Twenty
The meeting with Callum and Iain went better than Callum had hoped. Iain proved to be a generous man, offering an alliance before Callum could even broach the subject. Having the weight of that worry off his shoulders allowed him to concentrate fully on Brody, Marsaili, and her family at supper. As he watched Marsaili’s half brothers with their wives and children, anticipation for his future built for the first time in a long time. Soon he and Marsaili would be wed, and he would sit at the dais in his own great hall with her by his side, along with Brody, until he likely wiggled away to wander around the great hall as children were prone to do. Royce, Iain and Marion’s son, had sat at the dais for a time between his parents, as had Lachlan and Bridgette’s son, Magnus, but both children were already squirming and trying to get down.
Marsaili was bouncing Brody on her knee when Iain asked her to attend him in the solar. She rose and started to hand Brody to Marion, but Callum stopped her. “I’ll take the lad,” he said, holding out his hands. Marion smiled at him, but Marsaili gave him a questioning look.
“Are ye certain?” she asked. “What if he cries?”
Her new motherly worry pleased him. His own mother had been rather cold all his life and had shown more concern for how much coin was in the chests than for her two sons. He’d thought most women were like that, but in his short time at Dunvegan, he’d seen that his mother was not like most other mothers. “If he cries, I will soothe him.”
“What if he wets himself?”
“Then I’ll clean him,” Callum assured her. “And if he’s hungry, I’ll feed him. If he falls, I’ll pick him up. Dunnae fash yerself, lass. I am his father, and I will care for him always.”
“Ye are proving to be a good father,” she said, her voice hitching.
He grinned as she left the dais with Iain. Lachlan leaned around Cameron and said, “Dunnae make the rest of us look bad, ye ken?”
Everyone on the dais laughed, and not long later, Callum found himself on the dance floor, swinging Brody around while Royce clapped and shouted, “Me too!” Then Lachlan’s son tugged at Callum’s arm for a turn. He was having such a good time that he did not notice Marsaili had returned until she tapped him on the shoulder and then held her arms out for Brody.
“’Tis his bedtime.” She gave Callum a smile and look that heated him. “And mine and yers, if ye are intelligent.”
Desire thickened in his blood. “Do ye mean to say ye wish me to come to yer bedchamber?”
“Ye are intelligent,” she teased, turned, and sashayed out of the great hall, provocatively swaying her hips.
He immediately started to follow her, but when he exited the great hall, he found himself face-to-face with her four brothers and Alex MacLean. The men all had their arms crossed and Iain spoke. “Ye will marry immediately upon breaking the other vow, aye?”
Their concern amused rather than irritated him. “Aye. The verra next day.”
“Why nae that day?” Lachlan demanded.
“I thought to give the earl and his daughter time to depart.”
“Likely wise,” Alex agreed.
“We will all come to witness the wedding,” Graham said.
Cameron nodded. “And our wives.”
“And bairns,” Iain added. “So ready chambers.”
“Gladly,” Callum assured them. “Now if ye dunnae mind, I wish to see my son to bed. I’ve nae ever gotten to do that.”
“By all means,” Iain replied, sweeping his hand toward the stairs that led to the bedchambers.
“But after that,” Lachlan said, “find yer own chamber, aye? Marsaili is our sister, and we give ye liberties for we ken a wedding is to come and—”
“And well, ye already made a wee bairn,” Graham said, which elicited chuckles.
“But it kinnae seem we condone ye being in her chamber before the marriage,” Iain finished.
“Certainly nae!” Lachlan exclaimed with a wink. “We did nae ever do such things.”
“At least,” Alex added, “nae that anyone kenned. So be quiet.”
All the men nodded, grins on their faces.
With a shake of his head, Callum made his way to Marsaili’s bedchamber, and when he pushed open the door, he found her curled around their son, both mother and child fast asleep. Such strong emotion filled him that he rubbed his chest as he made his way into the room, crept carefully onto the bed, and fit himself behind Marsaili, one hand resting on Brody. Soon, he too fell asleep.
