Page 120 of The Highlander's Auctioned Hellion
Lydia held back a happy laugh as Callum picked Raven up and placed him in the pocket of the jacket she still wore.
They each picked one of the girls and carried them up to their bed chamber. The room was cool and quiet.
Callum settled Eilis in her bed, and Lydia carefully pulled Raven’s little body from her pocket and set him down beside Amy.
She stepped back, smiling as Callum’s arm came around her waist and they stood for a moment watching the girls sleeping.
“I am so glad you got them back,” Lydia murmured. “What will happen to their mother?”
“McCarthy is sendin’ her to live in a convent. She will likely hate it just as much as anyone in the world, but perhaps she will learn some humility.”
They turned and left the room, Lydia moving at a slower pace as she pondered all that had happened that day.
“Are ye all right?” Callum asked as he closed the door behind her. “Ye seem thoughtful.”
“Do you not think it would be better for the girls to be with their mother? I know she is not a good woman. I know she has done terrible things, but she is still their family.”
Callum shook his head. “When I arrived at McCarthy’s castle, she was tellin’ her faither how the girls were good for nothin’. She never loved them and would only have found a way to use them for her own gains. We are their family now, and that is all that matters.”
They walked back toward their rooms, and Lydia put a hand on the handle of her door before Callum grunted, gripping her wrist and pulling her into his bed chamber.
“Where dae ye think ye are goin’?” he demanded. “Ye willnae be sleepin’ anywhere but beside me tonight.”
Lydia smiled, and it only grew wider as they entered the room and she saw two baths side by side with steaming water for them both.
“But I did not win the bet,” she said playfully, and Callum laughed.
“We may have beaten the carriage, but I decided ye deserved to be warm and content tonight after what happened today.”
“Has the driver been looked after?” Lydia asked with concern.
“Aye, Alexander has tended his wound. He’ll live to fight another day. Now, let’s get ye out of yer dirty clothes.”
Lydia laughed as he set to the task with much enthusiasm.
It was bliss to sink into the bath and feel the warm water wash away the filth and grime of the lakeside.
Callum was soon to join her and lowered into the bath so that they were at opposite ends. They held hands as they soaked together, closing their eyes against the smooth, soapy water all around them.
“I ken ye are worried for the girls,” Callum said, breaking the stillness between them as she met his gaze. “But I dinnae think ye realize how much they have changed since ye came. I barely heard a word out of Amy before ye arrived, and now she is becoming quite the chatterbox.”
Lydia shook her head with a smile. “Hardly achatterbox,but she seems very happy to have Raven back.”
“When I was at the McCarthy castle, they told me they didn’t wish to stay with Moira.”
“Really?”
“Aye. They said they wanted to come back with me and have ye as their maither.”
Lydia’s eyes filled with tears at that admission, and Callum leaned forward, brushing them gently away as they fell down her cheeks.
“I meant what I said at the lakeside. Ye are me future, Lydia, ye and them wee girls. That’s all that matters to me.”
“I love you,” she murmured, and Callum leaned forward, capturing her lips in a soft kiss.
“We should get ye into bed, it has been a long day, and some fool made ye swim in a freezing loch filled with eels.”
Lydia sat upright in the bath, staring at him in horror.
