Beloved Highlander

I will come with you.

The words were there in her mouth, but she knew there was no point in speaking them. Gregor would not allow it, and as Lady of Glen Dhui, her place was here in his absence. He needed her to be here. He would ride into danger and Meg, like so many women throughout the ages, would wait for him to come home.

We have tonight.

That single thought filled Meg as they sat down to eat, as Gregor huddled together with his men one last time, issuing instructions, offering advice, murmuring praise. Soon they would be gone, and she and Gregor would be alone.

We have tonight.

Of course he will come home again! she told herself, but it was bravado. Deep in her heart, there was a terrible fear that maybe tonight was all they would have left of their life together. These memories would be all she would have to keep her warm after this night. It seemed very unfair. She had only just discovered love, and now she might lose it.

But we have tonight….

At last they were alone, the door of the bedchamber closed behind them, the candle flame dipping and diving in Meg’s shaking hand. As she set it down, his arm came around her, easing her back against his chest, his warm mouth nuzzling against the side of her neck.

“Do not be afraid for me,” he murmured. “I have set myself tougher tasks and won through.”

“Gregor—”

“I know what you are thinking, morvoren. You are thinking Abercauldy will take out his spite against me, but I am confident I can talk sense to him. He is an intelligent, educated man. He will listen to reason.”

Would he? Meg doubted it, but she bit her lip and did not say so. She would not send him away with all her own fears weighing him down. She would not!

She turned in his arms, linking her fingers behind his neck and smiling up at him with serious blue eyes. “Come to bed with me, Husband.”

His mouth curled at the corners. “Gladly, Wife.”

It seemed to Meg that in so short a time she had grown to know Gregor so well, to love him so well. Perhaps she had always loved him, the sensitive boy and the tough man. She had been wrong to think of them as separate; they were one and the same. Wonderingly, Meg realized that she had in fact loved him most of her life.

And when at last he lay upon her, thrusting deep, so deep, it was as if he would claim every part of her. Perhaps this night they would make a child. Did he seek to console her with a baby if he did not return? Meg knew she would love a baby of his, a child to grow up here at Glen Dhui with Gregor’s amber eyes. But it would not be the same if Gregor was not here to watch it happen. It could never be the same without Gregor.

“You will come back to me,” she whispered, in the aftermath of their passion, her fingers stroking his hair, his head resting warm and heavy on her breast. “You will come back to me, Gregor.”

It was not a request; it was a command.

“Meg—”

“Because if you don’t, I warn you now, I will come and fetch you home again.”

Gregor lifted himself up on one elbow, gazing down into her face with a look of deep tenderness. “Do ye remember, Meg, when ye came to the Black Dog and stood by my table in that terrible place and told me ye had come for me?”

Meg was entranced by his intensity, but she managed a yes.

“I thought you were an angel.”

She laughed, but he put his fingers against her lips, warm and calloused and so gentle.

“I was more dead than alive before you came to me that evening, Meg. I was breathing, but my heart had stopped. Since I had lost Glen Dhui, I had existed, alone, a stranger in my own country. But you have brought me more joy in these past weeks than I have felt in all the years that went before. If I did not live another day past this moment, I would still be a fortunate man for what you have given me, Meg.”

“I love you, Gregor,” she whispered, her eyes blurred with tears.

“Och, Meg, my Meg. I want to give you a child,” he murmured against her lips. “I want to make a child with you.”

With a groan he slid over her, plundering her body with his, insatiable for her. And Meg gave herself up to him, felt her body melt into liquid fire in his arms, drowning in him and wishing this one night could last forever.

He was her own true love, the dream she had longed for. It was a truly bittersweet moment.

“Lady Meg is asleep?”