Chapter Nineteen
It was spring when the wedding took place.
Jennie thought Bonnyrigg was looking at its best. This was the first wedding to be held here since Luna married Maxwell and Jennie married James.
Cat’s two elder brothers had wed in London, although Donal had wed at Setholm on the borders.
This promised to be a grand occasion, and everyone was here.
Jennie could see fresh flowers everywhere and enough food to make the tables groan.
Cat was glorious in her wedding gown of cream velvet, with a wreath of white roses in her auburn hair.
Sinclair was handsome in his wedding suit, made especially for the day by his London tailor.
Beside him, Cat’s three brothers were very dashing in their kilts.
Jennie watched as her nephews passed among the guests, many of them neighbors, introducing Sinclair.
The men had come to be friends since that first uncomfortable meeting.
Cat was surrounded by her sisters-in-law, all of them smiling and offering advice.
Penelope had had her baby, and just as Callum had foretold, it was a little boy.
She rocked him in her arms while his sister Henrietta ran wild with Donal’s son, Little Maxwell, following after her.
Donal’s wife Agatha had her own secret—she had recently discovered she was carrying a second child.
Jennie had happened upon her looking decidedly ill one morning, and Agatha had sworn her to secrecy.
She wanted to keep the happy news to herself for now.
Time enough to share when the wedding was over.
Grace’s sisters, Prudence and Harriet Snowden, had traveled north with Jennie and James to join in the festivities.
The two girls felt they had every right to be here as they had been part of the scheme that led up to Cat and Sinclair’s romance.
That was news to Jennie. In fact Harriet claimed it was due to her that they were married at all!
Penelope’s younger brother, Mortimer, seemed to have taken a fancy to Prudence, and they had spent most of the visit in each other’s company.
“More wedding bells,” Jennie overheard Grace say to Rory, smiling at the pair. “That will just leave Harriet.”
“Do you want to ask her to come north with us?” Rory asked his wife. “She would be company for you when I’m not there.”
Jennie had learned that her reckless nephew had settled down a great deal. These days he was more likely to be found seeing to the tenants and mediating in any disputes that flared up than causing mischief.
“Do you think she would come?” Grace’s brown eyes brightened as she looked up at him. “I would dearly love her there with me.”
“Then we shall ask her,” Rory replied. “And if she says no, then we will kidnap her.”
Jennie choked on a laugh. Perhaps Rory had not changed that much after all, she thought, as she joined her sister where she sat, a little apart, watching on.
“It is good to see the next generations enjoying themselves at Bonnyrigg,” Luna said.
“But I can remember when things at the castle were very different.” Their father, the old duke, might be long gone, but there had been a time when the two sisters had been at odds.
That was until Maxwell had arrived, the handsome new gamekeeper, and stolen Luna’s heart.
“I remember when you married Maxwell,” Jennie said with a faraway smile. “You were so in love with him. Silly with it. And then you went off into the forest and lived like wild animals.”
“We were free,” Luna retorted, “and nothing like wild animals. I remember you marrying James. The tears you shed when you thought he was betrothed to someone else! It was always him for you.”
“Just look at their faces,” Jennie nudged her and nodded in the direction of the happy couple. Cat was radiant, and Sinclair held her hand, looking down at her as if he couldn’t believe his luck. “It brings back memories.”
“And it is thanks to Cat, and to Sinclair, that we have Bonnyrigg safe again,” Luna said, her voice trembling with emotion. “What a lovely boy he is, and perfect for Cat. He will always watch over her, and she will always care for him.”
“Everything has ended just as it should.”
“Not quite,” Luna said with a smile. “We should dance with our husbands.”
“Yes, let’s show everyone we are not as old as we look.”
Luna snorted a laugh and set off after her sister.
Cat’s tower room had been cleaned and aired, ready for her wedding night.
They had danced and celebrated well into the night, and she was tired, but so happy.
She had come up here first, to be dressed in her nightgown by loving hands, and then Sinclair had arrived, carried by her exuberant brothers.
Callum shooed them out when the teasing became too rowdy, and as he closed the door he gave Cat a wink. And then finally, at last, they were alone.
“Are you sure they are really gone?” Sinclair asked, turning his head on the pillow to look at her.
She laughed. “Yes, they are. I’m sorry—they are a lot, but they are only like that because they think of you as one of them.”
“Rory seems to be enjoying his stewardship of my grandfather’s land.”
“It has done him good,” Cat agreed. “He has made it his own. It’s rather wild up there, just like him. Grace says that Harriet will be joining them. At least she can’t get into any mischief in so isolated a place.”
Sinclair wasn’t sure about that. He had never told Cat about Harriet’s advice to him. If it weren’t for her, he may not have gone to the Lyon’s Den and revealed his true self to Cat. He wasn’t sure what he would have done.
Cat wrapped one of his curls around her finger. “Thank you for giving us back our home. We are so grateful. I feel as if I should apologize for ever thinking you were a wastrel and a scoundrel.”
“Ah no, Cat,” he protested, rolling closer to take her in his arms. “It is because of you that I have become the man I am. You have made me want to be better.”
She kissed him, and after a moment the kisses grew warmer and more urgent.
They had shared many heated kisses in the last months, and sometimes he had not wanted to stop.
It was only the thought of this night, of making it special for Cat, that had made him draw back.
He needed to be slow and gentle. The perfect husband.
But to his surprise, Cat did not seem to want gentle. She kissed him again, deep and messy kisses. “I am burning up for you,” she whispered then, pressing her face into his throat. “I can’t stand it, Sinclair. Will you make me yours?”
His body responded instantly, and he groaned. “I want that,” he said.
Cat sat up and flung off her nightgown, and there she was, gloriously naked. Her breasts tipped with pink nipples, her creamy skin perfect as she leaned over him. “I thought about creeping into your chamber,” she admitted. There was a flush on her cheeks.
He was having trouble breathing. “I thought about taking you down into the forest,” he admitted roughly. “But I knew that once would not be enough.”
She had begun to unbutton his shirt. “How many times will be enough?” she asked him. Her face changed as she ran her hands over his chest and bent to kiss his overheated skin.
“I don’t think I have a—a figure in my head,” he managed, fumbling with his breeches, his gaze on her body.
She laughed. “Oh, you are very handsome,” she murmured.
Then, as he eased his undergarment down over his thighs and the extent of his desire became obvious, “Oh!” Her hand wrapped around him as if it was the most natural thing in the world and he jerked his hips up, wondering if he was going to disgrace himself before he could slide inside that heavenly body.
His Cat. His wife. Her smiling face leaned over him, and she bent to nibble on his lips.
“I always wanted a man in my bed,” she said without shame.
“Not just any man though. I wanted a man like you.”
“Just as well you married me then,” he answered breathlessly.
Her body pressed to his and their kisses grew more frantic. He took one of those pink nipples into his mouth, and she gasped, suddenly still. “That feels braw,” she said dreamily, and then gasped again as he lapped at the other one.
“You are beautiful,” he said. “My beautiful wife.”
His hand slid down over her belly, into the warm, damp core of her.
“Don’t stop,” she gasped. “I want you to . . . I want you . . .”
He was fairly certain he knew exactly what she wanted him to do.
Sinclair positioned himself and thrust up. And then he rolled them both over, and pushed deeper. This was where heaven lay, he thought deliriously. And if it was up to him, he would stay here forever.
She called his name, moving against him, her mouth on his, her arms clinging. “I feel . . . I feel . . .” she said, and then her eyes widened as they gazed into his. He held back, watching her with wonder as she shattered in his arms, and then he let himself take his own pleasure.
It was monumental, and left them both gasping and shuddering and clinging together. There didn’t seem to be a great deal to say after that as they lay close together, watching the moon sail across the sky through the open window.
“This has been the best day,” Cat murmured sleepily at last.
“There will be many more to come,” Sinclair assured her.
Yes, she thought. Many days with him, perhaps in Bonnyrigg and perhaps in London. She wanted to go back down there. She would enjoy it better now that all her troubles were behind her. They could ride in his phaeton about the London streets and dance together without him running off and hiding.
That made her smile.
There were so many adventures yet to be had.
“I love you,” he said sleepily.
“And I love you,” she whispered.
Bonnyrigg slept, readying itself for another day in the life of the MacKenzies.