“I thought we were doing the right thing when we got married, Duncan,” she began, choosing her words with great care. “I believed that a marriage of convenience was possible, that two intelligent people could put aside their personal concerns for the greater good.” She drew in a steadying breath. “For the good of our baby.”
His eyes were shadowed, his expression impossible to read. “And what is it you think now, Samantha?”
She couldn’t stop the flow of tears that rolled down her cheeks. “I think we made a mistake. Marriage should be between two people who love each other. It’s not a business arrangement. It can’t be reduced to a stack of legal documents.”
Duncan turned away from her. Had she reached into his heart and tore it from his chest, she could not have hurt him more.
“Duncan.” Her voice pierced the web of regret that had settled itself over him. “You’re not listening to me.”
“I heard every word, lassie,” he said. Each of those words had left their mark on his soul.
“I want us to start over,” she said. “Did you hear me say that?”
He met her eyes one more time. “To what purpose?”
“To what purpose?” She spread her arms wide. “Don’t you know?”
“I want you to tell me.” He wanted her to say the words he’d longed to hear her say from the first moment they met.
Her cornflower blue eyes grew soft and dreamy, the way they had after he made love to her. It was almost his undoing.
“I love you, Duncan.” Her tentative smile widened and lit up her lovely face with radiant light. “I don’t know when it started. I don’t know why it took me so long to realize it. But I love you.” She gripped his hand more tightly. “With my entire heart and soul.”
She told him she wanted a real marriage, the kind that was based on love and mutual respect. She wanted them to be a family in every sense of the word, to raise their children in love and hope and joy.
She wanted them to try again.
She moved into his arms and his mouth found hers. Their kiss was sweet, reverential, as filled with wonder as the sound of a child’s laughter.
For Sam, it was like walking from the darkness into the light. From cold winter into the shimmering warmth of summer.
From an uncertain present to a miraculous future she’d never believed possible.
He broke the kiss and she murmured her protest against his lips. The smell of his skin, the sweet taste of his mouth were intoxicating. She loved everything about him, heart and soul and body.
“Duncan?” He stood and reached deep into the pocket of his trousers. “What are you doing?”
“This,” he said, then dropped to his knee next to the bed. “Marry me, Samantha.” He flipped open the lid of the box and withdrew a breathtaking ring of intertwined gold and silver. “Marry me because I love you and you love me in equal measure. Marry me because when we’re not together life loses its luster and its meaning.”
She held out her hand and he placed the ring in her palm.
“There’s an inscription,” he said. The emotion in his voice was unmistakable, and her heart soared.
She held the ring under the lamplight and saw her new initials and his and the date of their wedding.
“When did you do this?” she asked. Certainly there hadn’t been time tonight.
“I picked it up the day before the party,” he said. “I’d planned to give it to you after all the guests left.” He paused. “After I finally told you that I loved you.”
The last of her doubts vanished in one wild burst of joy. She moved the signet ring to her right hand then handed the silver-and-gold band to him. “I want you to put it on my finger,” she said. “To make this official.”
He slid the ring onto her finger with all the ceremony it deserved then made her gasp when he kissed the palm of her hand then folded each finger over the spot. Her Highland warrior. Her Scots poet.
Her husband.
If someone had told her this time last year that she would give her heart to a stranger on a windswept day in Scotland, she would have thought him mad. But she had, and that one moment of passion had changed her life forever. She’d discovered she knew how to love passionately and well and that, even with its difficulties, a real marriage between equals was the grandest adventure on earth. They were both opinionated and stubborn, as much prone to argument as discussion. Their marriage would be a fiery one but it would never be dull. Not as long as they loved each other. And somehow she knew they would love each other until the end of time.
She opened her mouth to say exactly that, then stopped.
“Samantha?” He leaned forward, his look of joy sliding into one of concern. “Is something wrong, lassie?”
She shook her head, motioning for him to be still.
“Oh, Duncan!” She reached for his hands then placed them on the roundness of her belly.
His brows knit together in a frown then suddenly he leaped back, as if burned. “Is that—”
“Yes!” she exclaimed, laughing and crying at the same time. “The baby, Duncan. Our baby moved!”
That flutter against his palms, that almost imperceptible ripple—that was their baby, his and Samantha’s, waiting to be born. If he’d ever doubted the existence of angels, Duncan doubted it no more.
Angels were everywhere. He knew that now. Sometimes they came in the guise of a lovely blond American in need of a ride to Glenraven. Sometimes they came in the form of a baby, curled deep within its mother’s womb.
And sometimes, if a man was very lucky, he was
