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Nick shot Logan a glance before ruffling Joseph’s hair. “Your papa missed you very much, just like we all miss Royal and Ainsley and little Tira. Family always misses family when they can’t be together. But this is your home now, Joseph. We want you to be very happy here.”
Joseph studied his uncle with a seriousness that prickled the back of Logan’s neck.
“What is it, son?” Nick gently asked.
“Papa told me you had a little boy too, but he died. He said you were very sad.”
Logan suddenly felt paralyzed. He desperately tried to remember exactly what he’d told Joseph about Cam.
Nick regarded the boy with equal gravity. “Yes. I was very sad when Cameron died.”
“So was Papa for a long time. He tried not to show it, but everyone could tell.”
“I know,” Nick said gently, avoiding Logan’s eye.
And thank God, because Logan was all but choking on his emotions.
“Goodness,” Victoria said, making a show of peering at the clock on the mantelpiece. “It’s late. I’m sure Rowena must be finished with her nap by now.”
Nick flashed her a grateful smile before again ruffling Joseph’s hair. “Would you like to meet your cousin now? She’s very sweet, if a bit noisy at times.”
The lad scrunched up his face. “Will she spit up on me? Tira used to spit up a lot, sometimes on Auntie Ainsley’s best dresses.”
The adults chuckled with relief that the fraught moment had passed.
“Rowena is quite good atnotspitting up.” Nick stood and held out a hand. “Let’s go meet her, shall we?”
Joseph smiled and stood to take his uncle’s hand. Clearly, Logan’s big brother was better at dealing with little boys than he was.
“I’ll just go warn Nurse that she’s about to have visitors,” Victoria said. She winked at Logan before hurrying out of the room.
Following her with Joseph, Nick paused at the door and turned, lifting an imperious eyebrow. “Are you coming, Logan?”
“Do you want me to come?”
“Pinhead,” was his brother’s only reply.
“You’d better come, Papa,” Joseph said earnestly. “Uncle Nick wants you to.”
“Of course, son. I’ll be right up.”
“Get to it, lad,” Angus said with a smirk. “Don’t want to get left behind.”
Logan shot him a dirty look and stalked out after his brother.
Families. They were a royal pain in the arse.
Chapter Fifteen
Families could certainly be a pain in one’s backside.
“Uncle,” Donella said, trying to be patient, “I’ll simply remain quietly at Blairgal until any gossip dies down. Then I can decide what I want to do next.”
Join another religious order, if she got her way.
Her great-uncle, ensconced in the old baronial chair by the fireplace, scowled. “We’ll discuss it as a family, Donella. It’s the way we’ve always made our decisions.”
While the family’s traditional methods of decision-making hadn’t exactly worked in the past when it came to her, her uncle would thunder if she objected. If there was anything Donella couldn’t abide, it was a thundering male.
