Chapter 21
Patrick
pulled to a stop in front of the keep, turned off the car, and looked at Madelyn. She was staring at Jamie’s hall with wide astonishment.
“Wow,” she said, sounding a little breathless.
He smiled. “It’s just a castle.”
“Yeah, but people live here. You lived here.”
“Aye, there is that. But it seems quite ordinary to me.”
“Right,” she said dryly. “And this black rocket we’re sitting in is just one step up from a lawnmower.”
“You have a point there.” He smiled and opened the door.
“Wait. I’ll come fetch you.” He went around and opened her door. He helped her out of the car, then caught her as she stumbled. And once he had his hands on her arms, there was no reason to let her go, was there?
None he could think of.
Was it going to be possible, he wondered as he lifted her face up with his hand and kissed her, to stop kissing the woman any time soon?
Would it be possible to actually put her on a plane home?
He could hardly bear the thought.
He lifted his head and stared down at her, marveling at the changes in her.
Gone were the constrained tresses he’d seen her first wearing.
Her hair was down, curling madly about her shoulders and down her back.
Jeans and sweaters suited her perfectly, as did her visage unenhanced by pots of makeup.
She was still that fresh-faced American, but now with a bit of Highland untamedness to her.
He was, he admitted uneasily, quite lost.
His heart murmured its approval.
“Anyone home?” she asked with a smile.
He blinked, then shook his head. “Sorry. I was just looking at you.”
“Oh.”
“Aye, oh,” he said with a smile. “And I have to say that ’tis the finest view I’ve seen out of all the attractions I’ve had the pleasure of looking at over the past few days.”
She blinked. She might have blushed.
“Well,” she said finally.
“By the saints”—he laughed—“am I so stingy with compliments, then?”
“It isn’t that—”
He took her face in both his hands and looked down at her seriously. “Then what, Madelyn? What is it, then?”
She closed her eyes. “It’s just—”
He waited.
“It’s just—”
“Oh, Pat’s here!”
She jumped back as if she’d been bitten. For himself, he was so surprised, he almost fell over on top of her. He looked up, glared at Ian, who stood at the door grinning like the fool he was, then met Madelyn’s eyes.
“I’ll kill him later.”
“I’ll help.”
“Jamie has quite a lovely view from the roof.”
“I have a coat.”
He laughed. “Then we’ll rendezvous there later, after I’ve disemboweled several of my family members.”
“Good plan.”
He took her hand and led her into his brother’s house Easily.
As if it weren’t the monumental occasion it really was.
The hall was full of family. Jamie and his two lads were holding court there, imparting the good tidings of a new little girl resting upstairs to any and all who would listen.
Ian and Jane were there with their children.
Elizabeth’s brother Alex and his wife Margaret were there with their children.
The only fools who were unattached were he himself, Elizabeth’s younger brother Zachary, and a family friend, Joshua Sedgwick, Jamie’s minstrel by trade.
So much family.
For the first time in years, he yearned to join in their numbers with a family of his own.
A family made perhaps with the woman walking next to him.
He smiled down at her.
She was smiling the same kind of smile back up at him.
He wanted to be terrified by it, but all he could think of was how perfect it felt.
His heart whispered encouragingly. He didn’t bother to contradict it.
“And who is this?” Jamie boomed.
Patrick was torn between wanting to roll his eyes and wanting to flatten his brother. Jamie knew damn well who she was. Patrick hadn’t told him—indeed he’d had the happy fortune of not having clapped eyes on his older brother in days—but he was certain Jamie knew all the same.
“This is Madelyn Phillips,” Patrick said. “Madelyn, this is my brother, Jamie. Don’t call him my laird. It tends to go to his head, all that deference.”
Jamie smiled his most lordly smile at Madelyn. “Come and sit, my lady. We are happy to have you here.”
“Thank you, my laird,” she said.
Patrick rolled his eyes at the way his brother immediately took to Madelyn. Patrick was the recipient of a very pointed look that spoke volumes about what he thought Patrick should be doing with Madelyn.
Patrick grunted. He’d get to it, if his bloody family would give him the peace to do it.
Aye, he would see to it.
And for the first time, the thought didn’t terrify him.
“Patrick, Elizabeth bids you go to her when you’ve the chance,” Jamie said. “She wants to show off the bairn.”
“I’ll go.” He looked at Madelyn. “She just had her baby a couple of days ago. Do you mind—”
“Go,” she said with a smile. “I’ll hang out down here and see if I can’t get some answers out of your brother as to what it was like to grow up in a castle.”
He nodded, shot Jamie a warning look his brother received with a bland expression of complete noncompliance, then left Madelyn in Jamie’s care and went up the stairs to Elizabeth’s bedroom. He could only imagine what his brother would tell her.
Best not to know, probably.
He knocked on Elizabeth’s door.
“Come in.”
He poked his head inside the bedchamber. “Are you decent?”
She snorted and pushed herself up gingerly in the bed. “Give me a break. Come look at this beautiful girl.”
He entered, shut the door, stoked up the bedchamber fire, then went and knelt down by the bed. He looked at the baby.
“She’s stunning,” he said. “Doesn’t look a thing like Jamie, obviously.”
Elizabeth laughed. “She does, too, but I agree with you. She’s beautiful.”
He reached out and stroked the baby’s cheek. “Long labor?”
“Unmercifully brief,” she said. “It seems to get shorter every time.”
“Perhaps ’tis a good thing you stay home, then,” Patrick said. “You’d likely birth the poor wee thing in the car with Jamie tearing his hair out if you tried to make for hospital.”
She shivered. “Heaven help us.” She lifted the baby and put her in Patrick’s arms. “Hold your sweet niece and tell me about this girl you’ve been seeing.”
“I haven’t been seeing her,” Patrick protested, but he did accept his niece. He looked down into her face and felt his heart melt. “Ah, Elizabeth, she’s a beauty.” His eyes burned fiercely. “A beauty.”
Elizabeth put her hand on his arm. “It isn’t too late, Pat. You’re thirty-five, not seventy-five.”
He didn’t have the heart to disagree. “Aye, I know.”
“What of your Madelyn?”
“She’s a good woman,” he said slowly.
“And . . .”
He looked at her seriously. “She has things to return to in the States.”
“Does she?”
He blew out his breath and tried to smile. “Aye. At least I think she does. Whether or not she would be interested in living in the wilds of Scotland hasn’t been discussed as of yet.”
“Maybe it should be. If you like her.”
“You’re beginning to sound a great deal like your husband.”
“I’ve been married to him for quite some time,” she agreed. “He tends to rub off on a person, as you well know.”
“Aye.” Patrick looked down at the baby in his arms and let himself give the possibility serious thought. Would Madelyn be interested in giving up her life in the States? Could she possibly be at all tempted by the thought of staying home and nurturing his children?
Could he possibly get that wreck of a house in any condition to shelter a family any time in the next millennium?
He looked at Elizabeth. “What did you name her?”
“Patricia,” she said with a smile.
He laughed. “You didn’t.”
“Well, we couldn’t name her Patrick. It was as close as we could reasonably come.”
“I’m flattered.” He kissed the wee babe gently on the forehead, then handed her back to her mother. “Need anything?”
“Company. Come talk to me when you have a few minutes later this week.”
“And supper?”
“Joshua’s bringing me something in a minute. Go take care of your lady.”
“You would like her.”
“Give me a day or two to get back on my feet, then I’d like to meet her.” She shook her head with a wry smile. “The woman who stole Patrick MacLeod’s heart. She must be something else.”
Why deny it? He smiled weakly. “She is.”
He leaned over, kissed the baby one more time, and Elizabeth too for good measure, then left the room before he could spew out any more admissions he wasn’t sure he was fully ready to make.
He thumped down stairs he’d descended for the major part of his life, then paused at the bottom and looked at the scene before him in the great hall.
The high table was just as it had always been, with Jamie’s chair at the head and the rest of the seats pulled up on either side. Friends and family sat there, eating and drinking as they had countless times in the past. But there was something different.
And that difference was the addition of one Madelyn Phillips. She was sitting at Jamie’s left hand, in front of the fire, laughing as if she actually enjoyed herself.
And Patrick felt something shift inside him, something that had once been hard.
His poor heart, most likely. It was nothing but fluff now.
Or maybe it had been soft all along, soft since Culloden, when his heart had first begun to torment him with things he wanted but hadn’t been willing to reach for.
Things he might have with this woman.
He strode out into the great hall before he could give that any more thought. His place had been saved next to Madelyn, and he took it without hesitation. He looked at his brother.
“Patricia?”
Jamie sighed. “Aye. ’Tis easier than a wee Patrick, I suppose.”
“I’m honored, brother.”
“Aye, well, the wee lass will need a godfather. It may as well be you.”
Patrick laughed. “You overwhelm me with flattery.” He looked at Madelyn. “He does this. Damns with faint praise.”
“It’s an interesting tactic,” Madelyn said. She looked at Jamie. “You have a wonderful castle here, my laird. Has it always been in this kind of shape, or did you have to do much restoration?”