Chapter Twenty-Two #2
Before any other words were spoken, Logan turned to her and said, “Do ye mind if he is a Catholic priest? I’m afraid there are verra few Elder Protestants in the Highlands.”
This was truly happening. He was making it happen. “That is fine with me, my dearest.”
When they stood before the priest outside the church and spoke their vows to each other, she couldn’t think of anything else but the cut of his jaw, his chin, his sculpted lips, of kissing him and getting him alone.
For the most part, the villagers cheered when they were declared husband and wife, but there were some who whispered—and not so quietly—that she looked poor, frail, and not fit for the Lochiel’s eldest son.
“She saved my life on more than one occasion,” Logan told them. “The question is not whether she is worthy of me, but am I worthy of her?”
Everyone was quiet, looking repentant or confused. They cheered again, though, when he kissed her as her husband.
He pulled away and pushed her behind him when he heard riders approaching.
“Logan!”
Elspeth turned to see Logan’s cousins riding closer. Jamie was in the lead, followed by Ewen. Behind them, Ealar spread his pewter gaze over the village, making the people back away.
“What are ye doin’ here?” Ewen called out first as they approached. Growing closer, his gaze dropped to their entwined fingers, their hands locked in unison. “Fine, then, but ye should have let us know.”
Logan smiled and then bent his head and stared at his boots. “Am I a young lad who must ask permission to be alone with Elspeth and make her my wife?”
“Logan!” Jamie yelped happily. “Truly?”
Logan nodded and smiled at Elspeth.
“Yer mother willna take kindly to ye doin’ it withoot her,” Ewen pointed out.
“My mother will happily go home and begin plannin’ a weddin’ celebration fer us. She will be happy fer her broken son.”
Riding slowly toward them, Ealar Cameron looked to be a part of the mist rising around his horse. When he spoke, some might have thought he was casting a spell on them, for he entranced almost all.
“Ye are nae longer broken, Brother. Any of us can tell that ’tis more than yer arm that is healed. As happy as all of us are fer ye and yer lady, we are blessed to still have a mother, and one who cares enough to always overstep her bounds.”
Logan and his brother laughed. Elspeth was happy Ealar didn’t hate her. Aye, they should go home and see to Logan’s mother. Elspeth wished she still had her own mother.
They agreed to ride back to the house. The arrival of Steafan stopped them. He was out of breath, as if he had been doing the running instead of his horse. “Roderick Woodburn has escaped!”
Logan and Elspeth both took a step back in utter surprise.
“How?” Logan demanded. “What happened?”
“He was bein’ brought to his cell after another beatin’. He attacked the guards and killed two of them. As weak as he is, he is wily and strong. I know because the two guards he took down were the strongest Tor has.”
Logan didn’t look concerned, but Elspeth did.
“Does no one know where he went?” she asked, pleaded. If Roderick was free, he was coming after her.
Steafan shook his head. “We searched the castle from top to bottom but didna find him. The lochiel sent men oot to scout the land and find any trace of him. There was nothin’ reported when I left to come here. Yer father wants everyone to return to the castle.”
“Aye,” Logan said and then looked around at the others. “He is correct. If the castle has been searched and cleared, then we should go there.”
The others agreed, and Jamie was the first one out. He would ride back to the house with Logan and the others, get Ismay MacPherson, and bring her to Tor.
Elspeth could not find comfort in the saddle with Logan. Roderick was free. He would come after her, and if Logan was near her…
She dared not think about it, lest the terror of it take her over. Logan could not die.
They reached the two houses, that were oddly quiet. Elspeth felt Logan go taut as his gaze searched everywhere outside.
When his mother didn’t answer their calls, Logan and Ealar leaped from their horses and went running. One to the large house and one to the smaller house.
Elspeth kept her gaze glued on the smaller house that belonged to Logan. The one he’d gone to. She watched when Jamie hurried to catch up with him, and Ewen and Steafan followed Ealar.
She hated just waiting here. She slipped out of the saddle and slinked around the back of Logan’s house. Her house. If Roderick was here, she would stop him. She wouldn’t let him take anything else from her.
She checked around the butchering shed, her heart pounding hard in her ears. Roderick was not there.
Logan nearly frightened her out of her skin when he burst through the back door and appeared before her.
“What are ye doin’ here, Elspeth? I told ye to stay back.”
“Logan, I dinna want to wait until Roderick comes to me. I will find him and kill him first.”
“My love, ye canna kill a man, especially no’ yer brother. Nae matter what he has done.”
“If he tries to hurt ye, I will stab him with a dirk. I forgive him, Logan. That doesna mean I dinna want him to pay. I will use whatever is in range of my hands to stop him.”
He smiled, and she wasn’t sure if she should be insulted or not.
“Come inside, lass.” He held out his hand, and she took it and went with him into the Main Hall.
There, she saw his mother preparing food to take with them and Jamie entering from the main doors.
Ismay MacPherson smiled at her. “Did ye come looking fer me, Daughter?”
Elspeth smiled at her and nodded. “Fer ye and—” she looked at Logan—“fer him.”
When his mother clapped her hands in silence and wept what she assured were happy tears, Elspeth believed in dreams coming true.
But some dreams came with a curse. What was the curse? Roderick?
“As soon as we get to the castle, all will be well,” Jamie tried to reassure them.
“All will be well right now, Jamie,” the Lochiel’s wife corrected. “We have my mighty sons and my nephews protecting us.”
Elspeth nodded, but apprehension drummed the steady litany of what-if scenarios in her head. What if Roderick kills Logan? What if he kills Ismay and all the clan hates Elspeth for it? What if he kills Jamie or Ealar and Elspeth must live with her brother doing such a thing? What if he kills her?
While everyone was packing things away, Elspeth looked around for weapons. Knives were the most readily available. She tied some around her calves, at her hips, in the folds of her skirts. She wanted to be ready.
When they left, Elspeth promised herself they would return. Just as soon as they were free of Roderick. She rode with Logan again, this time leaving the house she had come to love.
She kept her eyes peeled on the surroundings, not sure what it was she was looking for. Would Roderick be on a horse, on foot?
It kept her from thinking about what Tor Castle would be like. Now that she was Logan’s wife, would she be welcomed in? He promised her she would never be alone. But now, she wanted more than just not to be alone. Now, she wanted to be with him.
“I’m no’ goin’ anywhere, Elspeth,” he promised her on the way to his castle.
“What about fighting for the king? I thought ye wanted that the most?”
He shook his head. “No’ anymore. Now what I want the most is a life with ye and our bairns.”
She blushed, thinking how much she would like to make them with him.
When they reached the castle, Logan helped her out of his saddle and then greeted his father, who had come out to welcome his wife.
“There has been no word of him?” Logan asked.
His father shook his head. “He is clever and strong. He fought his way oot of a half dozen men and made it oot alive.”
“No’ fer long,” Logan muttered, keeping his eyes off Elspeth.
Elspeth wanted him to speak and feel freely. Roderick did not deserve to live. She was no fool. She took Logan’s hand, and when he finally looked at her, she smiled.
“Show me inside,” she said to him.
He left his father with a quick farewell for now and pulled her through the enormous gateway that led to two equally enormous wooden doors.
He stepped inside with her and grinned, clearly enjoying the wonder that made her blue eyes bluer and wider.
There were three staircases leading up three landings high.
The center, where they stood, rose to a tower, while west and east, and north and south wings were closed off into private rooms. The castle was huge and clearly built for a family and their kin.
She imagined Logan and Ealar as young children running up and down the stairs, laughter filling the halls.
She had the unfamiliar feeling of her heart being full. She would like to have children here.
“What a surprise to see my brother Logan at Tor,” came the voice of a beautiful redhead with springy curls dangling around her like a cloak.
Her eyes were the color of blue ice, and her skin, like snow-covered glens.
Her gaze met Elspeth’s, and Elspeth was sure her eyes twinkled.
“I am May Cameron of Lochaber, and who are ye?”
“Miss Elspeth Woodburn of Dunley,” Elspeth told her, ready for the judgment that was sure to follow.
“Miss Woodburn, what have ye to do with my brother visitin’ Tor?”
Elspeth didn’t want there to be any secrets she kept out of shame. If this was to be her family, she would rather they hear about her family from her own lips.
“My murderous brother wants to kill Logan, and likely me, as well.”
“Och!!” May leaned in closer. “What makes ye say that?”
“He killed our parents and brother.”
If Logan’s sister could go any paler without turning blue, she just did.
When a bit of color returned to her face, her eyes shone like oceans under the brilliance of the sun.
“If he dares show his face here, I will help in whatever way ye need.”
Elspeth stared at her. She couldn’t be more than twenty and yet she already possessed passion and empathy—just as her brother did. Elspeth liked her.
“Och, aye,” Logan said suddenly, as if he just remembered. They all looked at him. “Elspeth and I were wed by a Catholic priest earlier today.”
His sister covered her mouth with her hand but was smiling beneath it. His father exhaled and gave him a hesitant smile. “People will make things more difficult fer ye both because of yer different beliefs.”
“If that is the hardest thing we have to face together, we will be fine,” Logan laughed.
“Elspeth,” his mother cried, going to her. “Welcome to Tor Castle, Daughter.”
His father gave in with a handsome smile. Ealar wore a haughty expression that said he knew it all along. His sister and mother both squealed with delight, and his cousins all smiled at her and nodded their approval.
Finally, Elspeth thought, sighing with the relief of six years filling her like the air when she breathed, finally she was part of a family again. It didn’t escape her who the family was. She didn’t care. She had found her home in Logan and her family in the Camerons.
She and her husband were given a large room at the end of a short corridor. When they came to the door, Logan stopped and turned to her. “I dinna expect ye to do what ye dinna wish to do.”
“Right now,” she said shyly, “I wish to do everything with ye.”
His eyes lit with a fire from within. She covered her throat with her hand and laughed when he opened the door and pulled her inside.