Highland Hearts. Eva Hamilton Maria

remembered the earful he’d received from Sheena about becoming an indentured servant; hearing it now from his brother made him a trifle annoyed. “And by the way, not all indentured servants are treated so unfairly.”

      Angus scanned Logan protectively. “I’m hoping you’re speaking from experience.”

      “Aye. There are opportunities in the Americas that we don’t have here.” Angus sat quietly, no doubt thinking about everything Logan had just told him. “I don’t want to scare you by what I’ve heard.”

      Angus stared at his brother. “What do you mean? I have no enemies.” Logan watched his brother fume.

      “Nay, of course not, but Scotland is changing.” Logan leaned over and threw some more peat moss into the fire. “I was on board with some in the landowning class and you cannot rest assured that the land you live on today will be the land you live on tomorrow. You are a tenant farmer. Your landowner can and will—trust my words—take this land away from you. And then what will you do, change how you earn a living? Relocate your family to the coast and become a fisherman?” Logan poked at the fire with a stick, sending sparks flaring into the darkness.

      Angus wrung his hands, staring down at them. “This is very grave indeed. But you’re right. The government did seize the Duke of Perth’s estate.”

      “Aye. You may face a very bleak future here, but after all you’ve done for me, I want to help you. I want to offer you hope for a better life. A place where you own your own land and no one can throw you off it.”

      Angus turned toward Logan again. “You speak of the Americas as if they were the Promised Land.”

      “I speak from experience.” Logan leaned forward to rest the stick against the dirt wall beside the fire. “I worked as an indentured servant for three very long years.” Logan breathed in the heavy air, letting the smoky scent he missed at sea fill his nostrils. “I was blessed with a good master and I thank God for that every day. But I never took it for granted. When I was freed, my master kept his promise and gave me some money. However, that money wouldn’t have been enough to come back with, so I spent two additional years guarding the town of New Inverness, in return for a land grant.”

      A smile overtook Angus’s shock. “You own land?”

      “Aye. Out of the darkness, my brother.” Logan smiled back. “And I want to share it with you. Together we can farm the land and live a good life.”

      “Logan that’s all very well, but I have no money to pay for our voyage.” Angus stood to add even more peat moss to the fire.

      “I may be the little brother by four years, but you must give me more credit. I wouldn’t have returned without a means to get us all back. I’ve already taken care of that. Without family in the Americas, I did little else besides sleep and work.”

      “No doubt.” Angus sat down again. “You must put some meat on your bones before you attempt to cross the sea again.” He leaned over and squeezed Logan’s arm in assessment. Logan smiled, knowing Angus had changed his mind about the perils of leaving Scotland. And Logan moved one step closer to making his dreams a reality.

      “Any spare time I found while in the Americas, I spent making extra money however I could—farming, stable work, jobs that no one else wanted to do.” Logan laughed. “But I had a purpose and that got me through it.”

      “And now you’ve come home to offer me and mine all of this?” Angus stood again and this time Logan stood to meet his brother.

      “You are my family.” Logan hugged him. After his day with the McDougalls, it felt good to look toward the future.

      Life may remain unpredictable. And only God knew why things turned out the way they did. But with whatever time God gave Logan to live, he wanted to make sure he made his life count for something. He needed to start living his dreams, instead of just thinking about them.

      “We must take care of each other, Logan.”

      “That’s what you always told me. And I’m happy to finally be able to pay you back.”

      “Logan, you don’t have to.”

      “I know.” Logan squeezed his brother’s shoulders. “I want to.”

      Angus laughed. “Let me talk things over with Nessia.” He took hold of Logan’s shoulders now and brought their heads close. “Thank you for your offer,” he told him solemnly.

      Logan smiled. “You can thank me when you see your new home. They’re made differently in the Americas. There’s wood aplenty—no importing it from Norway for huge sums of money.” A knock on the door interrupted their conversation.

      They looked at each other and then at the door. Angus dropped hold of Logan and strode over to it. Who would come knocking at this late hour? Logan watched Angus carefully for any sign that he needed assistance. But none came.

      “Cait, this is a surprise. Please come in.” Angus stepped aside to let his sister-in-law into his dimly lit home. “We only ever get to see you on Sunday at church. And here it is well past ten on a Saturday night. How did you get out of the house to come all this way?”

      “I finished my duties and then I snuck out.” Cait took her soaking wet, brown shawl off her head and unwrapped herself from its woolen security before handing it to Angus. “I couldn’t help myself. I heard Logan was home and I’d rather see him than sleep.”

      She let out a gasp of delight when she spotted Logan standing by the only light source in the hut—the fire. Without a moment’s hesitation, she hurried over and embraced him.

      “Look at you, Cait. All grown up.” Logan surveyed her at arm’s length.

      Cait blushed uncontrollably, as she gave him the most awkward curtsy he ever saw. He stifled a grin. Some things didn’t change. “That’s right. I’m not the little girl who used to pester you day and night.”

      “Cait is in training to be a parlor maid.” Angus laid her brown shawl near the fire to dry.

      “Is that so?” Logan couldn’t help teasing her. As Nessia’s little sister, Cait felt like his little sister, as well.

      “Aye,” Cait nodded proudly, her straight brunette hair shaking off droplets of rain where the wetness had managed to evade her shawl.

      “And how is it to be a parlor maid?”

      “Most of the time, pretty scary.” Cait rolled her eyes. “Except when I get to cater to Sheena. She’s always very nice to me.”

      “Sheena?” Since when did Cait work for Sheena? Surely in the time since Logan’s homecoming Angus might have mentioned something that important. He shot his brother a look.

      “Aye,” Cait answered.

      “The two older women can be a bit brutish.” Angus wrinkled his nose as if their behavior bore a foul odor.

      “But not just to me.” Cait looked from Angus to Logan. “They’re pretty horrible to Sheena, too, when it suits them.” Logan’s face fell.

      “What two older women?” His brain tried to put the puzzle together, but he couldn’t without all the pieces. And apparently, after five years away, he couldn’t assume anything anymore. Not even something as simple as Sheena still living with her parents in the house where she grew up. Sheena told him everything had changed. But what exactly did that entail?

      Angus’s voice brought Logan’s thoughts back to the present. “The two older women are Sheena’s mother, Tavia, and her aunt Jean.” That only brought to light more questions. If she lived with her mother and aunt, where had her father and brother gone?

      Cait spoke up then. “I’d like to give Tavia and Jean a good tongue lashing one of these days.”

      “You’d better not.” Nessia wrapped a floor-length shawl around her nightgown as she moved into the circle.