted the four of us to speak alone,” the Lochiel explained to his wife why he sent their son out alone. “Ealar can take care of himself.”
When his wife nodded her agreement, he turned to Elspeth. “Miss Woodburn.”
She had the feeling of looking into the eyes of a mountain lion deciding whether or not to pounce.
“I dinna think ’tis a wise decision fer ye and my son to remain here alone together. Ye are both young. It could lead to things.”
Elspeth heard a sound and tore her gaze off the Lochiel to set it on Logan, taking a seat beside her. He’d made the sound; a scoff riddled with incredulity. “Lead to things? Like what, Father? Me fallin’ in love with her and makin’ her my wife?” He slipped his gaze to Elspeth. “If she will have me.”
The world stopped, along with the blood in her veins and the beat of her heart. He wanted her to…be his wife? She knew he wanted her to stay, but be his wife? That was a lifelong promise and involved being intimate in bed and bearing his children. She nearly fainted thinking of it.
It felt as if one day she was living in a fortress built from hatred and revenge, and then the next day, she moved into a cozy little house at the foot of a mountain and fell in love with the man she swore to kill. Her head was spinning. What about Roderick? Before she could think of marriage and babies and a happier life with Logan, she had to see Roderick pay for his crime.
“Miss Woodburn,” the Lochiel said when she didn’t answer his son. “He willna listen to me. Tell him it could never work between a Royalist and a Covenanter.”
She looked at his mother then let her gaze slip back to Logan. “If ye truly love someone, any obstacle can be overcome.”
Logan smiled at her. So did his mother.
“So then,” his father said thickly. “Ye share Logan’s sentiments?”
When she nodded and blushed, he turned back to his son, whose gaze was fastened on Elspeth.
“Ismay,” her husband remarked. “Ye dinna appear surprised.”
His wife gave him a happy grin and shook her head. “I think ’tis wonderful.”
She did? Elspeth blinked at her. Did she not say that she was the one Elspeth had to win? Did this mean that Ismay MacPherson approved and so then would her husband? Now that she thought of it, the Lochiel did appear relieved.
But she had not said aye yet. The only one who seemed to be aware of it in the room was Logan. He hadn’t taken his eyes off her and while his parents went on about him and their wedding, he moved toward Elspeth as if it were just the two of them.
“I didna mean to speak to ye aboot it this way,” he told her, sounding regretful. “When I asked ye to stay, it would be as my wife.”
“Logan, I wish to be yer wife, but…”
“But?”
“We must find Roderick first. He wants to kill ye and I canna live with the fear of that. I canna try to live a happy life when the one who murdered my family and who wants to hurt ye, is walking about free as the wind.”
“He said he wanted to kill Logan?” the Lochiel interrupted. She had forgotten Logan’s parents were there.
When Elspeth nodded, Ismay MacPherson tugged on her husband’s plaid and said in a soft but firm voice. “Ye must find him.”
Her husband nodded and Elspeth knew that if the Lochiel found Roderick, her brother would die. It would be just and she would put no blame on the Camerons.
“We will find him,” Logan promised, keeping his gaze on Elspeth’s. “He will face justice on this earth before he faces it in the afterlife. And once justice has been done, we will be free to marry.”
If not for the treacherous black cloud called Roderick hovering above, his plan would have sounded perfect. She hadnot been free since she was seventeen. Besides the obvious of her living a life of servitude, she had been chained to anger, hatred, and revenge—and all toward the wrong person. But this man she thought she hated destroyed her shackles and set her free.
She wanted to be joined together with him for life. She wasn’t sure she could be patient much longer.
“I want to help,” she blurted out. “I will be bait to draw Roderick out.”
