Page 34 of Sadie's Highlander (Highland Protector 1)

“The same way a single Highlander eats an entire stag at one sitting—in wee bites patiently tendered one at a time.” Alec paced back and forth in front of the massive mahogany desk that dwarfed the man sitting behind it. He had no idea how he was going to explain all that needed saying. All he knew was that he needed Sadie to hear it in its entirety and accept it. He needed her to trust him. Believe him. Fully connect. If she accepted the unexplainable, then she also accepted him.

Dwyn didn’t speak, just pursed his lips and thoughtfully tapped a finger against the arm of his chair. He slowly turned the seat back and forth with just enough movement to set it to squeaking with an annoying rhythm. The sound echoed through the empty office, rasping across Alec’s tensed nerves like a rusty saw.

Alec slammed his fist onto the desk. “Sit still, damn ye!”

Dwyn chuckled, slowly shaking his head as he straightened in the chair and pulled open the center desk drawer. “Aye, lad. Ye’ve got it bad. The goddesses said it was so. I shouldha known better than to doubt the wise ones.” He pulled a purple velvet pouch out of the drawer and gently placed it in the center of the deep green desk blotter. “Here. They bade me give this to ye along with their blessin’.”

“What is it?” Alec asked.

Dwyn didn’t answer, just relaxed back in his chair and nodded toward the object on the desk.

Alec rubbed his fingertips with his thumbs, never once taking his eyes from the drawstring pouch sitting on the desk. A gift from the goddesses. A blessing. He swallowed hard, praying the tension knotted in his throat wouldna strangle him. Sometimes a blessing from the goddesses quickly became a curse. He looked up at Dwyn, failing to read the man’s expression.

Dwyn just stared back at him, not even bothering to blink.

“Dammit!” Alec hissed. “This is insane.”

He snatched up the cloth bag, worked free the miniature golden ropes around the opening, and reached inside. A cool, smooth surface. Stone and metal with a bit of weight to it. Alec pulled the thing free of the bag, words failing him as he beheld the beauty lying in the palm of his hand.

A large oval brooch of intricately fashioned silver cradled the most beautiful cabochon of finely polished Scottish agate that Alec had e’er beheld. The lines and layers of the agate came to life with rich, deep hues of burgundies, blacks, and browns shimmering in the light. The swirling lines of the gemstone formed a mesmerizing pattern that perfectly matched the triple knot of his blessed goddesses—the same knot of hope, love, and creativity gracing the surface of the Heartstone.

“Give it to her when ye deem the proper time has come—as your father gifted such a brooch to yer mother when he pledged his soul to hers.” Dwyn rose and walked out from behind the desk to rest his hand on Alec’s shoulder. “I’m glad ye finally found yer other half. I’d begun to fear I was to be the one tendin’ to ye when ye’d grown so old ye couldna remember yer own name.”

Alec closed his hand around the rare piece of jewelry, praying he’d know the right time and place to give it to Sadie and ask her to be his own.

“Aye,” he finally whispered aloud more to himself than to Dwyn. “I feared the same as well.”

Chapter 17

“No way will I fit through that door.”

“Sure you will,” Esme said. “I’ll pull you from the inside and Alec can shove you in from the back.”

“You make me sound like the prize bull being loaded up for the fair.” Sadie caught one corner of her lip between her teeth, closed one eye, and tilted her head to the side. Nope. The narrow door to the horse-drawn carriage Alec had ordered for the evening didn’t look any larger from that angle. There was absolutely no way her wrapped-in-layers-of-linen-and-velvet ass was getting through that door—at least not without a healthy coat of nonstick spray and a pry bar. “Are you sure this thing isn’t a miniature model meant for display purposes only?”

Sarinda blew past them like a small tornado, huffing and puffing with exasperation. “Ye’ve no’ opened both the doors, ye eejits.” She stood on tiptoe, flipped loose two inconspicuous latches that had perfectly blended in with the panels of the carriage, and folded back the second door. She turned back and glared at Alec and Esme as though she couldn’t believe she’d raised such a pair of empty-headed children. “Yer a fine mess, the two of ye, I swear that ye are.”

She pulled her wrap tighter about her shoulders and walked to the edge of the porte cochere. Squinting up into the velvety blanket of the starless sky, Sarinda shivered. “Ye packed blankets and ensured plenty of firewood was at the ready, aye? There’s nothin’ colder than a damp castle with nary an ember glowin’ in its hearths.”

“Aye,Máthair,” Alec assured her in a strained tone.

Sadie bit the tip of her tongue to keep from snickering. How amusing was it for a mountain of a man to take a scolding from his tiny slip of a mother?

“And ye’ve all the food Miss Lydia packed? And the wine as well as the glasses? And the cloth for the table along with the silverware?” Sarinda tapped each of her fingers as she named off the items she feared her son might have forgotten. “And did ye remember—”

“Máthair!” Alec gently took his mother by the shoulders and steered her back toward the keep. “We’ll be at the castle but a few hours. ’Tis no’ as though we’re movin’ there permanently.”

Esme took Sadie by the hand and pulled her toward the carriage. “Come on. I’ll help you get in. It’s bad karma for a woman to see her man get his arse tanned by his mother.”

My man.A delicious shiver warmed Sadie’s blood and set her to tingling. Who cared if there was a fire at the castle? Alec would have her spontaneously combusting in no time. Just as she reached for the carriage handle, she paused with one foot on the step. “Who’s driving? I don’t want to ride inside all by myself.” She resisted the urge to fan herself as the thought of the carriage’s rocking motion offered up infinite possibilities and heated her blood even more.

Ramsay appeared from behind the carriage, snugging his leather gloves higher up his wrists. “I’ll be drivin’. I promised Hamish I’d come for a visit. He and I can take our nightly stroll whilst ye enjoy yer supper with Alec.”

“Hamish?” That was a new name she’d not heard the MacDaras mention before. “Is he the castle’s caretaker?”

Ramsay laughed as he launched himself up onto the driver’s perch at the front of the boxy carriage. “Hamish is an owl I befriended when I was but a wee lad. I doubt ye’ll see him unless ye visit the owlery. He’s a bit of a loner.”

“We’ll no’ be visitin’ the owlery this evenin’.” Alec kissed his mother’s cheek, then moved to Sadie’s side. “And ye can trust that Ramsay will give us our privacy,” he whispered into Sadie’s hair.

---