by Fiona Faris
“’Tis not a rash decision, Gavin. I need her. I cannae let her leave without tellin’ her how I feel.” He saw his friend’s jaw tighten. He couldn’t say he blamed him. In the dungeon, he’d all but admitted he’d ruined Milly, and if she was his sister, he couldn’t say he’d be too thrilled to have that same man want to propose marriage to her. Especially after so recently being rescued from that very fate. But he loved Milly, and he knew if he had Gavin’s support, she would at least listen to what he had to say.
“You need her? And what if she doesnae want ye?” It took effort, he was not yet near completely healed, but he walked over to where his friend was wearing a path into the stone floor and placed his hands on Gavin’s shoulders. He looked into his friend’s deep green eyes, so similar to Milly’s. He had to make Gavin see. His sister was his life. She was his everything. He wouldn’t let her down.
“I love her, Gavin. I’ll nae hurt her. I want nothing more than to keep her, protect her, and love her for the rest of our lives. My goal is nae tae force Milly tae do anything. My goal is tae make her see I’m nothing without her. I only want her happiness. If after that she still refuses me, then so be it. But I cannae let her leave MacKenzie Castle without at least trying. Ye hae my word. Do ye nae see it? Can ye not tell she has strong feelings for me as well. She is afraid.” Gavin smiled as he clasped Nathan’s back.
“Och, aye, I see it. I’ve seen it since the chapel. Hell the way she hovered over ye when ye were hurt. Hell, everyone in the keep has seen it. But I needed tae hear ye say it, brother. If ye couldnae say it tae me, how would ye be able tae say it tae her? And it’s Milly that needs tae hear it. Ye better come on then.”
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Milly knew she should have told Nathan she was planning to return with her brothers to Cadney on the morrow. But she didn’t want to face him, or tell him goodbye. Really there was no reason for her to stay on at MacKenzie Castle, and she knew Violet and Thomas were eager to get home and be wed on MacGille lands. After everything they had suffered at her hands, she couldn’t in good conscience keep them apart any longer. It was time to go home. Yet, why did she feel so sad to do so?
She heard the door open behind her and knew without turning around it was Gavin. The familiar fall of his footsteps was something she hadn’t even realized she’d missed while he’d been gone. But now to hear him again made her smile. Without turning, she addressed her brother.
“It’s rude to come into a lady’s chamber without knocking.”
“It’s rude tae not tell your twin brother th’ real reason you’re in such a hurry tae leave MacKenzie Castle.” She turned and was shocked to see behind Gavin in the doorframe stood Nathan. The sight of him up and about made her breath catch. Even with an almost mortal wound, and having been bed ridden for days, he was still magnificent.
“Nathan, ye should be in bed,” she said, not looking at Nathan but rather at Gavin, giving him a quizzical stare. What’s going on, she thought.
“Why don’t ye ask Nathan why he bade me escort him tae ye?” Gavin asked as if reading her mind. Damn her brother. Even two years locked away and left for dead, and he still managed to read her mind.
“Milly, why are ye leavin’?”
“It’s time for me tae go home.” She finally looked up at him as he strode across the room. He winced slightly and she moved to lend him her shoulder, but he waved her away, instead taking her hands in his own.
“Milly, is that what ye want? Truly?” Of course it wasn’t what she wanted. She wanted to stay with him. After everything they’d been through, there was nowhere else she wanted to be. But she couldn’t be sure he really wanted her. He was an honorable man and he would stand by the sweet nothings he whispered to her when they’d made love, and the promises he’d said in Perth. But none of that mattered now. She loved him, she would always love him, but she wouldn’t be his obligation.
“Aye, ’tis better this way. Ye need tae focus on yer clan, yer people.” He looked at her as if she’d just stabbed him with her dirk.
“Milly, it means nothing without ye. Nothing. I don’t want any of it without ye. I want ye here with me.”
She looked up. What the devil was he talking about? He didn’t need her. They’d won. He was Laird. Elias was gone. The losses were great, too great to bear without sorrow, but Clan MacKenzie would thrive under Nathan. She reached up and placed her palm against his forehead. He must have been sick with fever. There was no other reason he would be speaking this way.
“Nathan, ye dinnae need me. I dinnae want ye tae feel I’ll hold ye tae the silly words we said during everything that happened.” She placed a hand on his cheek. “Yer a dear man. Strong and brave, but ye have no obligation toward me.”
Nathan grabbed her hand from his cheek and brought it around to his lips. He planted a delicate kiss into her palm. This was how Milly wanted to remember him. This time it wasn’t rejection. She was releasing him. She knew she would never love another man like she loved Nathan, but if he was free and happy that was all that mattered to her. She tried to pull her hand away, but he wouldn’t release it.
“Milly,” he said. “I’m afraid ye dinnae understand. We had a deal. I would help ye find Gavin and in turn ye would be mine, heart, body, and soul. Do ye think I’d let ye go so easily?” She saw the smile in his eyes and felt a warmth spread through her.
“Nathan, what are ye sayin’?” The blue in his irises shone brightly against the sunlit room.
“Millicent Catherine MacGille, I love ye. I’ve loved ye since the day in the woods when ye were just a bairn and ye kissed me and begged me tae marry ye. I was stupid then and I let ye get away. I’ll not be stupid again. Please say ye love me, too. Please say ye’d be my bride? I cannae do this without ye. I don’t ever want tae be without ye again.” She could hardly believe what she was hearing. He loved her? He truly loved her? He wanted to marry her? Not as some plot or scheme, but because he didn’t want to be without her?
She smiled up at him, tears threatening to fall. She reached up onto her toes and kissed him. Their mouths met in a tender embrace, neither taking but both giving everything they had. Nathan broke the kiss and wiped her tears with the pad of his thumb.
“Are ye gonna answer me, lass? I want tae hear ye say it.” She had been so enthralled by what he was saying, she didn’t realize she hadn’t spoken.
“Aye, I love ye, Nathan MacKenzie. I love ye so much I was willing tae give ye up. But if ye’ll have me I’d love tae be yer wife.”
“Thank God,” Gavin said from his perch in the corner. Milly startled, having forgotten her brother was in the room. “Now that we have that settled, I’ll go inform the others. I think the father is still in the keep. Let’s make this happen as soon as possible.”
He laughed a deep, velvet laugh as Nathan pulled Milly close and pressed his lips against hers. This time the kiss was deep, and it told her everything she needed to know. He was hers and he’d almost been lost to her, so she gripped him tight to her chest. She would never let go. Words of love spoken between them sealed their fate more than any holy man. She knew her heart and now she finally knew his as well. He wasn’t permitted to leave her, ever. She refused to accept death as a possibility. She was his and he hers, one, for all of time.
“I love ye, Nathan,” she whispered against his cheek.
“And I ye, lass, forever.”
“What the devil is goin’ on here?” They both looked up to see giant, flame-haired Lucas MacGille standing in the open door frame of the bedchamber. Milly smiled at her oldest brother.
“It appears, Brother, that I’m tae be married.” She had no idea how Lucas would react to the news that she intended to marry Nathan, but she wasn’t surprised when he shook his head and laughed.
“Well, it’s about time. I guess Ella was right. She kent ye’d fall for the MacKenzie all over again. Shall I go fetch her and the kids? When is the wedding?”
“Today!” both Milly and Nathan said in unison.
There would be no time to fetch anyone.
The End
Epilogue
Two Years Later, August, 1693. Great Hall, MacKenzie Keep
“Mayhap what ye need, Gavin, is an adventure.” Nathan looked at his brother-in-law and smiled. Gavin had spent the Winter and Spring going back and forth between Cadney and the MacKenzie keep. Any fool could see he was getting restless. He needed a purpose, a place in the world.
“Och, an adventure. What tae ye ken?” His words were sour, yet Gavin was rarely sour. It was why Nathan and Milly’s first born, Hammish, loved his Uncle Gavs. The man always had a smile and a sweetmeat for his toddling nephew. Right now the small auburn haired boy was running circles around his uncle, and every time Gavin stopped the conversation to pick the boy up over his head, Ham would erupt in a fit of infectious giggles that made Nathan smile. He loved being a father. Hammish, named after his own da, was the joy of his world. He wanted a family again, wanted to fill the castle with lots of little Nathan’s and Milly’s. He would be lying if he’d said he didn’t thoroughly enjoy the making of the bairns as well. Nathan looked at his wife and smiled. She was with their second child, but hadn’t started her increase. Right at the moment it was something only the two of them shared. He liked having secrets with her. He liked that he was the only man who knew how her belly had just the slightest roundness to it, and her breasts had grown firm and even more sensitive to the touch. His body responded just thinking about it. She gave him a private smile, as if she knew exactly when what he was thinking. He wanted nothing more than to declare the meal over and take his wife upstairs to bed. It was all he could do to turn his gaze from hers and focus on Gavin.
“Brother, ye could go home tae Cadney and spend time with other nephews, and your new niece?” Milly chimed in from her seat at the table.
“Och, I cannae go tae Cadney, there’s nae room. Ella’s sister Amelia is there. She’s nothing like Ella at all. I’ve no love for the English, but ye ken I love Ella, but her sister, now there is a difficult woman.” Nathan and Milly shared a telling glance while Gavin kept on. “Besides, the two of them are sure tae be clucking around, along with Violet and Kelly like a bunch of hens. I’d be outnumbered. Nay, I’m safer here. I just wish there was a use for me. Something I could dae. I dinnae want tae go back tae war. There is nae point. But there has tae be something.”
“Oh, Violet, how I miss her. Tell me Gavin, how is she?” Milly knew she would be giving up her best friend by choosing to marry and stay at MacKenzie, and with Milly giving birth, being a new mother, and now pregnant again, she rarely got back to her home to see her friend.
Gavin waved his arm at his sister. Disinterested in discussing what he deemed as women’s matters, Nathan couldn’t help but chuckle.
“She won’t give it up until ye give her some news of her friend.”
“Och, I ken,” Gavin said, then turning to Milly. “Violet is fine. She is with child, expected to give birth before winter.”
“Oh,” Milly said with a wistful gaze. “I wish I was there with her.” Nathan shot his wife a warning glance. She could wish, but in her current condition she would be staying put.
“Maybe in winter, love,” he said sweetly.
“Och, ye both are so sickeningly sweet.” Nathan looked at his wife’s brother. He knew exactly what the problem with Gavin was.
“I ken what it looks like when a man is bored out of his mind. Ye, Gavin MacGille, are bored out of yer mind. Ye ken, when I was bored out of my mind not tae long ago, I took up bounty huntin’.” Nathan had done well for himself as a bounty hunter. It wasn’t all good, but some of it had been. He had traveled and seen parts of the world he never thought possible. He learned skills that served him well when he had to go up against his cousin. It wasn’t the worst way to earn coin, and with Gavin’s strategic genius, he would probably do quite well.
“I ken a man in Ullapool. He taught me everything I ken about the bounty business. Shall I recommend ye?”
“Ye ken, Nathan, ‘tisn’t the worst idea ye’ve had.” Nathan saw that familiar sparkle in Gavin’s eye. He was going to write to his man.
* * *
Milly laid with her hand on Nathan’s chest, his slow even breath offering her a soothing focus as a small wave of sickness overcame her. She hadn’t experienced any sickness with Hammish when she carried him, but this second baby was very different.
“I think she is going to be a challenge,” she said, letting the air out of her lungs in quick, shallow breaths. He wrapped his fingers around hers. “Should I send for Claire and some peppermint tea?”
He was always so thoughtful. At the mention of Claire and peppermint tea, a memory came flooding back from years before. When Nathan had been shot, Claire’s man Simon had sat with her by Nathan’s side one evening. He had brought broth for Nathan and peppermint tea from Claire. There was something so familiar and comforting about him. Even though Nathan was passed out and couldn’t take nourishment, it was as if he was sitting there with her and Simon. There was something there, something she’d promised herself she would revisit. What was it?
Nathan leaned over and placed a light kiss on her forehead. “Is it any better, love?”
She nodded. “Nathan, tell me about Simon?” He looked at her as if she’d grown two heads.
“Whatever for? And should I be jealous that my pregnant, naked wife, is lying in bed with me asking about my head clansman?”
“Nay, love, nay.” She planted a kiss onto his mouth. She felt his body respond to her, and she opened for him. He made the kiss deeper before pulling away to trail his lips down her throat. Stopping at that divot, he knew she liked where throat met chest. “But, Nathan,” she said as he released a stifled sigh into her neck. “Do ye ken anything about the women yer da may have visited after yer ma passed?”
“Okay, well now the mood is entirely killed, sweet lass, why don’t ye just come out with it?” She looked at him and gave him another sly smile.
“I think Simon may be yer kin.”
“Well, of course he’s my kin. My da took him in when his ma died of sickness when he was a wee lad.”
“Och, nay, Nathan think about it. His hair is dark like yours, and yer da’s. His eyes are the same midnight blue and grey, like yers. He has a lot of the same speech and mannerisms.”
Realization of what she was trying to say came over Nathan. She watched it crest him like a wave.
“It couldn’t be…”
“Aye, Nathan. I think it is. I think mayhap Simon is yer brother.”
He laid back down and stared up at the ceiling. It must have been a shock. She could only hope it was a good shock. Nathan always liked Simon. They got on as brothers would. Nathan was nothing like Elias. She knew he wouldn’t be concerned with his title, or the potential of sharing the MacKenzie line. The hardest part of being Laird for Nathan was the lack of kin to share it with. Of course Milly was his family now, and little Hammish, who Nathan loved with abandon. But a brother, a true brother?
He turned to face her. “Do ye think it’s possible?”
“Aye, I dae.”
He took her lips then in a harsh and unyielding kiss. “I’m not alone,” he said when he finally broke away. “I’m not alone.”
“I told ye, Nathan MacKenzie, ye’d never be alone again,” she said right before kissing him back.
Extended Epilogue
Eager to learn what the future holds for the family of Milly and Nathan?
Especially Milly’s brother, Gavin…
Then you may enjoy this extended epilogue.
Simply tap here and you can read it for FREE, or use this link:
https://www.fionafaris.com/clxw
Afterword
Thank you for reading my novel, Her Highlander’s Heart. I really hope you enjoyed it! If you did, could you please be so kind to write a review HERE?
It is very important for me to read your thoughts about my book, in order to get better at writing.
&
nbsp; Please use the link below:
https://www.fionafaris.com/09di
Do you want more Romance?
Turn on the next page to read the first chapters of my previous best-seller, which is the prequel to this story…
It’s about Ella and it’s called Her Highland Secret
It’s a story about two sworn enemies who have to learn to trust and protect each other, if they are to survive…
* * *
Her Highland Secret
Chapter One
Early August, 1689, Carlisle Castle, Cumberland, England
