“So ye will act like him and stand firm to yer misled convictions?”
“My convictions areno’misled,” she said stubbornly, realizing she sounded more like her grandfather than she wanted to.
Rory smirked.
“Dún do bhéal,Rory Graham.”
“I will no’ shut my mouth, because ye know I’m right.”
“No, ye’re no’.”
“Aye, I am.”
The both grinned, then laughed. This was exactly how they’d behaved when they were ten years old, and it felt good to fall back into that pattern. Good and comforting.
“Why do ye want me to move back?” She leaned on her rake and studied her cousin. He had grown into a handsome man, and she wondered if he had girls trailing him; it was surprising that he wasn’t wed yet. She could see that he would like to stay single for as long as possible. Rory enjoyed having fun and being with his mates.
“Don’t ye want to be with yer clansmen?”
“The Campbells are my clansmen now.”
“Only because ye married into the clan. Ye’re no’ married to a Campbell any longer. Ye can be a Graham again.”
She winced at Rory’s reckless words. He’d never been known for his silver tongue, but what he’d said hurt.
“It’s no’ as easy as announcing I’m now a Graham, or a Campbell, or whoever I want to be. There’s more to it than that.”
“Like what? Ye owe Campbell nothing.”
She wasn’t certain of that, but she wasn’t about to explain her complicated relationship with Campbell to Rory. He wouldn’t understand because she barely understood herself. She’d made Campbell leave the other day because she hadn’t liked his proprietary inclinations, but she’d also needed time to think. However, the time had passed and no amount of thinking had brought her any closer to a conclusion.
The truth was, Campbell, and her feelings for Campbell, confused her. She missed him. Not his overbearing ways buthim. Talking to him, eating her afternoon lunch with him, arguing with him. She missed it all.
“Campbell is meeting with Graham and MacGregor tomorrow,” Rory said.
Cait straightened so quickly she almost dropped the rake. “What did ye say?”
“Ye didn’t know?”
“Nay. Why are Campbell, Graham, and MacGregor meeting?” Good Lord, what the hell was this all about? Had her grandfathers been in the same room since her parents’ deaths? She highly doubted it. Why now, and why with Campbell?
Rory shrugged as if her world hadn’t just tilted. “Campbell called the meeting. I think he wants to discuss the recent burning of his land.”
“With Graham, too?” She could understand why he would want to speak to MacGregor, but why Graham?
“MacGregor refused to meet with him. He’s hoping Graham will mediate.”
Ah, that made much more sense, but the uneasy feeling inside of her continued to grow. She’d never kept it a secret that she was the product of the Grahams and MacGregors, but she’d also never talked about it. She wondered how many people remembered. Maybe a few of John’s friends, like Ina and her husband, Kevin, but not many. The story was an old one, quickly forgotten in the face of the more disturbing English presence.
Iain would have been very young when her parents had wed, just a few years old. Chances were he had no idea that Graham’s daughter and MacGregor’s son had wed, and even if he had known, it would make no difference to him.
Would her grandfathers bring it up during their meeting? She didn’t see why, but then stranger things had happened.
Chapter 19
“I didn’t tell MacGregor ye were coming.”
Iain paused to stare stunned at Alasdair Graham. “You didn’t tell him that I asked for this meeting?”
