Page 86 of Her Forbidden Highlander Husband

The boys looked at each other and smiled. Without discussion, they took their places. Liam had seen Lachlan’s twins do the same thing, tell each other things with no more than a look.

Once they were seated on the horse, Liam pointed and spoke to Rose. “Seems they’re coming with us.”

Rose quieted and other than leaning out occasionally to make sure they were still there, she was happy the rest of the trip.

“I didn’t truly understand until now,” Cam mused as he looked at the boys riding next to him while they pointed and exclaimed over Dunardry in the distance.

Liam laughed. “Did you think it was you who was saving them?”

Cam nodded. “Aye.”

Liam had been just as mistaken when he’d wanted Sheamus to join their family. He knew the boy had been through a lot and wanted to give him peace and a place to call home. But it wasn’t very long before Liam realized the boy wasn’t just taking, he was giving so much by being part of their family.

He could only hope Cam and Mari would be as happy with their choice. Or rather Cam’s choice. They would find out soon enough how Mari would feel about the situation.

They were met in the bailey by Liam’s family, Kenna, and Lach. Of course, the laird and mistress would want to meet their newest clan member. Or members, as it turned out to be.

When Ev stepped forward with her arms up and tears in her eyes to take Rose, he realized he’d been mistaken on another thing—love wasn’t something that was. It was something you did. And kept doing because you couldn’t help yourself.

He swung down from his mount and held her as she wept with a smile on her face.

Chapter Thirty

When Liam had ridden into the bailey, Evelyn could see only the grin on his face and the tiny angel in his arms. She hadn’t paid much attention to Cam and definitely didn’t see the smaller horse behind him carrying the twins, who were alike in every detail, including the way they hunched slightly in their new situation.

“Liam?” Evelyn whispered as she took them in, nearly the same size as Shea. She recognized them from the children’s ward at Baehaven when they’d visited.

She wondered how they’d all fit together in the one room but wouldn’t scold her husband for bringing them. She would love every gift she was given while she had the chance and deal with how to handle her father if or when the time came.

Liam had a huge heart and she’d not break it ever again by telling him he couldn’t help a child. Even if they were wall to wall with children.

Liam picked up Gwennie and ruffled Shea’s hair affectionately, but he looked at her when she said his name. Together they turned as she watched Cam lift the boys down from the horse.

“Cam decided to bring the twins home with him.”

Kenna and Lach must have overheard his explanation, for Lach chuckled as Kenna instructed a maid to go bring Mari right away.

“You may want to tell your sister to bring a fireplace poker,” Lach said, referring to the fact Mari killed her first husband, small as she was. Kenna frowned at his inappropriate joke.

“I couldn’t pass up the chance to have my own twins,” Cam said, a hand on each of their shoulders. He winked at them, and Evelyn knew it wasn’t Cameron’s competitive nature that had made him bring the boys home.

Mari entered the bailey and smiled at her husband. The smile faltered slightly when she took in the boys. “Mari, we have some wonderful news.”

Mari glanced over to where Evelyn was holding Rose and took a breath before turning back to the boys. “Are you to live with us, then?” she asked.

They nodded in unison and Cam leaned down to kiss his wife. “Thank ye.”

“I’m sure it will be me who is thanking you,” she said quietly, though Evelyn still heard it.

Two families had been enriched this day. And three children brought home.

“I’m starving,” Liam said, putting Gwennie down. “I’m too weary to find food.”

Gwennie and Shea laughed, each taking a hand they led Liam into the hall and toward a table, giggling when he veered to one side in his “weakened condition” as he called it. Rose even joined in with her own laughter and pointed.

Not long ago, Evelyn was alone facing a future she had no control over. And now she was blessed with this rowdy bunch that belonged to her. If the time came to go to war with her father, she might well take him down herself to keep what she had here.

…