“You have to calm down, Ella, it’s not good for—” She stopped suddenly as if remembering something. “You have to learn patience if you are going to be married to a warrior. These things never go as planned.”
Elizabeth plopped down in a chair, not hiding her frustration. “But I’m not patient. I hate waiting and not knowing. I never realized how hard it must be for you. How do you do it?”
“I try not to think about it. I realized it wasn’t doing either of us any good for me to worry myself to death. Uilleam helps keep my mind off things.”
She looked at Elizabeth meaningfully, as if she should be understanding something. Elizabeth frowned. “Aye, I can see why. He’s as much of a handful as Hugh and Archie were.” She shuddered. “When I have children, I’m going to be much more firm with them.”
Joanna looked like she was choking on something before she managed, “I shall look forward to seeing that.”
Elizabeth sighed. “I wish Thom had been able to come back from training on Skye before he’d been called away on a mission with James. He’s been gone over three weeks now.”
“They’ll be back soon enough.”
Jo was right. When the call rang out from the yard below a few minutes later, Elizabeth was already halfway down the stairs.
“Careful!” Jo yelled from behind her, but Elizabeth wasn’t listening. All she could think about was...
The moment she ran into the yard she saw him. The impact of emotion that hit her was like a physical blow. It landed across her chest with the force of a hammer. He was here. Dirty, tired, a little grizzled. His hair was longer than she’d ever seen it and his jaw looked like it hadn’t seen a razor in a week, yet he was even more handsome than she remembered. But none of that mattered. The only thing that mattered was that he was safe—and by the looks of it in fine form.Veryfine form. If possible, he seemed evenmorephysically imposing. He looked every inch an elite warrior of the Highland Guard.
The relief was so overwhelming it almost brought her to her knees.
She made a sound, and he looked over from his conversation with Jamie—a surprisinglyun-tension-ridden conversation, she noticed—to see her standing there. When he grinned, her legs seemed to finally remember how to move. She tore across the yard and threw herself into his arms.
The moment they closed around her the emotion that she’d been trying to control came bursting out in a flood of tears.
He held her for a minute, squeezing her tight and whispering soothing words into her hair as he kissed the top of her head. He smelled of horse, and leather, and wind, and nothing had ever smelled so good. She wanted to hold on to him forever.
It took her a moment, but eventually she felt the shaking in his chest and realized he was laughing.
When she scowled up at him, he took the opportunity to drop a too-quick kiss on her mouth, when all she wanted to do was melt into him (he was no doubt aware of her blasted brother standing right next to him).
“Aren’t you happy to see me?” he said, his eyes twinkling.
She felt the strange urge to stomp on his foot. “I am, you wretch!”
“I thought you didn’t cry.”
“I don’t.” She wiped her eyes furiously. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I’m crying all the time of late.”
“You’ll be fine soon enough,” Jo said, coming up behind her. “The mission with the Earl of Carrick went well?” she asked her husband.
All the women knew was that it had been a raid in England.
“Well enough,” Jamie said with an odd look in Boyd’s direction. “We had some help from Randolph and his men.”
Elizabeth’s gaze shot to Thom’s, but he shook his head, telling her it had been fine. Apparently, according to James, there weren’t any hard feelings between Randolph and Thom. Randolph apparently considered his graciousness toward the man who was now marrying his former betrothed as recompense for Thom saving his life.
“Now I saved his,” Randolph had said.
Thom had disagreed that a battle between them would be so one-sided, but Elizabeth had just been relieved that Randolph hadn’t dropped his gauntlet at Thom’s feet and demanded a joust or some other knightly form of satisfaction and forced her to find out.
She suspected she had Izzie to thank for that. If she hadn’t wrangled the lauded knight yet, she would soon.
Elizabeth was glad not to have Randolph to worry about; preventing Thom and Jamie from coming to blows had been difficult enough. Although she was relieved to see that no longer seemed the case. Elizabeth didn’t fully understand the bond men seemed to form in war, but if it helped restore some measure of the former friendship between them she was grateful for it.
Jo had arranged a feast for the men when they arrived, and Elizabeth stopped crying and let go of Thom long enough to greet some of the others as they walked into the Great Hall. Most of the Guard had already gone on to Dunstaffnage to give their report to the king before returning to their own families for a few days, but Boyd and Lamont had accompanied Thom as far as Douglas and would continue on to their families tomorrow.
Elizabeth was looking forward to meeting them all in a couple of weeks for their wedding, which would take place—fittingly—in Edinburgh at the abbey under the shadow of the great castle Thom had helped restore to Scotland.
