“We have arrived.” The low timbre of Tierney’s voice woke Rosamond.

They’d been in a steady state of bliss for the past sennight, playing chess, making love and telling each other secrets about their past.

But now, the reason they’d come together, to gain the trust of the MacDougall clan and the Bruce, was now at hand.

Rosamond rolled over in their small bed and examined the tense lines of her husband’s features. He would have to make a convincing plea to his people at Dunstaffnage today to trust him, to allow him to be their laird. And it would only work if they believed he would not bring them back into the fold of the English—and if the MacArthurs allowed them entry.

She slid a hand over his back, trying to find the right words to offer him comfort.

Tierney slipped from beneath the wool blanket and walked naked to the tiny window facing the shore. The man was built like a god. Long muscular legs, corded muscles on his back, chest, abdomen and arms. Scars that told a thousand stories. Iron hard, and yet able to embrace her with a softness that made her melt.

Rosamond’s chest swelled with thick emotion, enough to make her throat tighten. There was a feeling of elation that accompanied something deeper, fiercer, and protective even.

She’d never forgive her sire for what he’d done unnecessarily to the man she—

Nay! She couldn’t feel that… Not yet. That feeling she’d been pushing away for the better part of the last two days. Adoration, lust, respect. Aye, those things she could feel but, the L word?

Not yet… and what if she was wrong? It wasn’t like she’d ever felt it before, or had it expressed toward her. Did she even know what it meant?

The sentiment riding right there on the tip of her tongue at that moment was overpowering enough that she had to slide her gaze from Tierney to stare over his shoulder in order to get away from it. Too intense.

Through the porthole, she could just make out the coast, lined with trees and a castle tower. Dunstaffnage. Scotland. Her new home.

With her new husband.

So many things had changed for her in the last few days, she wasn’t quite certain how to take it. What to do...

Standing from the bed, she tugged on her chemise, blushing at having slept naked, but there had been no point in getting dressed, not when Tierney would only take her clothes off again. Sufficiently covered, she approached him.

“It looks the same,” he mused, and she wondered if he’d imagined it would look much different after ten years. “Almost as if time has stood still.”

And yet, it hadn’t.

She’d overheard Tierney speaking with Samuel about the state of Dunstaffnage, that the Chief of Clan MacArthur had been appointed as a captain of the castle since the Bruce had defeated the MacDougalls just after Tierney’s imprisonment. Not only would he have to convince his clan to let him back, but the MacArthurs, too.

Which she might be able to help with. She hoped.

Rosamond slid her hands around his waist, hugging him from behind, and resting her cheek against his warm back. “You need only be yourself and tell the truth. If they are to see you the way I do, the way Samuel does and the way the rest of the MacDougalls on this ship do, then they will know the truth of your heart and they will gladly welcome you back.”

“They may welcome me back, but that does not mean they will bow to me. They know nothing of me. I will have to earn their trust.”

“But surely they know you opposed your father. That you saved your king.”

“Some may recall. It will be a lot of work for me to be respected as laird. I’m concerned the clan will not be satisfied with me. ’Haps they want to keep things the way they are.”

“They cannot want it to remain the way it is. Ruled by another clan. They will want their laird back. A man with their best interests at heart. They will have to trust you, and you will have to prove it to them.” She felt her chest swell with a sudden pride, her belly doing a little flip. She was proud of him. Believed him capable. In the short amount of time they’d known each other, she’d grown to care for him deeply, to be in awe of his strength and kind heart, his sense of protectiveness.

Prison often ruined a man, but it had not broken Tierney. If anything, it only made the good parts of him grow. The righteous parts that had known he was innocent from the beginning and the parts of him that wanted to rise up again and make the world a better place. These were the things the men and women of his clan would follow him for, pledge their fealty for.

And what she, a wife, could love him for.

She bit her lip, exploring the powerful swell in her chest, the tightness in her throat, and laid her head on his spine. Was it love she was feeling?

His hand slid over hers at his waist, warm, calloused, safe.

Tierney embodied so many things for her. Over the past week, she’d been surprised at the way her sentiments toward him had changed and grown.

And the way he made her feel inside and out… The way he looked at her. The way he murmured her name as he drove inside her body, and the way she melted, accepting every inch, every thrust. They’d met on some sort of soul-deep level that she couldn’t put to words and which thinking about made her dizzy. So, she closed her eyes, a small smile playing on her lips.

“How long until we get to shore?” she asked.

Tierney turned in her arms, taking her hands and bringing them to his lips. “An hour at most. Dunstaffnage has a dock, so we will not drop anchor out here.”

She leaned up on tiptoes and kissed his chin, nibbling at his skin. “Then we have time for one last...” Flames touched her cheeks. She’d grown bolder with their lovemaking, but never asked for it. Truth be told she’d not had to. He’d either come to her, or she’d touched him in a way which seemed to lead right into passion. And oh, how glorious it had been. The men above had left them alone, giving them sideways glances when they walked on deck for fresh air, and teasing Tierney with bawdy jests when they thought she could not hear.

“For what?” His dark eyes glinted with teasing.

“Make love to me one more time before we go ashore and are too consumed with our new duties that we fall into bed exhausted every night.”

Tierney chuckled. “I dinna think I could be too exhausted to make love to my wife.”

“Just in case…”

“Aye, just in case.” And he lifted her into his arms and carried her to bed, discarding the chemise she’d donned only a few minutes before, and bringing her to shivering heights, causing them both to forget their troubles, if just for a few breathtaking moments.