But thanks to the magnificent woman he'd married, he lived to return to his home. He'd even managed to toast an end to the feud with his former enemies without getting a knife in the belly or poison in his whisky.
The atmosphere when he, Mhairi, his escort, and the Drummonds had shared a dram hadn’t been warm. William still hadn’t forgiven him for the abduction and John had scowled throughout, but it was a start. Callum had always believed the rift would truly start to heal when grandchildren arrived. Grandchildren who mixed Drummond and Mackinnon blood and promised a united future.
Heaven had been merciful enough to spare his life. Now he looked forward to taking his bonny, brave wife to bed and making a start on the new generation.
As a resounding cheer broke out at their appearance, his arms tightened around the woman sitting across his saddle bow. He raised his hand for silence.
"Thank you, my kinsmen and kinswomen, for this hearty welcome. The siege is over and God willing, so is the feud. There will be peace, and the promise of prosperity and long lives for us all."
Cheering rose again.
"Long life and happiness to the Mackinnon!"
"God bless our Lady Mhairi!"
Through the continuing racket, he felt Mhairi stiffen in surprise. She twisted to look at him. "They’re cheering me, too."
He smiled down at her, knowing he looked dazzled and adoring and not caring a farthing if he did. "Aye, mo chridhe. So they should. This night wouldnae have ended near so well if ye hadnae persuaded your father to listen to ye. If there’s peace in the glens tonight, it's because of ye."
Her lips quirked with the familiar humor he loved. "Och, I couldnae let Da murder ye, Mackinnon. I've got used to having ye around."
"Pleased to hear it," he said with equal dryness.
He addressed the crowd over the jubilation. "The Drummond and his retinue are coming here in three days for a feast to mark the accord between our clans. I want ye to welcome him as befits my kinsman and the father of your lady."
"Nae hemlock in his porridge then, Mackinnon?" a man asked jovially from the crowd.
Callum laughed, although not long ago, that might have been a serious question. He wasn’t such an optimist that he expected unalloyed amity, but at least if all went well, everybody would survive the gathering. "Och, the man's my new father-in-law. It would upset my bride if we hurt her old da. And I’m gey careful about upsetting my bride, laddie."
There was laughter and more good-natured jeering. Callum spoke over the noise. "As ye all know, the siege was a rude interruption to my honeymoon. I'll thank ye kindly to seek your beds and allow me and my bonny wife to seek ours."
"We wish ye joy!"
"And a castle full of bairns!"
"Let's no’ get ahead of ourselves," Mhairi said to general laughter.
The air was still alive with feverish excitement, fed by earlier fear, but everyone here had slaved all day to prepare for the siege. His people were overjoyed that everything had ended well, but it was late and they were tired.
Callum swung off Kelpie's back and held his arms up for Mhairi. "Time for bed, my bonny."
She caught his shoulders as he lifted her down. Around them, the crowd dispersed, with people stopping to clap him on the back and express their gratitude to Mhairi. With the way gossip spread around the castle, Mhairi’s spirited defense of her husband would soon reach everyone’s ears, he had no doubt.
When she raised her blue eyes to his, he saw tears glittering in the torchlight. "I feel…I feel like I belong here."
"Och, my lady, ye do."
A misty smile curved her full lips. "I thought I'd always feel like an intruder."
"Yet still ye decided to stay?"
When she cupped his jaw in one tender hand, he felt the contact to the soles of his feet. "Ye know why."
"Aye," he said softly. She'd declared her love proudly to her father. He longed for her to declare it to him, but not in the middle of a bustling courtyard. "Come upstairs, mo chridhe. I have a powerful hunger to be alone with ye."
Hand in hand, they walked toward the steps leading up to the main doors. Behind him, he knew the last few stragglers retired and grooms rushed out to take the horses. But his attention was all for the woman he'd married.
Mhairi was quiet as they crossed the great hall and climbed the stairs to the tower room. Callum’s head swam with sweet memories and anticipation of what awaited him, once he closed the door on the clamorous world and took his darling in his arms.
The last time they’d come up here together was after their wedding feast. Since then, he'd lived through a lifetime. And faced the possibility of his own death. He’d known the rapture of finally claiming his wife as his own, and he’d received the fraught news about the siege.
Not to mention hearing Mhairi confess she loved him.
He knew she must be exhausted. After all, she’d experienced the same whirlwind of emotions as he had. Callum wasn't exactly tired. The drama of the last hours left him on edge.
Jean and Flossie had greeted them downstairs so the tower chamber was empty when he and Mhairi set foot inside. A vast relief flooded him. At this moment, he only wanted to be with Mhairi. With a weary sigh, he dropped his damp cloak across a chair.
"Well, ye did it," she said softly. "Ye brought peace to the glens."
He smiled as he drew away her cloak and tossed it on top of his. "Ye did it, mo chridhe. Without ye there, my meeting with your father would have had a verra different ending."
Callum came up behind her and slid his arms around her waist. When she snuggled against him, his heart missed a beat. It wasn't so long since he'd feared that she'd hate him forever. He couldn't yet take her welcome for granted. He bent to kiss the place where her shoulder met her neck.
Her hands dropped to cover his where they rested on her stomach. "I'm awfu’ glad he didnae kill ye."
Callum muffled a laugh at her wry understatement. Although the actual moment when he’d faced the Drummond’s sword hadn't been funny at all. "Och, so am I. I have plans for the next fifty years. A blade between the ribs would spoil them."
A silence fell. He guessed that she, like he, was thinking how close they'd veered toward disaster tonight.
"Are ye no’ going to say it?" he asked gently.
"Och, you'll be unbearable if I do," she murmured.
"Ye said it to your father."
"It was an emergency."
He smiled into her elaborately curled auburn hair, already imagining the moment when he unpinned it and let it float around her shoulders. "Must I place myself in peril of my life before ye admit that you…care for me?"
The shudder that passed through her told him she recalled the events in the Drummond’s tent. "We've had enough brushes with death for the moment. And that goes for both of us," she said firmly. "My plans for the next fifty years involve a quiet life."
"Och, lassie, you'll get awfu’ bored."
Mhairi turned in his arms and stared up into his eyes, her features alight with tender laughter. "When I have to keep a handsome Highland rogue on the straight and narrow? Never."
He caught her hips in a loose clasp and smiled down at her as she slid her hands up his chest and linked them behind his neck. "I promise I’ll only be roguish with ye, my bonny."
Callum bent his head to kiss her. Her lips were warm and eager, and she kissed him back with an enthusiasm that made his head spin. But beneath the fervent passion lurked something deeper. They’d come through, prevailing against all the powerful forces ranged against them. Now they would build a life together.
When he raised his head, she opened hazy blue eyes. Her kiss had told him that she loved him. He was so blessed. After all the conflict and hatred and danger, he could hardly believe that he and Mhairi had reached this point.
"I love ye, Callum." The profundity of the vow made her voice shake. "I'll love ye every day of my life and beyond that too, if God grants me a place in heaven."
Piercing emo
tion stole his ability to speak. "Mhairi…"
She stretched up to kiss him gently on the lips. "I love ye, and I'm proud to be your wife and the Lady of Achnasheen. The day ye snatched me from Bruard was the luckiest day of my life."
He swallowed to shift the jagged boulder clogging his throat. "My beloved wife…"
"I love ye, I love ye, I love ye," she said with a sudden surge of happiness. "You'll get sick of hearing me say it."
"No, my darling, that I will no’." He swept her up for another kiss. When he raised his head, her eyes sparkled like the stars that shone over the loch on a clear winter’s night. He'd never seen her look so beautiful. "I love ye, too, mo leannan."
Her lips curved in an irresistible invitation. "In that case, is it no’ time ye took me to bed, my braw laddie?"
As an invincible tide of joy rushed through him, Callum started to laugh. "That would be my pleasure, my lady."
"And mine," she murmured, taking his hand and leading him toward the big bed in the corner.
Epilogue
Achnasheen, April 1704
As they stepped out of the chapel at Achnasheen, Mhairi took Callum's arm. Behind them, her father carried newborn William Mackinnon. A few feet behind that, Grainne, their three-year-old daughter, toddled along holding Flossie's hand. As the rest of the Mackinnons lined up to leave after the christening, the organ played triumphantly in the loft.
"That went well," she said under her breath to her tall, handsome husband who looked particularly distinguished in his formal kilt and with his shining hair tied back in a queue.
"Aye, the old man even smiled," Callum whispered back, sending her a mocking glance. "Who knew he had it in him?"
"Deciding to call our son William hit the right note. Thank ye."
They emerged into the light of a beautiful spring day. Last week it had been snowing, but for their son’s christening, everything was sunshine and blue skies.
Mhairi went on. "And choosing John Drummond and his wife as godparents was a good strategic move, too."
"Och, ye know me, mo chridhe, always thinking."
"No’ always," she said with a reminiscent smile.
"Ye always turned my brain to porridge, lassie, right from the first."
Mhairi and Callum paused halfway up the stone steps to survey the cheerful crowd gathering in the courtyard. She took a moment to note the changes nearly five years of marriage had wrought in her world. Changes? No, gifts, every one of them.
A wonderful husband she loved more with every day. A beautiful home. A pretty, spirited, dark-haired daughter. A new baby, also dark-haired like his father. The Drummond looking better than he had in years.
He'd reached a grudging acceptance of his son-in-law, even if friendship was still too much to ask. But as Callum had hoped, when any truce between the clans had seemed mere fantasy, the birth of grandchildren had gone a long way toward reconciling the Drummond to his daughter's marriage. More than she'd ever imagined possible in the days when he'd believed Mackinnons were fit only for killing. He'd instantly fallen under Grainne's spell. Given his expression now, he was equally in thrall to his first grandson.
She and Callum went to Bruard regularly. The first few visits, old habits died hard. The men from both clans carried weapons, and the atmosphere was wary. But Callum soon made it clear he’d brook no revival of the feud and anyone causing trouble would face punishment.
These days the clans mingled with a harmony Mhairi would never have expected five years ago. As she looked around, she saw a number of Drummonds who had married Mackinnons. Just as there were now Mackinnons living at peace in Bruard as wives and husbands.
She and Callum seemed to have set an example of marriage between the clans. Duff sidled up to kiss Flossie's cheek. Flossie was round with her first child and glowed with the same contentment Mhairi saw in her own eyes when she sat before the mirror up in the tower room.
"Life is good," Callum said softly from beside her. "Thank ye for my son."
"Och, he was nae trouble." That wasn't quite true, but William’s arrival four days ago had been much easier than Grainne's.
"Kiss me, beloved," Callum said.
She glanced up at him, shocked. "In front of everybody?"
His rich brown eyes were bright with devilry familiar since he'd abducted her. "Aye."
Mhairi smiled back with a touch of devilry of her own. She rose on her toes and placed a quick peck on his lips. "There."
"Och, is that the best ye can do?"
"Ye ken the answer to that."
He laughed and twined one arm around her much reduced waist. She’d felt like a whale by the time William decided to arrive. "I need reminding, lassie."
This kiss lasted longer, and she was blushing by the time he released her. "For shame, Callum."
"Grandda, why do Mamma and Da kiss all the time?" Grainne asked in a penetrating voice.
The question provoked a ripple of laughter from the crowd, a crowd observing the laird and his lady with fond indulgence.
William Drummond gave his granddaughter a doting smile that reminded Mhairi of her girlhood. "Because they love each other, my bonny."
Mhairi regarded her father in shock. Good heavens. Had he really said that? Perhaps there might be a chance that he could learn to like Callum.
"Love makes people silly," Grainne said in disgust.
Callum released Mhairi and held out his arms for his daughter. "Och, sweetheart, that would be a pity when I love ye more than I love our Jean's shortbread. Now come and give your old da a kiss, and we'll go inside and have a party."
Grainne giggled and darted up the steps where her father picked her up. "I love ye, too, Da," she said, pressing her lips to his cheek. "Will ye dance with me at the party?"
"Och, ye will be my first partner, my wee bluebell."
"And then he’s all mine," Mhairi said, her voice thick with overpowering love.
Callum was right. Life was good, and love lay at the root of all their blessings. She loved her kin and her father, and she adored her children. And overarching all those other powerful loves was her abiding love for the remarkable man she'd married.
Callum looked over their daughter’s ruffled dark head and gave her a smile that told her she was his darling. "Aye, all yours forever, mo chridhe. You're the Lady of Achnasheen and the lady of my heart. I praise the day ye agreed to wed me."
"I fought ye so hard." These days, she had difficulty remembering why.
"Och, ye were just making me work to win you." A hint of teasing touched his smile. "The greatest prizes dinnae fall into a laddie's lap just for the asking."
"I’m verra glad ye did ask, my braw Highlander."
"And I’m verra glad ye said yes," he murmured for her ears alone. "Because you’re the answer to all my dearest dreams, Bonny Mhairi Mackinnon."
***
I hope you’ve had a wonderful time visiting the world of The Lairds Most Likely. If you’ve missed out on them, the first three books in the series are The Laird’s Willful Lass, The Laird’s Christmas Kiss, and The Highlander’s Lost Lady. Continue reading for an introduction to all three stories, and a short excerpt from The Highlander’s Lost Lady.
The Laird's Willful Lass: The Lairds Most Likely Book One
An untamed man as immovable as a Highland mountain…
Fergus Mackinnon, autocratic Laird of Achnasheen, likes to be in charge. When he was little more than a lad, he became master of his Scottish estate, and he’s learned to rely on his unfailing judgment. So has everyone else in his corner of the world. He sees no reason for his bride—when he finds her—to be any different.
A headstrong woman from the warm and passionate south…
Marina Lucchetti knows all about fighting her way through a wall of masculine arrogance. In her native Florence, she’s become a successful artist, no easy feat for a woman. Now a commission to paint a series of Highland scenes promises to spread her fame far and wide. When a carriage accident strands her a
t Achnasheen for a few weeks, it’s a mixed blessing. The magnificent landscape offers everything her artistic soul could desire. If only she can resist the impulse to smash her easel across the laird’s obstinate head.
When two fiery souls come together, a conflagration flares.
Marina is Fergus’s worst nightmare—a woman who defies a man’s guidance. Fergus challenges everything Marina believes about a woman’s right to choose her path. No two people could be less suited. But when irresistible passion enters the equation, good sense soon jumps into the loch.
Will the desire between Fergus and Marina blaze hot, then fade to ashes? Or will the imperious laird and his willful lass discover that their differences aren’t insurmountable after all, but the spice that will flavor a lifetime of happiness?
Buy from Smashwords here!
The Laird's Christmas Kiss: The Lairds Most Likely Book Two
Down with love!
Ever since she was fifteen, shy wallflower Elspeth Douglas has pined in vain for the attentions of dashing Brody Girvan, Laird of Invermackie. But the rakish Highlander doesn’t even know she’s alive. Now she’s twenty, she realizes that she’ll never be happy until she stops loving her brother’s handsome friend. When family and friends gather at Achnasheen Castle for Christmas, she intends to show the world that’s she’s all grown up, and grown out of silly crushes on gorgeous Scotsmen. So take that, my gallant laddie!
Girls just want to have fun…
Except it turns out that Brody isn’t singing from the same Christmas carol sheet. Elspeth decides she’s not interested in him anymore, just as he decides he’s very interested indeed. In fact, now he looks more closely, his friend Hamish’s sister is pretty and funny and forthright – and just the lassie to share his Highland estate. Convincing his little wren of his romantic intentions is difficult enough, even before she undergoes a makeover and becomes the belle of Achnasheen. For once in his life, dissolute Brody is burdened with honorable intentions, while the lady he pursues is set on flirtation with no strings attached.
The Highlander's Defiant Captive Page 23