“Aye, Struan willna be bothering us again.”
She ran into his open arms, and Alex buried his face in her long hair. “Can ye find it in yer heart to forgive a sinner?”
“What sins has he committed?”
“He’s sure he’s broken every commandment.”
Keely lifted her head. “Ye coveted yer neighbor’s wife?”
“No exactly,” he said. “My neighbor’s daughter.”
That made her smile—that beautiful, delicate smile he wanted to see every day for the rest of his life. “I’ve killed, stolen, havena kept the Sabbath, and lied countless times.”
“About what?”
“Ye,” he whispered.
“Me?”
“Aye.”
“Tell me what ye’ve lied about exactly.”
Alex kissed her forehead, then her soft lips. “About how ye make me feel. There’s so much love inside my heart right now, I think it might burst, Keely.” He kneeled before her and took her hands in his. “I doona want to relive the past ever again. But I will tell ye this one time… I left the Highlands a broken man. And returned five years later still a broken man. Not one day has gone by when I havena thought of ye, craved ye in my mind and heart, in my bed, in my arms, in my life. And this time, Keely Oliphant, I am asking ye to marry me the right way.”
He gazed up at her, waiting patiently for her to give him an answer.
“If ye doona want me, I understand. I know how many dreams ye gave up for me, for John, for my sire, and yer father. Men are swine, Keely. We doona consider the feelings of the people around us when we want something. If ye doona want to stay here, I will give ye my ship, and Petro and my men will take ye wherever ye wish to go. Italy. France…”
“Constantinople?”
That caught him off guard. But he’d decided to lay his world at her feet—whatever she wanted, she could have. “Aye, even Constantinople.”
“Aye,” she said. “I’ll marry ye, Alexander. With all my heart. I love ye.”
He slowly rose to his feet. “Say it again, lass.”
“I love ye.”
He tugged her into his arms. “I love ye, Keely. Always.”
With the promise of a second chance at life with Keely in his heart, Alex carried his bride back to the encampment.
Epilogue
Two and a half years later…
“Havena I toldye a dozen times ye canna go in the birthing room?” Laird Oliphant blocked the doorway.
Alex heard his wife scream for the hundredth time, and was ready to do anything to get through his wall of a father-in-law. “Get out of my way. Please.”
“Nay.”
“I asked nicely.”
“I doona care if ye beg like a woman. Ye’re not going in there.”
“She’s my wife!”
