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“I think he will be well pleased, and my life will be safe,” he replied and watched as her shoulders sagged with visible relief. “But I believe he may order me to find yer brother.” He left unsaid that he suspected greatly that her brother had not fled. He believed Finn had said what he needed to in order to get away, and that the man’s true intention was to go to one of the men involved in the plot. Finn would warn them that Sorcha was alive and would likely reveal what they had done. He’d failed to kill her, so Finn probably hoped one of them would. Her brother would want to make the best deal he could to save himself and the castle he’d been willing to kill his own sister for. That sort of twisted heart was too far gone to change, and it hurt Cameron to his core that Sorcha’s hopes would be crushed and her spirit take a blow when she learned her brother had betrayed her yet again.
There was a part of him that hoped he was wrong about Finn and that the man was innocent of involvement in the conspiracy. Yet he did not think Sorcha would have lied to him if that was the truth of the matter.
“Come,” he said, his voice gruff. He tugged her by the hand to the bed.
Her eyes widened in surprise, and he pulled her to the bed and tugged her into the folds of his arms, tight against his chest, then murmured, “I want to hold ye as I sleep. I want to see ye when I wake. If I have but these two things every day for the rest of my life, I will be the most blessed of men.”
She twisted back to look at him, wonder dancing in her eyes. “Cameron, I love ye. I do. I love ye with all my heart.”
He could not hold the words back. He needed to for the sake of care until all was sorted, but they would not be contained. “I love ye, too,m’eudail.”He kissed her forehead. “Now.” He pressed his lips to her nose. “Tomorrow.” He brushed her lips across hers. “Always. Ye are mine.”
“I want to be yers,” she whispered with fierceness.
“So ye shall be,” he promised and willed it to be so.
Eighteen
Two nights later, Cameron stood in Graham’s solar in a circle with his brothers and their wives, his sisters, and Alex MacLean. Iain, Marion, Lachlan, Bridgette, and Marsaili had arrived from Dunvegan just moments before, under cover of night for their secret meeting. Bridgette and Marion had just entered the room after settling their children into bed.
“I asked ye all here for yer help,” Cameron started, noting Iain’s eyebrows shoot up and Lachlan twitch with surprise. Stepping toward the table in the middle of the circle, Cameron set the dagger on the table that he had found two nights before. “This dagger belongs to Finn Stewart, the Earl of Angus’s son,” he said to remind the others who Finn was.
“How did ye come to have this dagger, and how do ye ken it’s his?” Lachlan asked, his confusion obvious in his voice.
“It has the Angus crest upon it and Finn’s initials carved into it. I came to be in possession of it because Lena and Sorcha were attacked two days ago by a man who had this dagger.”
Marion’s brow knitted. “Why would the Earl of Angus’s son come to this island to attack Lena and Sor—” Marion gasped. “Do you think he is one of the men who has been trying to kill Sorcha?”
Cameron nodded. “Aye. And he’s her brother.”
The shocked looks that swept through the group didn’t bother him, not as much as the suddenly tense expression Iain wore. Likely, Iain already suspected that the Earl of Angus might be involved in the plot to take the throne from David.
“Did Sorcha’s memory return?” Iain demanded.
“Aye,” Cameron said, struggling and failing to keep the grimness from his voice.
A frown appeared on Iain’s face, and Lachlan’s eyes narrowed. Graham, who already knew all that Cameron was about to relay, gave him a look of encouragement. Just as Cameron was about to continue, Bridgette spoke.
“I dunnae comprehend why her brother would be trying to kill her,” she said. Before Cameron could answer that question, she blurted another one, her face twisting into a frown. “And where is Sorcha? Why is she nae at this meeting? Why did ye demand we come under cover of night?”
“She’s nae here,” Cameron said, “because she dunnae ken that I found her brother’s dagger.” He quickly told them about his conversation with Sorcha, and how she had revealed that her father, the Earl of March, and the Earl of Ross were not only involved in the conspiracy to take the throne from David but they had been the ones to plot Katherine’s murder. He also told them about how Sorcha’s father had offered Hugo her hand in marriage, along with her brother’s inheritance of Blair Castle, if Hugo killed Katherine.
“So ye believe, what?” Iain asked. “That her brother kenned she was still alive after they fled and that he wanted her dead so he’d nae lose his castle?”
“Aye.” He told them what she had relayed to him of her brother—how he had once been kind and how their father’s criticism and Finn’s jealousy had twisted his heart. “I feel,” he said, taking a deep breath, “that when Finn came for her himself this time, instead of sending others, she saw him and her memories returned. Kenning her and her quickness and skill with the bow, I’ve nary a doubt she managed to get the bow and put him at a disadvantage, but he must have convinced her that he was sorry and that he would flee.”
“And ye suppose she let him go because of her love for him?” Bridgette asked softly.
Cameron nodded, tensing with the expectation that Bridgette would be the first to discredit his theory, but that was why he had called them all here. He staked much on what hethoughthad happened and what he should do based on what hebelievedwould happen. It was a great risk, but one he was willing to take for Sorcha. Yet, he did not have the right to take the risk for his brothers and their wives. If they wanted to put distance between themselves and the situation, he would give them that chance.
“If I was faced with the knowledge that Alex had betrayed me, tried to kill me, even,” Bridgette said slowly, “and I kenned the why of it and he vowed to flee, I’d do exactly as ye believe Sorcha did. I’d find it worse to offer up my own brother, who I had seen good in at one time, for certain death than to risk myself and lie by releasing him. Beyond that, shedidtell ye of her father’s part in the plot, and to me, it means much that she did. She must ken there is nae any hope of redemption for her father. I kinnae imagine how hard that must have been for her to accept and then tell ye of his wrongdoing.”
“Neither can I,” Cameron replied, relieved that Bridgette agreed with him. She was a keen woman and not one to be easily swayed.
Lena cleared her throat. “I believe ye have assessed the circumstances correctly, as well.”
“As do I,” Marion interjected, giving him a reassuring smile.
“I agree, also,” Marsaili said with a definitive nod.
