She didn’t know which was more endearing—his faith that someone else would bother asking her to dance, or the deliciously possessive sentry post he adopted at her side. They accepted glasses of punch from a passing servant. Made a show of inspecting a carved marble bust. Watched the dancers as they moved through a quadrille. Through it all, he never strayed more than two feet from her elbow.
She knew this was partly to protect her and partly to protect himself, but to the casual onlooker he must have appeared completely besotted with her. Maddie had no complaint. She’d always imagined what it would be like to have a strong, handsome Highland officer slavishly hanging on her every word and action. Now she knew.
It was every bit as wonderful as she’d dreamed.
Soon, the music stopped, and the guests began filtering toward a gallery.
“Here.” Maddie fished a small object from her reticule and pressed it into Logan’s palm.
“What’s this?” he asked.
“A cheroot.”
“I dinna smoke cheroots.”
“Well, you could smoke one tonight. If you wanted.”
He frowned at her, plainly confused.
“It’s your ticket out of doors if you want an escape. The naturalist lecture will be starting soon. I know you’re not interested in hearing about nineteen new species of Amazonian beetles, and I think I can bear sitting in the back of a lecture on my own. If you’d rather take a turn outside, I’ll understand.”
He looked at her for a moment. Then he crushed the cheroot into the nearest potted plant. “I’m staying with you.”
In that moment, Maddie wasn’t sure she cared to hear about nineteen new species of Amazonian beetles, either. Perhaps she’d rather find the nearest alcove and make that memory Logan had teased her with. But considering how much trouble he’d gone to, she had to hold up her end of the bargain.
That was the point of the evening, she reminded herself. Trading her dream for his. Logan surely hadn’t forgotten it, and she shouldn’t, either.
They found seats toward the rear of the room.
Logan suffered through the lecture admirably, boring as it must have been for him. Even Maddie’s attention wavered. She was anxious that at any moment Lord Varleigh would call on her to stand and be recognized. The firm press of Logan’s thigh against hers was reassuring. And deliciously distracting.
Her worries, however, proved to be in vain. A smattering of applause let her know that the lecture was over.
Maddie was still in her seat.
“He didna mention you,” Logan muttered. “Why not?”
“I don’t know,” she whispered. “Maybe he means to acknowledge me later.”
“But it’s over. Everyone’s wandering away.” Before she could stop him, Logan shot to his feet and called, “Lord Varleigh.”
The people stopped wandering away.
“Yes, Captain MacKenzie? Did you have a question?”
“Just a compliment to offer, my lord.” Logan cleared his throat. “I wanted to congratulate you on the superb quality of these illustrations.”
Lord Varleigh looked him directly in the eye. “Thank you.”
Maddie felt Logan’s immediate flare of anger. He might have dressed in fine clothing and put on suave manners tonight, but he was still a warrior beneath it all, and now his battle instincts had charged to the fore.
Someone was going to get hurt.
“The bastard.”
She tugged on his sleeve, urging him to sit. “It doesn’t matter.”
“Of course it matters. That’s your work on the walls, and he’s stolen all the glory.”
“He deserves to have the attention tonight. He’s the one who traveled to the Amazon.”
“He got on a damned boat. That’s all. And once there, I’ve no doubt he paid a crew of native Amazonians to do all the work. He’s probably stolen from them, too. But you, Maddie . . . You took his ugly, dried-up husks of things and brought them life.” He touched her cheek. Only briefly, as though he didn’t trust himself to be gentle just now. “That’s the most remarkable thing about you, mo chridhe. The way you have of bringing things to life.”
A lump formed in her throat.
Desperate, she pulled him away from the lecture group and into a side room. A small library of some sort.
Lord Varleigh joined them. “Is there some sort of problem, Captain MacKenzie?”
“You know damned well there is.”
“Logan, please,” Maddie murmured.