The Highlander's Christmas Bride

by Vanessa Kelly

  “I never reveal a confidential source.”

  “Oh, bugger you.”

  When Alec smirked at him, Logan considered tossing his friend onto the drive. But that would hardly advance his cause with Donella. Not to mention that Alec would give as good as he got, and sporting a black eye or broken nose would hardly assist his wooing campaign.

  “Are you two finished jumping about like bantam roosters?” came a sardonic voice from the top of the steps.

  Logan swept off his hat and gave Edie an extravagant bow. “Mrs. Gilbride, you’re looking as lovely as always this fine day.”

  “It’s not fine. It’s bloody freezing, so stop acting like nitwits and get in here.”

  “Edie, love,” Alec replied, “I’m trying to determine if Logan’s presence will disturb Donella even more. I won’t have the blighter causing trouble.”

  Edie pulled her cashmere shawl closer around her shoulders. “That’s for Donella to decide. Now, cease acting like Scottish oafs and get inside.”

  “Why your wife ever married you is beyond me,” Logan said to Alec. “She’s too smart and pretty for the likes of you.”

  “Oh, I can tell you exactly why she married me,” Alec said, waggling his eyebrows.

  “You’re an idiot.” Edie turned on her heel and disappeared inside the house.

  “Yes, but I’m your idiot,” Alec called after her.

  Logan clamped a hand on his friend’s shoulder and propelled him up the stairs. “She’s right. It’s bloody freezing out here, and I would like to see Donella at some point. My son, too.”

  “Fine, but you’d best fix this, Logan, or I swear I will murder you.”

  “That’s why I’m here. Now if you would just get the hell out of my way.”

  “Now, gentlemen, no more fighting,” Edie said as they joined her in the entrance hall. “You’ll shock the servants.”

  Logan shot a glance at the liveried footman, who stood by the door with a hint of a long-suffering expression. “I suspect your staff is used to it by now.”

  “True enough,” Alec said. “In fact, they’d probably faint dead away if we started acting like normal folk. Isn’t that right, Robby?”

  “If you say so, sir,” the footman politely replied.

  Alec cocked an eyebrow at Logan. “Care for a whisky in my study before you begin tempting fate?”

  “Is that a euphemism?”

  “For what?”

  “Bashing my head in.”

  Alec snorted a laugh and shook his head. Clearly, Logan had passed muster, reassuring his friend he intended to do right by Donella.

  “There will be no drinking,” Edie said in a severe tone. “Not until you and Donella sort this out.”

  Logan couldn’t resist. “Sort what out?”

  “Do not tempt me, Logan Kendrick,” she retorted. “I will bash your head in, if necessary.”

  “On second thought,” Logan said to Alec, “she’s the perfect wife for you.”

  Alec wrapped an arm around Edie’s nicely curved waist, pulling her close. “I know that better than anyone. In fact, while Logan does his best to act like a normal human being, why don’t we go upstairs and—”

  His wife gave him a little shove and wriggled out of his arms. “You can be so annoying, Alasdair Gilbride.”

  Still, Logan didn’t miss the blush on her round cheeks or the pleasure in her little smile. Quickly, though, she leveled another scowl in his direction.

  “This situation is too serious to joke about,” she said. “Donella is upset, as is Joseph. You need to fix things, and right now.”

  Logan sighed. “Obviously. Where are they?”

  “Donella, Angus, and Joseph are in the drawing room, organizing the decorations for the Christmas party.”

  “Any chance you can get my grandfather out of the way, Edie? I can’t do this properly if he’s mucking everything up.”

  As if on cue, one of the doors off the wide hall flew open and Angus stalked out. He was looking especially deranged today, dressed in one of his oldest kilts and an ancient patched leather vest. Between the outfit and his white hair, frizzed out like a puffball, he looked like he’d just rolled out of an obscure Highland glen.

  He stomped over to join them. “About time ye showed up. I was fair ready to come lookin’ for ye.”

  “And good afternoon to you, Grandda. May I say you’re looking particularly disreputable today? How in God’s name did Victoria let you out of the house in that outfit?”

  Angus whipped up a gnarly finger and wagged it at Logan’s nose. “I’ll have no sass from ye, laddie boy. Ye ken I’m here to help Joseph and the lass decorate the house. Ye canna expect me to be standing on ladders and hauling in greenery in my best finery.”

  “I’m sure the servants would be happy to stand on ladders. There’s no need to go about dressed like a scrub.” Logan frowned. “Besides, I don’t want you climbing ladders. You’re too old for that nonsense.”

  “I did try to make a similar point,” Edie said. “Of course Mr. MacDonald did not agree with my assessment.”

  “Aye, because I’ll nae be havin’ ye put me out to pasture, like some broken-down old nag.”

  Knowing how chippy Angus was about his age, Logan tried a different tack. “Grandda, the servants are supposed to help with this sort of thing. You’ll annoy them if you do their job.”

  “Fah. Lowlanders—what do they know about celebratin’ Christmas?”

  The Kendricks had never celebrated the holiday until Victoria joined the family. Logan refrained from pointing that out, however, since he was simply grateful that the old fellow was still talking to him after last night’s donnybrook.

  As if reading his thoughts, Angus narrowed his gaze. “But that’s not what I wanted to talk to ye about. Ye have ground to make up, laddie. Miles of it.”

  Logan blew out an exasperated breath. “All right, but can we please not do this in front of an audience?”

  “Don’t mind us,” Alec said. “We’re happy to see you get your ar—”

  Edie jabbed him in the side.

  “Er, see your grandfather talk some sense into you,” he finished.

  “Well, not me,” said Edie.

  She nodded a dismissal to the footman, then took Alec’s arm and started dragging him toward the stairs.

  “Are we going up to the bedroom, after all?” Alec asked, ever hopeful.

  “No,” Edie tartly replied. “We’re going to the nursery to spend time with your children. You’ve yet to see them today.”

  “Blast.”

  “Everyone knows how much you love your children, you big oaf,” his wife pointed out. “Some days, I can’t keep you out of the nursery. It drives poor Nurse demented.”

  “Which is why I’m suggesting we go to the bedroom first, so we can make some more children.”

  “I will box your ears, Alasdair Gilbride,” Edie said.

  “What in God’s name will our guests think of us?”

  “That yer husband is a lucky man, lassie,” Angus called after them.

  “He’ll be lucky if I don’t shove him out a window,” Edie called back.

  She herded him up the stairs, scolding him as she followed. Alec being Alec, he teased her the whole way, their mock argument eventually fading.

  “She’s a grand lass, even though she’s a Sassenach,” Angus said.

  “That she is.”

  “But she’s nae too happy with ye,” his grandfather said, going back to scowling. “We had quite the chat about it, first thing.”

  “Then she can join the club. Nick wouldn’t even talk to me this morning, and Victoria acted like I’d killed her pet budgie.”

  Angus looked perplexed. “What? She doesna have a pet budgie.”

  Logan ground his teeth. “Can we please get this over with, so I can go in there and try to make amends to Donella and my son?”

  Angus studied him for a few moments before nodding. “Ye ken ye made a right mess of things.”
r />   “I ken verra well,” Logan said dryly.

  “That Campbell girl, she’s trouble. I told ye that from the first, but ye never wanted to listen to me—or to Nick.”

  “And as I told you both last night, I was simply trying to be nice to the woman. How did you expect me to behave? I all but demolished her life.”

  “Ye did no such thing. She went right on to marry that poncy, rich barrister in Edinburgh.” Angus rubbed his fingers together. “Widower, ye ken, on the lookout for a young, pretty wife. Jeannie Campbell was more than happy to fit the bill.”

  His grandfather’s trenchant assessment resonated more than he cared to admit. Still, he wanted to be fair.

  “I expect she didn’t have much choice after I ruined her reputation. Everyone knew I was going to ask her to marry me.”

  “As I recall, ye did ask her, and she refused.”

  “Then why are you looking so sour? You never wanted me to marry her.”

  “True, but I’ll nae be havin’ ye feel sorry for the girl. She didn’t put up the least little fight for ye when it all went to hell. If the lass had loved ye, she would have.”

  Logan had once thought that too, but he was older now and wiser. “It would have meant leaving her family and leading a precarious existence. I can’t blame her for refusing me.”

  “I can,” Angus snapped.

  “But it no longer matters, does it? And I hope her marriage was a happy one.”

  “Och, she’s certainly a happy widow.”

  Logan reluctantly smiled. “And a rich one, I suppose.”

  “Ye’d be wrong about that. Why do ye think she’s sniffin’ aboot yer heels, ye booby?”

  “What the hell are you talking about?”

  “I’ve heard she’s got only a small widow’s portion. Her husband had a son and daughter from a previous marriage. They inherited, not yon widow.”

  “You gossip as much as any old biddy, Grandda. In fact, you are an old biddy.”

  Angus waved away the insult. “I’m right about this one, laddie boy. Trust me.”

  Logan couldn’t help remembering that Jeannie had asked him a number of quite pointed questions about his business. He’d assumed it was simply her attempt to be polite.

  “It doesn’t matter,” he replied. “I have no intention of getting involved with Jeannie MacArthur. You may rest assured.”

  “I’ll nae rest on anything until ye get yerself into the drawin’ room and make yer apologies to Donella.”

  “For God’s sake, that is exactly what I’ve been trying to do ever since I got here.”

  “Then let’s get to it,” Angus said, bustling off ahead of him.

  It was inevitable that he’d have a small but highly critical audience for his apology. Then again, the presence of his son and grandfather might cut down on the chances of Donella throwing a vase at his head.

  But as soon as he could, he intended to get her alone. Then he would do whatever it took to convince her to forgive him.

  * * *

  “Dearest, why don’t you let me do that?” Donella asked as she steadied Joseph on the ladder.

  They were trying to drape swags of bay leaves around the portrait that hung over the fireplace, a splendid depiction of her great-uncle in full clan dress. The colors in his tartan would match perfectly with the greenery, especially once she finished it off with red velvet ribbon.

  Unfortunately, Joseph wasn’t tall enough to reach the top of the frame.

  “If you’d let me climb to the top of the ladder, I could reach it,” he said.

  “I’m afraid it’s too high. If you were to fall, your father might toss me off a cliff.”

  “I’d like to toss Papa off a cliff,” the boy muttered.

  She couldn’t hold back a small chuckle, despite her dreadfully gloomy mood. Although she didn’t regret her decision to leave Kendrick House, she hadn’t anticipated how emotionally wrenching it would be. It was silly, since she was still close by, and it was lovely to be with Eden, Alasdair, and the children again. Breadie Manor was very familiar and should feel like home.

  But it didn’t. Kendrick House now felt like home.

  Donella had always thought of herself as a rather dull person, and certainly not one given to emotional outbursts. But she’d actually started to sniffle before climbing into the carriage this morning. Only a promise from Angus to bring Joseph for a visit had staved off an embarrassing display of tears.

  Blowing out an impatient breath, she silently ordered herself to stop acting like such a ninny.

  “Your papa would be truly dismayed to know you thought that,” she said. “He loves you very much and always does what’s best for you.”

  The little boy scowled over his shoulder. “No, he doesn’t.”

  His vehement reply startled her. “Why would you say that, darling? You know how much he loves you and worries about you.”

  “It’s not that,” he impatiently replied. “It’s because he does stupid things.”

  Joseph turned back to the portrait, trying once more to hook the swag over the corner of the frame. Donella placed a hand flat on his back, keeping him from teetering.

  “If that’s so, I’m sure he doesn’t mean to.”

  “Well, he did something stupid to upset you, and then you left Kendrick House.” There was a suspiciously long pause. “I hate that you left.”

  Donella had to pause for a moment herself before she could reply. “Joseph, your papa did not wrong me in any way, I assure you.”

  “Grandda said Papa talked to the mean lady at the party, and it upset you.”

  Donella was going to have to have a little chat with Angus. As much as she liked the old fellow, he was too forthcoming with the little boy.

  “Your father was simply chatting with an old friend. There’s nothing wrong with that.”

  He threw her a skeptical glance. “But it’s not just Grandda who doesn’t like the lady. Uncle Nick doesn’t, either. And I heard Aunt Vicky talking about it to Uncle Kade this morning, too.”

  Donella raised her eyebrows. “You shouldn’t be eavesdropping on adult conversations, Joseph. It’s not polite.”

  He shrugged. “Grandda will tell me, anyway.”

  “I’m beginning to think your grandfather is a very bad influence on you, young man.”

  That earned her a cheeky grin, which made her laugh again. But her laughter quickly faded when she thought of the good-bye soon to come when she returned to her former life.

  It must have shown in her face, because his smile dimmed. “If it wasn’t because of Papa, why did you leave, Donella? Don’t you like us?”

  She briefly rested her cheek on his back. “I like you all very much, and especially you. But it was time to come home to my family. I hadn’t seen them for a very long time, not since I entered the convent. And Eden needed my help getting ready for the party.”

  He scrunched up his face. “Well . . . I suppose that’s all right. But I hope you let me and Grandda come visit again.”

  “As often as you want, dearest. In fact, I’ll need your help decorating for all the parties.”

  He turned back to his work, making yet another attempt at pitching the swag over the frame. “But what happens when all the parties are over? Will I get to see you as much?”

  She didn’t want to lie but wasn’t yet ready to tell the truth. Just thinking about never seeing Joseph again, or Logan . . .

  “Don’t you worry about that,” she briskly replied. “Now, I do think we’re going to need help, so please come down.”

  “Let me try again. I can get it.”

  Stubborn, like his father. “Joseph, I don’t think—”

  When he stretched up on his toes and forcefully threw the swag over his head, it sent the ladder teetering. With a yelp, Donella grabbed him around the waist and thrust a leg out to keep the ladder from going over.

  She was about to call for help when she heard the sound of a quick, firm boot tread. A pair of brawny arms reached
around her and grabbed the wooden frame to hold it steady.

  “I’ve got you, lass,” murmured a low brogue.

  She knew that voice, and she knew that body. She felt the heat of Logan everywhere, from the backs of her legs all the way to the top of her head. And, oh, how she longed to lean back into his strong embrace.

  Joseph heaved a dramatic sigh. “I was fine, Papa. I wasn’t going to tip the silly ladder.”

  “Of course not, my boy. But I think one of the legs is off balance. The entire contraption looks rather wobbly to me.”

  She and Joseph both craned sideways to look. If Logan hadn’t been holding on to it—and her—the ladder would have crashed to the floor. Still, she didn’t think it necessary for him to stand quite so close.

  Sadly, her body didn’t seem to agree with her brain.

  “Angus, surely you see it,” Logan said. “I shall certainly have to speak to Alec about that. I might even have to give him a thrashing.”

  “Now you’re being silly, Papa,” Joseph said.

  “Me, silly? Never.”

  “Now that ye mention it,” Angus said, “that ladder does look a bit tippy. Ye best keep holdin’ on to Miss Donella while she helps the wee lad down to the floor.”

  “I’ll be happy to do just that,” Logan murmured in her ear.

  Since Donella’s instinctive response was to wriggle closer to him, she compensated by giving him an elbow to the gut, which felt as hard as a washboard.

  He chuckled. “You’ll have to do better than that, lass.”

  Still, he took the hint and stepped back.

  “I don’t think it’s the ladder,” Joseph said as Donella guided him down. “It’s just that my arms aren’t long enough.” He let out another dramatic sigh.

  Logan ruffled his son’s hair. “Och, you’re sprouting like a weed. Soon enough you’ll be taller than I am.”

  “Meme always said I take after my mother, and she wasn’t very tall, was she?” Joseph asked as he handed the length of swag to his father.

  “She wasn’t tall, but she was very sweet and pretty.”

  His quiet, somber tone had Donella wishing she could somehow comfort him. Instead, she could only give him a sympathetic grimace.