“Ye forget,” Mary said, her voice bright with mirth, “my sisters do as well.” She hugged him tightly as she chuckled, then sobered and captured his gaze. “We are about to celebrate our first Yule as man and wife. My sisters and their families will make it even more special, but while they are with us, I need ye to recall how grateful I am for ye.” She laid a hand on his cheek. “Ye will be at the top of every note I write, my first thought every morn and my last thought each night. I love ye, Cameron Sutherland.”
Cam couldn’t hold back the answering swell of love and contentment that filled his heart, nor did he want to. “And I love ye, Mary Elizabeth Rose. Ye are the best part of me.” His life, once nearly lost, had begun again with this woman. He needed her more than he knew how to tell her, but he had to try. “I ken ’tis early to say this, but I wish this to be the happiest Yule of yer life, the first of many we share together.”
“I do, too, Cam. Each more filled with love and laughter as the years go by,” Mary replied. “Happy Yule, my love.”
“There’s a likely looking tree,”Cameron Sutherland said the next day to his best friend at Rose, one of his guard captains, Paton.
“Aye,” the man agreed. Two years younger than Cameron, Paton was a recent addition to the clan, though he’d fostered at Sutherland. He’d come from the islands with Domnhall’s army and decided to stay. His skill with weapons and ability to lead men made him rise quickly through the Rose ranks and put him in Cameron’s company often enough to renew the childhood bond between the two men. “’Twill take a dozen men to move it once we cut the bloody thing down. Is there nay a tree closer to the keep that will do as well?”
Cameron scratched his head. “I dinna ken,” he said in a rising tone of amazement. “Why didna I think to look there first?”
Paton punched his shoulder and laughed. “Verra well. This one will do. Anything to make the laird happy during her family’s visit.”
“I fear it will take more than the perfect Yule log,” Cameron said, then immediately wished he’d kept his mouth shut. Patonhad the gift of reading people, one of the reasons he was a good leader.
“Troubledans la famille?”
Cameron winced and shrugged. He might as well say it. Paton might have some ideas for how to ease any pain Mary would feel. “I love Mary Elizabeth Rose with every fiber of my being. And to a lesser extent, her sisters and their families, as well. But the impending visitfashesme.”
“Why? From all I’ve heard, the sisters were united?—“
“Against their father, aye. But now, her sisters are wed and Annie has a son. Things have changed.”
“Is that all?”
“Well, of course ’tis nay all.”
“So ye’refashedbecause ye two have yet to be blessed with an heir to Rose. Is that it?”
“In the month since we wed? Are ye daft? I fear that despite her excitement over the visit, she’ll be disappointed. The changes in her family will overwhelm her. Rose is their home nay longer and that will make a difference to all of them. Thanks to her da, Mary had years of practice hiding her dismay from everyone.” Everyone but him, he meant. He knew her too well to let her suffer when she intended to enjoy the coming invasion of her family. She was excited and had the entire keep humming with preparations for the big event. For her, that big event was their arrival more than the Yule celebration. “I dinna ken what to do for her,” he finally admitted.
“Have ye talked to her about this?”
“Nay. I dinna want to plant the idea and have it grow. If she truly doesna mind, I dinna want her thinking that I do.”
Paton nodded. “Then keep that thought in yer mind at all times. If ye let her see yefashing, she’ll want to ken why, to help ye, and that will lead?—“
“Nowhere I want to go, aye.” Cameron shrugged and began to walk around the tree. It was a fine specimen, big enough to burn for the twelve days of the Yule celebration. “We’ll come back with more men tomorrow,” he decided, “and take it down so it will have time to dry.”
Paton took the hint and changed the subject, going on and on about a lass he’d lately had his eye on while they trudged back to the keep. Cameron let him talk but paid little attention. He felt better for having told Paton his fears, but he still didn’t know what to do if the impending visit was not all that Mary hoped it would be.
The bailey rangwith laughter and shouted greetings as Mary’s sisters arrived. She joined in the laughter as Cat dismounted and was immediately surrounded by old friends. Her sisters had come home to people they’d grown up with. People who were happy to see them. Mary couldn’t contain her joy and embraced first Annie, then, once Cat made her way out of the crush, her youngest sister. Iain approached next, eight-month-old Ewan squirming in his arms. “He wants down,” Iain announced, as if it was not obvious to all.
“He willna stop until he’s on the floor,” Annie said, taking the wean from her husband. “Then ye crawl so fast, I have to chase ye,” she added, chucking her son under his chin until he rewarded her with a grin. “He’s so active, as soon as he finishes one meal, he’s asking for the next. Iain says he was like that, too, so I expect Ewan will grow out of it, but we’d best warn Cook we could pester her from morning till night.”
“I’m sure Cook can handle him,” Mary assured her, then turned to Cat. “Was the trip difficult for ye?”
“Nay, everyone is fine.” Cat turned and smiled at her husband as Kenneth came up and put an arm around her waist.
“Everyone needs to rest a wee before the celebrations start,” Kenneth said with a glance at Cat’s belly.
“Are ye—” Mary started, and then stopped. Despite her eagerness to know if Kenneth meant her youngest sister was with child, she should let them announce it in their own way. “Dinna fash,” Mary said instead. “Let’s go inside and get everyone settled. We’ll have plenty of time to catch up.”
“Where is Cameron?” Kenneth looked around, then spotted him. “Ah, helping with the horses, of course. Iain, let’s go give him a hand with the wagons.”
With that, the two men made their escape, leaving Mary’s sisters and wee Ewan to go inside with her.
Mary chose to keep that evening’s dinner simple and light. The travelers were tired and would need to find their beds. Ewan was safely ensconced in the nursery with the clan’s other bairns so that the parents could have a restful night. When the meal ended, the men gathered by the hearth fire with their ales. Mary took her sisters up to her old room, the one Annie and Iain would share. She and Cameron now used the laird’s chamber. Annie headed straight for the window seat while she and Cat settled side by side on the edge of the bed.
