“That too. But first…”
He clasped her hands, and one by one raised them to his lips. Dropped fervent kisses into the palms. Laid a soft kiss on either corner of her mouth, and both cheeks. The seventh kiss blessed her brow.
“Now,” he told her, “now I am come home.”
Epilogue
Not until nearlya year later, when Katrin was beginning to show with the child she carried—the lad or lass who would in turn carry their ancestors on into the future—did an unexpected visitor arrive.
Indeed, Katrin and Finlay were far up the shore on one of their rambles, it being a rare chance for them to seize some time alone, and walking hand in hand. A member of the guard, named Archie, came running to find them, a curious look in his eyes.
Trouble? Katrin could almost hear the word spark in Finlay’s mind, though he did not speak. His fingers merely tightened on hers.
“Wha’ is it?” he asked the man.
“A traveler just come over the hills, asking for Mistress Katrin.” Archie drew a breath and announced, “’Tis the Gallowglass!”
“What?” Katrin stared.
“Aye, the one the old chief hired when we went to battle last year.”
The old chief. Katrin still experienced a pang when she heard that. Was Finlay the new chief, or was she? He went by that name, aye, but she had an equal part in any decision that was made.
“Reagan? Impossible!” She gazed into Finlay’s eyes. “He died at the battle!”
Finlay gave her a rueful smile. “Did he?”
Katrin dropped his fingers and ran, a great gladness tearing up through her. It could not be.It could not be,she thought in tune withher footsteps. She’d thought him lost to her.
At the foot of the rise just in front of the gate stood a man. A big man he was, with wide shoulders covered in light chain mail, a sword nearly as tall as he was strapped across his back.
“Reagan!”
He turned from surveying the keep when she called his name, and a big, wide smile broke across his face. Warm and steady, tawny-colored eyes. Flowing mustaches and a countenance grown somehow older. Harder and tightened, but aye, the smile was the same and spread immediately to his eyes.
He swept Katrin with a look up and down before he switched his gaze to Finlay, who came close behind her.
“Harper.”
“Master Gallowglass!”
“I thought ye dead.” The words burst from Katrin and drew Reagan’s eyes back to her. “In that battle—I saw ye fall.”
“Aye, I nearly was dead. Lost more than half my men, I did, and still more in the attempt to get what was left o’ us awa’. The thing o’ it is, I am not so easy to kill.”
“Och, by God,” Katrin exclaimed. “Och, I am that glad!”
His eyes crinkled. “As I am glad to see the two o’ ye here, and together. As should be.”
Finlay reached out and clasped arms with the Gallowglass who, tall as Finlay was, topped him by a good bit. The very air seemed to shimmer. This, Katrin knew, would be one of those moments that would live in her mind forever and perhaps one evening be told in song—the day the bold Gallowglass returned.
“I had heard talk that made me hope ye had survived, sayin’ Murtray had a new chief married to the old chief’s daughter, and that he was a harper. I just had to come and see for myself.”
“As ye do.” Katrin could not help but beam at him.
His eyes crinkled again, in return. “I do see that ye have been hardat work assuring the future. When is the babe due?”
Katrin laid a hand on her belly in an age-old gesture. “By summer’s end. It canna be soon enough.”
