Epilogue
One Month Later
Leah leaned back in her chair and stretched, looking at the large pile of papers on the floor beside her desk.
A letter from her mother lay beside her, and she smiled at the neat, looping hand. Her mother always sounded far more like herself in her letters, and Leah was excited for them to visit later in the year. She could not wait to show Timothy the otters and deer that lived around the castle.
She sighed, looking out over the beautiful views, and felt a contented smile tug at her lips.
She loved this room. She had taken to writing in it most mornings. The ‘turret,’ as Magnus affectionately called it, was undoubtedly her domain, and he often came to sit with her as she wrote while he read a book.
They had fallen into a happy pattern of sorts, with Leah coming up to write most mornings while Magnus took care of clan business or went hunting with Kenneth.
She had managed to coax one of the cats inside with some rabbit meat, as Magnus had suggested. Sometimes, it came upstairs with her to her room and lay before the fire while she was writing.
It was an idyllic life, and Leah found that she relished every day when she could look out the high windows and see her estate.
Becoming the lady of such a large castle had been an adjustment, but the staff and servants had been very welcoming and accommodating, considering her abrupt arrival.
Shuffling the papers together, she read over the final paragraph of her book. She was incredibly proud of it and had taken time over the last few weeks to get to know some members of Magnus’s clan and understand the work that the villagers and people that he governed did.
The book was complete, and she had never felt so fulfilled and happy in all of her life. She placed the pages under a paperweight to prevent them from flying about in the wind and was just about to leave the room when a soft knock sounded at the door.
The servant girl who had become Leah’s maid entered. “Yer guests have arrived, M’Lady,” she announced.
Leah gave her a grateful nod and then made her way downstairs to greet her guests.
She felt a little nervous as she emerged from the tower and made her way to the main hall. And well she might be.
“I shall never forgive you, Leah Anderson,” came Daphne’s voice as Leah opened the door to the room.
Oskar winced as Leah closed it behind her, just as Daphne handed a fussing Evander to him and stalked toward her, pointing an accusatory finger at her.
“I cannot believe you got married and I wasn’t even here!” she said angrily. But her actions belied her words, as she pulled Leah into a fierce hug as she reached her. “I have never been more furious with anyone. How are you?” she asked.
Leah could not help but laugh. “I am sorry, Daphne, I sent you a letter explaining everything.”
“Och! A letter,” Daphne scoffed, a hint of the Scottish accent creeping into her words. “As if a letter could explain anything!”
There was a sigh from the center of the room, and Leah smiled at Katie, who was reaching out to Oskar, who handed her Evander. The baby quieted instantly.
“Perhaps I should find a handsome Highland laird to distract her,” Katie said of Daphne cheerfully, tickling Evander’s nose and making him giggle.
“And what, pray tell, are you still doing in Scotland, Katie?” Daphne asked.
Katie turned to her. “Why, avoiding the Season at all costs, of course!” she said bitterly, coaxing a hearty laugh from Oskar. “How goes the book?” she asked as she looked over at Leah.
“It is finished, I think. I shall need to have its main character approve some of the wilder passages, but I am very pleased with it.”
“I cannae wait to read it,” Oskar said, “or for ye to write one about me as a sequel which improves upon it.”
They all laughed, and Evander chose that moment to start to scream loudly in Katie’s arms.
Magnus looked around the table at the councilmen, who were almost finished with their debate. It had taken much toil to get them all here, especially with a laird they had all considered an enemy not so long ago, but he was more than happy with the outcome.
Despite Mortimer’s frosty attitude and some sharp comments from around the table, Gibson was finally allied with Magnus as surely as the MacIrvins were.
It was in no small part thanks to Leah’s influence.
She had charmed Gibson when Magnus had asked him for a brief visit to discuss the terms a few weeks ago.
It seemed that with the confirmation of Thompson’s involvement and his subsequent death, Gibson had forgiven Magnus for his role in Elizabeth’s death.
As the meeting ended and everyone rose from the table, Gibson walked over to Magnus. His large frame was intimidating in the huge hall, his bushy beard streaked with more grey than the last time Magnus had seen him.
Gibson reached out a hand, and Magnus took it gladly as the other men filed out of the hall. “I didnae expect this, I’ll be honest,” he admitted, looking around the room carefully.
“Neither did I, but I am glad we have reached an agreement,” Magnus replied sincerely.
“Aye, it was a long time comin’, but I am glad we are nay longer at odds. MacIrvin seems a good man. Ye are both very fortunate with yer wives,” Gibson said with a stern glare.
Magnus laughed. “Aye, I think we both are aware of that.”
“Ye and Lady MacWatt must come to Gibson Castle in the summer. She has a love of animals, and we have many deer and stags that wander the estate at dusk. I think she will be enchanted with the place.”
“I have nay doubt. We’d be honored,” Magnus replied.
He watched the Laird walk out of his castle, astonished yet again by the positive shift that had occurred in his life since he had met his wife.
I am fortunate, indeed.
He made his way back to where he knew his guests would be waiting for him, and as he entered the room, he found them all laughing together as Leah described one of the events that she had insisted on including in the book—the great injustice and defeat of Laird Thompson.
Magnus had heard that Laird Thompson’s daughter had fled to England, where she was sure to find a husband to make him miserable. He was quite content that he would not have to deal with any more threats from that clan for the rest of his days.
He approached the group, listening to their laughter and feeling deeply content.
“Dinnae listen to a word me wife had said,” he stated with mock outrage. “She has grossly exaggerated me abilities and made me look far better than I am,” he admitted.
Leah laughed as he came up to her, and he relished the ease with which their arms went round each other, as though they had been doing it all their lives.
Oskar and Daphne were bemoaning the fact that Leah had not written a book about their clan yet, and Magnus rolled his eye.
“Indeed,” Oskar declared with a careful glance at Magnus as he turned to Leah.
“I believe ye will have to come and stay with us for three, maybe four weeks, in order to hear of the greatness of the MacIrvin name. I expect the second book to do a great deal better than the first one due to the increased interest in its main subject.”
He laughed heartily as Magnus scowled at him. “Me wife will be goin’ nowhere without me,” he said firmly.
Oskar pretended to balk at the idea. “On second thoughts, Leah, perhaps we dinnae need the book.”
Magnus shook his head as Leah squeezed his side, and they all had a good laugh at his expense.
It was only when the others had departed that he found himself alone with his wife, staring at her as she read through the final pages of her manuscript. She looked up at him quizzically as he continued to stare at her, his gaze never faltering.
“You look positively terrifying, Magnus. Have you eaten something that doesn’t agree with you?” she asked.
But he merely stood up, going to stand beside her chair and offering her his hand.
She took it without question, though she looked rather puzzled.
Her puzzlement only grew as he led her all the way up to the top of the turret and opened the door to her little study.
He had asked for several candles to be left lit, and the room was aglow, with a gentle and almost romantic air about it.
Leah turned to him, frowning as he closed the door behind him.
“Perhaps you should go and see Betty,” she suggested teasingly. “You seem to have become quite unlike yourself.”
She drew in a sharp breath, however, as he advanced on her and gently took the pages from her hands, placing them on top of the stack at the corner of the room.
“Magnus?” she prompted.
But he simply kept walking until he had backed her up against the narrow window ledge.
“Do ye ken, I had a fantasy about ye when I first showed ye this room,” he said conversationally as she looked up at him with bemusement.
“Oh, yes?” she asked. “You said you only throw maidens from the tallest tower on a Sunday. And today is a Saturday.”
He grinned. “Nay, somethin’ a little different from that.”
She gasped as he lifted her onto the windowsill. It was just the right size to fit her hips within the surround, just as he had calculated.
“What are you doing?” she asked, but her fingers held fast to the window ledge, and her eyes had darkened with desire.
“I am goin’ to have ye here,” he said darkly. “Lookin’ out over me kingdom while I make love to me wife and she screams me name.”
Leah moaned as he pulled her skirts roughly up to her hips and rubbed his fingers over her wet heat.
She let go of the windowsill and gripped his shoulders. “You had better not let me fall,” she warned, looking back a little uncertainly at the steep drop behind her.
Magnus knew the gap was not large enough for her to fall through, or else he would never have suggested such an activity.
She was quite used to his whims by now, and they had grown accustomed to intimate encounters throughout the day, no matter what room they happened to be in.
Leah liked things a little rough at times, much to his delight, and he took advantage of the knowledge now, thrusting two fingers inside her without hesitation.
“Oh,” she cried as he pushed them all the way into her with a grunt of pleasure. “You are a wicked man, Magnus.”
“Mmm, nae more wicked than me wife,” he said, looking behind her at the dark trees and hills of his lands just as he’d wished to. “Ye are goin’ to be taken like this, cryin’ out me name so that it carries across me lands, and everyone will ken that I’ve claimed ye.”
She lifted her legs, wrapping them around his waist as he pumped his fingers inside her, watching her come undone beneath him.
“Take down yer hair,” he growled, and she shuddered as she did so, removing the pins in two quick movements and shaking out the mass of fire that he loved so much. “Mmm, I want to see it swayin’ as I claim ye,” he admitted.
She shivered as he withdrew his fingers, before lining himself up with her entrance and thrusting into her wet heat with quiet calm.
“Oh, that feels good. I love you,” she moaned, leaning back as he raised his hands to support her.
“I love ye, too,” he said, kissing up her neck as he began to thrust into her hard, feeling the rough stone beneath her body as he had his way with her, giving her no room to move or to escape him as she squirmed at the roughness with which he took her.
“Ah, my back,” she complained as she bent backward at a strange angle.
He chuckled, lifted her from the window, and took her mouth in a deep kiss before pulling back.
“Are ye sayin’ the window isnae comfortable, wife?”
“Ye try it,” she said churlishly as he spun them around and lowered her onto the soft fur rug before the fire’s dying embers. “Have ye fulfilled yer fantasy?” she asked.
“I think so,” he replied. “Although ye havenae screamed me name yet.”
He was still inside her as he laid her down beneath him, and she groaned, pushing her hips against his, her fingers gripping his backside beneath his kilt, which he had not bothered to remove.
“Better?” he asked.
“Much,” she said with a happy laugh. “Now take me, husband.”
He grabbed her hands and pinned them above her head as he began to thrust in earnest.
“I plan to,” he said, and proceeded to do just that.
The End?