Page 57

“Christ.” Kinnon cursed under his breath. “It is a brutal death, though in her case, I suppose it was just.” He glanced to Aileana, and guilt colored his cheeks. “I’m sorry. I meant no disrespect to you.”

“You don’t need to explain. Morgana’s evil earned its own end.”

Kinnon nodded, his eyes filled with gratitude.

After Duncan dispatched a group of men to retrieve and bury Morgana’s body and search for the Ealach , they spoke briefly again, deciding that they should seek shelter in the castle.

The dark fell fast around them. Only a rim of sun remained on the horizon, painting the sky crimson and purple.

As they walked to the ruin, Duncan told Kinnon where to find Colin, and several of the men went ahead to gather up his body, or if by some miracle he still lived, to secure him for travel back to Eilean Donan and the judgment he would eventually face before the High Council.

When they reached the castle, Duncan left to make some arrangements, and Aileana settled into one of the empty, inner chambers to await final preparations for the journey ahead.

Men bustled about, gathering those valuables that they could carry for the clan’s use back home.

Aileana watched it all in a kind of daze, empty, detached, and lonely for Duncan’s touch.

She looked up when he came in a few minutes later.

His shackles were gone and his shoulder was bandaged, but her welcoming smile faded at his serious expression.

He paced to the window, turning to face her, finally.

He stepped close. So close that she could see the torchlight glint off the golden strands in his hair.

Close enough to feel his warmth. More than anything, she wanted to reach up and stroke his brow, to kiss away the hurt and worry in his eyes. But she held back.

“Did they find the Ealach ?” she asked softly at last, gazing up at him.

“Nay. They found nothing but Morgana’s body. The waves must have carried the amulet away.”

Silent, she nodded, uncertainty filling her at the troubled look in Duncan’s eyes. He had something on his mind, and it wasn’t good, that much she could tell. Perhaps now that the Ealach was gone he’d decided that he didn’t need her in the way he’d thought he did. That he didn’t feel—

“I need to ask you something, Aileana,” Duncan murmured, breaking into her thoughts. “I was going to ask you when Kinnon and the others came.” He looked away, and Aileana stepped forward, unable to stop herself any longer from being near to him. She took his hands in her own.

“What is it? Tell me, Duncan. Please.”

“Ah, Aileana…” He breathed her name like a prayer, and she felt her heart lurch with hope.

He gazed at her again, his eyes bright with unspoken emotion.

“I need to know what you meant when you said you wanted to go home. Whether you mean to come home with me to Eilean Donan, or go back to Dulhmeny with your brother Robert.”

Aileana almost laughed with relief. “Is that all? That’s what made you look like the sky was about to fall on you?”

With a scowl Duncan mumbled, “I didn’t think it was so small a matter.”

Aileana reached up, caressing his stubble-roughened jaw, the scar that threaded along his cheek.

She pressed herself firmly against him, so that he couldn’t help but feel her warmth, her need to be close to him.

He felt so strong. So right. They fit together, soul to soul, and she knew that she’d never allow anything to come between them again.

She smiled, her brow arching slightly as an idea came to her for helping him to understand that truth.

“Ah, Duncan MacRae. When will you learn to trust what stands right in front of you?” She leaned in, breathing soft onto the exposed skin of his chest. “It’s as clear as glass, if you ask me.

” She punctuated her words with gentle kisses to the hollow above his collarbone, along a heated trail that finished just below his ear.

A throaty chuckle bubbled up in her as she slid her fingers up his chest to tangle in the golden-kissed waves of hair at the back of his neck.

Duncan stilled under her tender ministrations. His arms tightened, holding her, rigid and uncertain. “You wish to make your home with my clan, then?”

“Nay, not exactly.”

Pulling back, Aileana pressed her fingertips to his mouth to quell the confused protest that rose to his lips.

“What I’m saying is that I want to be with you , Duncan, wherever that might be.

Whether it is at Eilean Donan, or the other side of the world, it will be home to me, as long as I’m with you. ”

Love shone from his gaze, so profound that he seemed transformed by it. His gray eyes took on the quicksilver light she’d come to recognize so well. Right now, he appeared to waver between tenderness and playful exasperation.

One corner of his mouth quirked into a smile. “You had me worried for a moment, love. I keep forgetting that my wee mousie has teeth with which to bite me if she chooses.”

She gazed at him, eyes wide-opened and innocent. “Ach, it was just a nibble.”

With a growl, Duncan bent his head, taking her mouth in a kiss of love and passion. She responded in kind, reveling in the powerful give and take of pleasure as he slid his hands down her back to cup her more fully against him.

She was breathless when he released her mouth, still hungry for the taste of him, the feel of him beneath her hands and along the burning length of her body.

Duncan held her close, and she settled into his embrace, lulled by the steady beat of his heart.

When he spoke, his voice caressed her, soft and tender.

“It was true, you know. What you said before.”

“What?” Aileana lifted her head from his chest.

He gazed down at her, and again she felt bathed in the warmth of his love.

He looked into the very recesses of her soul, and it was as if she could feel him melding to her, becoming one in a way that could never be broken by time, age, or any power on earth.

He traced his finger over her lips, brushing his mouth along the same path before he spoke again.

“You were right when you said that I looked as if the sky was about to fall in on me. It was. Because if I lost you, I’d lose everything.

” Duncan’s gaze caressed her, pulling her deeper into the mystery of his heart.

“I love you, Aileana. You are my heart, my soul, my eternity. You and no other.”

A swell of love rose up in her, bringing tightness to her throat and burning behind her eyes. “With all that I am, I love you as well, Duncan,” she murmured through tears of happiness. “You and no other, until the end of time.”

He touched his forehead to hers. “Always, Aileana,” he whispered.

“Aye, my love.” She gazed into his beautiful gray eyes and pressed her lips to his. “Always.”