Epilogue
Liam Sinclair looked around at his children and their spouses with his grandchildren. His mind had wandered as it often did to his wife, and this time he recollected how they met and fell in love. He smiled to himself as his mind spoke to Kyla.
“Da, did ye hear aught that I said?” Tavish huffed.
“Nay, I didna. What was that again?”
“Dinna tell us ye’re getting to be a mincey heid bodach.”
“Da is neither addlepated nor an auld mon. Be nice, Tavish, or I’ll make ye change Wee Liam’s raggies again.” Mairghread scowled at him with a warning. “Da, dinna listen to him. He’s nae used to nae getting his way. These days, he’s having to learn other people’s opinions matter as much if nae more than his. He’s fussier than a bairn cutting teeth or a bear that got stung for putting his paw in the honeypot.”
“Did ye hear that, Kyla?”
“And ye dinna think him a bit of a bampot when he’s talking to thin air?” Tavish felt agitated and wanted to avoid listening to his father talk to the mother he missed even more now that he had his own wife.
“He’s talking to Mama. Let him be,” Callum huffed.
“Yer mama said nearly the same thing to me aboot being a raging bear on the day we met. It reminded me of how poor of an impression I made on her and how dumbstruck I was with her beauty the first time I laid eyes on her. She’s still the most beautiful woman I have ever seen.” He looked at Mairghread and smiled with love, “I am so fortunate ye look more and more like yer mama every day. Ye have her eyes and her spirit. It lets me ken she is still with us.”
“Have ye, ladies, heard the story of how our parents met?” Mairghread asked the wives of her four brothers.
“I havenae.”
“Me neither.”
“Nay.”
“I’d like to.”
“Och, well it’s quite the tale to be told,” Magnus cut in. “We havenae heard it in quite some time. Da, will ye tell us?”
Tavish shifted with unease in his seat. He came to terms with his mother’s death years ago and enjoyed remembering and talking about memories of her. Except for the story of how his parents met. The story always brought him close to tears, so he did his best to avoid hearing it. The love his parents shared was unlike anything he had ever seen until his sister and brothers married their soulmates. Then it was a love he never fathomed he would have for himself. He disliked hearing the story because it was filled with so much hope and love that it only reminded him of all his family lost when his mother died far too soon. It also filled him with fear that even if he loved as hard and as much as his father had with his mother, there was no promise he’d be able to protect the woman he loved. No promise she would stay.
Ceit’s hand found his arm and slid down to be encased within his own. She squeezed it while never shifting her attention from his father. Tavish looked around at his siblings and saw Mairghread sitting in Tristan’s lap while his brothers all held their wives. Tavish looked over at Ceit and found her looking back at him. Her smile so loving that his heart squeezed. She shifted over from her seat to his lap. He wrapped his arms around her and breathed in her scent. As much as he had always loved lemongrass, rosemary and thyme now soothed his frayed nerves.
“I can plead a headache, and we can retire.”
“Nay. I would like ye to ken this story. I would have ye ken our family’s history.”
Tavish sat back as the sound of his father’s voice floated around him. It was a voice that had encouraged him, scolded him, reassured him, and always loved him. Liam’s words from the day he informed Tavish of his impending betrothal came back to him.
“They arenae all the same. Nae all leave us too soon.”
Tavish smiled behind Ceit’s head and held her a little closer. His hand traveled to her stomach and rested protectively over it. She looked up at him, and she intuited he suspected what she did too. He bussed a kiss against her lips as he whispered, “I love ye, Ceity.”
“I love ye, Brodie.”
Tavish turned his attention back to his father as the beginning of the story floated to him.
“I wasna prepared for the surprise of ma life the day I met yer mother. I was in the middle of arguing with ma father aboot getting married when a soft voice came from behind. I kenned right then and there that I was snookered.”
Tavish’s thoughts drifted again as he looked at his beautiful wife who might at that moment be carrying the next member of the Sinclair clan.
History does have a way of repeating itself. Ma father and I are more alike than just appearances, and I am proud to say that. There isnae a better mon alive than Da. I hope to be the husband and father he has been to us all.
The family spent the evening around the fire regaling one another with anecdotes from the five siblings’ childhoods and woe-begotten moments of their courtships. It was a time of laughter and love. It was a time that was the very essence of the Clan Sinclair.