Lucy knew that move—knew it was his attempt to seize back control, to put distance where something dangerously close had been forming.
Lucy had learned so much about this braw man.
Alas, he was bound for disappointment, and likely fury. Lucy had a stubborn Scot’s curiosity and strength.
“Aye, that much is true.” She took several deliberate sips and peeked at him over the rim. “But I also see they’re a free-spirited lot, still up to the antics of younger lads and lasses.”
A muscle rippled along the hard curve of his jaw. “Let us leave it at this, Lucy. Your opinion of me? That I’m some kind of wonderful brother and cousin?” His eyes, dark as the cruelest storm, shuttered. “It is as false as the legend of St. Nicholas himself.”
Lucy drifted nearer to him. Tension poured from his taut frame. “I don’t believe—”
He broke across her words. “You’ve seen how my kin attempts to protect you from me.”
Lucy scoffed. “That isn’t true, Arran.”
Arran pinched the bridge of his nose against emotions he sought to keep at bay. “If you believe that, then you aren’t very perceptive.”
“I—” Lucy froze.
She called back each exchange with Arran’s family.
“…Do let Lucy join us, and stop keeping her all to yourself, will you?”
The way they’d steered Lucy to another seat…
“You are not sitting beside Arran as Aunt Catherine intends…”
The way in which the McQuoids and Smiths interjected when Arran attempted to speak to her…
Alone, the moments meant nothing. But together…
His family sought to protectLucyfromArran.
When in actuality,Lucydeserved their judgment and wariness. They’d chosen a stranger over their son, cousin, and brother. What a blow that disloyalty would be for a man as proud as Arran.
She fought to keep the emotion at bay.
“You can let up the charade, Lucy.”
Oh, God.
Her chest tightened until breathing became a chore.
He knows.
Of course he knows.
He’s known all along.
Fear left her mouth dry, a living dread that had nothing to do with terror over lying to nobles, and all to do with having to admit her deception to this man alone.
“You already know all this from Campbell.” Arran pinched the bridge of his nose. “The grief I brought upon the family.”
The grief I brought…
“Linnie.” He drew in a breath that shook at the end. “Captain Culross?”
She had no idea who those people were, only that she needed to, as they accounted for the anguish consuming him, a terrific pain she ached to drive from his tortured eyes and life.
