Page 29 of Claimed by the Obsessed Laird (Highland Bride Hunt #1)

Camron paced back and forth, shooting occasional looks towards the door as he waited for the healer to return. Isla sat on the small examination table in the middle of the room, and she reached for his hand with a smile.

“I told ye, I’m alright.”

“I’ll believe it when I hear it from her,” he replied, tightening his grip on her hand and bringing it to his lips for a kiss. They had ridden back to the Keep after his clash with Archie as fast as possible.

He had sent some of his men out to find him.

If they managed to do that, they were ordered to put him in a cell until a fair trial could be held, even if he was not sure he deserved it after what he had done.

But, then, he supposed, he was still family, no matter how he had tried to use that against him.

He bore no guilt for what would happen to him, none at all.

Archie had chosen his fate the moment he had dared come after his wife.

The moment he had heard that his cousin had stolen her away, whatever doubts he might have had about his feelings for her shattered in an instant.

He knew he could not let anything happen to her, knew he could not let her slip through his fingers.

A swell of pure, certain love had filled his heart, and he knew he would not be able to live without her.

And as soon as they had arrived back, he had whisked her to a healer, intent on finding out just what injuries his cousin had inflicted on her.

It didn’t seem to matter how many times she told him that she was fine, he could not rightly believe it.

The healer had asked her a few questions and done a quick examination before she slipped from the room for a poultice that would take care of her scrapes with a bright smile on her face.

He turned her hand over in his, exposing the welts on her wrists. He hated seeing her like this, so hurt, even if he knew that she would heal up soon enough, but it still made his chest hurt to think that she was in any kind of pain.

“I’m going to be fine,” she murmured, perhaps sensing the discomfort in his heart at the sight of her like this.

He leaned down to plant a kiss against her, and, just as he did so, the healer came back into the room. Camron straightened up, putting his arm around her protectively.

“Here’s some salve fer yer hands, my Lady,” she remarked, pushing a small pouch towards Isla. “Apply it a few times a day, and ye’ll be healed up in no time.”

“Thank ye,” she murmured.

“Is that all?” Camron demanded. He did not mean to sound so sharp with the healer, but he could not shake the feeling that there was more she was not saying, perhaps internal injuries that lay beyond his eye.

“Aye, all ye need to worry about,” she replied, raising a brow at him, as though to warn him to keep his tone in check. “The baby’s fine, if that’s what ye’re asking.”

His eyes widened, his grip on her tightening all of a sudden.

“The baby?”

“Oh, you didnae ken, my Laird?” she remarked, glancing between the two of them, almost casual. “I’ll give ye two a moment.”

He stared down at Isla, trying to make sense of what he had just been told. She gazed at him, resting her teeth on her bottom lip, not breaking his gaze for a moment.

“Ye’re…”

“That’s what I came to speak to ye about,” she confessed. “In yer study. I didnae know how to tell ye, I didnae ken how ye’d react, but?—”

He kissed her, the kind of kiss that was meant to salve her mind from any doubt she might still have been carrying. Cupping her face in his hands, he brushed his nose against hers, assuring her with everything he had.

“I’m going to be a father. Ye have made me a father, my love. When did you know?” he said ina soft voice.

“I got an idea just this morning. But it seems the signs were more obvious than I thought.” He took her in his arms again and she chuckled at his eagerness. Then suddenly he pulled back, a look of fear in his eyes.

“Archie knew, didnae he? That is why he took ye away. I nearly lost ye both,” he breathed. “I… I could have…”

“But ye didn’t,” she reminded him. “We’re still here. And we’re no’ going anywhere, neither of us. I told ye that ye have my heart, Camron, and I meant it.”

He drew in a deep, unsteady breath, trying to make sense of the enormity of everything that she had told him. A future with her, with their family, with their child… it was everything he could have asked for, everything he had hoped for when he had first taken her as his wife.

“I meant it, too,” he murmured. “Ye’re my future, Isla. Ye, and the baby.”

As he kissed her again, he let his hand rest on her belly, a silent promise that he would never again let anything come between them. Their family, their future, was greater than anything the world could throw at them.

And he would do everything in his power to prove that true, in all the ways he was able.

“Ah, Laird McFadden, ye made it!”

Isla greeted the Laird who had started it all with his matchmaking feast with a warm hug as he stepped from his carriage and made his way to the door of the Keep. He looked slightly surprised to have earned such a greeting from her but, nonetheless, grateful for it.

“Well, I couldnae stay away after I heard that ye were due an heir!” he laughed, and he slapped Camron on the shoulder. “Congratulations are in order, my Laird.”

“Thank you,” Camron replied, bowing his head slightly. “Please, make yer way in. I’m sure there are many women who’d be in need of yer matchmaking skills inside!”

“Oh, I’ve done enough of that fer the time being,” he replied, shaking his head. “Would ye believe that young Laird MacDonald just met his match as well at my feast?”

“I certainly can,” Isla replied, glancing at Camron with a smile, and he chuckled.

“Aye, I suppose ye could,” he agreed, and he clapped his hands together. “Well, that music sounds too good to miss. Ye’ll have to excuse me.”

“Enjoy yerself, my Laird,” Isla called after him as he made his way inside. Camron grinned at her, pulling her against him tightly.

“Ye dinnae want to join our guests?”

“Not until my sister arrives,” she replied, her face brightening with excitement. “I cannae wait to see her expression when she finds out I’m with child!”

They were in the midst of throwing a gathering to celebrate the upcoming arrival of their new heir, and she had invited her father and sister to share in the excitement with her.

She had been anxious with waiting all day to tell them the news, and she could only imagine how thrilled her sister would be to find out that she was with child.

And, to her surprise, she was just as thrilled about it, too.

“Oh my God, Isla. I’m going to be an aunt,” Catriona had squealed. “I’m going to be the best aunt anyone has ever seen. Have ye thought of names yet?”

Her sister’s excitement was exactly what she needed, but she also reminded her that there were more things to think about.

She had never imagined herself as a mother, but then, she had never imagined that she would be in a position to be loved by the kind of man who could stand by her side as a strong father and husband.

As her bump began to grow, he lavished her with attention, murmuring sweet nothings to their unborn child, a sign of what a wonderful father he would be when they came along.

Beside her, as they waited for more guests to arrive, he pulled his cloak from his shoulders and wrapped it around hers. The clan tartan settled over her, a sign of her belonging, of her place here, even after all this time. She glanced at him quizzically.

“Ye were shivering,” he murmured. “And, well, I like to see you in our tartan.”

She grinned and leaned up to steal a kiss before the next guest arrived.

When she had danced with him all those months ago, she could never have imagined that she would find such stillness and sweetness here at his side.

But, with his tartan around her shoulders, she knew that there was nowhere she would rather be.

And nobody she would rather share this future with than him.

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