Epilogue
August 1700
The sun warmed Diana’s face. The radiant heat on her skin was something she’d thought she’d never experience again. Not with how cold Scotland had been at her arrival. Not when even crops wouldn’t grow.
Potatoes, however, grew perfectly fine. Despite the temperature, they grew in the cradle of the earth and emerged near bursting with hearty, filling potatoes which kept the Mackenzie clan healthy.
The second harvesting of potatoes was upon them now, even greater a harvest than their first year. A large cart rolled into the courtyard laden with the fat, dusty roots, ready to be stored.
“You’ve saved your people, Evander.” Diana could not stop the swell of pride as she spoke.
Evander put a solid arm around her shoulders and pulled her against the comforting heat of him. “Thanks to ye, my love.”
He was always so quick to put the credit to her when he had come up with the solution and coordinated the efforts of the supplier, the farmer, and information.
He glanced up to the brilliant sun and squinted like a man too long in darkness. Surely they all had been too long in darkness. “I dinna think we’ll need to only grow potatoes next spring. If the weather keeps warming, we may be able to do some oats.” He cast an appraising look at the full cart. “But still potatoes too.”
She put her hand over his and smiled up at her handsome husband, a good man far greater than any her father had tried to wed her to, including the one who had sought Diana’s hand after she had married Evander. It was the very one who had stripped her of her virginity and sought to take her life as well. The man had become obsessed with the challenge of her, so much so, he’d offered great amounts of coin and some land to Diana’s father in exchange for her hand.
The offer was what had prompted him to beg her to return, not a desire to have Diana home once more. Such ugly truths had come to light several months after her father’s death. Only this time, the rejection had been easier to take with the balm of Evander’s love.
“Ye make me happy, Diana.” Evander returned her smile, his gaze settling on her as if she were the only one there in the courtyard aside from him. “I’d like to try for a bairn now,” he said in a lowered voice.
Diana’s pulse kicked up. They had put off the desire for children for the last year and a half, neither of them wanting to bring a child into a world of famine and suffering. Diana drew in a soft breath and Evander put his hand over her stomach.
It was too easy to imagine the flatness full with their child, and him lovingly embracing the swell. Food was easier to come by now. Oats were even being seen more. Their world was not as rife with the horrors of starvation as it had once been. It was exactly what they had been waiting for.
“I would too,” she breathed. And truly she would, to have the opportunity to give life to a child who could have everything she never did – the unconditional love of both parents.
Zeus trotted across the courtyard, with Hera and Kitzi following close behind. “Do ye think they would mind a bairn?” Evander nodded to the inseparable trio.
The animals veered in their direction, as if they understood they were being discussed. Hera nuzzled Evander’s palm and Kitzi settled next to her, cuddled against the wolf’s body like a pup. Zeus sat stoically at Diana’s side, but not before dragging his large body over Evander’s legs in a loving gesture.
Ever since the day of her father’s death, the large black wolf had stopped regarding Evander with suspicion and showed Evander affection in his own stubborn, Zeus-like way.
“I think they’ll love our child and will be very, very protective.” Diana settled a hand on Zeus’ head. He immediately looked up at her and bumped her palm with his wet nose. “And I think we’ll be the perfect family together.”
Evander’s smile deepened, and the corners of his eyes crinkled in the way that set her heart swelling with more love than she’d ever thought possible.
“Aye, lass, we will be.” He squeezed her closer to him and pressed a kiss to her lips, warm and tender.
And they would be, for they had a love brought together by legend, a love stronger than anything past hurt could destroy. Theirs was a love longed for and finally attained, something true and beautiful and forever everlasting.
The End