Page 84 of Her Forbidden Highlander Husband

“Oh, aye. But my job is to make sure his head doesna get too big to get through the gates.”

Liam smiled. It had always been that way between the cousins. Despite the roughhousing and rudeness, they were like brothers. Many times, Liam wished he could join in, but he wasn’t family. “I’m sure he’ll appreciate your visit.”

“I hear your words, Liam MacKinlay, but then I also hear what ye didn’t say as well.” Cam scowled.

“That he’ll be glad to see you go?” Liam joked and Cam laughed heartily.

“I think your woman has changed you,” he said.

“How so?”

“You seem more…sure of yourself.”

Liam’s smile faded a bit. “I have a family of my own now. I feel like I finally belong somewhere.”

“Don’t let Lach hear ye say that. He’d skin ye for thinking you didn’t have a place before ye married Evelyn.”

“I don’t mean any offense.” Truly, he didn’t. The laird often said he was one of them, but they were words. The man was accepting like his father before him.

“Nay. You never want to offend.” Cam made it sound as if this were a bad thing. Liam let it go.

A while later Cam shifted in his seat and squinted as he looked at Liam.

“What?” Liam asked, uneasy with the scrutiny.

“I figured Lach was sending ye to Baehaven to deliver something, but I don’t see any packages.”

“No. I asked Lach if I could go. He has a letter for Bryce, but a messenger had already taken the parcels last week.”

“Then why are we going to Baehaven?”

Liam couldn’t hold back his grin. “I’m adding to my family. I’m picking up a small girl we met on our visit. Her name is Rose. She’s a brave mite. Many little children who don’t know me are often standoffish, because of my eyes, I think. But not Rose. She walked right up to me and held up her hands for me to pick her up.”

“Another child who isn’t your own?” Cam said it without judgment. Just a fact.

“Aye. I wish I had room for more of them. There were many orphaned when we took over the McCurdys last year. Dorie renovated the dungeon as a children’s ward.”

“They’re keeping the children in the dungeon?” Cam frowned.

“You’ll see. It’s warm, dry, and pleasant.”

“A pleasant dungeon.” Cam sniffed. Though it was an accurate description.

They made camp and hunted for their dinners. Lach couldn’t remember a time he’d been with just Cam without heading into battle.

“I can see how selecting a child can be far easier on one’s nerves than waiting for your woman to give birth.”

“Are you worried about Mari?”

“Always, but more so when she’s increasing. She’s so small. It’s taken me some time to understand that small doesn’t mean weak. My wife is the strongest person I know. Not just for birthing my large children, but for the things she’s faced. The way she has moved past the darkness with such grace it humbles me.”

Liam nodded. “I see it in Evelyn as well. Not just what she faced with the men who kept her captive, but having to give Gwennie up… I’m not sure how she survived it. I can’t imagine a day without them now that they’re in my life.”

“We are lucky bastards indeed.”

“Before when you said I got to select the children,” Liam recalled. He shook his head. “It doesn’t work like that. They select you.”

Bryce rode out to meet them late the next morning when Baehaven castle was in sight. The new laird smiled and greeted them warmly.