Page 40 of A Highland Bride Taken

“What did ye say, Connor?” he asked.

“Ye look at her the way Da used to look at Ma,” Connor answered.

Campbell looked at Mabel again, who was laughing at something Ollie said, and shook his head with a small smile. He ruffled the boy’s hair. “She is me wife. Of course, I like her.”

He did not need the boy to know anything about marriages of convenience or anything other than love until he was old enough. If it helped the boys feel more comfortable and adjust to life without their parents, then he would say whatever was necessary.

“I like her, too. She is verra nice and bonny,” Connor admitted. “I will marry her when I’m older.”

Campbell laughed, taken aback by the boy’s serious tone. His chest hurt from the effort, as he had not laughed so loud in a while.

The sound drew his wife’s and Ollie’s attention, but she quickly squeaked and turned back to Ollie, hiding her face.

Campbell smiled at her and scooped Connor up into his arms.

“She is me wife already, lad,” he said. “Ye shall have to fight me for her.” Connor nodded seriously. “Let us get to the castle then, so ye can get warm quickly.”

He fell into step with his wife and picked up Ollie, too.

“Let us hurry back to the castle so ye can warm up quickly,” he urged, and Mabel nodded.

He kept his pace slow so she wouldn’t fall, and when they finally stepped into the castle, he handed the boys to a maid.

“See that they are changed and given warm milk,” he instructed. “And stoke the fire in their chambers; I dinnae want them to catch a chill.”

“Aye, Me Laird,” the maid answered, curtsying.

The boys scurried off, the maid hot on their heels, crying for them to slow down.

Campbell smiled softly at the chaos they brought. It had been too long since Muir Castle’s halls were filled with the sounds of children’s laughter and mischief.

The only child that dared was Magnus’s daughter, and it had been an age since she had last visited. Perhaps he would ask them to visit soon. Connor might decide he wanted to marry her instead of Mabel.

“I can see to them,” Mabel insisted.

“Ye have been in yer wet clothes for too long,” Campbell reminded her. “Ye should go to yer room. I will send ye a tray.”

“I feel fine. I dinnae…” she tried to protest, only to let out a loud sneeze that shocked her.

Campbell didn’t say anything, but the smug look on his face told her everything he would have said.

“Ye can choose to go, or I could carry ye to yer chambers and help ye undress,” he threatened playfully.

She lowered her head and scurried to her room, making him shake his head in mirth.

He had been teasing her, but he would not have minded one bit. Perhaps he would warm her up quicker than a hot bath would.

Shaking the thoughts out of his mind before they showed through his kilt, he beckoned to another maid and ordered her to send a hot bath as well as a tray to his wife’s chambers. It wouldn’t do if she fell ill. She was already slight and had stayed long in the water. She needed to warm up quickly, or she would catch her death.

The thought made him more determined to see her warmed.

He still had a smile on his face when he went to his study to resume his work.

“Ye seem to have taken well to yer new wife,” Magnus noted with a smirk after he stepped into the study. “I can see the smile on yer face.”

“What do ye want, Magnus?” Campbell asked gruffly. “I have work to do.”

He was sure his man-at-arms would not let him live down this incident. It was not as though he did not smile, but Magnus would assume it was because he was newly wed.