Page 59 of To Love a Scottish Lord (Highland Lords #4)

Hamish studied his brother. Slowly, he began to smile. “You’re giving up the sea?”

“Inverness has a great many attractions,” Brendan said. Alisdair passed him a goblet and a plate and he began to eat.

“Is one of them a blond-haired girl by the name of Elspeth?” Mary asked.

“It is,” Brendan said, smiling.

“Does she know?”

He nodded. “And her father, as well.”

Mary smiled, pleased.

Brendan turned to Hamish. “You need a ship, and I need to make arrangements for mine. You’ll be doing me a favor if you take the Moira MacRae .”

“Are you certain of this, Brendan?”

“I am,” he said. “It’s time I settled down, found my land legs.

Inverness will suit me well.” He grinned at Hamish.

“Besides, it will do me good to be a thorn in Charles Talbot’s side.

” He sobered, regarding his brother with earnest eyes.

“I was all for convincing you to stay at sea when you wanted to do the same. I was wrong then, Hamish.”

“If I had,” Hamish said, “I never would have met Mary.”

“One of these days, you’ll be thanking me for that. Without my intervention, you wouldn’t have met her at all.”

“Without your interference, you mean.”

Brendan grinned again. “Perhaps.”

“Have I nothing to say about that?” Mary asked, her gaze veering from one MacRae brother to the other. “If I hadn’t agreed to treat Hamish, we never would have met.”

There, that silenced both of them.

“Will your crew agree to sail with me?” Hamish asked. “I’ve lost a ship and all my men.”

“Not through any act of your own,” Brendan said loyally.

“You know as well as I how superstitious sailors are.”

“Take Daniel on as first mate,” Ian said, from across the table.

He’d been listening to his sons’ conversation, but hadn’t commented.

“Daniel’s aboard my ship,” he said. “He’s driving me insane with his superstitions.

He’ll sail with you because you’re a MacRae.

Take him with you. And all his cats. He’s got three now, and I sneezed all the way across the Atlantic.

No sailor would ever think you unlucky with Daniel and his cats. ”

Hamish grinned his acceptance.

Ian looked down at his plate, then over at Leitis. “You’ll do me a favor, Hamish, if you’ll take Douglas with you as well.”

Hamish and his father exchanged a look.

“He wants to learn about the sea,” Leitis said. “Besides, the change will do him good.”

Hamish nodded.

In the buzz of conversation, Hamish turned to Mary, grabbed her hand, and brushed a kiss across her knuckles. “You should see Brendan’s ship. The Moira MacRae is long and sleek and built for long ocean voyages.”

“Who’s Daniel?”

“A cantankerous first mate who’ll fill your days with one superstition after another. He’s a trial and a nuisance, but we think highly of him nonetheless.”

“You never said you wanted to go back to sea.”

“I’d like to show you the world, Mary MacRae.”

She felt a smile building up from her toes. “I’ve always wanted an adventure, Hamish. Wherever you wish to take me, I’ll go.”

“I’ve our voyages all planned in my mind. We’ll do some trading, but we’ll travel for the love of it. You can see the world, Mary, and study medicine as well.”

“I doubt if I’ll have the courage to treat another patient,” she said, offering him the truth. He stood and took her hand. Together they walked some distance from the table.

“Why would you say that?” To his credit, he looked genuinely surprised.

“Look what happened.”

He pressed a kiss to her forehead, and then pulled back.

“My father wishes that he’d never fought the Scots as he once did.

There are scores of deaths at his hands, no doubt.

Iseabal would probably wish to have treated her father differently.

Fergus would have come back to Gilmuir after Culloden.

Each member of my family has his own regrets.

Yet they’re all decent people, all good people. ”

He tilted up her chin with one finger. “I would willingly put my life in your hands. If I have faith in you, you must as well.”

“As simple as that?”

“As simple as that,” he said, smiling.

Impossibly, it was. His gaze was clear, his emotions visible for anyone to see. There was no doubt that he meant what he said, and that he loved her, truly, deeply, completely.

She blinked away her tears, feeling as if they were simply a release for all the happiness she felt bubbling up inside. How could she contain all this joy?

“I’ve never been to sea before,” she said, placing her hands on his chest, feeling his heart beat loud and strong beneath her palms.

“If you’re not a good sailor,” Hamish said, “we’ll have to find a remedy for you.”

“A dose of Hamish, at least once a day,” she teased, making him laugh.

Bending, he kissed her lightly.

“Will you miss Scotland?” he asked sometime later.

“I’ve never left before,” she said smiling, “so I don’t know. But with you at my side, it will be a grand adventure, I think. Under those circumstances, how can I regret anything?”

He smiled at her, and Mary felt her heart stutter.

She was reminded of when she’d first seen him, standing on the steps, his face in shadow.

She’d thought, then, that he had a great force of presence.

Now, she knew exactly who he was, and her initial impression had been correct.

Yet he was also vulnerable, thoughtful, and had a sense of humor that always amused her.

He was a survivor, most definitely. A man with a past, who had done some acts he would always regret. Hamish MacRae wasn’t a paragon without sins. Ah, but neither was she.

But together, they were perfect.