“I think so.”
Lochlan leaned forward in his chair. “Nora, look at me.”
She did.
Lochlan’s stern gaze didn’t falter or waver. It was intense and oppressive.
“Did he... did you...” He looked greatly uncomfortable and she knew what he was asking.
Her face flamed and she looked away without answering.
Lochlan cursed. “Your father will have his head for it.”
“My father will never know and if you say a word, Lochlan MacAllister, I will deny it.”
He actually smiled at her. “You would protect him?”
“Always.”
The smile crept up his face, all the way to his eyes, turning them a gentle, friendly blue instead of their normal iciness. “Ewan is a lucky man to have found you.”
She frowned at his unexpected comment.
Lochlan excused himself and left her alone with Ewan.
Nora stared at his pale features. His sweat-dampened hair was plastered to his skin.
Setting her sewing aside, she moved to fetch a cloth to bathe his brow.
“I wish you would wake up, Ewan,” she said as she always did when she tended him. “I miss seeing your crystal blue eyes, hearing your fierce growl when you get aggravated at me. Mostly I just miss you.”
His eyes fluttered opened, shocking her.
Nora gasped at the sight. For a second she feared he was still gripped by his fever-induced madness, but his gaze was clear and sensible.
He frowned, then tried to sit up.
“Nay!” she said, forcing him back. “You shouldn’t be moving.”
His frown grew sterner. He glanced around the room, then looked under the sheet. His face perplexed, he looked at her. “Why are you here in my brother’s home while I lay naked in his bed?”
She laughed at him, giddy with relief that he was awake and still his surly self.
Before she could respond, the door opened to admit his mother and brother Sin.
The instant they realized he was awake and alert, the two of them rushed forward.
“So he lives,” Sin said, his dark eyes bright.
Aisleen took Ewan’s hand and pressed it to her lips. “Praise be to God. I had feared I would lose another son.”
Nora wanted to stay, but as Braden, Maggie and Caledonia burst into the room with their children, she realized she didn’t belong.
Though she might wish it otherwise, she wasn’t Ewan’s family. They were.
Turning around, she made her way quietly toward the stairs.
Once she was on the ground floor, she saw Lochlan who was just leaving the great hall, and headed for the stairs behind her.
