“Is that what you think? When has anyone ever cared about a half-dead solider months after an unpopular war has ended? Even if I did retain any of my former clothes or items, do you think I was the only poor bastard, wailing on the docks about my woes? No one cared. And worse, if you complained, you could get passed over for work. So, I kept my head down and fought and stole and begged for work until I could reach Australia.”
Logan’s stomach turned at the thought of Duncan, battered and filthy, living on the streets in a foreign land, knowing that no one was searching for him because everyone believed him dead. Logan felt as if he should have known, should have handled it somehow. But he pressed forward.
“How long were you in Australia?”
“Two whole years,” he said, his eyes drifting momentarily. “It was hotter than sin there. Worse than the jungles. At least in the jungle, there was water in the air. Australia was dry, and it was relentless. For two years, I dug ditches. It was the only work I could get that paid steadily, and every penny went into my ticket home. I didn’t even have enough to post a letter home. All I wanted was to be home again.”
The wistfulness of Duncan’s voice turned suddenly savage as he refocused on Logan.
“And then I returned to find that you had betrayed me.”
Logan was sure Duncan’s hatred of him was valid for leaving him in the jungle, but he frowned at his accusation. How had he betrayed him here, at home?
“Do you mean the knighthood?” Logan asked, shaking his head. “You have to believe me; I did not want it.”
“No, not the bloody knighthood,” Duncan snapped. “I mean Jeanne.”
Logan stared at him.
“Jeanne?”
“Yes, my Jeanne,” he said, his rage barely contained as he shook his head. “I knew I was damaged. Broken. Scarred,” he said, gesturing to his face. “I knew I was coming home a pathetic imposter of who I had once been, but she is still my wife and I had hoped…” The emotion in Duncan’s voice seemed to break, and he brought the gun up to his head and began hitting himself in the forehead with it. Pity flooded Logan’s chest, and he stepped toward Duncan, but the gun was quickly turned back on him. “Stay there!” he barked, now shaking.
“Duncan, I don’t know how you came to this conclusion, but Jeanne and I have never—”
“Don’t lie to me!” he shouted. “I saw it with my own eyes, Logan! My own damned eyes.”
Logan couldn’t help but feel aggravated that he should be accused of something so ridiculous. Duncan knew perfectly well that Logan had never fancied Jeanne, not even before the war. He took another step forward, the gun be damned.
“Then perhaps you lost your sight in Burma as well as your sense,” he yelled back. “Because I’ve not laid a finger on Jeanne, ever.”
“I saw the two of you together, multiple times. You, all preening and pathetic and my Jeanne wrapped in the cloak I gave to her before we left.”
“What are you talking about? What cloak?” Logan said before it dawned on him.
Faith’s cloak.Jeanne’scloak.
He recalled the Carlyle plaid that trimmed the cloak Faith had borrowed time and time again so that she wouldn’t be recognized by anyone seeing her from afar. With Jeanne being a widow and so heartbroken about her husband’s passing, neither Logan nor Faith considered that anyone would look twice if they saw Jeanne roaming the countryside.
But someone had seen, and it had been her own husband.
Realizing the mess he had made, Logan lifted his hands as the distant sound of horse hooves vibrated through the dirt floor.
“Duncan, I swear to you, that wasn’t Jeanne.”
“You lying son of a bitch!” he said, backing up to peer out of the window. Someone was close.
“It wasn’t Jeanne, I swear to it,” Logan insisted.
“Stop lying to me!” he shouted as a form appeared in the doorway next to Logan.
Windswept, copper-colored hair was the first thing Logan saw. Jeanne stepped into the house, her eyes on him before something close to a choking sound came from Duncan. She turned her head and made an equally unsettling noise before freezing.
A wash of pain, longing, and disbelief passed over Jeanne and Duncan’s faces as Logan glanced between the two. He felt almost rude for being in their presence during such a tumultuous reunion.
“Oh God,” Jeanne whispered, shaking her head. “The devil’s come to trick me.”
Duncan’s eyes were intent on her. Jeanne took a step forward, but Duncan raised the gun higher, keeping her away. She stopped immediately.
