Page 109 of Desire of a Highlander

“Again?”

“Aye, again.”

Elodie sighed dramatically and did as the healer asked. “You’re enjoying this far too much, you know that?”

“Of course I am.” Faye smoothed an imaginary crease from Elodie’s sleeve. “There. Perfect.”

Sarah folded her arms. “Ye’ve been saying ‘perfect’ for the last quarter hour and then finding something else to ‘improve’.”

Morag burst into another fit of giggles. Faye shot Sarah a look of exaggerated annoyance. Elodie laughed at their antics just as a knock came at the door.

“It’ll be Eamon,” Faye said.

“Tell him she’s not ready,” Sarah called.

“I heard that!” Eamon’s voice came from the other side of the door. “We’ve a groom waiting who’s beginning to look worried!”

Sarah grinned. “Excellent! Leave him stewing a little longer.”

Morag opened the door, letting Eamon step inside. He took one look at Elodie and stilled. For perhaps the first time since she’d met him, he seemed entirely lost for words.

“Everything all right?” Elodie asked.

He blinked. “Ye...” He rubbed the back of his neck. “Ye look...nice.”

Sarah laughed. “Truly the soul of poetry!”

Eamon grinned sheepishly then looked back at Elodie. “He’s waiting.”

Those simple words made her heart leap into her throat. She nodded. “Okay. I’m ready.”

Faye stepped forward and cupped Elodie’s face between weathered hands. “Aye, ye are,” she said quietly. She kissed Elodie on the forehead. “So let’s go get ye married to the stubborn fool, eh?”

Elodie allowed Eamon to escort her out the door and into bright sunshine. She paused to take a breath of air and try to still the sudden thundering of her heart. She took a quick look around. The little settlement had changed beyond recognition since they’d first arrived.

Where there had once been little more than an old farmhouse and neglected crofts, a village was beginning to emerge. Fresh timber framed new cottages. Stone walls marked out gardens. The skeleton of what would become a smithy stood near the stream, although Ronan still insisted on working beneath little more than a roof while helping everyone else build their homes first.

As she and her entourage set off towards what would become the village green, the project manager in her immediately began taking an inventory. The western cottages had their roofs now. That was good but the drainage ditch she’d suggested still needed extending before autumn or they might flood come the winter. The doors on the big barn had been replaced but the bridge over the burn ought to be widened before winter supplies began arriving.

She caught herself doing it and shook her head. Some habits, it seemed, never changed. They walked to the far end of the settlement and reached the village green. It wasn’t much more than a flattened meadow surrounded by half-finished buildings but today it had been transformed. Wildflowers decorated simple wooden arches and long trestle tables waited beneath colorful ribbons fluttering gently in the breeze.

The entire community had gathered, everyone that had come from the Steading. Ronan’s people. Her people. They turned as she and her entourage paused at the edge of the green, a murmur like the susurration of leaves spreading through the air.

Ronan stood beside Bryce wearing Campbell tartan, looking both proud and deeply uncomfortable at being the center of attention. Behind them, in the front row of the guests stood two other men who bore a striking resemblance—Niall and Evan Campbell, two of Ronan’s other brothers. The family reunion had been surprisingly warm after all this time and Elodie had been pleased to learn that they’d already reconciled with Bryce. They had welcomed Ronan back into their lives with open arms. Only Ronan’s twin brother, Rian, was missing and Elodie knew Ronan felt his absence keenly. Yet nobody seemed to know where Rian might be.

Elodie’s gaze strayed to the women standing to either side of the Campbell brothers. Charlie and Ruby, Niall and Evan’s wives. Catching her eye, they grinned at her and Charlie gave a little thumbs up. If Elodie had been surprised to meet Ronan’s other brothers, she’d been almost poleaxed when she’d met Charlie and Ruby. They were both time-travelers like her. Both from the twenty-first century. She was still trying to get her head around that.

Yes, getting to know her in-laws was going to be very interesting indeed.

Her gaze found Ronan’s. He stared at her with an expression so full of love that she felt tears prick unexpectedly at her eyes. He smiled, a bright smile full of joy, and it brought an answering smile to her lips.

She had crossed centuries and lost everything she’d once known. Yet she’d found everything too. Everything she needed was right here.

Eamon cleared his throat. “Shall we?”

Elodie nodded. “Yes. Let’s.”

Arm in arm with Eamon, she swept across the green towards Ronan. He stepped forward to meet her, taking both her hands in his. The grin hadn’t left his face. “Ye look...ye look...” He stammered, unable to find words.