Page 83 of Healing the Highland Sinner
“Tell ye what,” Ellair said. “Why dinnae ye come home with me and we can figure it out. Taegether?”
She stared at him for a long moment, the full weight of his words sinking in. And as they did, a smile crossed her face, and she bit her lower lip.
“Aye? Ye’d have me come home with ye?”
“It’d be the single greatest honor of me life,” he said.
Rosalind hesitated for a moment then nodded. “Aye. I’ll come home with ye.”
Ellair pulled her into a tight embrace then winced as a wave of pain overtook him. He laughed and shook his head.
“We may have tae wait until I heal up tae dae that again,” he said.
“I’ll wait,” she replied softly but meaningfully.
Arms around each other’s waists, Rosalind and Ellair turned and watched Sinclair’s stronghold burn to the ground. It seemed a fitting end for a man like that. A fitting end indeed.
EPILOGUE
Two Weeks Later…
The ride back to Clan MacAulay ’s lands was long and exhausting, but Rosalind had never been happier. Beside her was the man who made her heart sing in ways she never thought possible. He made her feel the way the poets wrote about. He made her feel things she didn’t even know existed. Certainly, things she never thought she’d have in her life. Ellair had opened her heart, mind, and soul up in ways she had never contemplated before and he’d been able to do it so effortlessly.
But as they crested a rise and she got her first look at Castle MacAulay sitting on top of a hill just a short ride away, she felt her stomach folding in on itself. Her mouth grew dry, and she had to swallow down the lump in her throat.
“Are ye all right?” Ellair asked.
She swallowed again and put a smile on her face she hoped looked passable. “Aye. I’m fine.”
Ellair reined his horse to a stop, forcing her to as well, then turned to her. His full, soft lips were curled in a gentle smile as he reached out and took her hand, giving it a gentle squeeze.
“I can tell ye’re nae fine,” he said. “What is it?”
She sighed heavily and tucked a strand of her locks behind her ear. She cut a glance at the castle that loomed and felt her heart quicken. Rosalind turned to Ellair and offered him a shaky smile.
“I’m nervous,” she said.
“Nervous about what?”
“About… everythin’,” she replied. “I’ve left me entire life and all I’ve kent fer years behind in Thurso. I left Ciar and me braither back at Castle Gunn?—”
“And they’ll both return here when Blaine is fit enough tae travel.”
“I ken. ‘Tis just…”
Her voice tapered away as she realized she was whining like a bairn, but she had been comfortable in her old life. Notnecessarily happy, but for the most part, she’d been comfortable. And now, having cast that life away in search of something new, now that she was on the verge of entering her new life, with the man she loved no less, she found the going treacherous. She found her heart skipping beats, and her stomach roiling nervously.
Ordinarily, she was a bold and confident woman, but the thought of going to a place e she did not know as she embarked on this new life twisted her insides. She was a smuggler, used to a rough and tumble existence. But waltzing into a laird’s castle and being expected to exude social grace—something she’d never had any use for—filled her with dread. Worse, it made her feel like a fraud. Rosalind feared they would see right through her and never see her as anything but a criminal, as Gunn’s man Jamison had.
And the worst part of it was, Jamison wasn’t wrong. She was a criminal, and he had been right to call her out as one. Rosalind could not argue with him, or anybody else about that. Not really. So, the idea of walking into Laird MacAulay ’s castle, meeting his family, and expecting them to embrace her as a lady, as a normal person, seemed ridiculous. They were going to see her for what she was, just as Jamison had. She was certain of it.
“’Tis just what?” Ellair prompted gently.
“’Tis just… I worry yer family will think me unworthy of ye, that they’ll see me fer what I was and nae fer what I aspire tae be.”
His smile was soft but understanding. Ellair raised her hand and kissed it softly, running his thumb gently across her knuckles.
“They’ll see ye as ye are,” he said. “And what I see is a beautiful, confident woman who is nae afraid of anythin’. Least of all, me family.”
