Page 37 of The Highlander’s Hellion Wife (Legacy of Highland Lairds #1)

EPILOGUE

“ R osie, hurry! They’re waitin’ for us!” Duncan called down the hall impatiently.

He turned to see Alison standing by his side, smiling at him.

“Ye ken she’ll take all day if ye dinnae go and get her,” she quipped, giving him a slow, lazy smile.

He grunted, knowing that she was right.

After giving her hand a quick squeeze, he stalked down the corridor and headed straight to his daughter’s room. Just as he expected, she was standing in the center of it, shoveling toys into the basket her mother had given her.

“Rosie,” Duncan chided.

Rosie started, whirling around to face him. A flush crept into her cheeks as she spotted her father in the doorway.

“I need to bring me dolly!” she said adamantly. “I told Elena that I’d bring it to her!”

Duncan stepped into her room, peering into the basket into which she was hastily throwing her belongings.

“Are ye nae already bringin’ enough?”

She shook her head, her auburn curls bouncing wildly, but he had a hard time believing her. Toys were overflowing from the basket. Wooden horses and blocks. He already knew it would be too heavy for her to carry, which meant he would have to carry it.

He knew his daughter well enough to know that trying to make her leave without the one thing she had set her mind on would cause a fight that could be heard from miles away.

Her attitude was like her mother’s. And, every day, he thought he gained one additional gray hair in his beard because of it.

He would not change a thing.

“Where was the last place ye saw it?” he asked.

Rosie did not turn to look at him as she answered, “When I woke up.”

With a sigh, Duncan strode out of her toy room and to the adjoining room that contained her bed. He had a suspicion, one that was confirmed the moment he stepped through the door.

“Rosie, ‘tis right here.”

Sure enough, the doll was lying face down in the center of her bed.

His daughter appeared at his elbow, her eyes going wide as she spotted the toy she had so desperately been searching for.

“There ye are!” she squealed, sprinting past him to snatch her toy from the bed.

With the doll now secured, Duncan picked up the basket of toys, and they both strode out of the room. When he descended the stairs again, Alison was standing by the door, eagerly waiting for them to join her.

It was her first Tuesday back in the village, and she had talked about little else for the past three days.

“There ye are,” she said the moment her eyes landed on Rosie. “Let’s get a move on! The carriage is waitin’.”

The three of them filed out of the castle, and sure enough, the carriage was waiting for them on the gravel drive.

The ride to the village did not take long. Rosie spent most of it prattling about the various toys she was going to show to her friends.

“I want to give this horsey to Balfour,” she announced, pointing to the wooden stallion at the top of her basket.

“Oh?” Alison’s eyebrows shot up. “Does he like horses?”

“Aye, he said they’re his favorite animal.” Rosie’s excitement made her blue eyes dance as she answered. “And I told him about the toy. I dinnae play with it as much anymore, nae since I have me dolly, so I want him to have it.”

“Well, that’s kind of ye,” Alison mused.

She and Duncan shared a proud look before they returned their focus to their daughter.

And so it went until the carriage rolled to a stop in the center of the village. There was already a small crowd in the town square. The children were sitting at the tables they always used for their lessons.

The moment Alison stepped out of the carriage, a few of the adults who were milling about rushed up to greet her. Sheena MacLoren was the first to arrive, her shock of white hair setting her apart from the rest of the crowd.

“We are so happy to see ye all healed, Me Lady,” she said, grabbing Alison’s hand as she dropped into a curtsy. “Ye had us all worried sick, ye did.”

Alison chuckled, giving all the villagers a smile that stole Duncan’s breath.

“I’m happy to be back,” she answered.

And just like that, she was whisked off into the crowd.

Rosie had already disappeared, running across the square to her small group of friends. Her doll was gripped tightly in one fist, the wooden horse in the other. When Duncan turned back to the carriage, he saw her basket of toys, as well as the bag in which Alison stowed all her supplies, both waiting to be carried over.

He sighed, shaking his head affectionately as he threw the bag over his shoulder and draped the basket over his arm. He carried them over to the square, deposited them where his wife had indicated, and then he turned and walked away.

While his wife was teaching, he had business to attend to.

He headed to the inn, where he announced that he would be using the tavern beneath it to speak with the men who had returned home from the war.

Over the last few weeks, Duncan had been working with Malina to get updates on their health. And while many had been able to return and fully reintegrate into their former lives, quite a few of them had not.

They sat around the tables, talking amongst themselves, when he walked in. The moment he pulled open the door, all eyes turned to him.

His gaze swept over their familiar faces, many of them bearing scars from the five years they had spent fighting alongside him. Duncan knew all too well that the scars that decorated their skin were nothing compared to the scars that marred their souls.

He closed the door behind him and prepared himself to get to work.

Hours passed before he finally felt sufficiently satisfied with their progress to leave the inn. He found Alison and Rosie exactly where he had left them. The lesson had concluded, and the children were all playing with Rosie’s toys in the square while Alison talked eagerly with Malina and Sheena.

He made a beeline for his wife.

“I need ye,” he said, grabbing her hand and leading her away.

Alison let out a yip of surprise, calling to her friends over her shoulder that she would be right back as she trotted alongside him. Duncan led her down the same path they had taken the night of the feast.

It was a bit busier than it had been that night, since everyone had either been dancing or asleep by the time they had embarked on their stroll.

He spotted their destination—a small, secluded flower garden—and picked up his pace.

“Where are we goin’?” Alison protested, laughing as he tugged her along.

“Here,” Duncan murmured, pulling her into the flowers and the trellises that decorated the space around them.

“Why here?” she asked, her face glowing as she smiled up at him.

“So I can have ye all to meself for a moment,” Duncan muttered.

He did not wait for her reply as he bent his head to kiss her. Just like he planned to do every single day for the rest of their long, happy lives.

The End?