“Did you hear all of what I said?” she asked him, and he nodded.
“Aye. And I’ll set about finding her somewhere to stay. We’ll keep it quiet, make sure naebody goes after her to try and claim revenge.”
She breathed a sigh of relief. She wasn’t sure if her husband would be as understanding as she had been about everything that had happened, but she was grateful that he seemed to make sense of where she was coming from.
As they reached the top of the stairs, he paused for a moment, and turned to her.
“What is it?” she demanded, his expression difficult to read. He smiled slightly, lifting his hand to her cheek.
“There arenae many noble women who’d do as you did for someone of low birth,” he remarked, finally. “It speaks to yer character.”
She bit her lip. She supposed now was the time to tell him.
“May I confess something?”
He nodded, frowning.
“Aye?”
“I’m not of high birth,” she admitted, blurting the words out before she could find a way to talk herself out of it. “I… my father is nothing more than a landowner, and one laden with debt, at that. I’ve never been a lady. Well, not until I married you, at least.”
He eyed her for a long moment, and she held her breath, not certain of how he was going to respond to the news. But then, after a silence, he chuckled, shaking his head.
“I should have known as soon as you told me you didnae ken how to ride,” he remarked, slipping his hand into hers again. She raised her eyebrows as he started to walk, rushing to keep pace.
“So you don’t mind?”
“Of course I dinnae mind,” he replied. “I heard the way you spoke wi’ Effie in there. You’ve shown yourself to have a good heart, Amelia. That’s all I care about, when it comes to the woman I want to spend my life with.”
She beamed at his words. He was not a man of many of them, but he spoke with such certainty, it was as though nothing in the world could have changed his mind when he said them out loud. She tugged his hand, pulling him to a stop, and he turned to face her.
Catching his face in her hands, she gazed at him for a long moment. The man who had saved her, the man who had shown her, in so many ways, how much he cared for her. Before she could stop herself, the words came bubbling out of her mouth.
“I love you, Arran.”
His face creased into a grin, the corners of his eyes wrinkling with well-worn smile lines. He leaned forward to kiss her, and, as he pulled back, he pressed his forehead to hers.
“And I you, Amelia.”
EPILOGUE
Amelia laughed as Arran twirled her around beneath his arm, the ceilidh music filling the hall over the sound of chatter and laughter. Though he had sworn up and down that he wasn’t much of a dancer, he had proved himself to be far more competent than she ever could have imagined, especially when it came to dancing the Gay Gordons, her favorite of the ceilidh routines she had learned.
He caught her in his arms before she tripped in her dizziness, and she hung onto him for dear life, laughing as she hooked her arms around his shoulders.
“You know, you’re not too bad at this,” she murmured to him as she leaned in for a brief kiss. He kissed her back, a little more deeply than she had been anticipating. A warmth began to spread across her belly, and she pulled back just before the flush could reach her cheeks. When she did, she noticed the disapproving looks of some of the older guests at the large table that ran around the outside of the hall, but she paid them little mind.
Tonight was about having fun, after all. It was the wedding feast of one of their favorite subjects, Harriet, and Amelia hadinsisted on throwing a grand event to celebrate their new union. Arran was still getting used to the idea of having feasts and ceilidhs and parties, but Amelia insisted on it every chance she got. She had spent so much of her life feeling as though there was nothing to be excited about, and now, she intended to fill her life with as much joy as possible.
Not a hard task, with Arran by her side. Since his daring rescue, she had found herself settled in at the Keep once and for all. It seemed that any who had been unconvinced by their quick union had been made sure of their feelings for one another after Arran had saved her, and she was treated as the lady of the clan. While she was still growing used to her new status, she enjoyed the respect she commanded, and the hours she could spend reading books in his study, undisturbed.
Of course, she had her duties, as well; visiting the local town with Arran, making certain that everyone was taken care of and fed. They had found that, to his surprise, women had been more comfortable opening up to her than to him, and they had discovered a few instances of men who had been loyal to him mistreating their wives or daughters. Arran had soon put a stop to that, creating a safer place for everyone who lived in his purview.
By now, that included Effie. Amelia had been to visit her a few times, to make certain that she had settled into her new home well. She was heavily pregnant now, fit to burst, and, while Amelia knew that their friendship would never be the same again, she knew she had made the right choice in offering her a second chance. The MacAllans had caused them no problems since their attack, and she knew there was no way they would ever attempt something like it again.
Nor, much to her relief, would he make a move on either of her sisters. Arran had confronted her father, at her request, and made it abundantly clear that he would not stand for thembeing sold off to the highest bidder for marriage at any point in their future. When he had realized how much the thought of it had been plaguing Amelia, he had gone out of his way to make sure that her father understood what the stakes were; that Arran would deal with him in his own way if he dared even consider selling them off to pay off his debts. Her father, though less than happy about being cowed by his son-in-law, had eventually relented. Arran had never told her exactly what he had done to make him give in, but she sensed that some firm threats had been involved.
“Do you know who that man is?”
