She nodded.
Braden took a deep breath. He didn’t know an easy way to say what was in his heart, so he just blurted it out. “I love you and I want to marry you.”
The shock on her face was almost comical. Her hands began trembling almost as soon as the words were out.
“Braden, I don’t know what to say.”
“Say, Aye Braden I’d love to marry you.”
“Braden, I would love to marry you, but it’s not that simple.”
His chest drew tight. “Why not?”
Her gaze went from him to the stable, then back to him. “I…I…”
“You?”
“I—”
The door to the stable burst open before she could finish her sentence.
Connor came bounding up to them.
Silently, Braden cursed the lad’s timing and took a step back before Maggie had a chance to knee him where it would hurt most.
“Are those my sweet biscuits and jam?” Connor asked Maggie. “I hope they are, because they smell delicious.”
“Aye, little bit, they’re yours, and make sure you finish all the milk.”
The lad wrinkled his nose. “I prefer ale.”
“But you’ll drink the milk.”
His jaw slack, Braden glanced back and forth between them. “You know him?”
“Of course she does,” Connor said. “She’s my new mother.”
Braden took another step back as he absorbed the news. “But how—”
“I met him last night,” Maggie explained. “He wanted me to take him to the MacAllisters.”
In an instant he understood why she had sought him out last night. “That’s why you asked me about children?”
She nodded. “I didn’t want you to hurt the lad’s feelings.”
Braden burst out laughing.
Connor scratched his head as he looked back and forth between them. “Can I go eat now?”
“Aye,” Maggie said, “but before you leave, I want you to meet your father, Braden MacAllister.”
“That ain’t me father,” the boy said. “Kieran MacAllister be my da.”
They both stood stock-still as the lad’s words rang in their ears.
“Fia ingen Bracken!” Braden said as he recalled the name and the lass. Kieran had fawned over her for weeks before he met Isobail.
“You’re Kieran’s son?” Maggie asked Connor. “Are you sure?”
The boy looked at her as if she had gone mad. “Aye. Me aunt went to find him when my mother died, but she came back saying he was dead too and that she was stuck with me.”
Braden sank down on his knees so that he could look more closely at the boy.
Now he could see the difference in the face. Kieran and he had shared the same eye color and hair.
He cupped the lad’s face in his hands and started at the living legacy Kieran had left them. “You have no idea how many people are going to love you where we’re going.”
“Really?” Connor asked, his voice high, his eyes gleaming.
“Aye,” Maggie said as she knelt beside them. “Starting with Braden and myself.”
Braden looked at her, his heart pounding. “You were going to raise him, thinking he was mine, and never tell me?”
“I would have told you when I thought you were ready.”
He couldn’t believe his ears. He had been so wrong about her. So very wrong. And he would spend the rest of his life making it up to her.
“You’re amazing.”
She looked away sheepishly.
He took her hand and placed a kiss on the back of her knuckles. “Thank you, Maggie. For everything.”
This time, when she looked at him, he leaned forward and kissed her.
“Yuck!” Connor snorted. “Not that ickiness.”
Braden broke away with a laugh. “Trust me, lad, one day it won’t be icky to you.”
“If that day ever comes, you can take me head and stick it on a pike.”
“Go eat,” Maggie said, her voice filled with laughter.
Connor didn’t need any more encouragement. He bounded off at a dead run.
“You know,” Braden said, tracing the contour of her cheek with his fingertips, “you never really did answer my proposal. Will you marry me?”
Maggie bit her lip, her brow furrowed. “Now, why should I be wanting to do that? All you’ve ever done is torment me. And now you thought I would be cold enough to just toss a boy out on his own.”
“You thought I’d be so cold as not to want the child at all.”
“That was your own fault. You’re the one who said children smelled.”
Braden laughed. “I did say that, but I didn’t mean it.” He cupped her cheek in his hand as he stared into those amber eyes that touched him all the way to his unrepentant soul. “In truth, there is nothing more on earth that I would ever want than to have a smelly, messy child with you.”
“Truly?”
He nodded.
Maggie’s bright smile lit her entire face. “Well, then, Braden MacAllister, I will gladly marry you, and have lots of smelly, messy children with you.”
Epilogue
Two months later, Maggie stood in the midst of her wedding celebration with trembling hands. She still couldn’t believe it was real!
All the years she had spent dreaming of this, and none could compare to the reality of it.
Pegeen, Merry and Ceana chattered around her, offering their congratulations.
But Maggie’s attention was focused across the room where Braden stood with his brothers, her brothers, along with Connor and Robby MacDouglas, drinking ale and laughing.
Sin was again dressed as an Englishman and his left arm was no longer bandaged from the burn. If not for the very subtle way he favored it, no one would ever know he’d been injured.
Connor darted between the men as he basked in their patient indulgence of his youthful exuberance.
Ewan stood above them all, his face grim, but every now and again, Maggie caught a twinkle in his eye as he traded insults with Braden or Lochlan, or brushed his hand through Connor’s hair.
And Robby…It was still strange to see him standing with them. No one would ever guess that just a few weeks ago they had all been mortal enemies. She couldn’t fathom the change Ceana and her babe had made in the rough laird. But then love was strange that way.
At this moment, all was right in the world and she was truly grateful for the miracle.
“Oh, Maggie,” Pegeen exclaimed. “What beautiful shoes you have.”
Maggie looked down to see her left shoe peeking out from beneath the hem of her skirt. The soft black leather slippers with tiny rose blossoms stitched into them had been a wedding gift from Braden.
Smiling, she remembered Braden’s story of Enos and his words about her footwear, as well as her husband’s vow that she would never again own a pair of ugly shoes.
“Thank you,” she said to Pegeen.
Braden joined her then. Taking her hand in his, he placed a gentle kiss across her knuckles. “I wondered where you had wandered off to.”
“I’ll never be far away,” she said. “I can’t afford to be, since there’s no telling whose bed I might find you in.”
He laughed. “You know better than that, little blossom. There’s only one woman who can satisfy me. And speaking of…” he bent and whispered a proposition in her ear that left her cheeks scalding.
“Braden!” she gasped in surprise. “Are you never sated?”
“Never,” he said with a devilish gleam in his eyes. “But then, neither are you.”
Maggie bit her lip as she glanced around to see if anyone else had heard his words. Luckily not, but in her heart, she knew the truth of it. She was never sated when it came to Braden.
It was then he handed her a small square package wrapped in kidskin. Maggie smiled as she unwrapped it.
Ever since they had returned from MacDouglas lands, Braden had lavished her with more gifts than she could fathom.
Silver brooches, gold necklaces, a silver brush for her hair. He’d given her so much that she couldn’t imagine what this newest gift could possibly be.
Frowning, she pulled back the wrapping to find the softest dark green fabric she had ever felt.
“It’s silk,” he said in her ear as he pulled her back against his chest and hugged her about the waist. Resting his chin on her shoulder, he rocked her ever so slightly in his arms. “I’m going to wrap you up in it tonight and devour you.”
Her cheeks warmed even more.
Lochlan spoke up from across the room, and immediately everyone grew quiet. “You know, when I first heard my baby brother was traipsing over to MacDouglas lands, I thought he was a dead man for sure. Never did I expect him to return home to us, let alone actually succeed in stopping the feud. And if someone had told me he would return with a bride…Well, I’m quite sure the devil is currently cursing a blizzard as he tries to find warmth.”
Everyone laughed.
Robby raised his tankard toward them. “To Braden MacAllister, the best peacemaker e’er born.”
Maggie’s jaw dropped as everyone cheered Braden’s accomplishment.
Braden laughed and whispered in her ear. “Don’t contradict him, little blossom, not unless you want to start another feud. You and I know the truth.”
Maggie turned her head to look at him and smiled. There was a lot more to that comment than Braden had meant.
For the first time, she did know the truth. She loved Braden, he loved her, and he would never leave her as her father had done her mother. And she would never ask more of him than he could give.
There was just one more truth they needed to share. “Braden?” she asked sweetly. “When it comes to children, do you prefer a boy or a girl?”
“As long as it comes with its mother’s fiery spirit and russet hair, I couldn’t care less. Why?”
She stood up on her tiptoes and whispered softly in his ear, “Well, I guess come next summer we’ll know exactly what he or she looks like.”
Braden’s entire face lit up at the news. With a triumphant shout, he lifted her up in his arms and kissed her deeply. The crowd carried his shout as they cheered his kiss.
“Long live Braden and Maggie!”
And long live their love.
About the Author
Multi-published romance author, Kinley MacGregor, knows men. She lives outside of Nashville, Tennessee, with her husband and three sons. Raised in the middle of eight boys, and currently outnumbered by the Y chromosome in her home, she realizes the most valuable asset a woman has for coping with men is a sense of humor (not to mention a large trash bag and a pair of tongs).
A Web/Flash Developer by trade, Kinley is the highly praised author of A Pirate of Her Own, Master of Seduction, Master of Desire and Santa Wears Spurs. You can visit her online at www.kinleymacgregor.com or www.sherrilynkenyon.com.
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Books by
Kinley MacGregor
A PIRATE OF HER OWN
MASTER OF SEDUCTION
MASTER OF DESIRE
CLAIMING THE HIGHLANDER
BORN IN SIN
TAMING THE SCOTSMAN
Coming Soon
A DARK CHAMPION
Copyright
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents, are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
CLAIMING THE HIGHLANDER. Copyright © 2002 Sherrilyn Kenyon. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of PerfectBound™.
PerfectBound™ and the PerfectBound™ logo are trademarks of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc.
Mobipocket Reader December 2005 ISBN 0-06-113252-7
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