“Idiot.” It wasn’t fair to kill a man when he was down, so Ian simply turned to the other warring men, letting a piercing whistle escape his throat. “Your leader has been taken down!” They didn’t need to know he was merely unconscious. “Surrender or die!”
Several dozen Sassenachs paused in their fighting, looked at one another, and then dropped to their knees.
“Smart lads,” Ian said. “This is over. Dinna come back here again. I thought I’d made that clear the last time we met.”
Noah pushed through the crowd to stand beside Ian. He held out his hand and Ian gripped it.
“Signal works,” Noah grinned.
“I’m sorry to have brought this on ye.”
“Ah, we needed the exercise.”
Ian stared toward the ruined wall by the front gate. “I’ll help ye rebuild.”
“Only if ye bring your wife. If Douglass sees ye here, but no’ Rhiannon, I’ll never hear the end of it.”
“We have an accord.” Ian clapped his brother on the back, giving him a manly hug.
“If ye’re quite finished, this is a hell of a mess we need to clean up.” The shout came from Iliana on the battlements, and despite the shrewish words, her voice was full of laughter.
All of them were relieved it was over, and that it had ended in victory, with no losses on their side.
They spent the next several hours burying the dead, tending the wounded, and making sure the castle was at least fortified for the night. Adam’s idiot cohort was locked in the dungeon, and screaming obscenities—Adam right beside him.
“I’ll be back tomorrow,” Ian said. Though he was exhausted, he knew if he didn’t sail home tonight, Rhiannon would be going mad on the other side. And he did not want her to worry another moment. “Want me to take the prisoners back to the isle?”
“Nay, no’ necessary. When ye come back, we’ll make a plan to return them to their rightful homeland. Though truly, they deserve a much worse punishment.”
“Maybe we drop them just shy of the border?”
“Make them fight their way across?”
Ian chuckled. “They made it this far, seems fair.”
“When you come back, bring your wife,” Douglass ordered.
“Ye have my word, my lady.”
Not too long after, Ian was leaping off the side of the ship and swimming to shore in the dark.
A figure rushed him, and from the size and shape, he knew it was her—his beautiful, charming, lovely wife—Rhiannon.
“Oh, my darling.” She kissed him all over his face, her hands pressed to his cheeks, checking his chest for wounds. “I was so scared. I’m so glad you’re back. Oh, I didn’t think I could take another moment’s torment.”
Ian wrapped her in his arms. “I promised ye I’d return.”
“I knew you would.”
“In time for a midnight dram,” Mac called from a few feet away.
“A midnight dram, and so much more.” Ian lifted his wife in his arms and carried her back inside, to their home. “Our adventures have only just begun.”
EPILOGUE
Five years later…
Balla Dorcha Castle, Orkney Isles
