Page 118 of Once Upon A Haunted Castle
“Balthasar saved us both.” Senara answered with such unusual hesitation, he pulled back slightly to stare down at her, to ensure she had not been injured.
Her hands, he noticed, were folded over her stomach.
Alarm burned through him. “Ye’re hurt.”
She regarded him with a concerned expression furrowing her brow. “I’m with child.”
Gavin stared like a daft man at the woman who had already brought such wonder to his life. But a child– an heir. The one thing he needed to ensure the king would never have his land or his people.
An image flashed in his mind of Senara cradling a child, his child, in her arms.
His family.
His throat went tight with a hardness he could not seem to swallow away.
Senara bit her lip. “I—I know why ye left to Dalmunzie Castle. I know about…” She straightened her back and shifted slightly away from him. “I know about Colina MacKintosh. I still want this baby though and will raise him or her on my own. I willna stay—”
“I went to Dalmunzie to tell MacKintosh I couldna wed his daughter.” Gavin drew her slight body into his arms once more. His eyes felt warmer than usual. He closed them and pressed his forehead to the top of her head. “Edana orchestrated it to get me to choose Colina over ye.”
“And ye chose me.” Senara’s words caught. “Ye chose us.”
Not caring if she saw the emotion on his face, he turned her toward him and caught her bonny face in his hands. “I will always choose ye, Senara. I told Anice to tell ye I’d return back to ye as quickly as possible. Did ye no’ get the message?”
She shook her head and tears spilled down her cheeks.
Gavin wiped them away with a swipe of his thumb. “I love ye more than my verra life, Senara.”
Her tears left her eyes bright and a beautiful smile lit her face. “And I love ye more than my verra life, Gavin MacDuff.”
“Have the last banns been announced?” he asked.
“Aye, despite Edana’s protests, the priest insisted on doing them.” Senara glanced toward the window with a measure of sorrow.
Gavin pulled her face toward him once more. “Then I want to wed ye as soon as possible, the way I should have done within a month of meeting ye. Would ye like that?”
“Aye, verra much.” She pressed a kiss to his mouth, warm and sweet with a wonderful familiarity. “And soon we will be a whole family.”
He was doubtless grinning like an idiot and didn’t care a fig. His hand covered hers at her abdomen. Their child lay beneath their shared caress, beneath the layers of cloth and just inside the cradle of her loving womb.
Theirchild.
Aye, they would be a whole family soon.
She’d given him everything he’d ever hoped for, and he was glad he hadn’t allowed himself to be blind to its beckon. He had her to thank for such insight, of course.
For she’d been right in what she said when they first met; no coin or station was better than the beauty of true love.
And he was grateful to have learned so valuable a lesson from so bonny a teacher.
