Epilogue
If Emily had been asked a year ago if she had thought it would be possible to throw a cèilidh larger than the one she had after her wedding, she would have called them a liar. Least of all one that was thrown hastily.
It seemed like every time Kaden’s sisters had free rein, they tended to go wild.
But she could certainly admit that the hall was beautifully decorated.
It hadn’t been simple, having everyone fall into a routine together.
There certainly had been more than one instance of bruised feelings and arguments with so many women living so closely to one another.
But by now, she could say that she truly felt she belonged here.
Here in this hall, surrounded by these walls, was where she belonged.
“Me Lady, the guests have started to arrive.”
Emily snapped out of her daze to focus on the maid in front of her. “Very good. Please show them inside. The piper should be ready any moment now.”
She glanced toward the end of the hall, where they had set up a stage for the performers. Sure enough, the piper had just finished his glass of wine and was starting to warm up with a few random notes.
A footman pulled the main doors open, and a few moments later, the sounds of distant chatter and laughter drifted in.
Kaden preceded them into the hall, walking with purpose. It made her heart skip a beat just to see him. It felt like the familiar flutter in her lower belly traveled down between her thighs every time she saw him.
Not that she was complaining. Hardly. If anything, ever since she had acknowledged her feelings for him, she could hardly keep her hands off him.
That just made tonight even more special.
“Now that it is happening, are ye finally going to tell me what we are celebrating?” Kaden asked as he stopped in front of her.
“I am sorely tempted to keep ye waiting for as long as possible, ye ken,” she answered in a sing-song voice.
He grabbed her around the waist and pulled her closer to him with a faux stern look. It was so rare that he was openly affectionate with her in front of other people instead of just keeping things contained to the bedroom.
She couldn’t help but giggle as he pressed his fingers into her side, playfully reminding her that he could tickle her whenever he wanted.
“Alright! I yield!” she squealed.
“This is to celebrate the completion of yer book. I’m right, am I nae?
Ye might think that I hadnae noticed ye sequestering yerself in the library for hours on end.
Ye would come to bed with ink clinging to every part of ye for weeks,” he murmured.
“Ye daenae have to be so secretive about it anymore.”
“Ye think that ye ken everything, then?” She pushed at his chest, though she didn’t actually wish to be free from him.
“I think that if ye daenae tell me, I am going to find yer journals and find out for meself.”
“Ye wouldnae dare!” Emily gasped and swatted at his chest playfully.
Kaden pretended to be injured, and she quickly realized that the spot her hand had touched was the same one she had patched up a year ago. The skin was healed, but the scar would be there forever as a reminder of what they had gone through.
She was fairly certain that if she returned to that horrible cabin in the woods, the bastard’s corpse would still be lying on the ground where he had fallen.
He hadn’t deserved an honorable death, and it certainly hadn’t taken Kaden long to absorb his clan and territories.
She hadn’t even been surprised when the monster’s clansmen had quickly pledged their loyalty to him.
Emily had made sure to dedicate a whole chapter in her book about how leading by fear was never going to get anybody where they wanted.
It was never going to be enough for those around them to stay loyal in the face of adversity.
Instead, loyalty needed to be earned. Graham could have learned so much from Kaden if he had not been so blind and consumed by hatred. Rotten from the inside out.
At least the nightmares were far more infrequent now. For both of them.
“Ye wouldnae dare sneak a peek at me journals!”
Kaden smirked and shrugged one shoulder. “Aye, I suppose that ye are right.”
Emily twirled out of his grip. “Besides, this isnae for me book.”
The guests started filing into the hall, and the music kicked in at the same moment. It was just the distraction she needed to get away from him and change the subject. She would be more than happy to tell him what they were celebrating, but she was waiting for the right moment.
It didn’t take long for the cèilidh to become wild. She supposed it was only normal.
The clansmen and women formed circles and danced with one another across the floor.
Even Kaden had been coaxed into dancing once with his sister, something that Freya was likely not going to let him live down.
The tables were laden with half-consumed food and more wine and whiskey than all of them could drink in one evening.
Emily sat at the high table with her mother, sipping wine slowly, watching the guests interact with one another.
Her gaze kept naturally drifting to her husband.
She had thought that after they had been married for a while, her obsession with him would lessen somewhat, but she was glad that it did not.
“I must admit, I had thought that somewhere along the way, ye would come back to Reid Castle,” Iona said with a grin. “I am so happy to see that ye are happy, daughter.”
Emily glanced at her and rolled her eyes. “I had good reasons to run when I did before.”
“Aye, even if ye willnae tell me what those reasons were.”
Emily hadn’t wanted to tell her mother what she had endured or why those engagements hadn’t worked, and she had no plans of doing that any time soon, either.
There were some things that would stay between her and Kaden.
She had spent enough of her life thinking about that monster, and she wasn’t going to keep his memory alive if she could help it.
“Ye speak as if ye daenae think that I could do it.”
“Nay, I just wanted ye to be happy,” Iona clarified. “Even if yer faither was inclined to bet against it. I kent that ye had set yer mind to it, but I’m happy to see that yer heart is in it now as well.”
Emily felt her face warm. She lowered her gaze to the goblet in her hands with a soft smile. “I suppose that ye could say that.”
“When yer faither first agreed to this, I was hesitant, given Laird Muir’s reputation, even though he had never done anything to us. But I have never been happier to be proven wrong. In fact, I needed the reminder to have yer faither pay up on that particular bet.”
Emily nodded once and placed her goblet down. “Glad that it benefited ye.”
She wanted to say that she no longer resented them, but she couldn’t. Nevertheless, the resentment was lessening with each passing day, and now she knew that her mother at least had the best of intentions. Well, in her own way.
She made her way over to Kaden, who seemed happy to pull her into the dance, if only to put distance between himself and Freya.
“I was wondering when ye were going to find yer way to me,” he said with a hint of a smile as he slowly led her through the steps.
She felt like she was the only person in the room when it came to him. She looked up into his warm eyes and felt the love there in her own heart.
“Well, I thought that it was about time to tell ye what we are celebrating.”
“Aye, ye have kept me waiting. Any longer, and I might just throw ye over me shoulder and abscond with ye.”
She smirked. “As tempting as that might be, there is something better.”
“Oh? And what’s that?”
She rose onto her tiptoes and whispered in his ear, “I’m with child.”
For a moment, Emily wasn’t certain that Kaden had even heard her. He didn’t respond, almost as if he were in shock.
She moved to tell him again, when a slow smile spread across his face. A genuine, bright smile, before he scooped her up into his arms and spun her around happily.
Everybody around them was forced to move away, lest they be hit by her swinging legs.
“Ye have made me a very happy man,” Kaden rasped against the side of her face.
He pulled away just enough to kiss her, her body momentarily crushed against his as his joy spread into her. She was smiling too widely to kiss him back properly.
He set her gently on her feet and plucked a glass of whiskey off the closest table, before addressing the clan as a whole. “We are expecting!”
Emily clapped her hands over her ears to drown out the cheers that erupted immediately.
It was surreal to see her smile mirrored on the faces of every person that passed her, to feel hands gently touching her shoulders in congratulations and well-wishes. But her eyes remained fixed on Kaden.
Every time her heart felt full to bursting, he kept proving her wrong, and she couldn’t be happier.
The End?