To Marry McKenzie

distracting his cousin from a subject that was far too personal as far as

Logan was concerned!

'Go ahead,' he invited affectionately. 'Which one is she?' he asked

interestedly.

'She's disappeared for the moment, but—ah, a Mona Lisa with red hair...'

Brice murmured before setting off determinedly across the crowded room.

Logan shook his head as he gazed indulgently after his cousin. If he was the

practical, predictable one of the family, then Brice was the artistic,

unpredictable one. Fergus came somewhere in between. Which was

probably why the three of them always got along so well together—

A Mona Lisa with red hair...?

There was only one woman Logan could think of who could possibly fit that

description. Darcy...!

Wasn't he bowled over himself every time she gave that enigmatic smile?

Wasn't it a smile he had hungered for the last ten days...?

There were too many people in this room, he decided impatiently as he

easily located Brice standing on the far side of the room, but couldn't see the

woman his cousin was now in conversation with, Brice's dark head bent

solicitously towards her much shorter height.

It had to be Darcy!

She was here, after all. He could hardly wait to—

'Logan, isn't it?' enquired a breathlessly female voice.

He turned sharply, scowling his irritation at being stopped from joining

Brice and the woman he was sure now had to be Darcy. A tall blonde his

mother had introduced him to earlier now stood at his side, smiling at him

engagingly.

At any other time, under any other circumstances, Logan knew he would

have responded to the invitation in the actress's smile. But not now. Now

when he was sure Darcy was even at this moment being charmed by his

oh-so- lethally fascinating cousin.

'Fiona, isn't it?' he acknowledged tersely, his attention still across the room

as he tried to catch a glimpse of the woman Brice was talking to.

'Francesca Darwin,' the actress corrected, obviously not too put out that he

hadn't remembered her name correctly. 'I play the part of Meg's sister in the

television series we're filming at the moment,' she supplied helpfully.

Logan's brows rose. Considering this woman was only aged in her mid-to

late-twenties, Make-up must be doing a wonderful job on his mother to

make the two women look like sisters!

'Of course,' he replied politely—having had no idea until this moment that

his mother's role even involved a sister!

'She's wonderful, isn't she?' Francesca looked admiringly across the room to

where Meg was smiling lovingly at her new fiance as the two of them talked

softly together.

The statement didn't actually require an answer—and, in all honesty, Logan

didn't have one! He didn't particularly want to be having this conversation at

all—would much rather join Brice and Darcy!—let alone hear that this

beautiful young woman seemed to have nothing but admiration for his

mother.

Daniel Simon, a decent and honourable man, plainly loved Meg. Darcy,

straightforward and honest, had come to like her, too. And Francesca, this

young woman, who worked with her on a daily basis, had nothing but

admiration for her. Could they all be wrong about Meg, and he was right? Or

was he the one who was wrong...?

However, it wasn't something he had the time to deal with just now. 'I'm

sorry, Miss Darwin—'

'Francesca,' she prompted warmly. 'This castle is something else, isn't it?'

she added with an admiring look round, seeming unaware that Logan was

trying to make his excuses.

Something else just about described it. Logan had spent his teenage years

growing up here, still considered it home, but he easily acknowledged that

its splendour was magnificent.

His grandfather, as much as he was able—and with the modern central

heating cunningly disguised behind other fixtures!—had filled the thirty or

so rooms that comprised this sixteenth century castle with genuine antiques,

armour and swords from the Scottish-English wars, huge tapestries

adorning the mellow stone walls. The grounds were no less impressive, the

deer his grandfather farmed taking up acres of the land, the rest given over

to dense forests and streams. There was even a trout lake half a mile or so

away.

'It is,' Logan agreed. 'But I really do have to—'

'Logan, I've brought someone over to say hello,' Brice cut in lightly.

Logan didn't even need to turn to know that it was Darcy; even if his senses

hadn't already alerted him to the fact, he could smell the perfume he always

associated with her.

She looked wonderful! A knee-length shimmering grey dress, the exact

colour of her enigmatic eyes, clung lovingly to the perfection of her body,

her hair a soft red curtain down to her shoulders, her eyes huge and

luminous, soft colour in her cheeks, a scarlet gloss on her lips. She looked