“I’m exhausted,” Sam said, breaking into her thoughts. And with that, he picked her up and carried her to bed. They slept with their legs entwined.
The next afternoon, O’Malley called. Sam was on the phone for a long time, and when he hung up, he grinned at Lyra and said, “Cat.”
“Excuse me?”
“They found the bones of a cat in the garden. Apparently all those pretty flowers were part of a memorial for someone’s dead kitty.”
Lyra had been certain the story behind the garden was something more romantic. She took a bottle of water from the refrigerator and went out to the porch swing. Sam followed her.
“A cat, huh?” Lyra shook her head.
“Well, there was a woman’s body buried nearby, too—apparently the late Mrs. Mahler.”
“D.C. isn’t anything like this, is it? Living there will take some getting used to for me.”
“We won’t be living in D.C.,” he told her.
She sat up to face him. “But you said—”
“I said we’re going home.” He smiled as he put his arm around her and pulled her close. “You’ll love the Highlands.”
FORTY-TWO
MILO SAT AT THE BAR SIPPING A COLD BEER WHILE HE STARED intently at the television. The eleven o’clock news was on, and he was watching Lyra Prescott being led out of a building by a man the reporter identified as an FBI agent.
“See that beautiful woman on the television?” he asked the man sitting next to him. When the man didn’t respond, Milo nudged him and said, “I had to break up with her. It was the only way to keep her safe.”
The stranger, bleary-eyed and drunk, patted Milo’s shoulder. “You did the right thing, buddy,” he slurred.
“I don’t watch the news regularly,” he told his new friend, “but I’m sure glad I watched tonight. You know, I gave up everything for her. I don’t regret it because, like you said, I had to do the right thing. Now I’m out of a job. I’m thinking about getting into another line of business, something less stressful.”
He couldn’t believe Merrian was in jail, and Charlie and Stack, too. All this time he had thought they were behind the break-in and the shooting. Oh well, can’t be right about everything.
“In other news,” the newscaster continued as Milo ordered his second beer, “Councilman Bill Jackson has resigned effective immediately so that he can mount a defense against the charges pending. The councilman was indicted on …”
Milo stopped listening. “There’s going to be a job opening if that councilman resigned.” He scratched his jaw. “That’s what I can do. Politics. I’ll go into politics.”
His friend patted him again. “You’re a natural, buddy. A natural.”
EPILOGUE
SAM AND LYRA WERE MARRIED AT ST. AGNES’S CHURCH. FATHER Henry happily officiated. Lyra had thought it would be a small affair, but by the time the guest list was complete, the San Diego church was packed with family, friends, and, according to Sidney, a veritable who’s who of the political and diplomatic arena, including ambassadors and other dignitaries.
Both the ceremony and the reception at the Coronado Hotel went off perfectly. Lyra thought it was probably because her mother and father had declined to attend. When Lyra told her mother that Sam had asked her to marry him and that she had accepted, her mother’s reaction wasn’t surprising.
“Oh, Lyra, what are you thinking? With your looks, you could do so much better than an FBI agent. If he’s after your money …”
Her father’s reaction wasn’t much better. “I’m sure he loves you, but just to make certain he isn’t after your money, I think you should consider transferring your trust to me. You’ll want to assure that the assets stay in the Prescott family, of course, so if you’ll …”
When Lyra refused, an argument ensued. It ended with her parents threatening to boycott the wedding, but despite their coercive tactics, she held her ground and did not give in.
She pretended she didn’t care, but the reality was that she was embarrassed that her father wouldn’t walk his own daughter down the aisle unless paid to do so. Owen and Cooper were enraged by their parents’ conduct, but neither was surprised, either.
Owen stepped in for their father. Sidney was Lyra’s maid of honor and walked down the aisle with Cooper. A cousin and two friends from Texas served as bridesmaids. Sam’s best man was his cousin Tristan, and Jack and Alec were groomsmen. In addition to the wedding photographer, there were photographers from newspapers and magazines outside the church covering the elegant event.
Lyra loved Sam’s parents, who were the complete opposite of her own. They were kind and generous, and welcomed her into their family with open arms. They offered to host a reception for Sam and her in the Highlands so that their Scottish friends and family could also welcome her. Gigi promised to attend.
Sam and Lyra spent their honeymoon at the house in San Diego. They had only three days before Lyra had to return to Los Angeles for the awards ceremony. Her entry into the competition for the Dalton Award had been disqualified last semester because, after Mahler’s death, she no longer had a sponsor. Nevertheless, she continued to work on her children’s film, and with another professor’s blessing resubmitted it the following semester. She won first place. She received multiple offers from production companies in Los Angeles and New York, but she declined them all. Lyra didn’t want to work for anyone. She loved the freedom of writing and directing her own work, and had come up with an idea for a children’s series she wanted to pursue. She could work from anywhere, which was fortunate, because three months later Sam took her to their home in the Highlands.
Her husband was full of surprises. The first surprise was that their home was a castle. It had been built centuries ago and was magnificent, but cold and formal. Fortunately, their small apartment on the second level was cozy and charming. The estate, or holding as Sam called it, was the most beautiful place she’d ever seen.
The second surprise was that Sam would inherit a couple of titles. As a landowner, he would become Laird Kincaid, but he was also in line to become Earl of Cairnmar.
The third surprise was the most astonishing to Lyra. Her sweet, loving husband turned into a brutal warrior on the rugby field.
Sitting beside Sam’s parents on a hill, Lyra watched with great trepidation a match between Sam’s team and the one from the next town over. At one point in the game, when she saw Sam emerge from a pile of huge, muscular men, she grabbed her father-in-law’s arm. “Did he just break …? Did his elbow …?”
Sam’s father, seeing the horrified look in her eyes, sympathetically patted her knee. “Do you know what’s been said about rugby? It’s a hooligan’s game played by gentlemen. Don’t worry, he’s fine, my dear.”
Nodding, she turned back to stare at her husband. He was covered in mud, and his uniform was spotted with blood, which she didn’t think belonged to him. His teammates were just as beaten up. What she found most amazing, however, was that once the game was over, both teams laughed and carried on as they dragged one another off the field.
Sam saw her in the crowd and made his way over to her. He had a cut over his eyebrow, and he was muddy from head to toe. Oblivious to the fact that she was wearing a white blouse, she threw her arms around his neck and hugged him. That wasn’t good enough for Sam. He kissed her passionately, ignoring his cheering teammates.
When he finally came up for air, he said, “Now that’s the way a husband should greet his wife when he returns home.”
Blushing because of their audience, she said, “You were thirty feet away from me.”
“Exactly,” he replied, and kissed her again.
She leaned into his side. “I’m relieved you’re still intact.”
“It’s a sport, sweetheart.”
A sport? They actually called the mayhem she’d just witnessed a sport? “Does it have to be so rough? I don’t want you to get hurt.”
He laughed. “A few minor cuts and bruises won’t kill me.”
He picked up his duffel bag, put his arm around her shoulders, and began walking toward their car. “I got a call from the FBI this morning. They want me to fly to D.C. tomorrow to consult on a case. I’ll be leaving before dawn. Want to come with me?”
“I can’t,” she answered. “I’m visiting the Cairnmar school tomorrow to film for my new series.”
“Then I guess we’ll have to say our good-byes tonight.” He lustfully inspected every inch of her body and then said, “In fact, if you’re up to it, I’ll say good-bye all night long.”
As Lyra waited by the car for Sam to drop his rugby gear in the trunk, she looked all around her. She was in a field bordered on one side by a lane of quaint stone cottages and on the other by a pasture with sheep peacefully grazing. In the distance were the magnificent Highland mountains. How different this all was from where she had been less than a year ago. Because of Sam, everything was new and exciting and wonderful.
He turned and smiled at her, and her heart swelled with love.
Life with Sam was going to be full of surprises.