Chapter Eighteen #2
“Come now, Ellie. Ye know why. Father hated me, and he taught me how to hate in return.”
“But Mother and Padrig!”
He shrugged his shoulders. “Padrig would always hunt me and Mother would always weep fer me. I was better off without them.”
“And me, Roddy? Were ye better off without me as well?”
“Aye, Ellie, I was. But ye were already in my heart fer the way ya stood up fer me to Father, and because of that, I didna kill ye with the rest of them. Today, I regret that decision.”
Elspeth locked eyes with him. He was telling the truth.
He killed her family. She bent over and expelled the contents of her belly.
This couldn’t be happening. Her brother could not have killed them.
But he did. He did. And for six years she blamed someone else.
The wrong man. The wrong clan. She had almost killed Logan and he was innocent!
She wanted to kill Roderick, then she wanted to get him help, then she wanted to kill him again. How could her brother do such a terrible thing?
“Turn yerself in, Roddy,” she begged. “Clear the Camerons of this blot on their name.”
“Are they all ye care about? he demanded. “Or rather, is Logan Cameron all ye think about?”
“I care about doing what is right. Ye…” It hurt too much to say, but she had to. “Ye murdered yer family, Roderick. Ye should pay fer that.”
His lips curled into a smirk. “Whom should I pay, Ellie?”
“I am not a fool to fight with ye, Brother. Just do what ye should do. Turn yerself in.”
He laughed and snatched a fistful of her collar at her nape. He pulled her to him.
“I should have killed ye when I had the chance.”
“Roddy, Father was wrong to beat ye,” she said tenderly, trying to calm him.
“What would ye know, Princess? I can see why Father thought that of ye,” he cooed gently. “Ye with ye—” his gaze roved over her hair. “—Did he do it?”
“I did. I cut it off because of ye. Everything was because of ye. I blamed the wrong people fer six years.”
“The Camerons set the keep on fire.”
“Ye killed our parents! Wee Padrig!”
“He was ten and four and not so wee,” her brother scoffed.
Elspeth couldn’t stand to be near him another instant! If she didn’t get away from him now, she would smash him in the head with a rock.
She tried to pull herself out of his grasp. “Leave me alone, Roderick. Stay out of my life.”
He laughed and shoved her away.
The sound of thunder in the distance made him pause and then go pale. It was not thunder, but horse’s hooves against the earth. Many horses.
Elspeth began to run. Roderick was close behind. She heard someone call her name. Logan? She stopped running and turned to look behind her. Was it Logan? She waited a moment until the riders grew closer, and then she took off toward them.
When she saw Logan, she wanted to leap into his arms, but she thought of her murderous brother.
She dared not tell him. He would nae doubt go after Roderick to kill him.
Or Roderick might kill him. Nae, she thought as her once long-time enemy leaped from his horse and caught her in his arms, she didn’t want Logan to kill Roderick. Let God decide his fate.
“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?”
“Aye, Elspeth?” he asked, his lips close to her ear.
“Can we ride someplace?”
“Ye want me to hide ye?”
Elspeth could hear his smile in his voice. She would play along. “Aye, hide me.”
He veered off to the left, rather than the direction to his house. He was quiet, and she was grateful for it. His presence was consuming. She didn’t wish to answer questions. She just needed him to be there, and he was.
He stopped the horse in a small, sunlit glen on the other side of Ben Nevis.
Elspeth smiled, looking around her. The glen was secluded and intimate.
Any other time she might have tugged on at Logan’s plaid, but now, she only wanted to think about what she should say about her brother.
He walked to a rock and rested his rump on it.
Before him was the other side of Ben Nevis. He looked up and took a deep breath.
Elspeth watched him. Was Roderick a danger to him? Her brother killed his own parents; what would he care about killing the Lochiel’s son?
“He let ye take the blame,” she told him, going to him.
Logan turned to her, wearing a confused smile.
“Roderick,” she clarified. “He let ye and yer kin take the fall fer the death of my family.”
Logan stared at her and then the oddest thing happened; glistening pools appeared, hovering over his lower eyelids. “Does he know who killed yer family?”
This was it. She either trusted Logan or she didn’t. If she didn’t, then what was she doing with him?
“He did it.” It turned out to be easier to say than she thought. “Roderick killed them.”
Logan closed his eyes and opened his arms to her. She vanished in them.
“Och, Logan, he killed them. What am I to do?”
“My Elspeth,” he said gently into her hair. “I canna imagine what ye are feelin’. I would rather ye still think my kin did it than fer ye to know this horrible truth.”
Clutching fistfuls of his plaid, she buried her face in his chest and wept. He didn’t say another word but simply held her while she cried. A few times, she thought her tears were finished, only to find her face plastered against him again.
Elspeth knew that if she lived to be a hundred, she would never forget the way this one man understood her and how thoughtfully he cared about her.
Did he care for her because she was his property or—She pulled away. “Logan, why do ye care about me?”
If he said because she was his, she would thank him for all he had done and ask him if Ewen could take her away.
“I have been nothing but mean-spirited and even dangerous toward ye and ye allowed it,” she continued. “Why?”
He smiled, looking down at her.
Goodness, but he snatched the breath right out of her with that sculpted face, those almond-shaped eyes that turned luminous when he looked at her, as if he were thinking how much he loved—
“Elspeth, I have never been in love before, so I’m no’ completely sure aboot this, but I think I’m fallin’ in love with ye.
If love makes ye feel as if ye’re starvin’ nae matter how much ye eat, then I love ye.
If it makes ye feel as if ye dinna need both arms, or even one when ye are flyin’, then I canna seem to land.
I dinna want to. I could continue, but my brother is the poet, no’ me. ”
He laughed at himself, lowering his head. His deep mahogany locks fell around his face like a lion’s mane. A lion that loved her.
He didn’t try to kiss her but offered her his hand. When she took it, she felt something like lightning striking her, the earth. Her blood sizzled. Warmth inside her grew from embers to molten liquid.
He brought her to a small inlet, covered in sand, instead of rocks.
Elspeth pulled off her shoes and her hose and then ran onto the sea. She squeaked like a mouse, which made Logan laugh as he followed her. He pulled off his boots, tossed them aside and ran to her.
When she saw him coming, she took off running, laughing as she went. She would always be thankful to him for making her laugh on the worst day of her life.
He caught up to her when she reached the end of the inlet, and the mountain blocked her way.
With no other choice, she stopped and faced him, laughing as if he was tickling her when he hadn’t touched her.
Head tilted, dark eyes staring into her soul as he reached her.
“Stay away!” she demanded playfully.
He did not obey but gathered her in his embrace. “I canna stay away, bonnie Elspeth. I willna. Nothin’ or no one will ever keep me from ye.”
She breathed and it felt as if she hadn’t done so in six years. Her hatred was gone and it was not Roderick who ended it, but this man. Logan Cameron, who won her heart and healed it.