The Highlander Who Saved Me (Heart of a Highlander Collection Book 2)

by Allie Palomino

  Once they were seated at the long table, Menzies and Connor began to share all that had transpired, as well as the truth about her mother. During the stories, Maddie cried and laughed, but by the end, she was saddened by the loss both her mother and father had suffered. She also mourned her loss at not knowing either parent.

  “He was a cruel man,” she said, her yellow eyes bright from tears. “I am ashamed to have defended him. I am ashamed to have called him my father,” she whispered dejectedly.

  Menzies reached over and grasped her small hands in one of his large ones. “Ye didna know, my daughter. Ye shouldna chastise yer kind, loving, and trusting heart. Fine qualities for one to have, and ye should be proud of them.”

  “Really?” she asked, smiling tentatively through her tears. Menzies thought he saw her yellow eyes twinkle and squeezed her hand.

  “Aye.”

  Her small, tentative smile broadened into the widest and most luminous smile Menzies had seen only on one other beautiful woman during those few special months he’d spent with Anne.

  “You’ll visit often, won’t you?” she asked, as they were saying their goodbyes outside later that evening. She hugged her brother and then her father. “I’ve only just met you, but I can already see that you are the father I always needed and wanted,” she said, fresh tears gathering in her eyes. She turned to James. “I feel like you are the brother I always wanted, too.”

  “I feel the same, Maddie,” James said warmly.

  “Storms and the devil himself couldna keep me away,” Menzies said, and then looked over to Connor. “But maybe ye’re overprotective husband could,” Menzies said laughing, and Maddie joined in.

  Connor made a face and Maddie gave him a quick peck on his chin.

  “Then we shall see one another soon. I look forward to getting to know you, and you, James,” she said, turning to her brother again. James nodded his head at his sister, smiled, and hugged her.

  “Wait!”

  They turned and saw Katie running with a bundle. She was panting by the time she reached them.

  “I packed food for yer journey.”

  Connor was taken aback, but Maddie was smiling. She looked up at her brother who hadn’t so much as breathed since Katie had reached them. When they’d been sitting at the table talking earlier, Maddie had noticed her brother’s eyes resting often on Katie. She’d notice Katie’s furtive glances at her brother, too, along with a subtle blush.

  “Thank ye, young Katie,” Maddie’s father said.

  “Aye, thank ye,” James added.

  Katie smiled hesitantly and met James’ eyes. She nodded slightly and walked towards the castle again.

  Maddie watched her brother watching Katie. When she disappeared, she smiled. James was still staring at the closed door.

  “You’re going to have to be careful and slow with her, James, but I think you’d make a good match.”

  Her brother’s eyes flew to her face in wide surprise.

  Maddie laughed. “You’ve been staring at her since you arrived here.” She hugged her father and James again, and walked towards the castle. Connor remained with Menzies and James.

  “I’m announcing my intent to call upon her, Connor.”

  Connor’s eyes were wide now. “My sister?”

  James nodded. “Aye. Are there any suitors I need to threaten?”

  Connor grinned and but it slowly melted away.

  “I’m nay sure that it’s a good time, James.”

  Maddie’s brother studied Connor. “I have much to offer her. I-” James stopped speaking when Connor shook his head.

  “It has nothing to do with ye. My sister…” Connor’s voice trailed off, and both Menzies and James waited for him to finish. “She…” Connor found it hard to continue.

  “Well, what is it?”

  Connor’s eyes met James’.

  “She may need time, James. I canna say for certain how long, if ever. I doona know much about these things…”

  James’ patience was wearing thin. “Connor, for the love of God, man, out with it.”

  Connor steeled himself and met James’ eyes again. “We’ve discussed what happened to her. If ye have strict requirements of a bride, James, Katie willna be suitable for ye.” His nostrils flared as if insulted. “If that is the case, I doona want to know. There is more to a woman than that, and this is my sister we’re speaking of.”

  James’ arm sliced through the air. “What the fuck are ye speaking of, man?”

  Connor closed his eyes. Menzies’ eyes lit with recollection, remembering what Connor had told them months ago.

  “He’s speaking of her rape, James.”

  Connor’s eyes opened, and James turned to his father.

  “Aye,” Connor said tightly.

  James’ breathing became erratic. His fists were rocks next to his side.

  “Ye forgot. I see that it bothers ye. As I said-”

  “Ye. Know. Nothing,” James said through clenched teeth. “It matters little to me other than serving to enflame the hatred that burns in my blood, screaming for vengeance. Did ye discover which of the bastards did it?” he demanded.

  Connor exhaled. “Iain killed him, but I have a feeling the others were involved as well. I had planned to return and rid the land of-”

  “Nay,” James growled, cutting him off.

  “The right belongs to us, now, too,” Menzies added. His stance was rigid and his eyes had grown cold. “That bastard Wynton lied about Anne, and made my daughter suffer at his hands. I will kill him.”

  “And I her brothers, who were no better to her than Wynton. I will kill them for what they did to Katie.”

  Connor looked at them for long moments and began nodding slowly. “Alright. I’ll leave them for ye.”

  James’ nod was curt. “Afterwards, I will come to call upon Katie.”

  Connor’s eyes widened. James smiled.

  “Did ye think that would turn me away?” James shook his head. He grew serious again. “I will make them ache a hundred times over for what they made my future wife suffer.”

  Connor considered James for a long moment and nodded, appeased.

  “Then we shall be seeing more of ye both.”

  The men bid their farewells, and Connor stood with Maddie on the top steps. She watched her newly found father and brother leave through the gates.

  “Ye need yer rest,” Connor said, as he picked her up in his arms when she began to sag against him. She tried to stifle a yawn, but wasn’t successful. She gave him a wicked grin and he looked at her suspiciously.

  “What is my hellfire wife concocting now?” he asked smiling down at her, despite his efforts to feign wariness.

  She giggled. “I am not quite so tired as to be able to sleep now, Husband.”

  “I see.”

  Her smile widened. “I was thinking that perhaps you could make me a bit more tired, hmmm?” she asked and laughed when he began walking faster.

  The castle heard the trail of her giggles as Connor fled to their chamber. Once there, he made sweet and slow love to his precious wife.

  After they’d loved several times, Connor held her tightly against him. When he heard her laugh unprovoked, Connor looked at her.

  “What is it?” he asked, helpless to stop his own lips from mimicking her smiling ones.

  “I have everything I’ve ever wanted.”

  “Oh?” he asked curiously.

  “Yes, and who’d have thought I would have gotten it all because of vengeful and covetous, but handsome, lairds.”

  “Lairds?” he asked.

  “You and my father.”

  “Hmmm,” he said, now biting her neck. She laughed.

  “Both of you kidnapped women with the intent of ransoming them, but fell in love during the schemes. Because of this, I have a real family. I have you, your wonderful family, and now my father and James. Though I know I would have loved my mother and am sad that I never knew her, Miriam is a wonderful mother to me. Sh
e understands my feelings since she lost her mother as I did.” She paused and sighed when he bit her chin. She placed her hands on either side of his face and smiled into his beautiful eyes. “And I have you and our bairn,” she said, placing both their hands on her stomach. The baby kicked then and they shared an intimate smile. Connor leaned down and kissed her belly.

  “I love ye, Maddie. I am the fortunate one. Without ye, I would have never experienced love. I would have continued through life bitter and short-tempered, never stopping to notice the sun’s warmth or the color of flowers in the spring. And with the addition of our bairn, we’ll have an amazing life.”

  “Our bairns. We’ll have more than just this child.”

  He shook his head. “I am grateful for this child, Maddie, but my life, my verra breath, was over when I thought ye had died. I am nothing without ye. Though I love children and will adore and love our bairn, I canna risk yer life again.”

  She smiled at him and said, “Women have babes all the time, several in fact, and do quite well during their labors. They move on to lead good long lives.”

  Connor grunted dismissively and Maddie grinned. She kissed him impulsively. She would work on him in the years to come. They would be having more bairns, he just didn’t know it yet.

  “You’ve saved me, Connor.” She laughed when he made a face. “Yes, I know. I thought I was damned because my birth had caused my mother’s death. I thought that to be saved, I would need to work myself hard.”

  He kissed her lingeringly and sweetly on the lips.

  “Now I’ve been saved and it is all because of you,” she said, running her hand down his head. “I love you, Connor. Ye are my savior,” she whispered with such earnest, her voice shook.

  “As ye are my savior, Maddie. I love ye.”

  And he proceeded to show her just how much he did.

  Epilogue

  “Dear Lord, how long is this going to take?” Connor asked, nervously pacing the corridor outside of their chamber.

  Menzies, James, Malcolm, and Connor’s brothers were there with him looking amused.

  “Ye’ve said this so many times before,” James sighed, stretching his bunched muscles as he sat on the floor.

  “What are ye grumbling about? Ye were a mess with Katie! Hypocrite,” Connor mumbled. “Besides, I mean it this time. No more!” Connor said anxiously. He heard Maddie scream as another pain gripped her.

  “Of course I was. That was her first labor! This is Maddie’s third!”

  “It’ll be yer second soon enough.”

  James pursed his lips but he grew paler the more he thought about it.

  “They never want to let me in, but damn it, I doona care,” Connor said, walking to the door. “She wants me in there, I know it.”

  “Easy, Connor. They are just preparing the room and Maddie for the birth. They’ve no intention to keep ye away from her.”

  “Good, Father, because no one could keep me away from my wife at this moment,” he said and grimaced at his petite wife’s bellow of pain.

  Menzies approached Connor. “She will be alright. She willna perish. My Anne was strong, but Maddie is stronger. She’ll survive,” Menzies said, gripping Connor’s shoulder affectionately.

  “I’ve heard this too many times before,” Connor said grumpily.

  Menzies and Malcolm both laughed. “Connor, ye still havena learned,” Menzies joked.

  “No, it doesna seem he has,” Malcolm added.

  “Learned what?” Connor said irritably.

  “What a woman wants, she gets, especially when she has her husband wrapped around her small finger.” Menzies chuckled.

  “She’s not getting her way again.”

  Connor opened the door and ignored the men’s jests and snickers. He slammed the door on Malcolm, cutting his father’s words off when he was saying, “We’ve heard that before-”

  The women in the room looked towards Connor and he grunted as he walked towards his stubborn, pain-ridden wife.

  “Connor,” she said, smiling at him.

  “Damn it, Madeleine. This is the last time,” he said, angrily.

  The women laughed and Maddie gifted him with a beautiful, but pained, smile. “Aye, Connor,” she said, knowing it to be false. She knew he knew it for the lie that it was, too, because he couldn’t deny her anything.

  Maddie looked towards Katie and Miriam. “I think it’s time you take the girls out. I don’t want little Anne and baby Isobel to be frightened with their mama screaming as I am. Hand them to Father and Malcolm. I think Iain gets a bit nervous around them, with Ginny expecting soon.”

  Ginny, Iain’s wife, wobbled over to Maddie and laughed. She placed her hands over her large belly. “He needs the practice. Besides, he hovers like Connor,” she said, and all the women in the room laughed at Connor’s sour look.

  “Then Katie, give Isobel to Uncle Iain.”

  “I should give her to James. He pretends to be fine, but I see his worry, too. Nay so bad as Connor, but…”

  The women laughed again, and Connor rolled his eyes.

  When another pain consumed Maddie, she screamed.

  “This is the last time, Maddie,” Connor said, his fear for her obvious in his eyes. “I mean it,” he repeated as he had twice before.

  She patted his hand and gritted her teeth as the pains came sooner. “Aye, Connor,” she said as she always did.

  Minutes later, Maddie gave birth to their third child, a boy. After the women helped clean her up, she rested back on pillows. They left the family alone in their room, after they’d brought in Anne and Isobel. Anne, now three, and Isobel, two, sat on the bed looking at their brother. Maddie placed the baby to her breast trying to make him feed.

  Connor sighed. “A boy.”

  Maddie smiled at him, radiating angelic, luminescent light. Connor’s breath caught, the same as it had with the births of Anne and Isobel. “I love ye,” he said hoarsely.

  She smiled gently at him. “As I love you.” She placed the baby more firmly to the side and the baby latched on. She sighed in relief at his quick learning. “What shall we name him?”

  “Douglas?”

  She smiled brightly and nodded her head. “That’s a great name. Why not Douglas Malcolm, after both of our fathers?”

  “Douglas Malcolm Ramsay,” he said, testing the name.

  “We’re running out of names,” she said, placing the baby into his father’s arms once he was satisfied with the warm milk in his belly. “What will we name the next?”

  Connor’s head snapped up to look at her as he brought the baby up to burp him. “I told ye, Madeleine, no more. Ye will not get yer way this time…I told ye…” and he went on and on.

  She smiled again as she always did, basking in the joy of her overprotective husband, and her beautiful family. She brought her girls closer within her arms, hugging them. Her eyes closed, as Connor continued his lecture. She’d lost count the number of times she’d heard it. She usually mouthed it along with him, which always exasperated him.

  Connor’s precious girls looked at him as he ranted and raved about the dangers of having another child. Slowly, they too, began to fall asleep. Connor carefully slipped into bed next to them, with Douglas in his arms.

  He smiled down his family.

  Anne looked like Maddie, and Isobel had Maddie’s face but Connor’s coloring. Then he looked down at Douglas, whom he thought looked much like himself.

  Connor sighed resignedly. He leaned back, bringing them all within his protective embrace.

  He didn’t go to sleep for a long, long while.

  Nay, he was awake making plans to build a bigger bed and envisioning what their next child would look like.

  Katie & James

  Vote for Their Story!

  Dear Reader,

  In the process of writing and editing The Highlander Who Saved Me, the story of Katie and James started speaking to me. I grew curious about them and their relationship, and then I began to wonder
whether you would be interested in them, too. Would you like to read a novella about Katie and James? Please let me know by voting here: http://www.alliepalomino.com/vote.html.

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  Allie

  About Allie

  Since I was old enough to read, I've been imaging far away places with intriguing characters and happy endings. I love to create interesting heroes and heroines, and the worlds they live in. I often joke that if it were not for the fact that I love to write, I would be worried about the many voices in my head vying for domination to get their stories told. Scenes come at me from nowhere and everywhere, and the characters take it on, rolling with their dialogue. I'm simply a spectator as they converse.

  I've always wanted to write for a living, and fortunately, I do. I live with my husband, toddler, and fur-children. We have a busy house, but I wouldn't have it any other way.

  I am grateful for my readers and their support. I promise to try and not let you down! I'd love to hear from you. Please drop me a line, or write a review.

  I hope you enjoyed this labor of love. Check out my website for extras. You can also contact me via Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, Google+, and Spotify!

  Thanks, and happy reading!

  Other Books by Allie

  The Vampire Race Wars Series

  Book 1: My Dark Queen

  Xander and Elena

  Book 2: My Dark Beauty

  Lucien and Samanda

  Coming Soon

  Book 3: My Dark Angel

  Reichen and Angel

  Coming 2016

  Heart of a Highlander Collection

  (Stand alone novels)