Mhairi turned in his arms and stared up into his eyes, her features alight with tender laughter. "When I have to keep a handsome Highland rogue on the straight and narrow? Never."
He caught her hips in a loose clasp and smiled down at her as she slid her hands up his chest and linked them behind his neck. "I promise I’ll only be roguish with ye, my bonny."
Callum bent his head to kiss her. Her lips were warm and eager, and she kissed him back with an enthusiasm that made his head spin. But beneath the fervent passion lurked something deeper. They’d come through, prevailing against all the powerful forces ranged against them. Now they would build a life together.
When he raised his head, she opened hazy blue eyes. Her kiss had told him that she loved him. He was so blessed. After all the conflict and hatred and danger, he could hardly believe that he and Mhairi had reached this point.
"I love ye, Callum." The profundity of the vow made her voice shake. "I'll love ye every day of my life and beyond that too, if God grants me a place in heaven."
Piercing emo
tion stole his ability to speak. "Mhairi…"
She stretched up to kiss him gently on the lips. "I love ye, and I'm proud to be your wife and the Lady of Achnasheen. The day ye snatched me from Bruard was the luckiest day of my life."
He swallowed to shift the jagged boulder clogging his throat. "My beloved wife…"
"I love ye, I love ye, I love ye," she said with a sudden surge of happiness. "You'll get sick of hearing me say it."
"No, my darling, that I will no’." He swept her up for another kiss. When he raised his head, her eyes sparkled like the stars that shone over the loch on a clear winter’s night. He'd never seen her look so beautiful. "I love ye, too, mo leannan."
Her lips curved in an irresistible invitation. "In that case, is it no’ time ye took me to bed, my braw laddie?"
As an invincible tide of joy rushed through him, Callum started to laugh. "That would be my pleasure, my lady."
"And mine," she murmured, taking his hand and leading him toward the big bed in the corner.
Epilogue
Achnasheen, April 1704
As they stepped out of the chapel at Achnasheen, Mhairi took Callum's arm. Behind them, her father carried newborn William Mackinnon. A few feet behind that, Grainne, their three-year-old daughter, toddled along holding Flossie's hand. As the rest of the Mackinnons lined up to leave after the christening, the organ played triumphantly in the loft.
"That went well," she said under her breath to her tall, handsome husband who looked particularly distinguished in his formal kilt and with his shining hair tied back in a queue.
"Aye, the old man even smiled," Callum whispered back, sending her a mocking glance. "Who knew he had it in him?"
"Deciding to call our son William hit the right note. Thank ye."
They emerged into the light of a beautiful spring day. Last week it had been snowing, but for their son’s christening, everything was sunshine and blue skies.
Mhairi went on. "And choosing John Drummond and his wife as godparents was a good strategic move, too."
"Och, ye know me, mo chridhe, always thinking."
"No’ always," she said with a reminiscent smile.
"Ye always turned my brain to porridge, lassie, right from the first."
Mhairi and Callum paused halfway up the stone steps to survey the cheerful crowd gathering in the courtyard. She took a moment to note the changes nearly five years of marriage had wrought in her world. Changes? No, gifts, every one of them.
A wonderful husband she loved more with every day. A beautiful home. A pretty, spirited, dark-haired daughter. A new baby, also dark-haired like his father. The Drummond looking better than he had in years.
He'd reached a grudging acceptance of his son-in-law, even if friendship was still too much to ask. But as Callum had hoped, when any truce between the clans had seemed mere fantasy, the birth of grandchildren had gone a long way toward reconciling the Drummond to his daughter's marriage. More than she'd ever imagined possible in the days when he'd believed Mackinnons were fit only for killing. He'd instantly fallen under Grainne's spell. Given his expression now, he was equally in thrall to his first grandson.
She and Callum went to Bruard regularly. The first few visits, old habits died hard. The men from both clans carried weapons, and the atmosphere was wary. But Callum soon made it clear he’d brook no revival of the feud and anyone causing trouble would face punishment.
These days the clans mingled with a harmony Mhairi would never have expected five years ago. As she looked around, she saw a number of Drummonds who had married Mackinnons. Just as there were now Mackinnons living at peace in Bruard as wives and husbands.