“Finish that thought,” Declan dared. “Call my sister that word, and I will challenge you. Your clan will be short an heir before the sun sets.”
“Settle down,” King Robert commanded as though he spoke to a group of rowdy children. “Buchanan, go home. Take your sister. You have both caused trouble here too many times. Tell your father that your marriage to Lady Sarah Anne will take place at the start of the new year. Your sister will marry Laird MacDonald of Keppoch. You will keep to yourself and cease antagonizing the MacLarens. I will not come to your defense if you rile them, and the MacFarlanes ride alongside them. From the sounds of it, at least some of the Douglases stand beside the MacFarlanes now too.”
Declan shoved Dennis away from him, but his expression promised retribution once they were away from the king. Catherine wondered if Dennis would make it to the altar. She believed Dennis and Sarah Anne deserved one another, but she wasn’t eager to have either as her neighbor. Declan glanced at Rab, a message passing between them that Catherine suspected confirmed her guess that Dennis would never make it to his wedding.
“Lady Catherine, Rab, you will stay. Everyone else, leave.” King Robert leaned back in his chair as people filtered from the chamber. He didn’t spare Dennis a glance when Declan followed him from the chamber. “I cannot say I approve of your secrecy and conspiracy, but I understand. MacLaren, I know you wouldn’t have asked for me to intercede given what brought you to court. But once I knew—once my queen pointed out—you still shared feelings for one another, I would have sanctioned the marriage. I would have eased the restitution I ordered.”
“Yer Majesty, we owe those reparations to the MacFarlanes, regardless of how things turned out. We may have ended our enmity, but our marriage doesnae undo the wrongs already committed.” Rab kept his voice quiet but unwavering.
“Be that as it may, I see little point in paying the restitution if you are receiving Lady Catherine’s dowry. You are hardly facing hardship now.”
“I told ma father to decline the dowry,” Rab stated.
“You what?” King Robert spluttered.
“The point of yer sentence was to see us brought low. Accepting the dowry eases the burden and defeats the point. Besides, ma father and I agree that we’ve taken enough from the MacFarlanes already. I never wanted Catherine’s dowry, only her. I didna marry her for it. Our marriage may have brought the feud to an end, but I married Catherine because I love her.”
“How romantic,” King Robert noted, the disdain clear. “However, love doesn’t fill a mon’s trencher, nor does it care for a widow and unwed daughters. You will neither accept the dowry, but neither will you pay the full restitution. You will send the livestock but keep the coin.” He steepled his fingers as the heels of his hands rested on his belly. He watched the couple, waiting to determine if the silence unnerved them. When he realized they would likely wait him out, he nodded. “Had it come to it, I would have backed a claim that you pre-contracted all those years ago. MacLaren, you said you’d both expressed your wish to marry one day before that fateful gathering ended. Your marriage is good for the Highlands.”
Catherine and Rab listened to King Robert, not convinced everyone believed that as they recalled Maxwell Douglas and Dennis Buchanan. But they had no intention of contradicting the monarch. They prayed the declaration held true.
“Thank ye, Yer Majesty,” Rab said with a bow. Catherine dipped into a deep curtsy.
“Lady Catherine, the queen wishes to offer her felicitations. You will find her in her solar.”
Catherine and Rab took that to signal their dismissal. They left the chamber in silence and remained quiet until Catherine pulled Rab into an alcove. They embraced as their kiss reassured them that they’d survived their time in the lion’s den.
“Say yer farewells, Kitty. Ye’ve packed yer trunks, and the men will load the wagon in the morning. We can be on our way back to Edinample before the sun wakes.”
“I’d leave today if we could,” Catherine mused. She canted her head and raised an eyebrow as she studied Rab’s expression. “Dare we?”
“Nay one has told us we must stay.” Rab shrugged. “We havenae even had the midday meal. There’s nay reason to dally here.”
“Vera well. I’ll see the queen, and we can depart by the nooning.” Catherine sighed as she leaned against Rab. “And with a wee touch of luck, I willna have to sound like a Lowlander ever again.”
Not even two hours later, Cullen and the other guards loaded Catherine’s two trunks onto a wagon. The MacLarens left Stirling castle and the town of Stirling without a moment’s temptation to look back. Despite how she’d spoken and dressed, Catherine had always felt as much like the outsider that the courtier accused Rab of being. She focused her gaze on the true Highlands and their home, knowing that she and Rab were returning to where they belonged. Together.
“Race ye,” Catherine called as she spurred Timber forward. Both rider and horse knew Rab and Bolt would easily beat them, but the warrior and his trusted steed took their place beside the lady and her mare. Their matching MacLaren laird’s family plaids flapped in the breeze as they distanced themselves from Stirling and raced toward a future that began seven years earlier in an apricot orchard.
Epilogue
“Can ye see them yet?” Catherine bounced on her toes as she stood beside Rab on the battlements.
“Ye ken I canna.” Rab grinned down at his petite wife. The past three decades had been kind to Catherine, and her cornflower blue eyes held the same mischief that he’d spied the day he met her. Gray now laced her hair, and laugh lines crinkled beside her eyes. But she was still the most breathtaking woman he’d ever seen.
“Ye’re nay even looking,mo ghaol. What’s the point of having such a tall husband if ye arenae looking for them?”
Rab’s chest rumbled with laughter as he lifted Catherine off her feet, bringing her eye level with him. “Do ye see them?”
“Well, nay. But Clyde said they’d be here soon.”
“And they will be. Our son didna exaggerate. Yer cousins are in as much a hurry to arrive as we are to have them here.” Rab grinned as he tried to contain his own excitement that Andrew Óg and Catriona were soon joining them for the summer solstice celebration. “Look, the lads are riding out to greet them.”
Rab and Catherine watched their three sons, Clyde, Arran, and Logan, and their one son-by-marriage, Angus, ride through Edinample’s gate. Just before the four young men crested the first hill, a swarm of horses charged to meet them. Catherine and Rab waved as Andrew and Catriona came into view. They hurried down to the bailey, Rab calling the stable hands to greet their guests.
“Cat!” Catherine exclaimed as her best friend and cousin-by-marriage reined in and leaped from her horse. The women collided in an embrace that was still as wild and merry as it had been when they were lasses. Rab and Andrew embraced, pounding one another on the back as the breeze lifted their gray heads of hair. A babe’s cry pierced the air, soon followed by two more. Catherine and Catriona pulled apart with happy tears streaming down their cheeks.
“Elsie had her bairn a fortnight ago,” Catherine explained the first babe’s cry.
