Page 125 of The Crusader's Vow

Leila nodded.“I would adore him even if you did not need an heir.We should have another.”

“And a daughter,” Fergus agreed.“I would like to see if she, too, would resemble Saffirah.”He sobered then.“I wish she had been here to see your joy, and your cousin, too.”

“Aziza will see it in Venice, when we meet, and I am certain that Karayan has been compelled to tell her of Killairic over and over again.”Leila smiled.“As for my mother, I felt her presence this day, as if she meant to aid me.”

“A guardian angel on your shoulder?”

“A loving one,” Leila said, her voice husky.“Who will never be forgotten.”

Fergus held her tightly, and eased away her tears.“I have a gift for you this Yule, but would give it to you now, when we are alone together.”

“It is a little soon for that manner of gift, husband,” Leila teased.

Fergus chuckled and retrieved the parcel.As she was holding their son, he had to unwrap it for her.It was the psalter he had bought, with no clear idea at the time of why.“It was not intended for Isobel,” he said before she could ask.“I knew she would not value it.But I thought it so pretty and I could envision it in a lady’s delicate hands as she made her prayers.”

Leila smiled up at him.“Any particular hands?”

“These ones,” he said and lifted one to his lips.He kissed Leila then and they sat in silence, admiring their son as he dozed.Fergus could imagine no finer way to spend this night.“He has need of a name, this son of ours,” he murmured finally to Leila and was relieved when she smiled again.

“You must have a family name to bestow.”

“My family will bestow much upon him, including the tradition of his mother choosing his name.”

“Truly?”

“Truly.The decision is yours.”

Leila stared down that the boy, her finger caressing his cheek.“Then I would name him for his guardian angels, his grandfathers both by blood and by honor.”

“One on the left and one on the right.”Fergus smiled, for he thought it a perfect tribute.“In what order?”

Leila considered it, then chose.“Alasdair Calum Hakim,” she said.“It sounds best that way.”

“And so it shall be thus,” Fergus agreed and kissed his wife again.The shadow of doom was dispelled, the future was assured and he was happier than he had ever imagined he might be.

And it was all because Leila had put her hand in his.He would spend the rest of his days and nights ensuring that she never regretted her choice.

He would spend the rest of his life ensuring that Killairic was the home she had been determined to make her own.“Are you too tired to tell me a story, Leila?”he asked as he tucked himself into the bed beside her.“I believe that last night you were telling me a tale of three apples.”

“Indeed, I was,” Leila agreed, then smiled up at him.“And what shall you do when I reach the end of Scheherazade’s tales?”

“What did Shahriar do?”

“He confessed that she had won his heart and his admiration, and he revoked his law to have his queen executed in the morning.He asked her to be his queen in truth and she agreed.”Leila’s eyes danced.“I believe they lived happily ever after.”

“But you are already my lady and my wife, for my heart and my admiration are both conquered,” Fergus said, pretending to consider this as a puzzle.“Perhaps, you could start at the beginning again and tell Scheherazade’s tales to our children.Alasdair will be old enough to listen after another eight hundred nights or so.”

Leila laughed with a merriment that made Fergus smile.“I think that might ensure that wealllived happily ever after,” she said, and Fergus could not argue with that.