Something warm and soft spreads through Maggie’s chest.
Pride, of course.
But also something else.
Something gentler.
Mary. Her most fiercely independent granddaughter. The one who swore no man would ever tie her down. The one who planned to travel across Europe to “find herself.”
Stayed.
For love.
A familiar bleat pulls Maggie from her thoughts.
Hamish has settled beside the cold fireplace—the only creature granted permanent access to this room—and stares at her with eyes far too intelligent for an ordinary sheep.
“You look very pleased with yourself,” Maggie comments as she turns away from the window.
Hamish bleats again in a tone she interprets perfectly as: Obviously. I did all the work.
“Don’t be ridiculous. This operation required subtlety, strategy, perfect timing…”
The sheep tilts his head skeptically.
“Fine,” she concedes with a small smile. “You may have… slightly contributed to certain catastrophes at very convenient moments.”
She lowers herself into her favorite armchair beside the mahogany secretary desk and opens the bottom drawer.
Inside rests a leather-bound notebook the rich color of fine Highland whisky.
Maggie lifts it carefully, almost reverently.
Because in its own way, it’s a treasure.
Its pages contain four years of carefully orchestrated schemes, strategic interventions, and hard-earned victories.
She opens it to the latest section:
Operation Mary.
Every item on the page has been crossed out in firm black ink:
Identify ideal candidate (Dr. Finn McLeod — grumpy, traumatized, perfect)
Create “forced cohabitation” (Convenient plumbing disaster + diplomatic symptoms)
Major obstacle to overcome (Finn’s past + Mary’s fierce independence)
Strategic family intervention (Highland Games + social pressure + Ragnar)
Let them figure it out themselves (Most difficult phase)
Beneath it, in her elegant handwriting, she adds:
Mission accomplished after a separation that aged me ten years.
Note: Never underestimate a McGregor woman in love.
