Return of the Highlander by Julianne MacLean Page A

dead.”
    He paused and shook his head with regret.
    “I was only fourteen—too young to recognize the enormity of the decision I was making. I couldn’t see very far beyond that day.”
    “What happened next?”
    “We waited until it was safe,” he continued, “and returned to the outskirts of the battlefield where we found two fallen MacDonald warriors. We removed their tartans and passed ourselves off as members of one of the northern clans. We ended up at Kinloch, vowing to each other that we would never tell anyone the truth about who we really were. Then we just kept digging ourselves in deeper and deeper. There was no way out after that. Not that we could see, because if the laird of Kinloch found out, God knows what he would have done to us. And if we returned home, we would have been disgraced or maybe hanged.”
    Larena considered the tale he’d spun and grew curious about something. “That doesn’t explain why you and Logan hate my father so much. What did Logan mean when he said he wanted justice?”
    Darach let out a deep breath. “That’s another matter entirely. For years we kept to ourselves at Kinloch where we became absorbed into the MacDonald clan, but always, Logan wanted to return home. He was ashamed of what we’d done, but he still dreamed that one day, he’d be able to prove himself somehow and our father would welcome us back. But two years ago, when we learned he was dead…Logan took it hard.”
    “I’m sorry,” she said. “It’s never easy to lose a parent.”
    Darach eyed her intently. “Especially when there are rumors that it was murder.”
    “What rumors?” Larena asked with a frown.
    “You didn’t hear the gossip? That your father murdered ours so that he could take his place as chief?
    “That’s ridiculous!”
    “Is it? They said your father had a lust for power and the Jacobite cause. Logan and I may have been young when we fled from Leathan, but even then, we knew well enough that our father had always quarreled openly with yours about politics and clan management, women, and everything else under the sun. They were enemies, lass—but you must know that, since you lived there the whole time.”
    Larena blinked at him with uncertainty, for this was an awkward conversation, deeply personal on so many levels. “Of course I knew it,” she admitted. “Everyone knew it. But your father’s death was accidental. He fell off his horse during a hunt. The rumors are false.”
    “You’re sure about that?” He slid her a mistrustful look which helped her to understand why he had disliked her so much from the outset.
    “Of course I am sure,” she firmly replied. “And how can you presume to judge anything when your father’s dead and you haven’t spoken to him in fifteen years? For that matter, how could you leave your clan and let your family believe you were dead? They would have mourned for you, Darach. Thank God your mother was already in her grave by then, or she would have died of heartbreak regardless, believing she’d lost all her sons on the same day.”
    With a touch of displeasure, Darach looked away. “I knew I shouldn’t have told you.”
    Feeling a pang of regret for being judgmental, Larena let out a sigh. “I apologize. I shouldn’t have said that. You were just a boy—and poor Logan, on the battlefield at the age of eleven.”
    “Wild horses couldn’t have kept him from it,” Darach told her. “He’s a born warrior. He lives to fight. Our father commanded him to stay behind, but he snuck out and followed.”
    “And yet he ran away before the battle even began.”
    Darach’s silence sent a shiver down her spine and caused everything to suddenly become clear. She regarded him with understanding.
    “Ah. I see now… It was you . You must have dragged Logan away. That’s why you deserted—to protect him . That’s why there is tension between you.”
    “Aye,” Darach replied. “He fought me tooth and nail, shouting like a bandit until