Page 44 of Claimed By the Obsessed Laird
“I’m going to be a father. Ye have made me a father, my love. When did you know?” he said ina soft voice.
“I got an idea just this morning. But it seems the signs were more obvious than I thought.” He took her in his arms again and she chuckled at his eagerness. Then suddenly he pulled back, a look of fear in his eyes.
“Archie knew, didnae he? That is why he took ye away. I nearly lost ye both,” he breathed. “I… I could have…”
“But ye didn’t,” she reminded him. “We’re still here. And we’re no’ going anywhere, neither of us. I told ye that ye have my heart, Camron, and I meant it.”
He drew in a deep, unsteady breath, trying to make sense of the enormity of everything that she had told him. A future with her, with their family, with their child… it was everything he could have asked for, everything he had hoped for when he had first taken her as his wife.
“I meant it, too,” he murmured. “Ye’re my future, Isla. Ye, and the baby.”
As he kissed her again, he let his hand rest on her belly, a silent promise that he would never again let anything come between them. Their family, their future, was greater than anything the world could throw at them.
And he would do everything in his power to prove that true, in all the ways he was able.
“Ah, Laird McFadden, ye made it!”
Isla greeted the Laird who had started it all with his matchmaking feast with a warm hug as he stepped from his carriage and made his way to the door of the Keep. He looked slightly surprised to have earned such a greeting from her but, nonetheless, grateful for it.
“Well, I couldnae stay away after I heard that ye were due an heir!” he laughed, and he slapped Camron on the shoulder. “Congratulations are in order, my Laird.”
“Thank you,” Camron replied, bowing his head slightly. “Please, make yer way in. I’m sure there are many women who’d be in need of yer matchmaking skills inside!”
“Oh, I’ve done enough of that fer the time being,” he replied, shaking his head. “Would ye believe that young Laird MacDonald just met his match as well at my feast?”
“I certainly can,” Isla replied, glancing at Camron with a smile, and he chuckled.
“Aye, I suppose ye could,” he agreed, and he clapped his hands together. “Well, that music sounds too good to miss. Ye’ll have to excuse me.”
“Enjoy yerself, my Laird,” Isla called after him as he made his way inside. Camron grinned at her, pulling her against him tightly.
“Ye dinnae want to join our guests?”
“Not until my sister arrives,” she replied, her face brightening with excitement. “I cannae wait to see her expression when she finds out I’m with child!”
They were in the midst of throwing a gathering to celebrate the upcoming arrival of their new heir, and she had invited her father and sister to share in the excitement with her. She had been anxious with waiting all day to tell them the news, and she could only imagine how thrilled her sister would be to find out that she was with child.
And, to her surprise, she was just as thrilled about it, too.
“Oh my God, Isla. I’m going to be an aunt,” Catriona had squealed. “I’m going to be the best aunt anyone has ever seen. Have ye thought of names yet?”
Her sister’s excitement was exactly what she needed, but she also reminded her that there were more things to think about. She had never imagined herself as a mother, but then, she had never imagined that she would be in a position to be loved by the kind of man who could stand by her side as a strong father and husband. As her bump began to grow, he lavished her with attention, murmuring sweet nothings to their unborn child, a sign of what a wonderful father he would be when they came along.
Beside her, as they waited for more guests to arrive, he pulled his cloak from his shoulders and wrapped it around hers. The clan tartan settled over her, a sign of her belonging, of her place here, even after all this time. She glanced at him quizzically.
“Ye were shivering,” he murmured. “And, well, I like to see you in our tartan.”
She grinned and leaned up to steal a kiss before the next guest arrived. When she had danced with him all those months ago, she could never have imagined that she would find such stillness and sweetness here at his side. But, with his tartanaround her shoulders, she knew that there was nowhere she would rather be.
And nobody she would rather share this future with than him.
