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“There is always a first time.”

* * *

Lady Elizabeth hugged Leora tightly.“You will always hold a special spot in my heart.”

“And you in mine,” Leora said.

“Not so mine.” Noble chuckled.

“You don’t matter,” Lady Elizabeth said dismissively. “But I do thank you for tolerating me, Highlander.”

Leora elbowed her husband in the side, warning him to behave before asking Lady Elizabeth, “Do you think it will be a good marriage between them?”

The elderly woman looked to Lord Drake and Angelica, bickering in front of her horse and smiled. “I believe so since they remind me much of you two.”

“Good luck, Lord Drake,” Noble called out with a grin.

Lord Drake turned a scowl on him and raised his voice in annoyance. “And I thought your wife could not hold her tongue.”

Lady Elizabeth chuckled. “This is going to be an interesting journey home with the newly wed couple.” She nodded to Noble. “Thank you for alerting the Gallowglass that we are to be left unscathed and protected on our journey. That was kind of you.”

“That was not my doing. That was Lord Slayer’s doing. He wants you and yours out of the Highlands as much as I do.”

“Noble!” Leora admonished.

“He tells the truth, dear, and that is refreshing. Good-bye, Highlander, and a good life to you and your wife, for we will no doubt never meet again.”

Leora stood with Noble, watching them leave.

Noble slipped his arm around his wife’s waist and tugged her close, a whiff of her freshly washed hair teasing his senses. “The week has been a busy one. I have barely had you to myself. Today is for you and me and your choice of what you would like to do, though somewhere in there I wouldn’t mind if we spent some of it in our bedchamber.”

She chuckled when he tickled her neck with playful nibbles. “I was thinking the same, though I wouldn’t mind if we walked for a while and enjoyed this beautiful summer day, knowing we are safe to do so without worry.”

Chief yapped as if agreeing.

“I would enjoy that very much,” Noble said and took her hand, the pup running ahead as they walked.

“I cannot believe he has finally found the courage to talk with her,” Noble said, glancing at Penn and Calla, the large warrior carrying a basket full of greens for her as they walked.

“I don’t think she gave him a choice,” Leora said, happy Calla’s determined pursuit had succeeded.

Noble smiled, his chest expanding with pride as he said, “Just like I didn’t give you a choice and you couldn’t help but fall in love with me.”

Leora laughed. “In what dreamworld was that? The choice was all mine to love you.” She stopped abruptly. “You said that on purpose so I would admit—"”

Noble pulled his wife into his arms. “That I know you made the choice of your own free will to remain in our marriage to love me even though the marriage was forced upon you.”

“Aye,” she said softly, “but we weren’t forced to love each other and that makes the difference.”

Noble lowered his head to kiss his wife when his name was shouted and he mumbled several oaths before he looked to see Ross approaching them, an anxious pinch to his face.

“What’s wrong?” Noble asked when Ross reached him.

“I received an urgent message from Lord Slayer that I was to return home immediately and that you and Cavell need to remain on alert and be ready if needed. If he requests both of your help, then I fear something is terribly amiss. I will let you know as soon as I find out. But remain on alert and ready for battle.”

A dread settled in the pit of Leora’s stomach as she watched Ross rush off. She didn’t know how she knew, but she knew. She felt it in her roiling stomach and deep in her heart.

She turned to her husband. “It is Sky. Something has happened to Sky.”