Chapter Twenty Nine
The Isle of Colonsay
Two months later
Quinn jumped from his new skiff into the barreling surf and dragged it ashore. Then he reached up to Catarina. “Pass me Nicholas.”
She shook her head, clutching her son close to her heart. A smile softened his face. “Ye’ve barely let me hold him since we set out from Freya’s. I’ve missed the wee lad too.”
They had been surprised when they docked Freya’s skiff and made their way to her cottage to find her outside, lying on a blanket beneath the bright sunshine with a baby asleep at her side.
When she saw their approach, Freya had stood, gathering the babe in her arms. “Bishop Lamberton turned Rory right back around,” Freya said, smiling proudly.
“The bishop told him there was no safer place for Nicholas than with me.” Freya walked to where Catarina had stood in a daze and placed Nicholas in her arms. “That is until his mother returned.”
A sweet ache panged Quinn’s heart every time he remembered Catarina’s face crumple as she sobbed, hugging her son close.
Now, if he could only get her to put him down again. Quinn reached up and cupped her cheek. “He’s back in yer arms to stay, Catarina. Ye ken that, don’t ye?”
Her shoulders eased down as a long breath fled her lips. “I know it is over. I know Rupert is dead. I know Stephen is well and will set everything right at Ravensworth. I know Nicholas is safe, but as I have said before there is a difference between knowing something and believing it.”
Quinn held out his hands for Nicholas. “Try,” he said.
She kissed Nicholas’s brow and placed him in Quinn’s arms.
Quinn smiled down at the amber-eyed baby.
“Welcome home,” he whispered. I hope, he thought as he shifted his gaze to scan the shore.
Beyond the sand and jutting rocks, stretched a meadow of sea grass, dotted with purple primrose.
And beyond that several cottages rose up from the earth.
Ribbons of smoke curled out from their rooftops like fingers beckoning him closer.
“Do you think our families will be here?” Catarina said, coming to stand beside him.
He smiled down at her. “If they are not, hold fast to hope. We’ll find them.
I promise ye.” He wrapped his arm around her shoulders and pulled her close.
Then he stared back over the field of sea grass.
He squinted, trying to make out the figure he saw exiting one of the cottages.
Then a rush of excitement shot through him.
He threw his head back and whooped to the sky.
“Who is it?” Catarina said. “Do you know that man?”
Holding Nicholas in one arm, he wrapped his other arm around her waist and spun her around. “Do I know him?” he said, laughing. “’Tis my wee brother, Ian!”
Quinn raised his arm over his head and waved it back and forth. “Ian,” he shouted.
He watched Ian freeze for an instant, but in no time at all he was running toward them.
“Quinn,” Ian called.
Catarina scooped Nicholas from Quinn’s arms and backed away several feet when she saw the size of the man racing their way. Wild, tangled red hair gleamed in the bright sun.
“That is your little brother?” she asked, nervously.
Quinn laughed. “He’s just recently turned twenty, but don’t fash yerself. Ian’s as big as a bear but as soft as a wee puppy—so long as ye don’t make him angry.”
Catarina swallowed hard. “I will strive to remember that.”
She cringed when the brothers collided in a fierce embrace. Ian grabbed Quinn around the middle and lifted him clear off the ground. “Too tight,” Quinn gritted. “Put me down, ye giant ox.”
Ian laughed and set Quinn on his feet. “I can’t believe yer finally here. Wait ‘til Jack sees ye.”
Catarina stepped forward then, her excitement winning out over her nerves. “If Jack is here, can I assume my sister and father are as well?”
Her heart filled when Ian shifted his gaze away from Quinn to look at her. His sky blue eyes held a warmth that instantly put her at ease. “Ye must be Catarina?”
She smiled and nodded.
Ian bent low to coo at Nicholas. “Bella is going to weep buckets when she finally meets this wee lad,” he said.
Catarina’s heart quickened. “Then they are here? Please, answer me.”
Ian scooped Nicholas from her arms and passed him to Quinn.
Then he turned back to face Catarina with a mischievous smile on his face.
She shrieked as his hands grabbed her waist and lifted her high in the air.
“They’re here,” he exclaimed. He spun her around before his arm came beneath her legs.
Cradling her close, he took off, sprinting over the field.
Bright laughter thundered from Ian’s chest. She squealed as the world raced past her, and then suddenly, they were standing outside one of the cottages.
Ian’s blue eyes crinkled when he smiled. “Go ahead,” he whispered. “Knock.”
She stared at the door, her heart beating wildly in her chest.
“Go on,” he urged.
Her hand snaked out and tapped the door.
She stood there, holding her breath while she listened to the shuffle of feet.
Then the door swung wide. A man with black hair and black eyes filled the doorway.
His eyes darted from Catarina to Ian, then back to Catarina again.
And then one side of his lips upturned into an irresistible sideways smile.
“Ye must be Catarina,” he said. “I’m Jack. ”
Jack possessed an undeniable presence, exuding effortless strength. As the oldest of the MacVie brother’s, Catarina was not surprised by his confident bearing.
“’Tis a pleasure to meet ye,” Jack said, his lips still curved in that lazy sideways grin. “But I ken yer not here to see me.” He turned his head and called back through the door, “Bella, ye have a visitor.”
“A visitor? What nonsense,” came the reply from inside.
Catarina’s breath hitched when she heard Bella’s voice. She was done waiting. She barreled past the big man in the doorway.
“Bella,” she cried.
Her younger sister’s pale green eyes widened in surprise the instant before they flooded with tears. “Catarina!”
IT WAS SOME TIME BEFORE the MacVie men could pull the Redesdale ladies apart, but Rose could not put dinner off forever. Sitting with her father on one side and Quinn on the other, Catarina’s eyes danced as she looked around the table at all the smiling faces.
“Mama would have loved this,” Catarina said to her father.
David smiled. “Yes, she surely would have.”
“More than any of your fine fortresses or castles, I would wager,” Catarina said.
David patted her hand. “That I do not doubt.”
Catarina’s heart brimmed with love as she ate and talked and laughed with her new family.
Rose was as lovely as Catarina had imagined, even when she scolded Jack’s wee lassies as they raced around the table.
Ian had one of the girl’s hanging off his shoulders.
Apparently, he was little Florie’s favorite climbing tree.
The love between Jack and Bella filled the room to bursting.
She turned then and smiled up into Quinn’s eyes. “I have found my destiny,” she whispered.
He leaned close and pressed a slow kiss to her lips. “Have ye now?”
She nodded and threw her arms around his neck. “I am part of a clan, the Clan MacVie.”
“Catarina MacVie,” Quinn said, as if tasting the words for the first time. “I like the sound of that.”
His arm came around her waist, and he kissed her, bending her back low. The table erupted with cheers, but then an even louder cry filled the room.
“Ye’ve gone and done it now,” Rose said, tsking at her brothers. “Ye’ve woken the baby.”
Catarina jumped to her feet and hurried to the basket where Nicholas fussed. She scooped him into her arms and sat in a rocking chair near the open window. She breathed deep the sea air and rocked back and forth with her baby snug in her arms.
“What a fortunate boy you are,” she crooned in Nicholas’s ear.
“You will grow up here on this beautiful island, surrounded by kind men and caring women, and you will know what it means to be loved. And when it is time, your Uncle Stephen will come for you, and you will take your place as the true Lord of Ravensworth. But no matter how grand you become, remember this one thing—you will always be my baby.”
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