Chapter Twenty-Five
The sting of frigid water woke him and he coughed and choked on it, sending slashes of pain throughout his beaten body. But the pain told him he yet lived.
Forcing his one eye open, he saw Connor and Jocelyn standing above him.
The lady was whispering furiously at her husband, who did not seem to be listening at all.
Tilting his head back, he recognised the curtain of black silk that cascaded around him—Lilidh’s hair.
He wanted to tangle his fingers in it, but one hand would still not obey him and the other was holding hers.
‘Give me your hand, boy,’ Rurik said, reaching down for him.
Though Lilidh began to argue and Jocelyn, he noticed, turned away, there was no way to avoid the warrior who grabbed his useless hand and pulled it.
The sky above him flashed white and the very fires of hell coursed through his body as Rurik put his shoulder back in place.
‘Good fight, boy,’ Rurik said with a nod in his direction. ‘I would not have thought it in you,’ he added as he walked past.
When Rob could sit up, he noticed that Connor did not look unscathed and he felt some satisfaction in that. He might not have won, but he had given as good as he got. Connor nodded his head at Rob and he found himself hauled to his feet by two guards.
‘Go away,’ Connor ordered loudly.
The yard, now that he could see it, cleared at the laird’s orders, leaving only the four of them.
‘You are not the boy you were then, Rob,’ Connor said, gruffly.
Jocelyn whispered something to him and pushed against his arm. Connor held out his hand to Rob. Rob took it, wincing at the power in the older man’s grip.
‘I want your blessing, Connor. I would have Lilidh to wife if she will have me,’ he insisted, not looking at Lilidh for fear he would lose his nerve then.
‘If she will have you,’ Connor said, releasing his hand and putting his arm around his wife. ‘I was wrong about you, Rob. I was wrong.’
That was as close to an apology as Rob was going to get, but he did not care right now.
Lilidh yet held on to his other hand and had not moved from his side.
Connor grabbed his wife’s hand and tugged her in the direction of the keep.
‘Come into the hall and tell us if we have a wedding to prepare or not,’ Lilidh’s father called back to them.
Rob lifted their clasped hands up and kissed hers. The bloody mark he left from his split lip was not the most romantic thing he could have done, but she seemed not to notice it. Though he dripped water on her, she leaned against him.
‘I am sorry it took so long to understand your advice, Lilidh.’
‘My advice?’ she asked. Then a smile lit her face and he knew she was going to laugh. ‘You listened to my advice?’
‘These last months I could hear your words in my head. But I want to hear them from you. I want you to help me be the laird and chief I can be—not the one my father was or your father is.’ He kissed her gently and then added something that he had never said aloud to her.
‘I am so sorry for what I did to you, what I said. I understand if you hate me for the cruel words, but I hope you will forgive me and give me another chance. I love you, Lilidh, and I want you for ever, not just a year and a day.’
She kissed his face then, feathering light, gentle kisses across all the cuts and bruises he now wore and he lost himself in the love she showed him.
‘I forgive you, Rob,’ she whispered to him, easing the tightness in his chest that had nothing to do with the fight he’d just survived.
‘And you will have me? For ever?’ he asked, hoping that her answer was the one he hoped it would be.
‘Yes, my love. For ever.’
He would have to wait to show her how happy it made him, for the air around him began to shimmer and sparkle and the ground began to move back up at him. The good thing was that having her at his side slowed his descent and he landed with less of a thud than the first time.
‘Rob!’ she cried out, waking him from his stupor.
‘I am well,’ he answered though his body rebelled at the lie. He did not want to think of the number of broken bones or bruises or cuts on him. He just wanted to think about her.
‘Is this a good time to tell you something else?’ she said, as she brushed the hair back out of his eyes and caressed his cheek.
‘What is it?’
‘I think my parents will want a wedding quickly, Rob.’
‘Do you not want to wait and have one they have time to prepare for? Is that not what every woman wants?’ he asked, feeling the blood whooshing around inside his ears.
‘If we do not marry soon, people will be counting back and calling our bairn a seven-month babe.’
It took a few moments for the news to rattle through his brain and make sense, but when it did, he pulled her close and kissed her breathless.
Well, he tried, but then he began coughing and groaning from the pain. ‘You carry my child now?’ he asked.
She smiled and nodded. ‘Are you pleased?’
For a moment, a vision of her blossoming under his watch, filled with his child, was all he could see.
‘I am very pleased, Lilidh.’
That was the last thing he remembered until he woke in her bed in the keep two days later.