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C ampbell smiled as he watched his wife’s shapely form saunter ahead of him. It did not escape his notice that she was trying to mask her embarrassment. She was visibly mortified to have been caught almost drowning, but it was also something else he saw on her cheeks and in her eyes.

He had seen her look at his chest, and his heart had thudded so loudly he hoped she didn’t hear it. It was only because the children were present that he had kept his lust at bay.

The boys were happily running about after a good day. They had taken a longer route to the castle, as they wanted to roam the heather fields and chase every bird and butterfly they found.

The setting sun cast his lands in such a beautiful golden glow that if he were an artist, he would have captured it in paint.

Mabel also looked enraptured by the beauty around them. She was beautiful in the middle of the field, with her lovely red hair unbound and fluttering in the wind.

She was very beautiful, and it was startling how she had stumbled into his life and relieved him of his greatest challenge. He had worried so much about how he would care for the boys, who could barely look at him without shivering in fear. But now he had that, and he couldn’t be more grateful.

“Ye like her, dinnae ye?” Connor asked quietly, startling him.

Campbell looked at the boy, who looked back with a much more serious look on his face than one would expect from a five-year-old.

“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.

“I came to see ye and inquire about her relationship with the bairns,” Magnus answered. “I hear ye have been doing verra well. Ye went on a picnic.”

“I have me wife to thank,” Campbell said. “She has made things comfortable.”

“I am glad for it. Ye were a miserable lout before.” Magnus laughed. “Marriage becomes ye.”

Campbell rolled his eyes in response.

“Have ye written to Laird Crawford?” Magnus asked suddenly.

Much to his chagrin, Campbell realized that he hadn’t informed his friend of his marriage.

“Nay,” he answered. “I shall send a letter when I see reason to. He has just gotten married; I can imagine he is traipsing about Scotland for his whiskey pursuits.”

“He makes a good brew.”

“Indeed.”

“How was the training this morning?” Magnus asked.

They fell into a long discussion about the clan. Magnus was more a friend than a man-at-arms, for which Campbell was grateful. There were nights when he was lonely and needed someone who wasn’t frightened by him, and Magnus had always been there for him.

“I must bid ye good night, Me Laird,” Magnus said, rising. “Elspeth will have me head if I am late again.”

“Alright. I shall see ye on the morrow, then.”

“Aye, Me Laird,” he greeted. “Have a good night. Perhaps ye should spend it with yer wife.”

Campbell glared hard at the man, whose booming laughter echoed off the walls.

The teasing he got for his frequent trips to the loch was not sufficient to push him to forget himself in his tempting wife.

He had acted because of sheer worry when he had seen her struggling underwater, but when he had pulled her to him and seen her shapely form under the simple garments she wore, he knew he would have a hard time resisting her.

Her desire for him was another thing that astounded him. He had felt it when she had realized she was safe from danger and was in his arms.

He had never really sought to show off in front of a woman, but he was tempted to stand straighter just so she could see all of him, just to see her blush in embarrassment for appreciating his form.

He was starting to venture beyond the terms of their marriage, and he feared he would give her the wrong idea. But she seemed more honorable than him, and she fulfilled her duties to the boys exceptionally.

Their love for her was obvious, and she had helped him bond with them quicker than he had anticipated.

While he had thought himself incapable of fatherly affection, he had found himself thinking more of the boys during the day than he would have imagined, wanting to make their days easier and full of joyous moments.

Perhaps Magnus was right.

Opening himself up may not be as painful as he feared.