“I will.” Saoirse released Brighde, who turned to find Alex standing behind her. He wrapped his steely arms around Brighde and lifted her off her feet. They shared a kiss that was as heated as the ones when they first realized their feelings for one another.
Saoirse looked around and spied the other couples doing the same. Callum and Siùsan stood with Thormud, Rose, and Shona. But they may as well have been alone for how they kissed. Tavish and Ceit were in the shadows, since they were the most outrageous of the four couples. Theirs was practically obscene, but it was just as endearing as the others. Wiley, Tate, and Ailish cared not since they were too used to their parents’ antics. Ailish embraced her brothers just as Rose and Shona embraced Thormud. Magnus Mòr and Deirdre clung to one another, her feet barely brushing his shins as he held her off the ground. Torquil embraced his sister, Ainsley, while Blake and Cerys shared a kiss that rivaled any of the older generation. Only Saoirse would ride out with her husband. She had a pang of guilt, especially as Mirren and Nessa came to say goodbye.
“I thought aboot falling out of a tree, so ye wouldnae be able to go,” Nessa confessed. The three sisters clasped hands, just as they had since they were children. “Dinna go doing aught foolish. I wish to be an auntie one day.”
Nessa's comment gave Saoirse pause. She and Magnus had coupled so frequently that she knew there was a strong chance she was already with child. She’d seen her mother glance at her belly as she approached, but Brighde had said nothing. Magnus had said nothing to Saoirse, but she suspected he hadn’t thought of it.
“I wish to be a mama one day, so I willna do aught on purpose to risk that.” Saoirse released her sisters’ hands and wrapped her arm around each waist. They closed their circle and put their heads together. “I love ye.”
“We love ye,” Mirren and Nessa said in unison.
“Are ye ready,mo ghaol?” Magnus joined them, giving Mirren and Nessa brief hugs with a kiss on the cheek.
“Aye.” Saoirse accepted Magnus’s help to mount the gelding Liam insisted she ride. The mares she’d ridden in the past wouldn’t be able to keep up with the much larger warhorses. With a sigh, she nudged her horse forward to follow her grandfather and uncles. Alex rode to her left, and Magnus on her right. She twisted to wave goodbye, as did all the riders. More mounted men and foot soldiers joined them outside the walls. Married warriors lived in crofts outside the walls, so there were scores of men saying their final goodbyes to their families. Liam, with Callum to his right and Thormud to his father’s right, led the procession. Tavish and Mòr rode behind their father, with their sons beside them. The rest of the riders fell in behind Alex, Saoirse, and Óg, who brought up the rear of the laird’s family. Once outside the village, they spurred their horses and rode south for the Sutherlands. Their army would double with the Sutherlands, then triple when the Mackays joined them. A tsunami was about to strike the Mathesons, and not one Sinclair cared if they all perished.
CHAPTER19
The Sinclairs spent the night with the Sutherlands, their men camping outside the gates. Saoirse shared embraces with Amelia, Lady Sutherland. She was the older generation of Sinclair siblings’ aunt, but everyone called her Auntie Amelia. Saoirse’d been happy to see her father’s and uncles’ cousin Lachlan and his wife, Arabella. But she’d been most excited to see her cousins Callen, Alasdair, and Gavin. At six-and-ten, Callen was joining them. It would be his first time riding out to a potential battle. At four-and-ten and two-and-ten, the other boys were far too young. She’d watched Arabella say goodbye to Callen, then walk away, only to burst into tears against Amelia’s shoulder. It made Saoirse wonder how she would ever manage if her husband and sons rode off to battle. It was Lachlan who dried his wife’s tears as they shared a kiss that rivaled any of the Sinclairs’. Hamish and Amelia were no more discreet, having stopped caring decades ago. They were a love match from the beginning, just like Lachlan and Arabella had been nearly twenty years later.
Once mounted, Liam and Hamish rode together, just as they had countless times. Liam’s younger brother died when Callum was a baby, and Hamish’s older and younger brothers died a few days before Liam and Kyla wed. They’d become each other’s brother. Laird Liam Sinclair, Earl of Caithness, and Laird Hamish Sutherland, Earl of Sutherland, were enough to strike terror in anyone’s hearts. Callum remained beside Liam, and Lachlan rode beside Hamish. That was enough to make most men pish themselves. Thormud and Callen sat proudly behind their fathers and grandfathers, with the rest of the Sinclair family and both armies following. Their combined army was unstoppable.
Three days into their ride southwest, the Mackays joined them. Tristan’s dark hair made him resemble the Sinclair brothers so much that he could have been Liam’s fifth son. They treated him as such. It was only his emerald eyes that differentiated him. His sons—Wee Liam, named for his grandfather, Hamish, named for his great-uncle, and Alec—were the spitting images of their father. By the time they reached Eilean Donan, their forces had amassed nearly three hundred men and one woman.
“Bluidy hell!” Seamus greeted them as he approached on horseback. His grin nearly swallowed his face. The leaders fanned out, and Magnus Óg dismounted at the same time as Seamus. The brothers embraced, squeezing and pounding one another on the back. After Siùsan left to marry Callum, for a few months it was only the two of them. They’d protected each other from their parents. Then they were the two outsiders when they arrived at Dunbeath to foster. They’d always been each other’s closest friend and confidante. “I’d have killed ye if ye died.”
“I would have only haunted ye. Ye canna be rid of me.” Magnus walked to Saoirse and helped her from her horse. “Brother, I’d introduce ye to ma wife, Saoirse Mackenzie.”
It was the first time anyone addressed her by her new name. Magnus noticed the surprise on many faces, then the acceptance. It was only Alex who appeared pained. He looked away for a moment to regain his composure before dismounting.
“Seamus, Alex’s invited me to call him Da.” Magnus noticed a moment of wistfulness in his brother’s eyes. He didn’t have that type of relationship with Caroline’s father.
Alex shook Seamus’s forearm before pulling him in for an embrace. When they separated, Alex spoke so others could hear. “Ye’re Óg’s brother, so can call me Da if ye wish. If nae, then I’m still Alex. But it would feel odd to have ye like a younger brother, then have yer own brother as ma son. Mayhap, it would be less confusing.”
Seamus nodded, as eager for the acceptance as he had been when he first met the imposing Sinclair brothers. “I’d like that—Da.” He looked to Liam. “Grandda?”
“Aye.” Liam grinned. He saw Seamus no differently than he did Óg. They were his family, and they’d become such the moment Callum announced to the old Laird Mackenzie that the lads were going to Dunbeath to foster.
Everyone mounted and rode toward Eilean Donan. Saoirse examined the keep as they approached. It was now her home, even if they would return to Dunbeath before she officially moved in. She rode in the front, between Magnus and Seamus. It was an odd feeling to lead such an imposing force anywhere, but as the tánaiste’s wife, it was her right and duty. She glanced at her husband, who beamed with pride at her.
When they arrived in the bailey, Saoirse spied Caroline, Henry, and Thomas. At five, Henry held Caroline’s hand while she held two-year-old Thomas. Henry hid behind her legs as men poured into the bailey, overwhelmed by the number and size of the warriors arriving at his home. But he darted forward when Magnus crouched and pretended to creep forward. He ran into his uncle’s arms, and Magnus swept him off his feet. He ruffled the child’s hair before putting him down. He returned to Saoirse’s side, once more helping her dismount. He wrapped his arm around her waist and guided her to Caroline and the children. Thomas reached for him. Saoirse thought she would melt in a puddle of gooey happiness as she watched her husband with his nephews.
“Lady Mackenzie, I’d like to introduce ye to ma wife, Lady Saoirse.” Magnus erred on the side of caution and offered a formal introduction. Caroline was a kind woman, with a generous heart, but she’d been raised in a far more rigid family than the Sinclairs. It was reminiscent of how Seamus and Magnus’s parents raised them before the brothers left home.
“It’s Caroline.” Saoirse’s new sister-by-marriage reached out her hands now that Magnus held Thomas. “Welcome to yer new home.”
“Thank ye, Caroline. It’s Saoirse.” The women embraced, and Saoirse immediately felt welcome. Greetings continued as they reintroduced Caroline to Tristan and Hamish, along with their families. She hadn’t seen them since her wedding six years earlier.
“Come inside. Scouts told us ye approached, so we moved the evening meal forward. Ye must be ready to eat.” Caroline ushered them toward the Great Hall.
Magnus looked around, knowing how he would feel returning to the keep. It was home because he’d lived there as a child and had returned as an adult. But most of the time, it felt merely like a place to rest his head. When he peered down at Saoirse and observed her take in details she may have forgotten, he saw his keep through a new lens. It was now a home he shared with his wife, at least until they could choose a croft, if that’s still what she wanted.
“We will share ma chamber, which is ours for as long as ye wish. If ye still want a croft of our own, I will arrange for it once we come back.”
“Ye’d still consider a croft?” Saoirse turned to him in surprise.
“A place where I can chase ma bonnie bride around bare as the day she was born? I’d build it with ma own hands if it made it happen faster.”
“I love ye.” Saoirse grinned and nodded. Magnus wrapped her arm around his as he led her to the dais. Her Sinclair, Mackay, and Sutherland cousins found tables below the dais to take their meal. Saoirse joined the lairds, tánaistes, her uncles, and Caroline and the weans at the laird’s table. The last time she’d been there, she’d sat amongst her cousins. Now she was sitting in a chair that would be hers until Henry was tánaiste and had a wife. Eventually, it would become Thomas’s wife’s. But for now, she sat beside Magnus and swept her gaze over her new clan. Before the priest could bless the food, Magnus stood and held out his hand. Saoirse rose and linked her fingers with his.
