He forced her gaze back to his. “You were strong and beautiful and funny and outrageous and sensual as sin, and I loved you from practically the first moment I saw you.”
“You did?”
He nodded. “I’ve never stopped. God knows it would have been easier if I had, but you are in my heart, Maggie, and that is where you will stay.”
“I love you, too.”
He smiled and kissed her so tenderly she just knew that this time it would be different.
25
WITH NEILholding Tarbert Castle for Bruce and Donald serving as commander of the king’s galleys, their father looked increasingly to his youngest son as his de factotanaiste. As soon as Eoin arrived at Gylen he was beset by a multitude of problems that needed his attention, including the biggest one, John of Lorn, now Chief of MacDougall and would-be Lord of Argyll, who sure as the devil who spawned him was stirring up trouble again.
Eoin was sure he wasn’t the only one wishing Arthur Campbell hadn’t let Lorn go after the Battle of Brander four and a half years ago. Campbell—or Ranger as he was known among his fellow Guardsmen—had fallen in love with Lorn’s daughter and let him flee into exile for her. Eoin could understand the conflict perhaps better than anyone (having hoped to see his own wife’s father on the edge of his sword more than once), but Campbell’s show of mercy had been punished many times over the past few years. If Bruce caught him again, Lorn wouldn’t get a second chance.
“How can you be sure it was him?” Fin asked the fisherman who’d come to them with the latest report. “Did they identify themselves?”
Eoin tried not to grind his teeth when his foster brother spoke but failed. For the sake of his sister, Eoin had attempted to forgive Fin for what he’d done to Margaret—he’d seemed so damned remorseful and sincere in his apologies—but Margaret’s latest revelations had reignited his anger. Eoin wanted to kill him all over again, not just for touching her, but for speaking to her so crudely. He’d been having a hell of a time keeping his temper in check all morning while they gathered in the laird’s solar with the other members of his father’smeinie.
“I know it was ’im,” the old man said stubbornly, not letting Fin intimidate him—which given the henchman’s size was an impressive show of courage. Fin had added considerable bulk—most of it muscle—to his tall frame and had become the chief’s mostly deadly swordsman. “I recognized one of the men who took my catch.”
“I thought you said they were all wearing helms,” Fin said sharply, obviously trying to catch the man in a lie.
“They were, but he had a scar.” The fisherman drew a long line down his cheek and across his nose. “I could see it when he lifted his visor as they sailed away.”
Eoin gave Fin a sharp look and asked the man a few more questions before thanking him and sending him on his way.
Though a number of his father’smeinie, including Fin, thought they should wait for more “proof” than the recollections of an old fisherman, positing that the men were probably just Irish cateran, Eoin’s father insisted on sending word to Bruce. If Lorn’s men had been sighted this far north—so close to his former stronghold of Dunstaffnage—the king would want to know. When it was further decided that someone should go to Dunstaffnage Castle to see if the keeper had heard anything, his father looked relieved when Eoin volunteered.
His father was the only one at the table who knew that the keeper of the former MacDougall stronghold—Arthur Campbell—was one of Eoin’s brethren in the Highland Guard. Together Eoin and Campbell would be able to deal with any threat from the man who’d once been the most powerful in the “Kingdom” of the Isles.
The meeting broke up and the warriors left to attend to their duties. Having offered to pen the note to Bruce, Eoin didn’t notice that one had stayed behind until he spoke.
“I’ll go with you,” Fin said.
Eoin looked up, his expression a hard mask. “That won’t be necessary.”
“But what about your knee?”
“I’m taking a skiff, not running. Besides, it’s almost healed.”
“Does that mean you’ll be picking up a sword again soon?” Fin said with a grin. “I’ve been waiting for our rematch.”
Eoin gripped the quill until his fingertips turned white. Fin’s “everything is fine” attitude grated on his already stretched-to-the-breaking-point temper.
“You will have it,” Eoin promised darkly. Last time he’d held back, but this time he’d grind his friend into the dirt.
“What the hell is the matter with you? Does this have something to do with your wife? I’ve stayed away from her as you asked. I thought we were past this. I told you I was sorry. I was drunk. I didn’t know what I was doing.”
“How about what you were saying?” Eoin snapped. But seeing Fin’s confusion and realizing Margaret wouldn’t want him talking about this, he shook his head. “Just leave it.”
Fin stood there a minute staring at him. “I would, but I don’t think you can. I don’t understand it. After what she did, how can you forgive her? How can you bring her back here when shebetrayedyou?”
Eoin’s teeth were grinding again. He knew Fin was only voicing what many others were thinking. It had taken Eoin a few days to notice the subtle coldness toward his wife by some of his clansmen. Highlanders had long memories and would not soon forget that she was a MacDowell and that she’d left him. And like Fin, a number of his father’smeinieknew that she’d betrayed him at Loch Ryan.
“The same could be said of you, and yet here you are.”
She was his wife, damn it. And his best friend had tried to have his way with her.
