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“Once I take care of my business here, I’ve been given orders to return to the future. With Emma.”

“Only Emma?” Nick asked.

Reilly kept a steady gaze on Aidan. “My directive included only one.”

Aidan saw the seriousness in Reilly’s eyes, and he felt as though he’d been punched in the gut.

“So what you’re saying is that Aidan has to choose between Emma and his family?” Nioclas demanded.

“I’m not saying that at all. In fact, I don’t think the choice will be up to him,” Reilly conceded.

“So I’m supposed to stay here,” Aidan concluded, a hollow feeling spreading through his chest. “Alone.”

“Isn’t that what you’ve been working toward for the better part of the last decade?” Reilly prodded.

Aidan didn’t respond, the enormity of it slamming into him. He blindly groped for the edge of the table.

“When do you take her? ”

Reilly sighed. “When ’tis time, I’ll know. But I’m nearly done with my task here.”

“What is that, exactly?” Nioclas asked.

He shook his head. “It needs not your input as I first thought it might, MacWilliam, so you need know nothing.”

“Fate isn’t always what we think it is,” Reilly said, sheathing the dirk in his boot. “I’ll leave the two of you to settle the marriage contract.”

Aidan sat down heavily, his mind reeling. Fate had handed him his soul mate, only to rip her away?

He didn’t want to believe it.

Nioclas gave him a concerned look. “I’ll return momentarily.”

Aidan nodded, still too shocked to speak.

Was his place truly here, at his brother’s side?

He always believed that. His brother risked everything for him, everything for their clan.

He avenged their mother—if not his own mother by blood, certainly of heart—and saved Aidan from following in the footsteps of an evil sire.

Aidan owed Nioclas everything. He’d sworn his loyalty, and he couldn’t break it. He’d already been gone too long. If he left again…he couldn’t put his brother through that. But could he let Emma go? Could he convince Reilly to keep her here? Would she want to stay here, with him?

His eyes fell on the tapestries that lined the wall behind Nick’s desk.

Great battle scenes, in which a tall figure with long dark hair fearlessly rode a stallion into a battle.

The men on foot, fierce expressions on their faces, were engaged in swordplay, arrows high above their heads in mid-flight.

On the opposite wall, the tapestry showed a different scene altogether.

A woman sat in a chair by a blazing hearth, cradling a small child in her arms. Behind her, in an open doorway, stood the man with the long hair, home from battle.

His attention was focused on his wife and child, and his bloodied sword hung above the door.

Woven into the blood on the sword were the Latin words, Pro domo focoque pugnamus.

We fight for hearth and home.

The MacWilliam clan did not want to expand across Ireland; they were happy with their lot.

They had everything they needed—fish from the sea, fertile fields bearing food, peat for their fires, and strong clan pride.

Expansion would mean some would have to give that up and settle in other parts of the land to keep a stronghold.

It meant constant war, constant demand, constant giving without receiving.

That was not the legacy Nioclas wanted to leave for his children, nor his children’s children. He wanted—and achieved—peace, in a time of greed and war.

Nay, Aidan could not leave his brother. He glanced at the tapestry behind the desk. If another clan declared war against them, it was Aidan who would protect Nioclas’s back during battle.

He knew marrying Emma was the best protection he could give her, for however long she was here.

Monaghan did not seem a hothead, but if he decided he wanted Emma, if she were unmarried, he could steal her away pay any number of priests to perform the marriage, fully against her will.

She’d be locked up, too far from O’Malley to ever return to her time.

If she were married to him, the MacWilliams would fight to bring her home, if it came to that. But even Monaghan would not declare war by stealing a married MacWilliam.

His gaze traveled back to the tapestry of the woman and child, his heart torn.

Home.

He needed to be here to fight for his brother’s hearth and home. After all his brother had done for him, his own happiness was a small price to pay. He knew the truth of it in his mind…now, he needed only to convince his heart .

Nioclas reentered the room. “Are you sure you want this, Aidan?”

He nodded briskly, resolved. “I am. She needs the protection of the clan if she’s here for any length of time.”

“Is that all it is?” Nioclas questioned.

Aidan rubbed his hands over his face again. “Aye. It’s all it can be.”

“Then let’s draw up the marriage papers.”

What a difference four hours, a bath, an exceedingly determined head seamstress, six seamstresses, and Brianagh’s personal chambermaid could make.

Emma smoothed her hands down the fine gossamer silk, unable to stop touching the soft fabric.

The square neckline of her long-sleeved, lightweight woolen gown was lined with a deep blue ribbon.

Sinead used the blue ribbon around each upper arm, and she encircled Emma’s natural waist, separating the top and bottom of the dress.

The gold gossamer silk overlaid the gold wool of the skirt, which had a slit up the front to allow a panel of dark blue silk to peek through.

From the ribbon bands on her arms fell a swath of the same blue fabric in the skirt.

“This is stunning,” she murmured, humbled by the amount of speed and work Sinead put forth. “ Go raibh maith agat ,” she said to Sinead.

Sinead curtsied at the thanks, then hustled her girls out.

“So you do know some Gaelic,” Bri said, impressed.

“Not as much as I thought I did,” she admitted, “but I think I got ‘thank you’ right.”

“You did,” Bri assured her. She walked around Emma, a dreamy look on her face. “You look stunning.”

“ Go raibh maith agat ,” Emma said again with a quick curtsy. Her smile faded. “I feel sick when I think too much about what my life has become.”

Bri took her hand and patted it. “I wanted to go home when I got here, too.”

“What changed?” Emma asked.

“Love. My home is where Nioclas is. And his home, for better or worse, is here.”

“I don’t know if I love Aidan,” Emma blurted out. Liar. You’ve loved him for weeks.

“Do you think that, given time, you could love him?” Bri asked softly.

Someone knocked on the door and called out. Brianagh answered, and looked at Emma.

“I don’t want to stay here,” she blurted out.

Brianagh smiled sadly at her. “I know, Emma. Let’s just take this minute by minute, okay?”

“I really think I might be sick,” Emma answered.

“No, you won’t,” Bri said firmly “You’ll be fine. Just trust that Aidan knows what he’s doing.”

Emma took a few deep breaths. Trust Aidan. Trust him. He knows what he’s doing.

She opened her eyes to find Bri watching her curiously.

“You know, Emma, you don’t have to go through with this.

But, I think you know that if you don’t, and something happens here…

Nick will be hard-pressed to convince the clan to go to war to bring you back.

Aidan will fight for you, of course. But one man against many are odds I wouldn’t want. ”

“I get it,” Emma snapped, then immediately apologized. “I’m sorry. This is a lot to handle, but you’re right. Minute by minute. Where are we headed?”

“The chapel.” Bri opened the door. “Aidan!”

He stepped into the room, and Emma’s breath caught. He looked resplendent, fresh from his own bath, in a clean léine.

“I need a moment alone with Lady Emma,” he said in a low voice. “We will meet you at the chapel. ”

Bri waited for Emma to nod her assent before exiting the chamber.

Aidan smiled at Emma. “You look beautiful.”

She flushed. “Thanks. You look pretty amazing yourself.”

“Em, I know you think you’re being forced into this. I get that you’re between a rock and a hard place. By marrying me, you will have the protection of the clan, no matter what happens to me.”

“Are you planning to go somewhere without me?” she tried to joke.

Serious green eyes regarded her steadily. “Nay. But you’ll be able to go somewhere—or rather, some when —without me.” He took a step away from her, closer to the door. “Reilly says he can take you home. To the future.”

“You wouldn’t come with me?” Emma asked, her heart dropping.

Aidan shook his head. “My life is here. I’m not sure when you could return, but if we marry, you’ll have protection for as long as you’re here. You may be here for weeks, or months. Or longer. But you’ll have my name, and my clan, to protect you from those that would take you.”

Emma felt the icy tendrils of dread spiral in her stomach. “So this will be a marriage of convenience only?”

He nodded briskly, all business. “Aye. There’s no need to worry that I’ll force anything upon you. This marriage, much like what we agreed upon in the future, is a business contract.”

Emma felt the blow to her heart, and almost heard as it fully shattered.

She felt the prick of tears, but somehow pushed them back. “Of course. Thanks for reassuring me, Aidan. I feel much better now. When I go back, that leaves you free to marry again?”

He gave her a small smile. “Aye, I suppose. But I’m not the marrying type, so it’s a moot point. ”

“Okay, then,” she said, waving toward the door. “Maybe we should, uh, get this thing done?”

“After you,” he said, once again all charm and affability, as he opened the door and gave a swift nod to the guardsmen standing at the ready. He extended his arm, and she took it, her insides hollow and her heart in pieces.