Page 32 of Highlander’s Vengeful Seduction

Donal shook his head, standing up and walking to Vanora. He took her hands in his, and then pressed a kiss on her knuckles. “I mean…we should marry now. We’ll get yer father and the laird…and Angus, and everyone else, and we’ll marry now.”

“Now?”

“Aye!” Vanora hadn’t seen Donal as excited as he was then. “Aye, now. What better time than now?”

Vanora was speechless for a few long moments, enough for Donal to begin to have his doubts, thinking that perhaps it wasn’t as much of a good idea as it sounded in his head.

Vanora considered it, though, frowning to herself. She couldn’t find a single good reason why they had to wait for the wedding. All her clansmen and women were there, and she had plenty of dresses in her possession that could serve as her wedding dress.

She wanted that man to be her husband, and he wanted her as his wife, so why should they wait?

Vanora smiled at Donal, nodding excitedly.

“Aye…let’s marry, then,” she said.

Epilogue

There was a storm over Achadh na Cairidh that day. The clouds had painted the sky grey, and the wind swept Vanora’s hair over her face as she and Donal rode back to his ancestral home. Cold raindrops whipped the delicate skin on her face.

There was little she could do to avoid the oncoming storm, especially since she was traveling with Donal’s entire party, but Vanora shielded her face as well as she could, their entire group rushing to get to their destination.

The castle was in the distance, and Vanora couldn’t help but smile when it came into sight. It suddenly occurred to her that it would be her new home, the place where she would spend the rest of her life with Donal—with intervals that she would spend in Knapdale, of course, now that it held more good memories for her than bad.

Only mere months beforehand, Vanora would have never thought that she would be Lady Cameron—but there she was, riding to Achadh na Cairidh, a married woman.

The castle at Achadh na Cairidh reminded her of home, at least from the outside. Its stone walls towering over the land, and the sea of green and brown that surrounded it were familiar; so were the rolling hills of hardy grass and thorny bushes, and the meadows of oval sedge and yellow hairgrass, all fluttering in the wind that had picked up ever since Vanora and the men had arrived in Achadh na Cairidh.

She wasn’t that far from home, after all. She would just have to wait and see if the small distance from home and the familiarity of her new one made her less homesick. Something deep down told Vanora that she would be missing Castle Sween and its residents within the day.

As they rode into the castle grounds, Vanora explored the place with her gaze. She tried to look at every single detail, every little flower or stained stone that made the place what it was, and her heart began to thump loudly in her chest. Everything was new; everything was familiar, yet so different, and it made her grip the reins of her horse harder, as though they were the only things that were keeping her grounded.

“Welcome home, Lady Cameron,” Donal said, completely oblivious to Vanora’s inner struggle as they reached the courtyard, and he helped her off her horse. “Do ye like it?”

“Aye.”

It wasn’t a lie; Vanora liked the castle very much, at least as much of it as she had seen until that moment, and she also liked the surrounding lands, with their bogs and the two lochs that surrounded them. There was nothing for her to dislike, and yet she felt a pang of pain in her chest every time she took a breath.

She would have to meet Donal’s parents soon, and his entire family, and his clansmen. It was that, perhaps, which made a weight settle heavily on her chest, the thought that they would not find her suitable to be Donal’s wife; that they would somehow disapprove of their bond, even though she had no real reason to think in such ways.

She was not just any woman, after all; she was the daughter of Clan MacMillan’s general, and that ought to amount to something.

When Donal’s mother Lady Cameron,came rushing out of the castle after hearing that the son was back, Vanora realized that there was nothing for her to fear or worry about. Lady Cameron looked just like her son, though she did not sport the same fiery red hair that he did, and she had the same warm, kind eyes as Donal.

Vanora watched as the woman ran to Donal, her skirt clutched tightly in her hands until the very moment when she finally reached him. Lady Cameron threw her arms around her son, pulling him into a tight embrace—one that Donal could hardly reciprocate, pinned as he was in place by his mother’s arms.

Donal didn’t protest even once, though. Instead, he let his mother hold him for as long as she wanted, something that Vanora knew well. Her own mother had held onto her so tight that she could barely breathe when she left. Vika was already gone and well on her way to the monastery.

Her mother had held onto her because she was the only child she had left, and it seemed to be the same with Donal.

Even so, Donal didn’t waste any time introducing his new wife once he was free of his mother’s suffocating embrace. He took Vanora by the hand, and he pulled her closer to him with a smile, pressing a soft kiss on her knuckles.

“Mother…this is Vanora,” Donal said, and Vanora gave Lady Cameron a small curtsy, bowing her head. “Ye got my letter, did ye not? Weel…this is her. This is my wife.”

Vanora held her breath while Lady Cameron stared at her from head to toe, her gaze scrutinizing every single thing about her. It made Vanora feel vulnerable, as though she was completely naked, and Lady Cameron could see right through her.

Then, before Vanora knew it, Lady Cameron pulled her into an embrace as well. It wasn’t quite as crushing as the one she had given Donal, but it was warm and motherly, and it was precisely what Vanora needed without even knowing it. Suddenly, the strange land of Achadh na Cairidh began to feel a little more like home.

“Welcome,” Lady Cameron said, giving Vanora the sincerest smile she had ever seen on anyone over the age of ten. “I’ve heard a lot about ye, Vanora, and not only by my son…yer father is a good friend of our clan, did ye ken that? A good man, a good friend, and a good ally. If yer anything like yer father and yer mother, Donal couldnae have chosen a better wife or a better lady for the clan.”