All of this Mairi was aware of only peripherally. For her gaze was fixed on the man who now stood at the far end of the pier, still as stone, looking at her.
He approached, and she dared not breathe.
Torchlight silhouetted his shoulders and powerful legs as he moved with purpose toward her, the floating timbers of the pier rolling under his weight.
She backed into the cottage, unable to take her eyes from him. Soft firelight lit up his features, burned golden-green in his eyes as he drew near. What meant he to do? To say?
She watched, rapt, as the muscles of his face strained with emotions she could not fathom. He stepped across the threshold and quietly shut the door.
They stood there for a moment, a lifetime, mute, drinking each other in. At last she said, “Ye’ve come.”
“Aye. Did you think I wouldn’t?”
“Nay, I knew ye would.” She took stock of his clothing, his hands, the dirk belted at his waist. She saw no blood, nor any outward sign that a battle had ensued after Rob had spirited her away to safety on Conall’s order.
Save one thing.
A long black braid of human hair hung from his badger-skin sporran like a trophy. With a shock she realized ’twas Tang’s. She knew without asking that Conall had killed him.
“What of Fraser?” she said, fearful to hear the answer. “Shall there be war between ye?”
He cast her a half smile, and the sight of it, the memories it invoked, caused her heart to swell. She worked to keep a rein on her emotions.
“Nay,” he said. “There shall be no war.”
She was stunned and knew it showed on her face. “How did ye manage to avoid it?” Fraser was a proud man. ’Twas hard to believe he’d allow the killing of one of his chieftains to go unpunished.
Conall’s smile broadened. He lifted his shoulders in a casual shrug. “I did what I do best,” he said. “I bargained.”
She laughed at that. She couldn’t help herself, recalling the day they met, when first he proposed the arrangement to build out her docks and deliver the lake trade.
As she continued to look at him, his smile faded. Hers faded, too. She stood her ground and waited for him to speak. He did not. ’Twas almost as if he couldn’t speak. The situation reminded her much of that rainy day they had parted three months ago.
It dawned on her that this waiting, this holding back on her part—fueled by pride and fear—’twas, perhaps, the cause of all their trouble to begin with. “Conall,” she said, and took a step toward him.
A heartbeat later his arms went ‘round her. He crushed her to him, peppered kisses in her hair, across her eyelids, over her face. His mouth, at last, claimed hers and she gave herself up to pure sensation.
“Are you hurt?” he said, pulling back long enough to inspect her for injury. “Did he harm you?” He meant Geoffrey.
“Nay.” She looked up at him and was undone by the raw emotion she saw reflected in his eyes. “But he meant to. If ye hadn’t come, he might have.”
“Mairi, I—” He shook his head, and ’twas clear to her he would say more but couldn’t get the words out. “The babe.”
“All is well,” she said quickly. “There’s naught to fear.” Dora had examined her closely upon her return and had confirmed it.
“Thank God for that.” He ran his hands over her arms, looking at her with unmasked wonder in his eyes, as if seeing her for the first time. “Our babe,” he said. “Mine and yours.”
“Aye.”
He pulled her tight against him, burying his face in her hair. She held on to him, reveling in the feel of his arms around her, his scent, his breath hot against her ear.
“Why did you not tell me? Send for me, when first you knew? Nay, dinna answer, for I know why.”
“Do ye?”
He pulled away to look at her. “Aye, because I gave you no reason to believe I wanted such a gift. I left you without a word, without a hint of my heart’s true feeling.”
“I did the same,” she admitted. “I let ye go.”
They looked at each other, and she read the pain in his eyes. A pain she shared. One that would not be lifted till all that needed saying was finally said.
“I would no’ bind ye to me unwilling. Nor will I now.” There. ’Twas done.
“Mairi, I—”
“Rob told me of your mishap, of Geoffrey’s treachery, the slave ship and the Norseman who offered ye aid.” She was babbling now, fearful of what he’d say next.
“I deserved it.”
“Dinna say that.”
“Aye, well…” He shrugged. “All the same, the time away helped me to see things clear in my mind, in my heart.”
She dared to hope the light she saw in his eyes, the half smile edging his lips, meant…
“The day I left here, I had a change of heart and turned ‘round. I was on my way back to you when Symon’s men overcame me in the wood at the crossroad. Did Rob tell you?”
“Nay.” She was stunned. “But…why?”
He smiled, and crushed her so tightly to him she could barely breathe. “Do you not know?”
She tilted her face upward and looked into his eyes. His lips hovered a hairbreadth above hers.
“For the same reason I meant to come for you once I’d learned you were not wed. To win you back, if it were possible.”
“Yet ye believed the child inside me belonged to Geoffrey?”
“Aye.”
Mairi stopped breathing. “Ye would have done that?”
He kissed her again, gently, with a tenderness she’d ne’er experienced with him before. “In a heartbeat. For I love you, Mairi Dunbar, more than all the world.”
At once she felt the weight of her doubts lift off like some wild bird newly freed from long captivity.
“I knew that day I left you long months ago. I knew but wouldn’t believe.”
He cupped her face in his hands and kissed her again. Then, without warning, he lifted her off her feet and into his arms. She gasped in surprise and delight.
“And what of you, sweetling?” he said as he carried her to the narrow bed heaped with plaids. “Could you love a fool?”
“Nay,” she said, and his face fell. “But I could love a rogue, an adventurer.”
He laughed and laid her gently on the bed, easing himself beside her. Firelight danced in his eyes. His hair burned gold and red, and colors she’d yet to discover and could not name.
“Methinks there will be adventure enough for me right here.” He moved his hand to the soft swell of her abdomen, and his face grew serious. “Will you have me, Mairi? As husband? As father to Kip and to our child?”
She felt the sting of tears and willed them not break for fear her joy would be mistaken. “Aye, I will. With all my heart.” She kissed him and the power of their love coursed like fire through her body, awakening every inch of skin, every nerve.
His hand slid downward, his fingers toying with the hem of her gown, easing upward along her leg. “Ye are a rogue,” she breathed, and giggled against his lips.
He touched her, and she gasped.
“Aye,” he said, “your rogue.” And then he proceeded to prove it.
Epilogue
Six months later
“She’s a redhead!” Kip cried, and opened his arms to accept the tiny, swaddled newborn.
“O’ course she is.” Dora cast Mairi and Conall an amused look. “What did ye expect?”
Conall’s arms tightened ‘round her, and Mairi gazed up at him, her heart full. “She’s as beautiful as her mother,” he said, and brushed a kiss across her lips.
“But I wanted a brother!” Kip turned forlorn eyes on him. “Did ye no’ want a son?”
Mairi held her breath and awaited her husband’s answer.
Conall looked thoughtfully at the boy. “I already have a son. You.”
Kip’s face lit up, and Mairi’s heart swelled with love for their new-made family.
“And the lass’s name?” Dora, ever
practical, arched a brow at them.
“Gladys, after my mother,” Mairi said.
“And Ellen, after mine.” Conall lovingly stroked the baby’s fire-gold hair.
“Gladys Ellen,” Dora said, and nodded satisfaction.
“I shall call her Gladdy.” Kip placed the baby in Mairi’s arms. “She can play with us!” He ran to the door and yanked it wide. Jupiter pranced into the room, his enormous tail thwacking against the furniture.
“Aye, when she’s older.” Dora shooed them both into the corridor of the fortified house on the hill above the loch. “Now, let’s leave your mam and da to themselves and the little one.” She stood in the doorway and sighed, her eyes fixed on Gladdy’s tiny face.
After Dora closed the door, Mairi said, “She’s pregnant, ye know.”
“Dora?” Conall nearly came off the bed. “At her age?”
“She’s no’ so old.” Mairi pouted and smoothed the baby’s hair.
“Does Rob know?”
“Oh, nay. She’s trying to think of a gentle way to break the news.”
Conall laughed. “Aye, well, the best way is to hit him right over the head with it. Perhaps ’Twill knock some sense into him.”
“As it did with ye?” She shot him a mischievous half smile.
“Aye,” he breathed, and kissed her again, this time more fervently.
“So, is it worth it to ye?” Mairi whispered against his lips. “The responsibility, the risks?”
“Is what worth it, sweetling?”
She nodded at the sleeping babe in her arms. “Love.”
His eyes shone. “Aye, wife. ’Tis a gift and a wonder I know not how I lived without. You taught me that, Mairi. You and Kip, and our babe.” He worked a fingertip into Gladdy’s tiny, clenched fist. “I shall love and protect you, little one, all the days of my life.”
Mairi gazed into her husband’s shining eyes, and knew without doubt that he would. In the days since they’d wed, they spoke often of Alwin Dunbar, of the choices he’d made, and the gentle peace Mairi had come to know, at last, in understanding him.
“I was right about ye all along, Conall Mackintosh.” She smiled up at him, and he tilted his head in question. “Ye are much like my father, after all.”
ISBN: 978-1-4603-6031-6
A ROGUE’S HEART
Copyright © 2002 by Debra Lee Brown
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