Page 127 of Highland Ruse

“Delilah.” He said her name with the same wonder as she’d spoken his. “I thought—”

She shook her head. “I’m alive, thanks to you. Kaid, you saved me.” Tears clogged her throat, but she continued. “You restored Torra to her land and you kept our Claire safe. You’ve saved your people, Kaid. You did it all.”

“I couldna have done it without ye, lass. Ye were so brave defending our Claire—” He stopped short and jerked his gaze around the room.

“Claire?” He almost half shouted her name and sat up with a heavy grimace. “Claire!”

Delilah eased herself into a sitting position as well despite the searing discomfort which made the simple act difficult. “She’s safe. She—”

The doors to the chamber flew open and Claire ran through with Liv chasing behind her.

“Delilah,” Claire cried. “Laird.” She scrambled onto the large bed and crawled into their arms, leaving an exasperated Liv staring after her.

“I’ve tried to keep her from coming in here all day.” Liv twisted a thick mass of red hair back from her flushed face. “She has been very insistent.”

Claire caught Delilah’s face between her palms and stared at her so closely her eyes appeared crossed. “I missed ye.” She kissed Delilah on the forehead, then promptly turned to Kaid and repeated the gesture.

Liv caught Delilah’s gaze, and they shared a smile. Liv quietly quit the room and closed the door behind her, leaving the reunion to continue in private.

Claire grasped Kaid’s arm and drew it over her like a blanket, then curled into Delilah’s arms with her sweet, silky head resting just under Delilah’s chin.

“This is how it should be,” Kaid said. “Us together as a family.”

He put an arm around Delilah and the girl. “Claire, we would be honored to raise ye as our daughter, if ye’ll have us.”

She sat up and stared at them both. Her mouth opened and closed, then opened once more, but nothing came out. Tears shimmered in her eyes, and she could only nod before she threw herself against them both.

Her slight body was uncomfortable against Delilah’s injuries, but Delilah paid them no mind. Not when she had Claire safe in her arms and Kaid alive at her side.

“And ye, Delilah.” Kaid touched her hand with his free arm. “Ye know I love ye. For yer heart, and yer beauty, and yer bravery, and for the amazing talent ye possess. I’d be honored to be yer husband, if ye’ll have me.”

Delilah swallowed the knot in her throat. How could she say no?

And it was all as he’d said it would be. He was truly making them, their small group of the orphaned and unwanted, a family.

“Yes,” she answered in the exhale of a breath she didn’t know she was holding. “A thousand times yes.”

She leaned over and kissed the familiar warmth of his mouth. The rasp of his whiskers grazed her chin and left her smiling.

This was how life should be. She wrapped her free arm around Claire and settled back with her shoulders touching Kaid’s.

Her risk had been worth it for the love of her beautiful new family.

• • •

Kaid looked out over the faces of his clan from where he waited with more impatience than was customary even for him. The pastor was a gangly lad with a thatch of thick dark hair atop his narrow head and a grin Kaid probably couldn’t wipe off his face if he tried.

Finally the doors to the chapel opened and Delilah strode in wearing a gown of deep blue. The silver edge winked and danced along her hem and sleeves the way the stars sparkled in the heavens.

Kaid stared, awestruck. She caught his eye and beamed so wide, he knew her joy to be entirely genuine.

Claire eased around Delilah’s long skirts and danced down the aisle toward him, scattering bits of herbs on the ground. Several chuckles rose from the audience at the sweet innocence of her excitement. Claire grabbed Kaid’s hand and pulled him down to her.

He leaned lower, not taking his eyes off the woman who was about to become his wife.

“She looks like an angel,” Claire whisper-shouted into his ear.

The congregation laughed aloud this time, and even Delilah laughed along with them.