Page 96 of His Duchess to Remember

He did not interrupt, allowing her to get on with it.

Once she was finished, she sat there beside him and stared at her handiwork, her eyes feverish.

Slowly, he brought his hand to her cheek, brushing his thumb across her skin and whispered softly, “Relax, love.”

Her eyes widened, and he knew she remembered five years ago, when he had said the same thing in her bedchamber at Highcastle. It had worked then, and he hoped he would work now, for he did not like to see her this way, a jittering bundle of worry and fear.

“Stay,” she croaked, her lip trembling. “Stay here with me.”

“I’m nae going anywhere, love,” he told her.

She shook her head. “No, I mean… stay here with me. At the manor.” Her breath hitched. “Never leave my side again.”

“I can do that,” he promised, smiling at her. “But I’m going to have to teach ye how to wind a bandage properly.”

At that, she choked out a laugh and lightly smacked him on his bare chest… where her hand stayed, her palm pressed to his heart. “I did my best.”

“I ken, love, and I mean to keep it like this. It’ll amuse our son.” He grinned at her, his heart warming as he saw her face relax.

“How can you jest at a time like this?” she asked, as her other hand joined the first on his chest.

“To see ye smile,” he replied. “I never want to see ye hurt or worried again. Never because of me, anyway.”

She shuffled a little closer to him, until the sides of their legs nudged against each other. “I love you, Malcolm.” A tear tumbled from her eyelashes. “I think… I have loved you for as long as you have loved me. I think I have loved you since our first night. But I know I love you now, and always will.”

His heart swelled until he thought it might explode, for he had wished and prayed to hear such words from her lips. As if to seal her confession, to make it everlasting, he slipped his arms around his beloved wife and held her close as he leaned in to kiss her.

The first brush of his mouth against hers was like magic, all of his pain melting away; he did not even feel the throb of the bruise that would appear soon, and ignored the ache in his shoulder as he held her closer still.

She kissed him back without hesitation or fear, her soft palms slowly smoothing up his chest to his neck, her arms looping around so she could pull him nearer.

With a smile against her mouth, he scooped one arm under her legs and hoisted her into his lap, holding her in a sort of seated bridal carry: a carry he had never gotten to have before.

She gasped and laughter spilled from her lips, a joyful sound that he hoped he would be able to hear for decades to come. Pulling back for a moment, she gazed deeply into his eyes, her fingertips toying with the locks at the nape of his neck.

“I am so very glad it was you, my love,” she said thickly. “I do not know how else to say it, but you… you are my dream come true. A dream I thought was impossible.”

He cradled her face, his heart so full. “As ye are mine,” he told her. “I’m a better man because of ye, and I’ll continue to be. I will never make ye fret again, and I will never withhold the truth from ye. Even if it’s to say that ye can’t bandage a wound and ye’re too rough when ye clean one, I’ll tell ye the truth.”

She gaped at him… and then burst into fresh laughter. “How rude!”

“Do ye want me to fib?” he challenged playfully, his thumb brushing her lower lip, which had ceased trembling.

“No,” she said, grinning. “No, I suppose not.”

“But the biggest truth is that I love ye. I have loved ye for five years, and I mean to love ye for eternity,” he told her, relishing the weight and shape of her in his arms, knowing he never wanted to let go.

She smiled and leaned in, whispering back, “I love you too. I love you now and for the rest of my life and beyond that.” A chuckle rumbled in her chest as she added, “And I should like to have many more children with you, enough to play a good game of wolf.”

“How did ye—?” He stared at her in amused disbelief.

“I watched you from the window, and I think I fell in love with you all over again,” she explained.

Smirking, he dipped his head and murmured in a low growl, “Seems I’ve caught ye, wee rabbit.”

She giggled and pretended to pull away. “Oh no, I have been captured! However shall I escape this mean, handsome wolf?”

“Mean?” he teased, as he grazed his teeth against her throat. “Och, nay, I’m just hungry. Ravenous, in fact.”