“Have the authorities caught the blackguards?”
He frowned. “No, and they’re not even looking for them.”
“They’re not? How can it be? I’m sure they’d be easy to find if anyone bothered to look. Those men were obviously in your cousin’s employ.”
“Forget about Desmond and his alehouse scum for now. Sit down, Lily. There’s something else I wish to discuss with you.”
He nudged her onto the sofa and drew his chair closer before settling his large frame in it. Ewan had a way of swallowing up a room with his presence. Perhaps it was just the way she perceived him, big and strong and gallant, though he was rough around the edges. Gruff beard, hard muscles, thick hair too long to be considered fashionable, dark and dangerous eyes.
Really hard muscles.
“I’m listening, but forgive me if I appear a little foggy-brained. I’m worried about Ashton. He’ll do what your grandfather demands, but how can I be sure it will be enough? Do you think he’ll cause Ashton more harm?”
Those glorious muscles of his stiffened, and his frown deepened. “I’ll take care of Ashton. I have friends in Scotland who will undertake to finance his explorations if the Royal Society won’t.”
“Truly? All the way to Madagascar?” She wiped her damp cheeks against the handkerchief Ewan offered since hers appeared to be lost for good, and then looked up and gazed at him in wonder. “His lemur research is vital to—”
Ewan let out a soft growl and shifted closer. “He’ll have funds enough to sail the world if he wishes it. Enough to take you with him.”
“Oh, he does wish it! He’ll be so pleased. With the funds, of course. I don’t think he’ll want me around, not after the difficult straits I’ve put him in with your grandfather and the Royal Society.”
“Do you want to be around him, lass?”
“We do work well together, but as I said, he’s quite miffed about what I did. And I’m more interested in baboons than lemurs, though none of it matters since my parents aren’t willing to let me out of the house. I doubt they’d be willing to send me off to the swamp plains of Africa, or to Madagascar, or anywhere in the world.”
“Even if you were to marry Ashton?”
Despite her misery, she laughed in surprise. “Why on earth would he wish to marry me? Ewan, I can’t thank you enough for helping me out with your grandfather. Not only for Ashton’s sake, but for my own. I was feeling beyond awful for what I’d done. Foolishly, carelessly sending off that missive exposing your grandfather as a heartless, old man.”
“That’s what he is. Everyone knows it.”
“Still, it wasn’t my place to shout it to the world. Everyone’s suffered for it.”
“Life isn’t perfect, Lily. It’s a work in progress. Mistakes are made, but sometimes they turn out for the better. This past week has opened my eyes to my own mistakes.”
She tipped her head toward him. “What mistakes?”
“Lass, I’m far from perfect. I’ve made plenty of them.”
She bit the side of her cheek to keep from proclaiming that it wasn’t so. He was perfect. Logically, she knew he wasn’t. No one was. But her heart thought otherwise.
“I’ve been giving a lot of thought to my father’s wishes lately. Boredom does that to a man, forces him to reflect on matters he’d rather suppress. My father sent me here to patch family relations, not to prolong the bitterness. Yet all I’ve done since my arrival is to fan the flames of the Cameron feud.”
“How so?”
“By resenting the old man, threatening bodily harm to my cousins—”
“They were beastly to you and Meggie.”
He folded his arms across his chest, his expression pensive. “They weren’t always this way. In truth, we spent some enjoyable summers together in the Highlands when we were young. Their father was alive then, and though he wasn’t as strong-willed as my own father, neither was he a man easily pushed around by anyone, not even my grandfather.” He paused and grinned at her. “Or as you affectionately call him, DG.”
She winced at the remark. Not that she truly felt remorse, for he was a mean old man, but she had been raised to respect her elders and she’d been utterly disrespectful toward him.
“Everything changed when their father died. Desmond and Evangeline were taken into my grandfather’s home.”
“Where he proceeded to do what he does best, manipulate and control.”
Ewan nodded. “Though for the past year at least, they’ve been living on their own in a townhouse purchased by Desmond. Perhaps he tired of always being under the old man’s thumb. After all, a golden cage is still a cage. I think I can patch things with them, Lily. I may not be able to save the old man, but my cousins are young and I might yet sway them.”