by Diane Darcy
Brows furrowed, he stared off into the distance, bad memories seeming to plague him.
“I was still a lad when I killed my first man, an Englishman. The second was a Scotsman, loyal tae the crown.”
He focused on her face once more. “By the time I was slain, I’d killed more men than I could remember to count. Soul-stained, I wondered if mayhap that’s why I’d risen, a ghost upon Culloden Moor.”
She squeezed his fingers, urging him to continue.
“I was number 61 of 79 to rise. No rhyme or reason to the sentence, as many of our comrades apparently moved on.”
“You felt it was a sentence?”
He looked down, his lips twisting. “Aye, it often felt that way. We couldnae leave the moor and were trapped for close to three hundred years.”
She heard a wealth of pain in his words, and raised her other hand to cup his in both of hers as she tried to process his history, to understand, and remind herself to simply accept. “That would’ve been so confusing. To be there, without knowing why. And then you were brought back?”
“Aye, it started almost a year ago, begun by a wee witch with the power tae send us on. Many were sent into the fire, for a shot at revenge against the Young Pretender. We didnae know where they’d gone, or where we would go when given the chance.”
A chill shivered up her spine. “A witch sent you on?”
He shook his head. “She brought us back tae life. I felt the power of it, the last group of us all at once. We were back upon the moor, alive, and able tae leave.”
She was struggling to keep faith with his story. To hold off thoughts about finding a good therapist. But if she could believe he’d been a ghost — and her grandfather had convinced her of that — why couldn’t there also be a witch? “So how did you end up here? In Wyoming?”
“Soni’s uncle, Wickham, told us he’d send us wherever we wished tae go. I wandered about Scotland with two mates for a bit, went back home, but all was different, changed. I suspected my grandfather had moved on tae America, so decided to cross the ocean and see for myself.”
She just listened, accepted, held his hand.
“I didnae know where tae go, but I’d seen Longmire on the telly and the lifestyle appealed tae me.”
“Longmire? The TV show?”
He nodded.
She sat back with a half-laugh, breaking their connection. It sort of chilled her blood that she’d never have met this man if not for a television show. “Did you find out about your grandfather?”
He shook his head.
“You know, Utah actually has one of the biggest databases for genealogy in the world. We could try to find him, see where he ended up?”
He studied her face for a moment. “Ye believe me then?”
She stood, and he did as well. She knew others might not, but she’d seen with her own eyes that he’d been talking to her grandfather the night before, her grandfather had confirmed it, and besides that, it just felt like he was telling the truth.
Regardless of ghosts, and witches, it explained a lot. His clothing choices, the way he spoke, the look in his eyes which said he’d seen so much.
“Yes, I do.”
He let out a breath as he stepped forward to cup her shoulders.
She looked up at him and it just felt so right to be here with him, to be starting her life with him, and to take this leap of faith.
“Calum, I love you,” she said, the heartfelt words coming out in a rush.
Because she did. She felt the connection she had with him to her bones, and could continue to deny it, waiting for a proper amount of time to pass before she admitted to such feelings, but why bother? Instead, she told him what was in her heart.
“I really love you.”
Because maybe, just maybe, he loved her too?
She loved him?
Calum was speechless as he felt a rush of emotion tightening his throat and stealing his breath.
He looked down into her stunning brown eyes, saw the sudden tightening of skin at the corners, and realized his lack of response was frightening her.
She tried to pull away, but he quickly clasped her in his arms and held her close.
“From the moment I met ye, I knew ye were the one for me.” He lifted one hand to cup her face in the way he loved to do, his thumb brushing over her cheek.
“I doonae ken why I was given a second chance, or what led me tae ye, but I doonae doubt that I was. I was meant tae be here, tae meet ye, and tae spend my life making ye happy. Tis my reward, for enduring. Ye are my reward.”
The tension in her eased, and she relaxed against him.
“I love ye, lass.” He drew in a breath. “It feels as if I always have, and that somehow, in finding ye, I was made whole again.”
Tears sprang to her eyes. “Oh, Calum, we’re a pair, aren’t we?”
He pulled her close, held her tighter. For some reason, the universe, or perhaps God himself, had conspired to gift her to him, and he wasn’t a fool. He’d take her, keep her, and be grateful for the second chance at life.
Perhaps it was because they’d been cheated, dying so young, and then left behind. But when God handed out gifts, or recompense, he didn’t scrimp. She was the ultimate prize, exactly what and who he would have wished for and, apparently, Calum must have done something right for Mandy’s heart to be given into his keeping.
Calum lifted her in his arms and sat down again, Mandy on his lap, her legs draped over one of his as he held her close.
She rested against him and the babe gave him a swift kick in the arm, either letting Calum know he was confined enough, or that he approved.
They both laughed, and Calum loosened his arms until his hand came to rest upon the babe. “Ye’re going tae make a fine mother.”
“And you’ll be a wonderful father.”
Calum leaned back until he was relaxed against the chair, pulling Mandy close against his chest until she relaxed against him.
He knew there were more conversations to have, more to find out about one another, but they had time. A commodity he’d once cursed to high heaven was now something he’d want to use wisely. A banquet of it, spread out as years in front of him.
He wanted time to be a husband, a father, seasons of it to enjoy the life he’d make with Mandy.
He’d give her every bit of the love, care, and attention he had stored up inside. Centuries of it.
He wanted no regrets the next time he passed. Only life long memories of Mandy.
As he sat there, his hand covering the babe that represented their future, he knew that this time around, he’d do everything in his power to get it right.
Epilogue
Epilogue. Four years later.
“Calum? Can you come down here, honey?”
Calum immediately set down the wrench he was using to fix the sink in Red’s bathroom, under the older man’s supervision.
He wiggled his way out from under the sink and stood. As he turned to go, Red shook his head and chuckled. “You could’ve just told her you were busy, and you’d be down in a minute.”
Calum threw him a grin as he headed out the door. “I could, or I could just make you finish up while I see what my beautiful wife needs.”
He left Red grumbling as he hurried down the hallway and down the stairs where Mandy was waiting for him at the bottom.
When she saw him, her face lit with a smile. “I’m trying to design a new pattern that’s supposed to go out tomorrow, and the boys keep yanking it off the table. Do you think you could keep an eye on them while I finish it up?”
He swept his wife, soft and warm, into his arms and gave her a solid kiss, bending her over backward while he supported her fully.
He took his time, then straightened her once again, leaving her flustered, just the way he liked her. “O’ course I can. Where are the cheeky little devils?”
Mandy sighed. “I just took the cookie tin away from Brodie, and Leith shucked his diaper, and I’m still looking fo
r the diaper bag.”
“It’s in the den.” He retrieved it, then went in search of his two boys, their giggling giving their location away in the front parlor.
He looked behind the couch, nabbed his youngest, determined to get him covered before he had an accident.
“Come here, ye.” Leith, dark-haired and dark-eyed like his mother, grinned up at him as Calum situated the squirming mite and slid the diaper under his butt. “Stop movin’ about, ye wee devil.”
Long practice had the diaper in place within seconds and he secured the tapes, and then set the little bundle on the carpet. He immediately started running in circles.
His oldest, Calum’s spitting image with his sky-blue eyes and red hair, peeked around the side of the couch and grinned, the long flame of red hair flowing around the imp’s shoulders.
At the oddest times he was reminded of the card Wickham sent after the birth of his first son.
Enjoy yer new babe, and ye’re welcome.
The card was now stuck to the pages of his son’s baby book, but Calum had taken the words to mean that the babe was, indeed, somehow and magically his.
The how of if still had his cheeks flushing if he thought on it too long.
Blasted warlock.
His wife, having thrown her lot in with him entirely, was convinced it was the truth, and offered to have the babe tested if Calum wanted definitive proof.
He did not.
None of it mattered as, from the moment he’d held his son, all doubts faded away.
All the same, he hoped Wickham continued to keep his distance.
Blasted warlock.
His son giggled and captured his attention once more. “And what might ye be up tae on this fine morn, Master Brodie?”
Named for his grandfather, the young tyke held up a cookie and laughed. “Mama didnae see.”
Calum raised an eyebrow. “Oh, and ye think showin’ me is a good idea, do ye?”
Calum lunged, and Brodie squealed and ran out of the room, his little legs pumping.
His brother took off after him, and Calum slowly followed, watching as Leith, named for Mandy’s grandfather, tackled his older brother by falling against him, and then making a wild grab to right himself.
They both went down, Brodie holding his cookie high in the air as Leith tried to take it.
Calum leaned down, picked up both boys, tucking one under each arm as he headed back to the kitchen. He rounded the corner, and then just stopped for a moment, savoring the feelings of happiness and contentment he felt whenever he saw her.
Busy as always, Mandy was hard at work on a pattern for a new skirt, the vase of flowers that he’d given her the day before off to one side. As always, he was sure that her pleasure in receiving them was far less than his in spoiling his lady.
“I found them, diapered Leith, and it seems we’re in need of one more cookie.”
Mandy glanced at the cookie Brodie was now shoving in his mouth, and sighed. “All right, give Leith one, but that’s it. No more snacking or you’ll both ruin your lunch.”
Calum set the boys down, retrieved a cookie for Leith, and then leaned in to steal another kiss from Mandy. “Are ye feeling well?”
She put a hand to her stomach and took a deep breath. “A little bit nauseous, but it seems to be getting better than it was.”
“Glad tae hear it.”
Only a few months along, she was expecting another child, and this time they were hoping for a girl. The trip they’d been planning to take to Scotland so he could show her around had been put on hold, but they’d get there eventually.
He watched his wife as she resumed work on her project, and glanced at the two boys, now wedging themselves between the legs of one chair to get under the table.
Somehow his calm, beautiful wife had produced a couple of wild imps, and there was no denying it.
He was quite proud of her, in fact.
The three of them, soon to be four, were his whole world.
“Are you working at the bar tonight?”
“I am. Just until nine. There’s some kind of family celebration. Speaking o’ which, ye’ve a birthday coming up. A score and ten, I believe? Sierra mentioned mayhap getting some black balloons tae help ye celebrate?”
She stopped what she was doing to look up. He loved to tease her, simply to see her eyes light with fire. “Ha, ha. Get me some black balloons and you just see what happens.”
Her gaze dropped again to add a detail to the pattern.
“I’ve a couple of months until I turn a score and nine. Twill be interesting to see what it’s like tae be married to a woman of such an advanced age.”
She slammed her pencil on the table and straightened. “A score and nine plus three hundred years! Don’t forget about that!”
He grinned. “Who would believe such a tale?”
“Well, I know it, and that’s all that matters.” She shot him a smug grin. “So, if you want to know what it’s like being married to someone so much older, you’ll have to ask me, won’t you?”
Calum laughed and held up his hands in a gesture of peace. “Mayhap it would be for the best if we didnae mention the age difference.”
“I thought you’d see it that way,” Mandy said with a grin.
The boys now made their way out from under a chair at the opposite end, and Calum snagged them once more, holding them close as they wiggled and screamed.
“Hush, laddies, else ye frighten yer mother and the new babe.”
Brodie, wide-eyed, stopped screaming to study his mother.
Leith stopped squirming as well, looking to his brother, so he’d know how to act next.
Calum set them both down again. “Go find some clothes for Leith, and yer shoes, and ye can help me feed the chickens.”
With another screech, both boys ran toward the stairs.
He turned back to see Mandy watching him, a gentle smile on her face. “You handle them so much better than I do.”
“Not true, just differently.” He rounded the table to pull her close. “Tis a fine summer day. What do ye say we pack our lunch and head tae the meadow for a picnic? We’ll let the boys run off their high spirits, so when we come back, they’ll settle for a nice long nap.”
She tilted her head to look up at him. “And I suppose while they’re napping, you’ll want to as well?”
Calum dropped his mouth in mock shock. “Mrs. Milne! If ye’re suggesting what I think ye are, I’m all astonishment.”
Mandy was smiling when she pressed her cheek to his chest once more. “Oh, really? You weren’t shocked last night when…” Mandy stood on her tiptoes to whisper in his ear.
Calum laughed, picked her up and gave her a quick twirl before setting her down once more.
“I concede. And admit that ye’ve the right of it. An afternoon nap is a fine idea.”
“I thought you’d think so.”
He gave her another long kiss and then left to find the boys.
After Mandy’s earlier mention of it, he couldn’t help but think of his time upon the moor. His life was so different now: rich, productive, and full of wonder.
If he’d have known what awaited him at the end of his sentence, he might have borne the length of it with better grace.
He’d gone from having naught, to truly having everything.
The wait had been worth it.
Author note:
Thanks for reading Calum! It might end up being my favorite story. I started working on it, having taken months off of writing and not understanding why.
I came up with a lot of excuses, and then finally just decided none of it really mattered, that I just needed to start writing one sentence at a time. All I had to worry about was the next line.
While I was writing I repeatedly listened to a song: Something Just Like This, by The Chainsmokers and Coldplay. I really loved the message in the song. The narrator wasn't looking for some sort of superhero or larger-than-life love interest, just someone that would be the
re, someone they could miss, someone they could turn to and kiss.
Hand. To. Heart.
I kept that song in mind as I wrote this book. Every time I started thinking the story was boring, (as I do with every book) I just continued to write one sentence at a time.
It was a joyful experience for me. I ended up absolutely loving Mandy and Calum. Just two people who were both loyal at heart, honorable, and looking for someone who wouldn't hurt them. Someone to love.
Anyway, I love the story, and I hope you did too.
Happy reading!
Diane
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Acknowledgments
I would have a much harder time writing about romance if not for my husband. Thanks for the love and support that lets me follow my dreams.
And a heartfelt thanks to the fans of this series, your enthusiasm means more than I can express. I know you could be doing other things with your time and your support means the world to me.
A huge thanks to my dear friend Heather Horrocks, plotting partner extraordinaire, for too many things to list here. Always there, always pushing me forward and keeping me excited! I don’t thank her enough for helping me along this journey and keeping me on track. You’re the best, Heather!
Thanks to Lesli Lytle for the Rah-Rah meetings, for thinking up this fun and wacky series, and for all the enthusiasm! We’ve had a ton of fun over the years, haven’t we?