“Why can’t it be both?”
“Oh, Niall.” Heather reached up and put her arms around his neck, only to find herself swept up in his embrace. “Niall, I do love you.”
“Do you love me enough to trust me? To put yourself in my power for a little while?”
“Oh, Niall. You oaf. I’ve been in your power since we met.”
He protested, “That’s not true.”
“It is. You had me, and you could have done anything you wanted. That first night, when we shared the room at that inn. You stole back your knife from under my pillow.”
“You were asleep!”
“I wasn’t. But my point isn’t that you stole it back. It’s that you stole it back so you could shave, since you had no razor. And then you replaced it, because you didn’t want to worry me or let me be unarmed for longer than necessary. Niall, you were a man with a weapon, standing over the bed of a defenseless woman. And what did you do? You gave the weapon to the woman. You didn’t take advantage when it would have been easy. I couldn’t forget that. And I’ve been in your power since then because I know that about you. That’s the only kind of power I’ll accept.”
And then Heather spilled out all the words she’d been holding in her heart. “Look, the truth is that I’m terrible at admitting I’m wrong. I was certain that what I wanted was a life on my own. I hated living with Uncle Cyril and the way I dealt with my unhappiness was by dreaming of far-off places.”
“You have a list of cities you want to see,” Niall said.
“I did, but when I think about that list now, it’s not as fascinating as it used to be.”
“No?” He looked more hopeful.
“I mistook independence for happiness. I thought that anyone or anything that could stop me from doing what I felt I needed to do was unbearable. But that’s a very childish way of looking at the world. I…I think I’ve grown up a little.”
Niall ran a finger along her jawline. “You’ve always seemed quite grown-up to me. I mean, except for the time you locked yourself in your room, or ran away, or spilled out chamber pots on the floor.”
“That happened only one time, and it was strategic,” she countered.
His lips quirked up into a smile. “I thought it was brilliant. Unexpected. Just like you.”
She took a deep breath, looking into the eyes of this man, who so easily offered his protection the moment they met, and then continued at every turn to be the most honest and straightforward man he knew how to be, no matter what obstacle blocked their path. Her next request was the most difficult of her life.
“Niall, will you forgive me?” she whispered, shamefaced at thinking of all she’d put him through.
“Forgive you for what?”
“All the cruel and stupid things I said before. It was easier to blame you than admit to myself that I’d made a mistake.”
“Which mistake was that?” He frowned. “Sleeping with me at last?”
“That wasn’t a mistake!” she insisted. “I wanted that with all my heart. My mistake was not trusting you after I learned what you stood to gain from me. I just assumed the worst.”
“You didn’t have much previous experience otherwise,” he told her. “Losing your parents, then being betrayed by your uncle…”
“That’s no excuse. You’ve been honorable since the beginning.”
“Well, I was also an idiot. I really did think we could marry and unmarry as long as it was just words. It was without doubt the worst solution to your problem.”
“I don’t know. I think many aspects of it worked out rather well.” Heather raised her face to his, kissing him softly. Then she said, before she lost her nerve. “Niall MacNair of Clan MacNair, will you please, please, please keep me as your wife?”
Niall regarded her for a long moment. Then he said gruffly, “Aye, I think I will.”
The second consummation was just as moving as the first. Heather discovered several additional ways that Niall could bring her to complete rapture, and when they stretched out together afterward, she twined herself about him so he couldn’t escape (though in fact, he showed very little inclination to escape). As she surveyed him after he’d fallen asleep, she smiled to herself, very content with her highlander.
Epilogue
So, there was another weddingafter all, which occurred on October the sixth, ensuring that Heather was fully capable of consenting to marry whoever she liked. It took place in a church, what with Niall being the MacNair and the Earl of Carregness now, and too important a man to go skipping off getting married like the common people.
