Caitria gave him a puzzled frown and turned, opening the door. When she entered, she glowered at Niall.
He was out of bed and standing up, smiling at her.
“Niall O’Kean,” she snapped. “I’m running out of patience with ye. Get back in bed—ye need tae rest.”
“In a moment,” Niall replied, with a teasing smile. “It’s just that in my time . . . men like to be on their knees before they do this.”
“What are ye—?”
Niall approached, kneeling down before her and taking both her hands.
“I’m staying in this time—if you’ll have me,” he whispered. “Caitria MacGreghor, I love you with everything I have, and I will love you for the rest of my days. I didn’t realize it, but my life didn’t truly begin until I had that first dream about you. Will you marry me and become my bride in truth?”
Caitria’s eyes filled with tears, her annoyance transforming into pure joy as she gazed down at the man she loved, the man who’d traveled past the boundaries of time to come to her.
“Aye,” she whispered. “I'll marry ye, Niall O’Kean.”
Niall let out a yelp of joy, standing and pulling her close for a kiss. He reached down to swing her up into his arms. Caitria knew she should protest, that she should insist he put her down and get back into bed, but her overwhelming joy and desire for him rendered her silent.
“I have it on great authority that making love speeds up the healing process,” he whispered, as if reading her thoughts, and she laughed as he carried her to the bed.
Their wedding was held a fortnight later, after Niall had fully healed from his injury. It was a more intimate ceremony than the one her parents had initially planned; Liusaidh had handed the reigns of planning over to her.
“’Tis yer wedding,” her mother had said with a smile. “Ye should be the one tae decide how it goes.”
Caitria had cut the lists of guests who were to attend and just invited her parents, Niall’s father, Latharn, Hendry, and the nobles and servants she’d been close to since she was a girl, including her chambermaids Ailsa and Eithne.
All eyes were on them as she and Niall clutched hands in the great hall, vowing to love and cherish each other for all of eternity.
“And through time,” Niall whispered, just for her ears only, and her heart soared.
After the ceremony, Ian approached, telling them it was time to leave to return to his own time. He gave her and Niall a long embrace, and murmured in her ear, "My son has come a long way to be with you. Take care of him."
"I will," she whispered, tears filling her eyes. Ian turned to give Niall one long, final look before leaving the great hall.
"I think he knew," Niall said quietly, looping his arm around her as they watched his father leave. "He must have known that I would come to this time."
"And I'm glad that ye did," Caitria murmured with a smile.
The day after their wedding, she and Niall mounted her horse Kerr in the courtyard. Her parents watched them from the front doors of the castle, arm in arm. She knew her parents were nervous, but the events of the past few weeks had proven that Caitria was capable of taking care of herself, and that danger was everywhere—it would do no good to keep her sheltered.
She leaned back against Niall’s chest as a servant flung their bags onto Kerr's flank. They were heading to Tairseach, and then to Inverness. Niall wanted to send a letter to his friend Scott in the future, informing him that he was remaining in the past, and instructing him what to do with his penthouse and material belongings. In Inverness, he wanted to post a letter Scott had given him to go to Scott's sister Isabelle, a fellow traveler who lived in this time, married to a Highland laird.
After he sent his letters, they’d board a ship at the port that would take them first to London, and then to the continent, where the possibilities for travel were endless.
When they returned, they’d settle into a manor Drostan had given to them as a wedding gift. It would serve as a base for their travels, and where they would eventually have their family. Niall was going to serve as the clan's own personal historian—something her father had bestowed upon Niall at her urging. He'd teach the local children—and anyone who desired—about the past, and preserve what he could about this time for future historians in his own written manuscripts.
Now, Niall gripped Kerr’s reins and leaned forward so that his lips were close to her ear.
“After London, where shall we go, wife?” he asked.
“As long as I’m with ye? Everywhere,” she replied, turning to him as he smiled.
His grip tightened around her waist, and she gave her parents a wave of farewell as they rode out of the courtyard and past the castle gates, toward their shared future.
Chapter 27
Present Day
Scottish Highlands
Diana rolled down the car window, turning up the volume of the radio, bopping her head along to the upbeat pop song that blared through the speakers. She breathed in the fresh air of the Highlands, basking in the view of rolling green hills and blue skies that surrounded her. God, she needed this. Time away from the hustle and bustle of London and her job there as a solicitor. She was spending a long weekend at her family’s ancestral home, tucked away amid the lush greenery of the Highlands; she’d been looking forward to this mini holiday for weeks.
She glanced down at her cell phone, tossed casually onto the passenger seat, glad that cell phone reception was spotty here. Her Aunt Kensa had been trying to reach her for the past few weeks, sending her texts and calls that she’d ignored. Kensa was a member of the family who fully embraced her status as a stiuireadh—a druid witch who guided travelers through time.
Diana had long ago determined that she would play no part in magic or time travel, despite having a strong affinity for such magic, given that both her parents had both been powerful stiuireadh. Instead, Diana had picked the most grounded, nonmagical profession she could find—the law. Kensa had tried to dissuade her from her chosen nonmagical path, insisting that she had one of the most powerful affinities for time travel in their line.
“I don’t care,” Diana had said. “I want nothing to do with all that.”
And Kensa had to know why, given what had happened to her parents. But it looked like her aunt was again not respecting her boundaries, given how much she’d tried to contact her these past few weeks.
Kensa lived somewhere in the Highlands—likely because it was the location of Tairseach, a portal that travelers and the stiuireadh used to travel through time—but Kensa didn’t know she was in the region. Diana had told her assistant to inform Kensa she’d gone to the States on business if she called the office.
Diana soon pulled up to the rambling old home she’d been slowly renovating over the years, taking it in. It was originally built in the twelfth century, its stone walls crumbling, its windows cracked with age, but Diana knew that she could bring it back to a state of beauty.
She got out of her car, slinging her bag over her shoulder and heading to the front door, humming as she unlocked it and stepped inside.
Diana froze as soon as she opened the door, her bag slipping to the ground.
Kensa stood in the foyer and gave her a pleasant smile.
“Hello, Diana.”
Diana gritted her teeth. She’d underestimated her aunt’s determination to reach her. She must have used her magic to determine where she was—a Locator spell.
“If this is about magic or time travel—" Diana began, through gritted teeth.
“It is.” The look Kensa gave her was apologetic—slightly. “But it’s urgent. I just helped a man from the present get to his soul mate in the past—Niall O’Kean. But there was a mishap.”
“Kensa, I—”
Kensa continued in a rush. “His ancestor, Artair Dalaigh, to whom he bears a likeness—got transported to this time. But he doesn’t belong here. I need your help, Diana. I need you to get him back to the time he belongs . . . to the fourtee
nth century.”
The story continues in Artair’s Temptress (Highlander Fate Book 5). Want to be notified of its release? Join Stella Knight’s newsletter
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I hope you enjoyed Niall’s Bride, the fourth book of the Highlander Fate series. If you enjoyed your read, I hope you’ll consider leaving a review. Reviews help readers find books and each one is much appreciated!
About the Author
Stella Knight writes time travel romance and historical romance novels. She enjoys transporting readers to different times and places with vivid, nuanced heroes and heroines.
She resides in sunny southern California with her own swoon-worthy hero and her collection of too many books and board games. She’s been writing for as long as she can remember, and when not writing, she can be found traveling to new locales, diving into a new book, or watching her favorite film or documentary. She loves romance, history, mystery, and adventure, all of which you’ll find in her books.
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Niall's Bride: A Scottish Time Travel Romance (Highlander Fate Book 4) Page 16