Page 85 of Keeping Kate

“The fairy nonsense does not even work on this man,” Kate said. “I could spin him until we were both dizzy with it, and yet he can still walk away without a thought.”

“Huh, is it true?” Neill asked. “You do not fall to the girl’s fey charm?”

“Oh, I feel it. I am as vulnerable as any man where she is concerned.”

“You do not seem so,” she said. “I did not think you truly cared until...just now. And now you mean to leave, and I—” She stopped, pressed her lips together.

He looked down at her. “I am off for Edinburgh. Have you changed your mind? Do you want to go to prison after all?”

“I do not,” she answered.

“Well, then,” he answered, as if it were final.

“But I would not mind being with you,” she said, heart pounding. Suddenly she did not care if her kinsmen heard, did not care if her decision suited the fairy legend or not. Alec was leaving, and she might never see him again, and the reality of that hit her with impact. She could not let him go. She wanted to plunge headlong into whatever risk lay ahead, as long as he was there. “I would not mind—”

“Would not mind what?” Alec prompted.

“I would love to be with you, as you asked before,” she whispered. “If you will have me.”

His cool blue gaze softened. He shook his head, huffed as if bewildered. “Changed your mind, have you?”

“Aye,” she said, lifting her face. She stepped closer. “If you still want to marry me, Alexander Fraser, I will accept.”

“Marry!” Rob burst out. Connor lifted a hand to silence him.

Alec nodded thoughtfully. “It takes a great deal of courage for a lad to ask a lass to marry him, only to be refused,” he said softly. “Why have you have changed your mind?”

“Will you not make this easy for me?”

“Should I?”

In part, she knew he teased her, but she realized how serious and vulnerable he might feel in this moment. She did too. He needed to be sure of her, just as she needed to be sure of him.

Neill grinned at Allan. Rob and Connor watched her as if spellbound. She took another step forward, her gaze focused on Alec.

“I do want to marry you, Alexander Fraser.” She stood close, but did not breach the space between them. “I do want that, though you would be stubborn about it.”

He laughed low and soft, pensive and so quietly masculine that it made her heart beat even faster. Reaching out, he cupped her cheek, dropped his hand away. “Never so stubborn as you, my lass.”

“Well?” she asked. “Will you marry me?”

“Aye, will you?” Neill echoed, while Rob, Allan, and Connor looked on with keen interest and wry smiles.

He leaned down, fingers tilting her chin a little, and he kissed her cheek. “I will,” he whispered. “Very well, I will.”

She laughed, threw her arms around his neck.

“I do not know if your kinsmen will approve. They may not want a red soldier in the family,” Alec added, resting his uninjured arm around her.

“It might be a bit of trouble, having a redcoat in the family,” Allan said, while Neill nodded.

“If it is what Kate wants,” Rob said, “and if her choice comes from the heart, and Alec’s heart as well, that is far more important than the color of his coat, aye.”

“It comes from my heart,” Kate said.

“And mine,” Alec echoed.

Kate glanced up at him, feeling her spirit soar in that small, perfect instant.