Page 98 of Laird of Secrets

“Stay and teach?” she asked. Now her gaze was fastened to his.

He tipped his head. “Is that what you want?”

She nodded, afraid to speak.

Mary MacIan looked up at Dougal. Fiona noticed others turning to look at him too. “What else do you want, Miss MacCarran?” he asked.

“I want to stay in Glen Kinloch—and teach,” she said, speaking to him alone, despite the crowd.

“You could do that,” Dougal said. “You could teach what some of us most need to learn.”

“What would that be, Kinloch?” she asked.

He smiled, shrugged. “I can think of a few lessons.”

“Will you be joining the class, too, Kinloch?” one of the men asked.

“Perhaps. I may need to read a warrant one of these days,” he drawled, amid a burst of laughter among the crowd.

“Och, the lad can read well enough!” Fergus boomed. “He could write warrants if he wanted, with the university schooling he has had, and a library to rival any city man’s book collection.” Fergus looked at Fiona. “Miss MacCarran, we will repair the schoolhouse roof, if that would keep you here.”

“That would be nice, aye.” Suddenly she could not speak for the tightening in her throat.

“One thing more might keep you here,” Dougal said. “You could marry the laird, and stay forever.”

Her heart soared, her breath caught. She heard gasps all around, saw beaming smiles. She heard her students, behind her, clapping and laughing. But she could not take her gaze from the man moving toward her, then pausing again.

“I could,” she said. “I could marry the laird, if he will have me.”

Dougal chuckled, deep and mellow, and then strode toward her, setting his hands to her waist, lifting her up a little, turning her around and setting her down again. He took her in his arms and kissed her, gentle and slow. She could hear laughter and applause all around, but the greater sound was his steady heartbeat, and the pulse of her own, gone to wildness within her.

“Good, then,” he murmured in her ear. “For it is nearly time to go up into the hills to the place where the bluebells grow. I want to take you there, and tell you a story, the whole of the legend of Glen Kinloch.”

She drew back to look up at him. “I promise to keep that secret all my life.”

“I know you will, my love,” he whispered. “We will keep the fairies’ promise together.”