Page 42 of A Nameless Highland Laird
“I kent ye were still inside. And nay matter what I tried to tell myself about where my loyalties were supposed to lie, I found myself in the burning shack, pulling ye out. As soon as I was sure ye were going to live, the panic set in. I had disobeyed a direct order. Yer father had killed men for less. If he ever found out, my life would have been over.”
“But he did nae.”
“Nay.” The word was breathy as Alastair finished his rant. “At least, nae until I took ye to him three months ago when he was too ill to do anything about it.”
“Yer fear did nae stop ye from coming to see me, from checking in on me as a lad, making sure I had money and enough to eat and a coat for the winter.”
Cameron held Alastair’s gaze. It was a look that said more than words could. While the man might not realize it, it was those visits and few spare coins that had saved Cameron’s life on more than one occasion. He would wear the coats until the seams ripped beyond repair and then he would use them as blankets.
“There has always been something about ye, lad,” Alastair said at last. “Yer siblings were taken away and I can only hope they were raised with good families. But ye were stuck with me. I had pulled ye out of the fire. I could nae leave ye to die in the winter. And as I watched ye grow into a man, I started to wonder, I started to let myself hope that maybe ye would be able to undo the damage yer father did.”
Cameron looked away.
“Ye dinnae have yer father’s temperament nor his greed. Ye are a good man with a strong character forged from the trials of life. Ye are the kind of man others in this clan will follow because ye understand their struggles better than anyone.”
“I dinnae ken about that,” he muttered under his breath.
“All that ye are missing,” Alastair went on, not having heard Cameron’s remark, “is a marriage that legitimizes yer claim to be Laird. By marrying the Sinclair lass, ye unite us with a clan who was once a fierce enemy. It would usher in an era of peace that these lands have nae seen for a long time. I will nae let a lack of table manners or literacy or even yer own stubbornness get in the way of that.”
There was a fire in Alastair’s eyes as he spoke. Cameron had seen it a time or two before when the advisor had become determined beyond all moving. He knew better than to argue with Alastair when he got in these moods.
“I am nae trying to stop that,” Cameron relented. “I only fret that there is too much damage. That we will nae be able to fix what has been broken. That I am nae the right man for the job.”
