Callum reached the top of the stairs, and as he turned the corner toward the bedchambers, he heard a scream. He thundered down the hall, praying he was not too late. He kicked open the door to the bedchamber and came to a shuddering halt. His mother held his son, and she was crying. Marsaili stood in front of her, white as snow except for her knuckles, which had pinked around the edges from her grip on the dagger that she had pointed at his mother.
He closed the distance between himself and his mother, and took his son from her. She did not try to stop him but wept openly, as he had only seen her do when his father had died.
“I’m sorry,” she said, turning her tearstained face to Callum. “Everything I did, I did for ye and for our clan. I would nae kill yer son, though. Nae ever that. I would nae ever harm my own flesh and blood.”
He placed a protective hand over one of Brody’s ears and pressed the other side of his son’s head into his chest. “What have ye done, Mother? God’s blood, what have ye done?”
She crumpled to the ground as the words poured out of her, and he stood with his brother and Marsaili by his side and listened to her tale. Rage filled him, then disbelief, and then great, overwhelming sorrow. It was his own mother who had lied to him and told him Marsaili was dead, not the Campbell. The Campbell had shamed her with his response, and he had said Marsaili had wanted to wed Ulster but his mother had concocted the lie that Marsaili had died. She wanted him to forget Marsaili and marry Edina.
After a long while, his mother fell silent, and Callum and Brice looked at each other, as Marsaili leaned against Callum. The betrayal was deep and painful, and he could only imagine what Marsaili was feeling.
“Will ye put me to death, then?” his mother sobbed.
As he and Brice stared at each other, Marsaili answered. “Nay, of course nae. Ye are his mother.”
Marsaili’s capacity to forgive amazed him. He did not have the same ability. “Ye kinnae stay here, Mother.”
“Aye,” Brice agreed. “We will send ye to Aunt Claret’s.”
“To the heathens?” their mother gasped, referring to the MacKenzies, the clan to which their aunt’s husband belonged. He was a poor man, and their mother would have no status, just as she deserved.
“Aye,” Callum replied. “Yer greed is why ye did what ye did, nae love, nae a desire to simply make us strong. Ye kinnae stay here after such a betrayal to me, nor after trying to kill my future wife.”
He saw Marsaili visibly relax, even as his mother’s jaw gaped open, and he realized Marsaili had been worried. It was going to take some time for her to understand that she came first to him, but he would make certain that she knew it eventually. “Take her to the dungeon,” Callum told Brice.
“The dungeon!” his mother screamed. “Brice, nay! Surely ye dunnae agree.”
“Actually, I do,” Brice assured her. “Completely.”
Callum turned to Marsaili as Brice half dragged their mother out of the room screaming. He lowered his hand from Brody’s ear and set his wiggling son down. He sighed. “I dunnae ken what to say. I wish I could say I will ken if ye wish to leave me, but I will nae. And I’d come after ye. I love ye. I’m selfish. I dunnae have an excuse for what my mother has done—”
Marsaili pressed a finger to his mouth. “I dunnae have excuses for all that my father has done, nor for what my Campbell brothers and sister did. We are nae our parents or our siblings.” She cupped his face. “There is ye, and me, and Brody. What we have is true and pure, and we will build a good life.”
“Together,” he agreed, kissing her full on the mouth as Brody stood with his arms wrapped around his father’s leg and squealed at them in glee.
A sennight later, Marsaili stood by Callum’s side in the courtyard of Urquhart Castle as his wife. They were surrounded by her brothers and their wives, including her half sisters Isobel and Lena, and Lena’s husband, Alex. One by one, Iain’s men knelt before Callum, pledging their allegiance to him as Iain had. Then, to her great surprise, a contingency of Alex’s men and her brother Graham’s men did the same. As the last man was about to give his pledge, the horn announcing an approaching enemy sounded.
They had been expecting her father and men from the Earl of Ulster, as the earl himself was recovering from the wound Callum had inflicted upon him in battle. They’d had men standing watch, and word had come early this morning that her father’s birlinn approached by sea. She watched as the birlinn neared the shore, and her breath caught as a sea of warriors, men faithful to her and Callum, advanced from the castle to meet her father’s men.
Grants, MacLeods, and MacLeans stood side by side with their swords raised, blades shining in the sun. When her father’s warriors started off the ship, a cry of warning went out. She held her breath for one second, worrying her father might be so foolish as to try to battle his way through, but he was greatly outnumbered.
As she and Callum made their way to the shore, her heart began to pound. Callum squeezed her hand. “I can speak with him alone, if ye prefer.”
“Nay. I will say my piece,” she said.
Moments later, she stood in front of her father, who had been the lone man allowed to set foot on the shores of Callum’s land. “I’m glad ye came,” she said by way of greeting.
Her father’s eyebrows rose in skepticism.
“I am,” she repeated. “I wanted to tell ye that I will nae ever fear ye again.”
“Ye should,” her father bit out. “I will gather more of my forces and the earl’s, and I will return.”
“I’d nae do that if I were ye,” Callum said. “I have made an alliance with the MacLeod, the MacLean,andthe Earl of Ainsworth.”
Iain came to stand by Marsaili’s side. “And I have the king’s word that if ye rise against the Grant, he condones us going to war with ye. So I will gladly kill ye if ye return.”
“As will I,” Callum added. Her brothers and Alex nodded their agreement.
Her father’s face turned red. “It seems I must depart for now,” he spat, “but one day, Marsaili, ye will wish ye had nae turned against me.”
“My only wish,” she said, “was that ye were nae my father.”
The Campbell huffed and turned to leave. Callum slid his arm around Marsaili as they stood on the shore and waited until her father sailed away.
Callum leaned close to her. “Are ye sad?”
“Nay,” she assured him as Marion came forward and handed Brody to her. Her son curled his fingers into her hair. “I’ve nae ever been happier.”
